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!

My awesome parents to the rescue...

Have I ever told you that my parents are awesome!?!?  My dad & mom have saved me so much work this Christmas.  I don't know what to even say.  It's awesome to have such a mazing parents! 

On top of the lego table & the doll house my parents have come out today and are currently insulating my garage!  I am so excited I can't believe how much they have done to help this year.  I would have had to have pulled multiple all nighters to pull this Christmas off.

Oh and one of my boys is home sick, so trying to do it all without making a sound.......

My daycare has it's annual "Cookies with Santa" tomorrow evening so I have been busy wrapping gifts for the kidos.

9 Days till Christmas....

And all that is left to do is get gifts for one niece and nephew (before saturday), shop for any kidos who's gifts still haven't arrived dew to the snow (should have been here friday), pick up a few posters at the christian book store in Springfield, make one quilt, do a cost co run, bake cookies (for tomorrow) and wrap a few more things (For tomorrow).

10 days until the adventures begin....

Now if I can only figure out how to add a second blog under the same name.....

The count down begins.....

Saturday afternoon and the snowflakes are falling.  This is supose to be our first real snowfall of the season.  I am trying to decide if I should bring Lexi shopping for her Christmas gifts or clean the house.  We have our annual Cookies with Santa on Tuesday so need to get the place in shape for, and of course there's cookies to bake, gifts to wrap, Lexi's room needs to be finished (It had been used for storage for years and she moved her bed itno the mess, but not much room for her amongst all the junk.  So we've been slowly cleaning it out) and of course there is the garage to clean....  

But I wanted to give a little update.  Not much has changed.  Both mattresses are complete and the bunk bed has been sanded. 

I've been looking for quilt patterns and trying to decide which one to choose.  I am hopeful to make the one for Pheebe before Christmas. I figure the dolls can make the other one over the course of a few days.  Here are the patterns I've sketched out and the fabric I plan to use.

I also need to begin planning the first adventure....

I figure the first adventure has to be very noticeable.  It needs to be big enough that Lexi notices it on her own, but not so big that I have to make everything there after extravagant to keep Lexi hooked.  Whatever I do I need to work Pheebe's blog into it as well.....

Stay tuned to find out what adventures await....

Just 11 days til Christmas.

The adventures begin in 12 days!

Getting back to it...

Okay so I messed up the mattresses.  Oh well.  In reality I wasn't crazy about them being black, but was trying to use what I had already, be frugal and not waste money where I didn't have to.  I'm over it now. Practice makes perfect right?

Oh did I mention sewing is a fairly foreign concept for me?  I don't have a clue where to begin when looking at a pattern and so I do everything by eyeing it.  I envision what I want the end result to be and I just think it backwards.  I probably waist a lot of time and energy on some steps, but it works for me so.....  Any how......

I took the daycare to buy fabric today.  It wasn't working out to go in the evening and if was going to happen it seemed it would have to be with babies & toddlers along for the ride.  They were surprisingly good, and very patient as I looked through fabric looking for what Lexi would like, that had a small enough pattern that wouldn't look out of place on a small scale, fit the color criteria (fusha & orange), and wasn't too pricy.  I decided on a bright pink leopard print (I'm not sure if it is truly fusha, but I think Lexi will like it), a bright orange flower print, & a teal with hearts on vines.  I still need to figure out paint & stain, but for now I have a start anyways.....

I made my purchases, got the kids home and settled, started to work on cutting pieces and the doll house & leggo table arrived.  :-)  I managed to get one mattress done during nap time and started on the second.  I hope to finish that one during tomorrow's nap time. I was so freaked out just 24 hours ago.  And now it feels totally doable again.  It is amazing what one day can do to turn things around.

This weekend I hope to be able to sneak out to the garage to at the very least make room to work in there.  I've been stashing all the Christmas stuff in there and all the summer stuff just kinda got dumped in there so it's in desperate need of organizing before any work can be done.

My dad surprised me by asking if he and my mom could put up the insulation next week!  That would be awesome as I'm really not sure when I was going to be insulating, but most likely in the over night hours.   Not like I could take the daycare out to the garage for that little project.   It's one thing to pick up a sewing project whenever they are all preoccupied (basically only when they are all either eating or sleeping), but puttin up insulation is a whole other ball game.

Have I ever mentioned that I have the world's greatest dad?  My mom is pretty awesome too!  However, her offering to help my dad hang insulation blows my mind.  She has always been the shopper in the family, always hunting for a bargain and always brings clothing and or food when she visits.  This will be a whole new experience for her. 

Is it bad if we "test" the heater we got the boys for Christmas?  I certainly don't want my mom (who has always snuggled close to the fire place and buried her frozen feet under the rumps of her loved ones) to freeze when she is offering to help with something that is very much outside her comfort zone.

Oops!

When last I blogged my plans were to get the materials needed to make the doll blankets and curtains for the bedroom.  Unfortunately that still hasn't happened.  Nor has the doll house arrived.   Unfortunately people get sick and plans don't always come together.

Over the weekend I pulled out a small metal Christmas tree for Pheebe to decorate and found some small stalkings for her to hang up.

Today I spent the morning wrapping gifts.  Including some of the dollar store finds for Pheebe. 

The afternoon was spent finishing the mattresses and cutting out the pieces to make the pillows. 

This evening I made the pillows and pulled the bunk out of hiding to put the mattresses and pillows in it only to discover I messed up on the mattresses.   In order to make the nap mats fit right I needed to cut them in half and sew them into the covering.   Well when I put the pieces together I turned them by mistake.  As a result the mattresses are too long and not wide enough. Looks like I will have to pull it apart and start all over.  Now I will need to pick up more material to sew the new mattresses. 

One step forward 2 steps back I suppose.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get out for fabric, paint, & wood stain.  I need to get moving on all the little details or I will be in big trouble. 

Who's idea was it to have Christmas gifts that all take a lot of preparation?  Time to get cracking!

Let the decorating begin!

My dad cut out the widows and has made curtain rods.  He was going to bring the house yesterday, but it wasn't ready.  I don't know what it is he was still doing.  So I guess that will be a surprise.

I do know my mom has sewn some curtains for the bathroom.  They sound cute.  She says it's blue material with little yellow duckies on it.  She was asking table size and color schemes for the various rooms, so I am guessing she is planing to do some more.

Alexis has informed me that Pheebe's favorite color is fuchsia and her favorite thing to do is to draw.  I'm guessing that fuchsia needs to play into my color scheme somewhere as well as orange (Lexi's favorite color).  I wonder what Hally's favorite color is....  hopefully it will go with fuchsia and orange.  What goes with fuchsia and orange anyway???

I started making the first mattress today  using an old nap mat from my daycare.  I cut off the watter proof covering and took out the foam padding.  Then took some scrap black felt and sewed a 9"×23" pillowcase, stuffed it with the material, & will close it off tomorrow during nap time.  I plan to make some pillows from the nap mat as well.

Hopefully tomorrow morning I can swing by and pick up some material for comforters for the beds, the chair cushions for the dining room, the carpet, paint, & stain. 

All the kids are home this weekend, so I am doubting that I will get much done on any of the projects, but I am hoping to get Lexi's room cleaned out so that there will be room for the doll house.