Taming the wild mane

It's no secret that Chloe's hair is wild, thick and easily-tangled.  Poor girl had the misfortune of inheriting my hair exactly.  The color, texture, thickness - everything about Chloe's hair is identical to mine. And since I do my hair in a grand total of TWO different ways (down or ponytail) I'm pretty clueless as to how to manage Chloe's hair.

The mane problem (that's not a misspelling, just a cheesy intended pun) is keeping her hair out of her eyes.  I've done pigtails, braids, ponytails and barrettes to no avail. Sure they work at first but give her hair a few hours and it's bird-nest-city.

Until now that is!  I think I may have finally found the solution to keeping Chloe's thick hair off her face.  The fabric headband!  Usually headbands aren't strong enough to keep Chloe's hair back.  But these fabric headbands really stay put.  And they're cute to boot!  And super easy to whip up in an afternoon (check out the linked tutorial here though I opted not to use interfacing). 

The bonus is that Chloe really likes wearing them.  She helped me pick out the fabric (went with navy blues to match her school uniform ensembles) and even did a little of the sewing and cutting.

Any tips and tricks for me on managing my little girl's hair?  If you'd like to come and french braid her hair every morning I'd feed you breakfast.  Any takers?  :) 

Happy Birthday, dear Chloe!

Chloe turns six today.  SIX!

I can't talk about it I'll just tear up and get my keyboard all wet with my mushy gushiness.

How did she go from this sleeping cheeky peanut to this sweet little young lady so fast?

Praying that God preserves my Chloe's sweetness as she grows another year older and that He roots her sweetness in His love.  I pray that she will learn to love the Lord with all her heart, soul and mind and then give that love away to others.

Super happy birthday to my dear baby girl!   And let the birthday festivities begin!  

The new 6 year old will wear a made-for-her fancy dress to church today (thanks, Abuelita!), receive gifts from family, eat a special dinner (Chloe requested shrimp, pesto noodles, and fried zucchini), and welcome grandma and nana for a week long birthday visit.  This girl sure is blessed (read: spoiled).  :) 

Bitten by a rabid sewing bug

Ever since a month ago when  friend gave me some super cute fabric, I've been on a wild sewing spree.

Prior to receiving said fabric my sewing machine had laid dormant for many months.  Since I don't have a designated "sewing room" I have to haul the machine and all the necessary accouterments every time I want to sew.  That's no fun.  Oh, and I also have three busy children who like to try and "help" me sew.  And because I abhor giving up the precious golden moments of nap time, I often attempt a sewing project when they're all active.  And that's just pure unadulterated madness. 

For those reasons I have done almost NO sewing in the past year. 

Until now!  The sewing tide has turned!  Something about this funky bright pink material and the hope of spring has revived my love for sewing and repurposing.

I started with several long-sleeved shirts that Chloe has hardly worn this season.  After cutting off the sleeves and bottom band, I set to work on pairing the shirt tops with coordinating fabrics to make them into playdresses for Chloe.

The concept is simple.  Connect a shirt top to a gathered skirt and voila!  Aside from the inevitable sewing mistakes, the most time consuming part of these dress projects for me is the finishing.  I cut the sleeves off too close to the arm hole so I have to recover the arm hold myself.  Ugh.  Wouldn't be so bad if I had a stock of bias tape.  But alas, I do not.  So I've been making my own bias tape out of strips of complementary fabric.  Works well for the most part though it takes FOREVER.

And I tell you what, sewing clothes is so rewarding!  It's such a grand feeling to see something I crafted with my hands and creativity take shape into a practical wearable garment.  Now I get how Ma from Little House on the Prairie must have felt when she chose fabric, envisioned a dress and then sewed it into existence.

The other bonus to making clothing is the huge cost savings.  All of these dresses started out as unused shirts from Chloe's drawer.  The coordinating fabric for the bottoms I had in my sewing stash or spent a few cents on at the thrift store. 

That's what I've been busy at for the month of March!  I only wish I had more concentrated time to commit to fun projects like this.  Instead I've been sneaking upstairs when I have a chance and sewing for 10-15 minutes at a time and slowly seeing a project completed.

When do you find time to sew?  What have you been sewing or crafting lately?

This was my first project.  The shirt ended up being a tad tight on Chloe so I decided not to use it as a dress bodice.  Instead, I made it into a shirt/skirt duo.  That way when Chloe outgrows the shirt we can still get a few more years' wear out of the skirt.

This was project #2.  The puppy dog is too cute to go to waste in the give-away pile!  I paired the puppy dog top with a pink pillowcase I had in my fabric pile.  Yes, I said *pillowcase*.  Didn't you know you could make clothes out of bedding?  Not quite happy with how crooked the band is but she's an active girl.  Hopefully all her jumping and running around will distract the onlooker from seeing all the glaring sewing mistakes!

Another shot of Chloe modeling her new puppy dog dress. 

