The unexpected reaction

I'm behind in posting Lexi's reactioIs to to the "adventures".  Trying to blog with her home is tricky.  Any way.....

After the cleaning of the house Alexis came downstairs (the house is still in the living room), took one look at the house, & got angry!

"Someone messed up my house!" She said with crosed arms and scowled.

Then she dumped everyting out of the dolls bedroom.  Grumbling and complaining the entire time.  She put the bunk back to were it was originally and tossing the clothing in a heap.  She then dumped out the kitchen. Tossed all the shoes into the kitchen.  Just totally changed everything.

When the boys woke she demanded to know who messed up her house.  None of the boys even smiled.  Noah had helped with the cleaning and the others were there when we were doing it.  They played it cool as could be.  All of them told her they didn't know what she was talking about. 

About noon time, Alexis was still stuck on the fact that someone messed up her doll house. Ethan opened the laptop and let Pheebe's note flutter to the floor in front of Alexis picked it up and said "Maybe Pheebe messed up your house".

Suddenly it clicked and Lexi wanted to check out the blog again.  Ethan was roped into reading her the blog.  As he read she started to panic.  It was Pheebe that made the changes to the house.  Lexi then wanted to put the house back exactly how she had found it and insisted on looking at the pictures in order to do it.

It took some convincing, but finally I got Lexi to understand that Pheebe wouldn't be happy if Lexi just stopped playing with her and left the house as a museum.

She played all day with the dolls and once again trashed the house.  As she was getting ready to go to bed I started cleaning the doll house.  Of course she wanted to know why.  I told her I didn't like to leave messes for other people to have to clean up.  She immediately pitched in and helped clean up.  She tucked the dolls into bed and layed down beside the doll house with her pillow and blanket.  She was sleeping over Pheebe's house.

Last night Hally did Pheebe's hair.  This may sound like a simple adventure, but it took 4 hours to do it.  That doll's hair was a matted mess!

This morning I woke around 6:30am to "mom, they did something again.  We need to check the blog."

I think she will bounce out of bed for a long time to come.  :-)

"Someone messed up my house!"

"Who could have done this?"

"Fixing" the mess

Ahhhhh....  nice and messy,

Now I can play again!

Did I mention how big this house is?

Christmas morning

Lexi came down stairs to find the new doll Hally, her jeep, & her camper sitting in front of a VERY large package.

Upon opening the package this is what she found.  

Lexi immediately wanted to know how Pheebe  got downstairs.  She had me read her the note.

But she had no intrest In going to the blog to check it out.  I was a little worried, but gave it time hoping she would come around to it in a while.  

She kept asking who brought Pheebe downstairs, but no one knew a thing.

To give you an idea of the size of this beast of a house....

Once presents were opened Lexi quickly dove into playing with her dolls, while dad and I unpackaged everything else.

At the end of the day Lexi left the doll house in a heap.  So adventure #1 was spent cleaning up the mess, playing go fish, and having some giggly sleepover fun.

For the details about each adventure check out the blog "Dear Alexis".

Let the adventures begin....

The quilt is finally finished

The house is by the fire place, or errrr.... blocking the fire place....

the floors are in place in kitchen & bathroom, curtains hanging in Bathroom and dining room, furniture is in bedroom and dining room, the rest of the stuff is wrapped.  Santa paid his visit, and Pheebe is seated at the table with a cup of tea & note written to Alexis...

"Dear Alexis,

I have a gift for you.  Have someone help you and go to www.atoyadventure.blogspot.com

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Pheebe"

all wrapped up and awaiting this little one to open her eyes

you can join Alexis in reading all about Pheebe's adventures on "Dear Alexis" and you can continue to follow the behind the scenes planning and carring out of each adventure here.

If you have any recomendations for Pheebe's adventures feel free to leave a comment on "Behind the sceens,"or drop Pheebe an email at lin.pheebe.lex@gmail.com

Gifts from Grandma

Saturday my family got together for our Christmas dinner and gift exchange.

Pheebe didn't come, if she was forgotten by mistake Christmas would not go well as my parents are heading south for a while.

Even though she wasn't there she made out like a bandit.  She got a weeks worth of clothes, glasses, shoes, tights, a swim suit, and her very own American Girl doll!  Pretty lucky little lady if you ask me. 

Pheebe (in a new outfit) with her doll Saige.

another out fit.

The boys got a dart board from their uncle and have been begging me to put it in their room ever since.  I told them I would hang it Christmas day.  Now they are complaining they don't have enough space.  Oh boys just hang in there 2 more days......

Quilting..... or my version of it anyway.

As I said before I don't really have a clue what I am doing when it comes to sewing.  But I am taking a stab at it for the sake of my daughter.  It isn't being done as a traditional quilt would be I am quite certain, but it at least resembles a quilt.

I've been trying to get thing done in secret but my children's instance on getting the stomach bug and their willingness to share it with one another has pretty much squashed all hope of getting things done in time.

