Happy 1st Birthday Chloe!

On Saturday we celebrated Chloe's birthday with my family.  Chloe got to dig into a big cake....and then Connor moved it away, as he wanted some too.

Mine?!

No, there aren't any pictures with cake all over the face...that didn't happen.  We cut her a piece and she picked it up in two pieces and threw it on the floor.  She was decently clean when she was done with her cake.

She was thrilled with the popcorn popper that she got from grandma and grandpa.  She also got a couple of 18 month outfits.

Saturday afternoon we picked up this awesome set of Geotrax from Craig's List...it was a great deal!

We swiped a set from my parents' house and then Mary gave me some, but when I saw the ad on Craig's List, we couldn't pass it up.  We had the cousins over for dinner on Sunday and it was a major hit.  I think it was also the first time that there were no major battles/fights between children.  In fact, the kids were having so much fun, the adults ate dinner first and let the kids play.  I think we'll leave the track all over the floor for awhile...it really is fun to play with at any age.

So Sunday, we had cousins over for another birthday dinner.  Chloe got some cute outfits and Aunt Amy is going to take 1 year old pictures for us next week.

Then today, we celebrated Chloe's actual birthday.  She got a fun dinosaur toy that sings several songs, a toy phone(Connor picked out and has said numerous times that he's going to share it with her, even though it's for her birthday.), some cute soft indoor shoes, pajamas and snack cups.

 Everyone thought the dinosaur was pretty cool.

 Feeding the dinosaur a carrot.

 Look at me, I'm ONE!

What we've been up to lately

Touching starfish at Sea World-this is Connor's favorite exhibit.  He also loves the pet show and the fireworks at the end of the night that run during the summer.

A couple weekends ago Peter and his dad started to demolish the shed on the side of our yard.

It looks roughly like this now.  Three walls were made of cinder blocks filled with cement and rebar...they are still up.

I thought this was an interesting way to sleep.

Peek a boo!

We recently purchased three new car seats and the boxes are so fun to play with.

Within the last month or so Chloe has been pulling herself up to everything.  She enjoys messing up the train track and therefore has been nicknamed Chloezilla.  Good thing Connor knows how to fix the track.

And here's a couple little projects I have been working on this summer.  I'm really good at buying cute fabric with grand ideas as to what to do with it, and then never finishing/starting.  For example-The Christmas stockings for last year that are not complete (the fabric is cut, but that's about it).  I also have really cute Halloween and Thanksgiving fabric that I was going to turn into placemats....that hasn't happened.  So...back to what I have accomplished-I bought cute girly fabric to make long bibs for Chloe (Connor has some awesome ones, but they are really boyish).  I finally sat down and cut the fabric, took it to my parents' house and sewed it, and now I just need to find some pinking shears to finish the edges(my mom's were dull) and sew the snaps on.  So those pictures will be up as soon as they're finished.  In the meantime I had little scraps of leftover fabric, which I turned into reversible car seat strap covers.  I also made a new binky on a string for Chloe.  Daisy, my parents' dog had previously chewed up three others, so now I'm making some spares.

While working on car seat strap covers Connor asked if I could make some for him.  I told him his car seat came with covers so he didn't need any, but I could make him a travel pillow instead.  As I was cutting out the fabric I told him I had enough left over to make a blanket for him.  He asked if it could be a blanket we take with us camping...I think he really enjoyed our camping trips this spring/summer.

Projects I'm currently working on/need to finish:
*Flowers for baby headbands as Chloe still hardly has any hair, made out of tiny scraps of fabric-started
*Ribbon flower headbands-not started but is super easy and really cute.
*Quiet book for Connor-started-will likely take a long time, but the pizza and the ice cream cone page are basically complete.  I'm hoping to have it done by his birthday in November.
*Bibs for Chloe-started
*Halloween place mats/table runner-not started
*Thanksgiving place mats-not started
*Christmas stockings-started