This was project #4 and it's my favorite!  You can't tell from this weird shot (Chloe was getting impatient with modeling) but it really is a cute dress.  I didn't have any matching fabric to go on the bottom so I scrounged the thrift store for a ladies t-shirt.  It worked beautifully!  The best part was that I didn't have to hem the skirt since it was really the bottom band of the ladies t-shirt.  And even after I had hacked up the t-shirt I still had plenty to make bias tape for the neck and armholes. 

This was my last dress made from Chloe's shirts and I don't like it much.  The spacing is weird.  I should have cut the shirt a bit more and made a fuller skirt.  And it's a tad tight on Chloe.  So, this dress might get a new home with one of Chloe's friends soon!

Obviously, the model is DONE.  Dress #3 uses a pink pin-striped top and the groovy swirly pink fabric that inspired this sewing run.  :)  I love this one.  Plus I love that it still looks little-girlish.  I can't deny that my Chloe is growing up but I still love to see her wear these innocent girly styles.

A surprisingly pleasant portrait experience

I'm exuberantly happy to report that yesterday we finally had a pleasant photo shoot experience!

Impulsively I called Sears yesterday morning and made an early afternoon appointment. I threw some things in my massive purse/diaper bag, loaded the kids in the car, and we were off!

Despite a 20 minute wait (which felt like an ETERNITY with Clive running around) the kids did a super job. The photographer was amazing! She was happy, personable, funny, and engaging. She managed to get some terrific smiles out of Chloe by getting her to say "Boogers". A word Chloe had not known previously. :) And now Clive is saying "boogers" constantly and smiling. I say that's a small price to pay for some stellar photos!

In fact, I had a terrible time deciding on one pose. I stuck to my guns though and didn't yield to the photographer's sales pitch to order more. And because of my coupon, I came away with 24 prints for $8 plus a free 10 x 13 portrait.

Looking at the poses below, which do you think I chose?

1: sitting on a rock

2: leaning on rock





















3: lying in a field of flowers
















4: standing in the flower field (looks real, doesn't it?)





















5: balloon head





















6: looking up





















7: squishing the 4





















8: steps

A big huge chocolate bunny

We're not normally big on candy in Easter baskets but this year Chloe is getting a humongous chocolate bunny thanks to her mad coloring skills! This is the SECOND year Chloe has taken home the big prize in the world-renowned Discount DrugMart Easter coloring contest.

Discount DrugMart is literally around the corner from our home. We walk there several times a week and as my mom says, we spend our money there to help stimulate the economy and support local business. :) We know the DrugMart worker ladies by name and they in turn have enjoyed watching both Chloe and Clive grow.

Apparently the judges really liked the green sun Chloe drew in the background. :) I was impressed that she wrote her name so nicely at the bottom of the page and that she stayed in the lines so well.

The DrugMart ladies assured me they covered up all the names so they would choose fairly. But those ladies sure were excited that they had chosen Chloe's picture to win! They were all giddy when we went to retrieve the chocolate rabbit. Several workers came to congratulate Chloe and offered compliments on her superb coloring. They even had Chloe pose with her bunny for a digital photo shoot. What fun!

Back in 2007 Chloe won the same Easter coloring contest as a mere 19 month old. It does NOT seem like two whole years ago that I blogged about her 2007 coloring win. Look how my baby has changed!

Grandma is here!

My mom arrived last night for a weekend visit. And we fully enjoyed her today!

We spent the morning walking around our favorite places in Hudson. We nabbed some cute clothes for the kiddos (just wait until you see Clive's dapper Easter get-up), ate yummy cupcakes, and had a memorable time at the local bookstore.

It was in the book shop that Clive encountered a golden retriever for the first time ever. And boy was he in love with that dog! Clive got SO excited about that friendly dog! He even let the dog lick his face and he followed the dog all around the book shop. Don't worry, Clive got a vvvvvvvvvvery thorough bath this evening to cleanse him from the doggie germs.

My mom and I played scrabble this afternoon (what a game - she beat me by a mere 2 points) and then we watched a movie and folded laundry. Tomorrow we head to the zoo for a family + gramma trip.

A lovely weekend to you all!

Calamity Clive and Commando Chloe

Clive has certainly made our lives more interesting! He is an active and curious boy, to say the very least.

Somehow even though I know how curious and quick Clive is I still manage to be two seconds behind him on his messes. At least he's into cleaning things up with me! A definite plus since I have a feeling we'll be doing lots of cleaning up after this boy.

Despite his messiness, Clive is an absolute darling. His smile is infectious and I can't seriously be angry with him for more than 5 seconds. (Unless those 5 seconds include his whiny cry that is. He is already showing us that he's a stubborn boy and often refuses to sign please.)

To round out this alliterated "C" post, I'll tell you about Chloe's first no-undies experience.

