WIP Wednesday 12/15/21 & Catching up!

 Hello, All!

It's been just shy of 4 months since my last post 🤯 and as always a lot has happened! 

First, I'll start with my very tiny stitching update for WIP Wednesday. Unfortunately, since school was really demanding this semester, I had to put stitching on the back burner so I wasn't able to do much over the last 4 months. I have done a little bit over the last couple weeks as my classes started to finish up, which has been nice. The only piece I have worked on is the Magic Kingdom SAL because I fell way behind on it and really want to gift it to my daughter for her 6th birthday January, so this will be my focus piece for the next foreseeable future. 

Today:

June:

The last time I showed this piece, I was still on time and had just finished June's Princess and the Frog installment. Today, I am working on October's Sleeping Beauty portion. I did finish July-September over the last couple weeks but I will wait to show those on Finish Friday (mainly because I don't want to remove the Q-snap just yet 😝)! At this point, all of the months have been released and I've seen several finished pieces and it looks awesome! I can't wait to finally get mine caught up and I'm debating if I want to add any kind of customization to it or not. Once it's finally done, I will hopefully have it framed in time for her birthday.

That's it for the stitching update. Otherwise, in between family fun, work, and school, life has a way of finding extra stuff for us to deal with. Since August, we've had to deal with 2 funerals, 1 on my side and 1 on my husband's, that had us travel to New York and Indiana. 

Then there were birthday celebrations for me and my husband in September and our son in October. For my husband and I, our birthdays consisted of several dinner outings with our families but for our son's 2nd birthday, we celebrated with a dinosaur themed party. He absolutely loved it!   

                       

                       

                       

We did a few Fall things as well. We went to a Christmas tree farm that actually has a petting zoo and puts on a nice Fall event with pumpkins, pony rides, hay rides, and other activities for kids.

        

         

         

   

The funeral in Indiana happened the day before Halloween, so we drove up there starting the Wednesday before. We ended up stopping in Tennessee Wednesday night and got to Indiana on Thursday. We spent the next 2 days visiting family, the funeral was on Saturday, and then we trick or treated in the cold on Sunday. Before trick or treating we went to an apple orchard and fed some of the animals there as well. Even though we were visiting for a somber reason, the kids didn't really understand but their joy made it easier to handle. 

           

                     

  

   

We hosted our first Thanksgiving at our house for our immediate families. I was especially nervous because I have never actually cooked a turkey but everything came out great! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures due to being too busy in the kitchen and then just enjoying our company. It was a nice day! 

After all those Fall activities, the Christmas activities have started! Every year I decorate the house with Christmas lights inside and outside for the kids and I try to add 1 to 2 new things each year. This year we added icicle lights along the gutters, a new flashy net light for the front bushes and a little outside tree with orange lights because my daughter's 2nd favorite holiday is Halloween. I sold my husband on this by saying it's in honor of the Nightmare Before Christmas movie too 😜.

               

      

   

This week, we decorated a gingerbread castle and visited the Give Kids the World Village Night of a Million Lights where the kids got to meet Santa! This made their day!!

   

We have plenty more holiday activities planned while both my daughter and I are on break from school! As always, thank you for sticking through the long update post!

🎄🎅I hope everyone is having a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season!🎅🎄

Summer Updates & Finish Friday 8/20/21

Hello, All!

It has been a while and it has been a busy time like always! 

First, we celebrated my Grandmother's birthday by baking her a cake. My daughter said it had to be red because that is her favorite color, it had to be heart shaped because she loves her Grammy, it had to have pink icing because that's a shade of red, and it had to have rainbow sprinkles because Grammy loves all the colors. It was very thought out! I had to work that night so I woke up early to bake the cake with my daughter and then I video called after my husband picked up my Grandmother to participate in singing "Happy Birthday!" 

                                                

                                    

The next big thing we did was throw an End of Summer Party for the kids and our friends and family right before school started! There were water toys, pizza, snocones, cookies, and a snow ball fight! They had a blast and it was such a blessing to be able to see our daughter get to finally play with other little kids and be silly!

                

After everyone went home that day, we set up our own little outdoor movie and fire pit to roast marshmallows and make smores! Our daughter said it was the best day ever!

        

We got a new couch which the kids are still very excited about. I find this absolutely hilarious!

We stayed a couple nights at the Shades of Green Resort on Disney Property with my in-laws. My daughter and our niece were able to get Princess make-overs and had a blast! Unfortunately, our son was too young to get the Pirate make-over.

                        

                        

And finally, our daughter started Kindergarten! 😲 Starting school has been such a nerve wracking experience for all of us, especially with our daughter's medical history and the recent surge of Covid cases. So far, she has done amazing and is having fun for the most part! Today was day 9 (they started last Tuesday) and she is so ready for the weekend!

        

Oh! I also finished my Summer Semester with flying colors, thankfully! And now the Fall Semester will be starting this next week... this will be the true test! I'll be adding 3 courses on top of our already crazy family life and work schedules! My goal is to be finished with school by the end of Summer 2023, so I really have to push myself to stay on top of everything!

Now I know this has already been a long post but I have a mini block finish to share as well! 

Rikuzo Pirate Ship mini block set FINISHED!

This is the Rikuzo Pirate Ship mini block set. It was 780 pieces and took me about 8 hours to do. I did mess up a couple times and have to take a few sections apart to fix teeny mistakes but overall it was fun to put together. If you've followed me enough to know that the sets I've been working on have all tied to places I've visited or are of my husband's favorite anime characters, this one may seem a bit odd. However, it actually fits into my "had visited" criteria! I have actually be on not 1 but 2 different pirate ships! The first one was a pirate ship that was docked in St. Augustine several years ago (I couldn't find a picture of it in my photos). The second was a stylized pirate ship ferry boat called the Vasa in Japan on Lake Ashi in Hakone!

The Vasa "at sea" on Lake Ashi, Hakone - from the website

On our way to board the Vasa

Hubby & Daughter saying "Arrr" next to the resident pirate on the Vasa

If you've made it this far in my post, thank you! I hope you all have had a great summer! I know we did! 

Happy Friday!