I got an email several weeks ago from Disney Cruise Lines… it said that kids sail free with paid parents.  I started thinking that I’m a parent and I have kids and maybe this could work to my advantage?!  I asked the hub to call Disney for the details while I put the kids to bed one night…  I figured it’d be so expensive that we’d never go and he was wasting his time on the phone.

Ha!  It turns out that when you have 3 kids and they sail free, it actually adds up to a good chunk of change saved!

We leave tomorrow for the Eastern Caribbean version of Disney’s cruise and CANNOT WAIT!!! We did the Western Caribbean Disney cruise once before with a work-related thing for the hubby… back when my oldest was 3.5 and my daughter was 4 months old…

(above is from 6 years ago when T was just over 3 years old!)

The kids will miss a week of school and for once, I couldn’t care less!  We take a pretty serious outlook on schooling, but right now while the kids are still really young, I figure we’ve got to take advantage of some things when the opportunity presents itself.  They will learn a lot about Columbus and his initial landing in the Virgin Islands and the different ownerships of the same islands and how those have impacted what you see there today.  It’s a great opportunity for them to SEE and learn things firsthand.

I mean, what if we get hit by a big green bus tomorrow?  Will we regret missing a week of preschool, kindergarten, and 3rd grade?

I think not.

I only have a picture to share… I hope you all had great fun trick-or-treating and that your weather was warmer than ours last night!

I have to tell you that our neighbors just a few houses down are way cooler than we are!  The dad created a walk-through mini haunted house in his garage and my boys LOVED it!  He also gave us big parent types some tasty pumpkin martinis to take with us on our candy-seeking journey.  How awesome is that?!

Life has run me down like a Mack truck. I’ve been super busy and the blog has been severely neglected. I’m only here to do a drive-by post, so I hope you’re not expecting much…

Since my last post, my youngest turned 4:

I got a mantle and some shelving:

And let me tell you, this has been a HUGE highlight of my life… It’s almost sad how happy the shelves made me!

My oldest turned 9!!

My middle lost her top front tooth!

My kids posed for a great picture:

at my 9 year old’s birthday party:

Where said 9 year old was completely tuckered out:

less than a day before our 2nd to last soccer game…

There has been SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much more going on, but this is all I have time for right now. I honestly didn’t expect life to be so much busier with all 3 kids in school this year. It’s a great thing!

I have some pretty huge news to our family, but I’ll wait to post more until I have specifics to share with everyone.  Suffice to say that I don’t recommend watching Marley and Me without some preparation.    Take care and enjoy that fall weather!

These are all items I’ve mentioned in previous posts at least in passing… The lot of items will go to my daughter’s ballet teacher sometime this next week.

Included are the following:
Cabled Baby Hat in Louisa Harding Kasmir Aran
Garter Yoke Baby Cardigan in Lion Brand Baby Soft
Easy Baby Blanket with Lace Option in Lion Brand Baby Soft
Baby Bell Bottoms in Rowan Wool Cotton

I added little silver grommets to the bell bottoms so the holes wouldn’t get too worn too quickly. I’d have rather used a pink color, but I couldn’t find any so the silver had to do. I think it gives the pants a more finished look, though. I sure hope she likes the stuff and that it fits the baby girl at least once before winter’s out.

I was very nervous about the start of school for my daughter.  She didn’t take the move too well and became overly clingy and worried that my husband and I wouldn’t be in her sight at all times.  It got so bad that I consulted the pediatrician.  She started kindergarten like a big girl and didn’t cry at all… even in class.  I know because I asked her teacher each day.  She began last week with me dropping her older brother off, parking the car, and walking her up to the door myself.  This week, she asked if she could walk up with her brother, but not me.  I was so proud that she was gaining the courage and confidence to do this that I nearly jumped for joy!!  She leaped out of the car and bounded up to the school, only glancing back once to be sure her brother was close behind.  She even held the door for him!

I cried.

I’m just a big ol’ baby.  Something about watching a 5 year old walking up to the school alone, confident and excited, makes my mommy brain think that they don’t need me anymore.  I know that’s not true, but don’t try reminding me at oh, say, 7:25 am on a school day, ok?

So, on to some knitting. We have a neighbor with the cutest little boy whose birthday is just around the corner. I figured that was the perfect excuse to knit the Get Ziggy sweater from AnnyPurls.  I had some stash (go figure!) and thought a nice blue color would go well with baby Jack’s eyes.

I used a little less than one ball of Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn in Dark Country Blue on US7 & US8 needles for the 12 month size.

Then school began and I needed a water bottle sock for my daughter…

I used some oddments of Wool Ease in Azalea Pink and Cream on US7s.

My daughter’s ballet teacher is expecting her first, a girl, in November… I knit this little Garter Yoke Baby Cardigan in Baby Soft on US5.

