Mr. Mom

March 20-22 I was able to attend a sewing conference at Thanksgiving Point and an Early Childhood Conference at Weber State.  They were all day and so Neil took the days off of work to be Mr. Mom.  I have to renew my teaching license in June and need to accumulate a couple more points.  I am so thankful that he supports me in this endeavor.  I love attending them because they are so applicable to my life right now.  The sewing conference was so fun.  I mean it's so fun to be with over a 100 women who have the same passion as you and have that common thread.  The conference is for 4-H leaders who teach sewing to youth.  I've always thought about teaching some group sewing lessons during the summer so I got some great ideas of projects that can be finished in less than 2 hours.  We were taught how to make an orange peel table runner (the technique was cool, but my fabric not.  I just used what I already had because I didn't want to spend any more money.)  We made the neatest bag that has clear vinyl on the front so you can see what is in it.  I could use it to store whatever project I am working on or I thought for toys.  Lucy's little dolls have so many little pieces and we are running out of shelf space so I could just make a couple of these and hang them on the wall.  I think it would be so cute and practical.  I made a pillow case with 7 different seam finishes.  We also made a pin cushion that is attached to a little bag to put your scraps in while sewing.  This is so perfect being as I can't ever keep a trash can in my room for some reason.  I also made a microwave bowl hot pad.  You actually place your bowl in this curved hotpad and stick it in microwave.  It's perfect for the kids' oatmeal.  They always leave it in the microwave to cool down but now they don't have too.  I also made Lucy a ruffle skirt out of that ruffle chiffon fabric and a scarf.  So cute and easy.  The lady who created that fabric was the keynote speaker.  We also made slippers, which I didn't have time to finish and I would never wear them so I just ended up throwing them away.  I don't need any more unfinished projects.  My favorite thing is we learned how to draft our own maxi skirt pattern and make it.  It takes less than an hour to make.  Once I got home I went through my fabric and found some more knit material and make Lucy and I matching maxi skirts.  I'll get a picture once we wear them.

The sewing conference gave the me the itch to sew more and so I finally cleaned my room.  I know I said I was going to clean it weeks ago but it never got to the top of my list.  I just can't sew with a mess and so it finally became a priority.  The one thing I've been doing is cutting off the boys' pants that have holes in the knees or that are high waters on Mikey and making them into shorts.   

Here's Mikey modeling his new shorts.  I've done 5 pairs so far and have probably 10 more to go.  I feel so I don't know Depression Era worthy.  

The early childhood conference was great as well.  The best session I went to was with a speech pathologist where I bought 6 speech books to hopefully help Lucy say her sounds better.  She gets really frustrated because it's hard to break an old habit but we are making some improvement.

So while I was gone for three days Neil was home holding down the fort.  He was really excited thinking he would get so much stats done during the kids' naps but he quickly realized he would have no time to do anything.  He felt like I do almost every day.  You wake up with high hopes to get so much done but the kids need so much attention that nothing gets done.  He did have fun with the kids.  Now that everyone can ride a bike they went on a family bike ride.  At first Neil pulled Eliza but then Mikey and Lucy insisted on having a turn.  I think that's pretty great that they can pull her.  I'm not a very good biker so I am impressed.

Neil loves to experiment with food and so for Pizza night he made the pizza (and is getting pretty good at it).  Instead of ham and pineapple and pepperoni he made one with pepperoni, dill pickles and carrots.  He didn't say anything to me and I took my first bite and it just didn't taste that good but I didn't want to hurt his feelings so I kept eating it.  It was all covered with a thick layer of cheese so I didn't notice the new toppings.  He asked me what I thought and I said it wasn't his best and he finally confessed to his experiment.  Never a dull moment with that man.  At least it wasn't tuna and salsa.

Neil's work had a showing of Frozen in the conference center theater.  Neil had not seen it so we went. 

Lucy got to meet Elsa and Olaf.

At the end of the movie when Elsa is making the town a winter wonderland for fun "snow" starts dropping from the ceiling.  All the kids went crazy and I got a little emotional.  Silly I know but I got caught up in the moment.