My mom thinks I'm crazy...

...and so does my Grandma.  Meanwhile, my best friend is cautiously optimistic, and also a little shocked.

This is the part where you ask why... brace yourself.













I cut up my wedding dress. 

Yup this beautiful gown right here:

is now this:

I might be starting to panic just a little bit, damn you Pinterest!

After looking through hundreds of pictures of Baptism gowns that cost an arm and a leg, and not being able to resign myself to our little girl being in the super simple "boy" gown that my son wore, I fell into a great re-purposing craft.  Turn your wedding gown into a baptism gown for your daughter.  So many "pinners" had wonderful things to say:

"my MIL did this with hers, she made 3, one for each of her kids and all mine have been baptised in it...so special and a great hereloom (sp?)"

"We did this-I cut up my wedding dress and made her Baptism gown out of it. Pretty awesome. Yes, my dress still can be used-I cut the train off."

You can see more of the beautiful girlyness HERE

It's not like I'm ever going to wear it again right?  Plus, as an event planner I do not live in a world where I actually think there's a flying pigs chance my daughter will want to wear my old, outdated, "Mom, was that ACTUALLY popular back when dinosaurs roamed" gown.  I wore my mothers veil and we will save that for Evelyn, meanwhile the baptism gown can be another heirloom.  Genius!


Did I mention I've yet to sew any clothes at all on the my first sewing machine I've only owned for 6 months... Oh, AND I have no pattern, I'm designing that too.

Stay tuned for updates and more pictures as this process moves forward.  I think I'll have at least three emotional breakdowns between now and May 26th.  Luckily I have a good sewing support network to help me out.

Joe is TWO

How on earth does this...

...become THIS

Time has gone by WAY too fast!!!  None the less, we celebrated our little mans 2nd birthday over the last couple of weeks.  With a birthday that's only 4 days after Christmas we tend to wait until after the new year for the party, and just have a small family lunch to celebrate the day.  This year Mamaw and Pop were here to celebrate at the family lunch with us.  We went to IHOP and let Joe eat all manner of junk food (However since he already had chocolate milk, and chocolate pancakes with whipped cream, we politely declined the free birthday ice cream.  I only felt it fair to not make him throw up on his birthday)

We had Mickey Balloons and his Mickey Party Hat from his first birthday still fit.  Then after eating we opened presents :-)  He got an LSU Shirt and nightlight from Mamaw and Pop, and a Mickey movie from Mommy and Daddy.  We even got baby sister, Evelyn in the party spirit and dressed her to match!

Then last Saturday we had his birthday party with friends.  The theme was Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.  My cousin designed these AMAZING invitations for him (Which obviously didn't say "whoosh" that's a privacy screen)

We had a play dough table, opened presents, and generally just let the kids have fun.  All the treat bags had a train whistle, car stickers, and an airplane cookie in them.

Here is the Cake with all the treat bags behind it.

 

I lined up PBJ's(in the club car), pretzles & raisins(in the lumber & coal cars), & fruit(in the produce car)

Joe playing with all his friends....

...and opening presents

A good time was had by all!

Homeschool in T minus 11 hours

Well, it's starting!

After a year of downloading, Pinterest hunting, laminating, researching, and hard hard work, we start our home-school curriculum this week... tomorrow in fact!

I set up Joe's school corner this week so he could become accustomed to it being there and his toys being moved.  He's very pleased with himself and his new "Joe sized" table and chairs :-)  Here you can see him playing with his play dough.  The walls are still a little bare, that will change as we start to dig in to the curriculum.  He does have a calender hanging above his desk though, you just can't really see it in this picture.

 

Right now the goals are small and simple, they are also different than that of most two year olds because Joe is speech delayed.  Things can and probably will change rapidly once we get the communication "explosion".  We will do 1 hour of guided play per day, with a different letter of the alphabet being emphasized each week.  At the end of the alphabet circuit we will address his development and either repeat it again, or move up.  Right now these are our goals.

Be able to sing the Alphabet

Be able to count to 10

Increase attention span to 15 minute tasks or projects

Be able to follow 2 step directions

Be able to identify actions from pictures (ie. show me who is happy, who is sad?)

Be able to put two words together to express desires and emotions (i.e Drink Mommy or Go Byebye or I hurt)

Here's to the next chapter!