And here are the buttons:

After that, I finished the Libby Sweater for my 10 year old niece in Colorado… Lord I hope it fits her!

The color is washed out in the picture. I used Plymouth Encore Worsted in #514 (blue) and 449 (pink) and Patons Decor in Sage Green on US7s. I adjusted the pattern for gauge… you can see all my notes on Ravelry if you so desire.

And last but not least, I went to the school yesterday with my younger kiddos and met with another mom. She saw my daughter’s water bottle sock and sortakinda asked if I had made it and eluded that she might like them for her middle kids. Not one to disappoint, I went stash-shopping and came up with these for her daughter and son. I hope they like them!

I used Wool Ease in Ranch Red and Black for the one and Plymouth Encore in 449 pink and Cascade Superwash #851 lime green for the other.

I hope you’re having a fantastic week wherever you are. I plan to be back soon with more knitting, but refuse to make any promises!

My kids aren’t, but I most certainly am.  I cried.  In my defense, I waited until both kids were inside the school before letting loose, but I did cry.  Like a baby.

I was really worried about my daughter adjusting. She did wonderfully. She says she didn’t cry at all. I’m a little jealous, to be honest. I’m sure we have a couple of weeks’ worth of adjusting fully to 5 day per week school, but it’s gonna be fine. Just fine.

Isn’t she cute? I can’t believe I have a third grader and a kindergartner. And soon a preschooler, too! Wowzer.  Best wishes to all of you sending your own little guys off to school this week!  I’m going to go plan my 3.5 hours of semi-free time per day now.  heeheeheehaahaaahaaa

Summer for us will be officially over on Tuesday.  The kids go back for a half day, then really back to the grindstone on Wednesday.  I’m so thrilled I can’t even put my excitement into words, but I’m also sorta sad.  I will be SOOOO happy to put full days of 3-sibling-bickering behind us, but I know that 3rd grade will bring more homework and tougher subjects.  Kindergarten will be an adjustment for my daughter, and preschool will definitely be a big change for my littlest boy.  I believe I’ll be one of the home room moms for kindergarten as well as continuing the hot lunch program at school.  I’m guessing my level of busy-ness will increase dramatically now that we live a stone’s throw from the school instead of our previous 25 miles.

I know I’m stretching, but I truly hope to take advantage of at least a little of the time I have with zero children… I’ve been working to lose a bit of weight that’s been creeping upward since Spring Break.  Now that we’re closer to the school, I find myself grazing throughout the day.  This is not a good thing.  Also not a good thing is that Mike’s Hard Lemonade bottles have approximately 220 calories PER BOTTLE.  This is WRONG and UNFAIR.  Needless to say, I am no longer drinking them.  Vodka has much fewer calories for the buck.  God that sounds bad when written down.  Ah, well.  Such is life.

So I have been knitting this summer, although I haven’t taken a single moment to post anything here about it!  I’ll not be posting each and every detail, but if something strikes you, feel free to email me or ask a question in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer!

First, a REALLY orange blanket using some stash yarn:

Pattern: Blanket and Hat from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding
Yarn: 3 balls original Cotton Ease in Orangeade

Next: Eyelet Baby Blanket from Blue Sky Alpacas
Yarn: Lion Brand Pound of Love in Pastel Pink, just over half the mondo ball… I actually made two of these blankets because I had half a ball of yarn, so I had to use it up…

And after that, a blanket of copycat proportions for a good childhood friend’s baby-to-be:

I knitted a garter stitch border and used the Heart motif from the Hearts & Stars Blanket from Zoe Mellor’s book… used 3 balls of original Cotton Ease in Bubblegum Pink. Here’s a closer look at the heart:

Next, I had a little ball of pink Malabrigo… not enough to make myself a nice warm sweater, so I decided to make a HeyJulie Cabled Baby Hat…

Then I got a bit carried away with how quick, cute, and economical the hats are and decided that I MUST knit all my single balls of yarn into newborn sized 10 cable baby hats:

If you check me out on Ravelry, you can find all the yarns I used here.

Then I decided I needed to stashbust a bit more and made this little garter yoke baby cardigan using Rowan Wool Cotton, a mere 2.5 balls!

and the back:

Then we had my daughter’s best friend over and she spotted some purple yarn and immediately asked if I’d make her a purple sweater. Not one to disappoint, I made this Tater’s Cotton Cardi using Kool Kotton (more stashbusting, can you believe it?!)

and the back:

The buttons on this were really cute, but they evaded my attempts to photograph them well. I gave up.

Then our ballet teacher told us she was expecting her first baby, a girl, and I had to get making some fun stuff for her. I figured since I was on such a roll of stashbusting, why stop?! I made the Easy Baby Blanket with Lace Border Option using some long ago stashed Lion Brand Baby Soft in cream. The entire blanket, including the edge, took 2 balls! El cheapo!

