Fantastic

We watched this movie again for about the 10th time last night and it still makes me laugh. The first time I watched it I laughed (and cried so hard from laughing) throughout the entire show. I highly recommend it. Especially if you liked Hoodwinked (an in case you haven't heard they're coming out with Hoodwinked Too!) the humor is pretty similar. Anyway, if you need a good laugh, I recommend this one. It was fantastic!

Camping FHE

We have quite a few camping trips scheduled for May/June (have to fit it all in before the beginning of July) so last night for FHE we got a camping box ready and set up our tent to get everyone ready and excited for it. I thought it would be good to have a box full of camping necessities that's ready to go so that we don't have to look for these things everytime we're packing up to go. Everything came from the dollar store or the Walmarts so it was pretty cheap too. Here's what I included in it:
-Plastic bowls, plates, and cups
-Garbage bags
-Bug spray
-First aid kit & anitbiotic ointment
-Tylenol packs
-Flashlight
-Wet wipes
-Itch relief stick
-Paper towels
-Toilet paper
-Rope
-Sponge
-Push light
-Lighter & Waterproof matches
-Aluminum foil
-Dish soap
-Hand sanitizer
-I'm also going to run to DI and pick up a knife or two, some old pans and cooking utensils.

The girls had a fun time helping me set up the tent,

Doug built us a good fire,and we had fun roasting mallows.

Lilly thoroughly enjoyed her smore.

Sophia liked hers as well but didn't like having her picture taken.Overall it was a fun night and now we're all excited to get outdoors! Our first trip is in a week and a half when we join Doug and his brother's family on the turkey hunt! Let's hope for some success this year (with both turkeys and camping).

Sewing and Such

I recently picked up a sewing machine (thanks again Jen!) from DI - don't judge. It was cheap at it really works great! It's an old metal Singer built in to a table similar to the one my moms has (her's is still better and will always be the best machine in my opinion). Anyway, it's super sturdy and after a quick tune up it really is working great and doing everything I need it to (which is pretty much just a straight stitch). Anyway, here's a few things I've made so far. I attempted this pillow and I think it turned out okay. I probably should have picked a different material and I think I would have not spaced the pleats so close together. Oh well. It works.
While we were potty training Sophia a few years ago, we promised her an animal from Build a Bear once she was done. We finally made good on our promise (once again, don't judge) and took her there on tax day (I made a promise to myself that I'd do it during tax season so it was in the knick of time). Anyway, she picked this beautiful enchanted pony that she just loves. She was looking at all the accessories and dress ups for it and I realized the things she loved the most looked pretty easy to make and I was determined to figure it out. I thought it turned out okay. They used a gold material that matched the hooves but I'm cheap and pulled this silvery stuff from my mom's stash. Sophia was satisfied so that's all that matters.

My next project is some curtains and pillows for the girls' new room. We decided to move them to another room and give the baby their old room. We're going to use Doug's old big red bunk bed so I've decided to do a Wizard of Oz theme. I have some fun ideas I'm excited about and can't wait to get started on it (I've also had some serious nesting kick in). I'll be sure to post pictures when it's complete!

Here's a bonus one of the girls. They got all set up with their animals and baby and wanted me to take a picture and I couldn't resist.

Margaret Wise Brown

My amazing mother loves children's books and has some amazing collections. One of them is a collection of Margaret Wise Brown books. She has everyone ever published. You may know Margaret Wise Brown best for Goodnight Moon or The Little Island but she wrote over 150 (I think) books and my mom has over 200 copies of them (including everyone that has ever been published - did I say that already?) I know it took her quite awhile to collect all of these and she has some fun stories behind them all. She told me her favorite one is called The Man in the Manhole written by Juniper Sage (Margaret Wise Brown wrote under that name as well as Golden McDonald (She won a Caldecott Award for The Little Island written by Golden McDonald - they since have published it under her real name)). Anyway, she found The Man in the Manhole at a little antique shop in a Chicago subburb amongst a few dozen books for $4.50. She'd never seen it before anywhere and she knew these people had no idea what they had. She hurried and snagged it and was so happy to get it. She did find it on Amazon the other day for about $350 (I think) but it was the first time she'd ever seen it anywhere. The only copy she doesn't own is one of The Little Fur Family that was originally published in real rabbit fur. She has one in fake fur but not an original. She found one the other day on e-bay that was currently going for $1000 but she didn't get it.

Anyway, Margaret Wise Brown led a pretty amazing life. Her biography "Awakened By the Moon" is next on my too read list next. She was engaged to a Carnegie and a Rockafeller in her lifetime and was engaged to one of them when she died suddenly at an early age from a blood clot (I think - I really should have checked my sources better before I wrote this). Anyway, after her death her sister found an old trunk of hers full of manuscripts and ideas for more books. Many of them were published after her death including this one that is due to come out this month.

Anyway, her birthday is in April and so the Provo Library is doing a little display on her from April-May and they're using my mom's books. If you're in the area you should check it out. It's kind of fun to see! I know it looks like a lot of books but it's really only a fraction of how many she actually owns!

The top row on this one has books she was commissioned to write that have photos by Ylla. These two windows show what some of her books looked like when they were first published and how they looked when they were republished many years later.

The Hidden House is about this tiny house she lived in in New York City that was sort of hidden between all these big buildings.

Here's a bunch of Golden Books she wrote.

These are her most famous books: Goodnight Moon (in a few languages), Runaway Bunny and The Little Island.

These are all from her Noisy Book series.

Thanks indeed! Go check it out!

Post Edit: My mom cleared up a few things - her birthday is actually in May (23rd) and she was engaged to James Rockefeller but he was also descended from the Carnegie family. Thanks mom!