Emskyrooney

I know, I've been all braggy on this blog lately, what with all my recent posts about photo contest entries and mentions on other peoples' blogs... Bear with me one more time and I promise I'll get back to the good stuff (if updates about LP's potty training is considered "good stuff").  Ok to two of my favorite sewing bloggers (Dana at MADE , and Rae at Made By Rae )do this whole "Celebrate the Boy" thing a few times a year.  They basically decided that because there are so many people showing off adorable things they made for little girls that those of us with boys needed a little attention too.  Just because little girls can wear ruffles and sunbonnets and other adorable things, doesn't mean the things we make for our little guys can't be spiffied up and super cute too, right?  So a few weeks ago Rae at Made By Rae did a little photo round up of all the boy projects she really loves from the "Celebrate the Boy" photo pool over...

I shared this on Facebook but didn't share it here on my blog until now.  A few weeks ago, one of my favorite bloggers, Sew Liberated , aka Meg who professionally publishes patterns for kids clothing and books as well, had a blog post she entitled "window shopping." It was full of inspirational pictures she'd found around the web, mainly on Pinterest (which seriously, if you haven't checked it out- you MUST.  If you need an invite let me know, I'll get ya in!), of kids clothing. As I scrolled through her post, admiring all the adorable photos she'd shared, I came across one of the pants I made for LP a while back, the ones with the train embroidered on the legs... How cool!

So in my very last blog entry I entered a photo of LP in the I Heart Faces "Let's Hear it for the Boys" photo challenge... And while I didn't win one of the top 10 spots which is chosen every week by a guest photographer judge, my photo WAS chosen by the site's founders as one of their faves !  There were more than 600 entries so I was pretty excited to see my entry of LP on their blog announcing the winners and the founders' choices!! Very exciting!  Hope you check it out! (and p.s., I promise I'll have some good posts up here soon- have a few in the works!)

This week at I ♥ Faces   the theme is "Let's Hear it for the Boys."  I had a hard time choosing just one photo but finally chose this photo of two of the "boys" in my life- one being my son, LP, the other being Woody the Toy Story doll.  LP carries Woody with him all over the place.  One day I found them curled up on the couch, deep in conversation about rockets and Buzz Lightyear and aliens...  I love this picture as it always reminds me of how imaginative LP is- he's forever making up adventures to have with Woody... Be sure to go to I ♥ Faces to check out the other entries!

Here are a few of the things LP is up to this month that I want to remember.  1.  For a little while there LP's manners started slipping.  He was telling us to get him things rather than asking.  After some gentle prodding he's back to saying "please" and "thank you."  Now, though, he mixes his words up a bit and says "Please I can have juice?" or "Please you can read me a story?" 2.  Gabby is still his best buddy.  LP LOVES playing ball with Gabby, even if she's always stealing it and running away. 3.  LP's imagination is running wild.  Last night at dinner he told us his fork was Mr. Smee and his spoon was Captain Hook.  His yogurt cup was their cave and he narrated their adventures throughout our meal.  "Mr. Smee- it's scary in here!  So dark!"  "It's not scary Captain Hook!  It's yogurt!  It's pink!" 4.  He had his 2.5 year check-up last week before our zoo trip.  LP grew 3 inches in the las...

In between finishing up our patio last week we took a family trip to the Southwick Zoo .  It's supposed to be New England's largest zoo but I'd put it on the list of smaller zoos.  You can easily see everything in just a couple of hours which makes it the perfect size for little guys with little legs. It was a hot day, of course (because it's ALWAYS hot at the zoo) but the zoo is pretty well shaded so it wasn't too bad.  LP insisted on walking "all by myself" the entire time so although we'd taken our stroller along with us we used it mostly for carrying our bag of snacks, camera, etc.  One of LP's favorite parts was feeding the goats.  Last year he wanted nothing to do with it so it was fun to watch him this year.  At home when he gives snacks to the dogs he throws the treat on the floor so that the dogs don't nip his fingers, and he employed the same technique with the goats no matter how many times we showed him to just put the treat on his...

Five years ago or so my in-laws gave Paul and me a wine fridge.  And it was great- we kept it well stocked and it was nice to have.  But about a year ago or so we noticed that the motor had died.  So what it became was a large black box, that held a few bottles of wine but didn't keep them cold, and that took up a lot of space in the corner of our dining room.  You can sort of see it in the corner of the room behind the table- it has a candelabra on top in this photo: We hated to get rid of it since it was a gift, but I hated even more the fact that it took up so much space and was no longer useful, so I finally convinced Paul to donate it to the side of the road (where someone pulled over and took it away in less than thirty minutes, even with a sign saying it didn't work).  For a while I've been wanting to get LP a little table and chairs to put in that corner of the room, somewhere for him to color and eat his snacks.  The last time we visited ...

It took us 2 weeks and several days of HARD labor (along with some cursing, a few icy beers, and quite a bit of swearing we'd NEVER do it again) but we finally finished our patio project on Friday, just in time to enjoy looking at it through the window as it proceeded to rain all weekend. First, we shoveled. Tons of dirt (and rocks as we live in a very rocky area) were shoveled into a wheelbarrow and dumped in the woods. We discovered arm and back muscles we didn't know we had. Then, more shoveling. This time gravel and gravel dust. And then sand. And then we leveled. We had to call 2 more Pauls in for reinforcements. Finally, we started laying pavers. More than 160, at about 30 lbs. each. Fortunately, I'd been training for this by lifting a 30 lb. toddler many times a day so this part was a breeze. Then we put up our gazebo, moved in the furniture, and we were done!! We're so happy with how this project turned out. It was a ton...

I've had this idea to build LP a marble run for a while now.  He always loves the ones we see when we're out and about- at people's houses or at the Children's Museum.  When my sewing table came packaged in a box with these great sturdy cardboard pieces I knew I could put them to use. Last week I finally had the time and motivation to attempt this little project.  And while the results aren't what I would call fantastic looking, it's definitely provided hours of entertainment for LP already! I started with the stiff cardboard packaging pieces (those V-shaped long pieces in the picture below), some random cardboard boxes, and this little ladder that was left in our basement by the previous owners.  We have no idea what it was used for, as it's only about 3 feet long so I decided to put it to good use instead of just trashing it. Armed with my trusty glue gun and some leftover contact paper, I started by covering a large piece of cardboard with contact paper a...