And finally, one of the ballet moms had her third child and second boy… I had to knit something quick because she didn’t find out ahead of time what flavor the baby would be. Enter EZ. Always a hit.

I used (yup, you guessed it, stash!!) Wool Ease Sportweight in Blue Mist color for this. I still need to get it mailed her way!

I have used all my kids-not-bothering-me-time for the day, so I’m off… Good luck with the rest of your summer!

We’ve been super busy around the house, meeting our neighbors, having a BIG party (30+ adults and ~45 kids!), going to the pool, etc. I don’t anticipate posting much for the remainder of summer, but I’ll do my best. Since I haven’t got a lot of time, I’ll give you another barrage of photos to describe our past months. Hope you enjoy!

We watched the local wildlife from our dinette window:

We hunted toads, catching a couple:

We stopped for a quick pic while hunting for the toads:

We dug at the park:

We got 3 hamsters and within days had 9:

We had lunch with several ballet friends and their siblings:

We attended a preschool friend’s 5th birthday party:

We finished the baseball season:

We had a ballet recital:

We added 5 more hamsters to the mix (for the record, 2 of the 3 we bought were already pregnant!):

Aren’t they cute and gross, all at the same time?

We went to Brookfield Zoo and saw some silly signs at the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit:

Then we saw a big triceratops:

Then we took some silly pictures:

And “rode” the swamp boat:

And finally we saw the camels…

I think that about covers it. I’ll try to come back soon with the knitting I’ve completed in the past 2 months.   I hope you had a great 4th of July with friends and family and that you enjoy the rest of your summer vacations!

Miraculously, we met the moving deadline.  Since then we have become much busier than ever before.  Our neighbors ROCK!  This is an excellent thing because the neighborhood we moved from was, simply put, the WORST I have ever lived in.  Ever.  In 4 states and almost 33 years.   Anyway, our cool new neighbors brought us a welcome coffee cake that was yummy-yum-yummity-yum, then this past Saturday they threw a party to welcome us and allow us to meet some of the folks we hadn’t yet.

So since moving, we have (in no particular order) had my dad out for a visit (see above pic), played 5 baseball games, had 3 baseball practices, 4 ballet practices, played 4 soccer games (won 3 of them!), tried out for and been accepted onto the travel soccer league for U9 boys, finished preschool with a fantastic program, had 3 soccer practices, attended the Nascar Funny Car races in Joliet, finished a soccer season, prepared for an upcoming ballet recital, unpacked most of a home, installed closet shelves for all of our linens (YAY!) had mudroom cabinets installed, hung the stained glass we bought at the school auction last year, decorated the kids’ bedrooms (except for painting them,) met a whole bunch of great neighbors, participated in a community garage sale, played at friends’ homes–new and old, and had several kiddos over to our house–sometimes all at once.  I do believe there is more for that list, but I don’t recall at the moment since my head is spinning at an alarming rate!

You might notice one major thing is missing from this list.  Knitting.  I didn’t even pick up the needles until about a week ago.  For the first time, I had ZERO desire to knit.  I was so intently focused on unpacking and getting settled that even knitting didn’t stand a chance!

Since I don’t have any knitting to show, I’m just populating the post with various pics of the kids. I can’t believe how fast they’re growing up. It’s not right. Just not right at all.

I’m hoping to be back on the blogging front more often now, but depending how things go I may give it up entirely. It’s not like I’m Wendy or Wendy, afterall!

On April 29, we finally closed on the house we had been lusting after for months.  I am super excited and super stressed.  I didn’t pack much of anything before we closed because I was hesitant to have a packed house and nowhere to move!  We didn’t know for sure until 24 hours prior to closing that we were actually going to close! (Just a sidenote:  If you’re considering buying a short sale home, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have a lot of time and a strong stomach!)

Although life had become really crazy with the addition of soccer and baseball to the schedule, it’s become evident that we were not even close to busy before the closing.  It’s also become quite evident that we own a LOT of crap.  I’m trying my best to filter the things we will never use again and create the keep, sell, donate, and trash piles with some degree of accuracy.  I will admit that I tend to keep things that really don’t need to be kept.  I don’t think I’ve quite reached the pack-rat status, but it could be I’m in denial.

I am down to about 36 hours to pack as much stuff as I can before the ‘real’ moving company comes in to do the dirty work.

One of the first things I intend to do when we’re settled is dig myself a burial plot in the yard.  I do not intend to leave this home under any other circumstances than death.  EVER.  In fact, I might just let my spirit roam free in the home once I’ve left the world! 

For now, I need to get back to frantic packing so I can meet the Tuesday moving deadline!