So.....  with no hope of quilting in secret I chanced it.  Lexi was home with the stomach bug and I sat by her bed and sewed.  A good couple of hours went by without her caring what I was doing.  As time went by I got quite a bit accomplished and then she noticed.  She even knew it was a quilt, which surprised me.  She got interested in what I was doing and began to watch.  She doesn't know what it is for or why I am doing it, so oh well.  She will be happy when she finds out it is for her.  She keeps telling me it's not big enough.  I hope she isn't too disappointed with the fact that it isn't for her bed, but rather Pheebe's.  She has been watching with intrest all weekend long.

I started by cutting squares approximately 2.5"×2.5" and laying out my pattern on the floor.  Then began sewing 2 squares together.  

Once I had each square attached to another I sewed those sections together and so on, until I got this

I got stuck here for a little while.  Until I decided to put the back on as if it were a pillow.  I cut a piece of white cloth and sewed it to the quilt on 3 sides.  Turned the quilt right side out and then tried to figure out the edge.  

The the battle began.  I googled how to "edge a quilt" and founf a very nice YouTube video giving great step by step instructions.  If only I could follow directions.....

I had to rip the same seam out 3 times. Just to get the material for the edge of the quilt long enough. Gahhhhhh!  But I finally got it!  The I had to rip out a couple of seems when I started to attach the batting.  The corners gave me a little troubles, but I figured them out relatively quickly.

Tomorrow, hopefully I can attach the back of the edging and be done with it.  I may have to figure out a way to tack the layers together so the layers don't pull apart.  But for now I am too tired to see straight.  So I gave Pheebe a sneak peak and let her try it out for a brief moment. 

I'm off to get a couple of hours of sleep before daycare arives nice and early.

Nighty night all!

Just 2 more days till Christmas!

Cleaning and Quilting

Dropped the kids off at school this morning and headed straight to the garage to clean.  I am running out of time and I wasn't going to waist a second of what time I have left.

Wow!  There was alot of dirt in there!  And lots of things that should have been tossed long ago....like the bottle of car washing liquid that burst covering the entire cabinet with soap and rusting everything in there with it.  Oh what fun!  Took a bit of elbow greese and a couple of garbage bags, but it got cleaned.

I am a bit concerned about the heat in there though.  It doesn't seem the heater we bought is going to heat the space enough.  I may have to sacrifice my beloved fireplace to the cause.  :'(  I was really hoping to avoid that.

I spent the morning cleaning up the garage while the toddlers played with toys in a previously cleaned area and tried to figure out where everything will fit best.  There is still work to be done, but it is coming along nicely.

Nap time was spent working on Pheebe's quilt.  The project that scared me the most. I was surprised to find how easy it seemed to figure out and I am surprised at how quickly it is taking shape.  I am far from finished, but all of the squares are cut, the patterns been finalized, and all of the squares are attached to at least one othe square.  (The pic was taken early on.)

I got brave and pulled it out to work on while Lexi was playing in the snow with the boys.  Just as I had it all layed out she came in complaining of a stomach ache.  I barley managed to shove it away before she came into the living room.  I am sure Iit will take quit a bit of time to figure out what goes where when and if I get the chance to pull it out again.

By 8pm there was no doubt she was sick.  

Only 6 more days til Christmas, last day of school tomorrow and she will be home.....

I guess there will be some late nights in my future after all, but not tonight.  Tonight I work on fighting off this stomach bug.  

Cookies with........ Santa???

Yesterday's snow storm certainly was a game changer!  It was for sure a reminder that no matter how much we prepare and expect things to go our way.  There are things that are totally out of our control. 

I had yesterday planned out from the moment the kids left for school.....

We would spend the morning bakeing cookies and playing games.  The little ones would eat lunch and take naps while I cleaned up our baking adventures.

When the big kids got off the school bus we would snuggle and watch Christmas movies until the first of our friends arrived.  We would the paint ornaments, eat cookies, drink cocoa, and await Santa's arrival all the while listening to Christmas music.....

Well that's not at all how the day went.

It started with my oldest yelling at me because he had a stomach ache and my husband didn't believe him.  I went through the whole if your sick your in your room all day routine.   He agreed, I was skeptical, but his brother had been ill the day before so I caved and sent him back to bed.  

I got the others off to school after an argument about riding the bus home from school, typically I pick them up, but on half days they ride the bus so I don't have to wake any daycare children, yesterday was a half day and one child was begging to be picked up reguardless.

It was finally quiet, just me and the daycare, & the baking began.  Soon after the first of the cookies went into the oven the snow started to fall, and fall, and fall.

By noon time the texts canceling for the evening's festivities started to come.  When all was said and done we had 2 friends and no Santa.

In the midst of the chaos I lost my phone, I have no idea who ate how many cookies, my house got messy, gifts got handed out (luckily Santa was able to get them to a mail man who was kind enough to bring them to our door), I don't think I heard a single Christmas song, the kids watched part of a Christmas movie (I have no idea which one as I was hunting for my phone at the time), dinner was late, snow was everywhere. ....

All in all it truly was agreat day!

We got to spend time with a few friends we've never gotten the chance to hang out with in a small scale setting, we had some very yummy food, we were safe and warm dispite the storm outside, & everyone (daycare & friends) made it home safe and sound.

It truly was a blessed day!