We've been attending the local gym lately and it includes a huge kid-friendly pool. It's a blast to finish up our workout time with a swim in the pool! But, taking two small children swimming is also a bit stressful for me when I have to do it alone. The worst part of the swimming time is when we're all finished and I have to change and dry everyone in the family bathroom. Chloe is usually semi-able to dress herself but when she's wet and dripping she can't pull on her pants too well (who can?).

Anyways, I try to dry and dress the kiddos as quickly as possible. I had done a super-speedy dressing job on Chloe and when I went to pack up our belongings I saw it. Chloe's clean pair of pink cupcake undies. Oops! There was NO way I was stripping her down again to put those undies on so Chloe went commando. And then the kicker was she said she liked not wearing undies. Hope I haven't inadvertently started something here!

Tell me I'm not the only mom who has ever done that?

Enjoy the pictures below from recent times in the Horn household. Can you guess which picture Chloe took?

Laundry basket cuties

Wow, I have really been a delinquent blogger as of late! What with working lots of hours at my online job and getting ready to leave home for the weekend (I'll be attending the truewoman08 conference in Chicago), I've not spared much time for blogging.

I snapped the picture at left of Clive a few days back and it reminded me of a similar pose I shot of Chloe when she was a wee babe.

I think it's pretty obvious by comparing these two photos that besides coloring, my two kids look very un-alike. It always makes me chuckle inside when strangers see their similar hair color and automatically coo and comment at their resemblance to each other. What?!? Chloe's face shape is exactly like my square-jawed hubby's. Clive's face is longer and less cheeky. We'll have to see if Clive resembles me more as he grows older.

Who do your kids resemble most?

Some new photos

How do I have a 9 month old baby already?!? Time is flying and Clive is growing. And he's causing trouble.

Why didn't any of you warn me about the activity level of boys? :)

And no one informed me of how completely a baby boy can steal his mama's heart either.

Enjoy these new kiddie photos and a happy Friday to you all!

A picture speaks a thousand words

This picture pretty accurately represents my kids' personalities. Seems like my two are opposite in almost every way!

I feel like a new mom most days because everything that worked easily with Chloe doesn't with Clive. Not sure how much of those differences are just normal between boy and girl babies. Clive certainly is more active, curious, and smiley than Chloe was at his age! I used to think moms were exaggerating when they said I was in for trouble with a boy. I thought to myself, "How different could they be?" Boy was I in for a surprise when Clive entered our family! Have you noticed the activity/energy level difference between boys and girls also?

How about your kids (or nieces/nephews)? Are they fairly similar or different in temperament?

The lengths I go to for free food . . .

Today was a flurry of getting our house ready and organized for my in-laws arrival tomorrow. They'll be arriving tomorrow and so we've been hurriedly getting the study guest-ready.

Chloe was not in a napping mood this afternoon though she stayed in her bed for an hour and a half. By the time Matt came home from an afternoon meeting I was drained and not feeling too motivated to cook dinner.

I remembered reading on a few blogs that Chick-fil-A was giving away free food if you dress like a cow. Voila! The answer to my dinner dilemma! The moo-velous part was that Chloe actually WAS a cow for Halloween so she had a fuss-free cow outfit raring to go. I printed out some cow masks, spots, and a Chick-fil-A sign and we were ready!

Chloe was SO EXCITED to wear her cow costume! We mooed happily in the car when suddenly a thought struck my brain. What day is today? It's Friday, right? NO. Ooops, the free-food-when-you-dress-like-a-cow-day is TOMORROW not today.

[My mommy brain has been malfunctioning like this often in recent days. Like how I've been using conditioner instead of shampoo for the last two days and wondering my hair seemed so greasy. Long story, don't ask. ]

So, now I'm stuck with Chloe in a cow costume and trying to explain to her how mommy goofed and we couldn't get our free dinners at Chick-fil-A. She wasn't getting it. And going back tomorrow would be out since the in-laws are arriving and we'll be hustling to do last minute cleaning and cooking.

The staff at Chick-fil-A have always been really kind and personable. I decided to take a chance and try to get our free food a day early since we were already decked out as bovines. I pulled up to the drive-thru and explained our plight to the gregarious cashier. The manager was consulted and he happily agreed to give us free meals a day early! When we walked into the restaurant, all the workers were eagerly awaiting our moo-ving entrance. They oohed and aahed over Chloe and all the other restaurant patrons (not many of them, thankfully) stared and smiled.

If you're as big a fan as I am (even bigger after today's adventure!) be sure to participate in their Cow Appreciation Day tomorrow. Get all the details, including fun costume tips, here. If you're dressed in a total costume you get a free combo meal. Just partial cow-ness earns a free sandwich. Besides the delicious chicken sandwiches, I'm incredibly impressed with Chick-fil-A's healthy choices and books in the kids meals instead of toys. Who needs another dumb cheap plastic happy meal toy? Not us!

Money Saving Mom will be hosting a fun post in honor of Cow Appreciation Day. Hope you can join in the fun and free chicken!