This is my favorite picture, but the sun was directly behind them which made the camera quite mad.

Here’s a better view of the dresses from top to bottom.

I’m happy to report that the girls absolutely love these dresses (they never seemed much interested in the other dresses I’ve made). It really was an easy dress to sew up, and I’d like to make more of them with different color schemes/patterns. We’ll see if I can find another group of cute fabrics and find the time.

After much consideration we named him Russell. It was actually Mike’s choice, and there was no convincing him otherwise even though Annie and Mimi really wanted to name him Sparkles or some princessy sounding name. By the way, we have no idea if “he” is a boy or girl. For all we know, every time we call him Russell he could be cringing with shear agony of being thought of as a boy.

We made sure to take care of Russell during our drive home from Door County. It occurred to us that we’d have to take Russell to Minnesota with us to stay with Grandma while we went to SD. Grandma seemed to be okay with taking care of this particular pet instead of Lucy. Her only responsibility was to feed him new milkweed leaves every so often. Russell did appreciate Grandma’s care, but he was so thrilled to have us back with him again.

Meet Russell.

Not long after arriving home from MN we noticed Russell had attached himself to the top of the netting in his bughouse via some white webby-looking substance. The next day we saw he was hard at work getting himself ready for the pupa stage. He had made a little bubble around himself, and we could see him squirming inside. By the end of the day he was a full-fledged pupa. What’s even more beautiful about Russell the Pupa is that he has gold sparkles. Maybe Annie was on to something when she came up with her name choice. According to the internets, Russell will be in this stage for about 10 days. Oh, we can’t wait to meet Russell the Monarch Butterfly.

Russell the Pupa.

Like any proud parent, we filmed Russell while eating.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eDKCtPpLQQ

I thought it would be fun for the girls to each have their own fancy, dinner plates, so I “forced” them to paint a plate. Annie was really drawn to the fairy, princess, and animal figurines, but I vetoed all those **hideous** ideas and stuck to my guns to have the girls paint those durn plates. Mimi could have cared less what I gave her to paint, so no arguments with her (yet).

After many re-do’s (thank heavens that you can wipe those plates off to a clean slate which we did numerous times) the girls finally decided what designs they wanted on their plates. Annie wanted to do something French/Paris-themed, so we came up with the poodle idea for her plate. Mimi agonized over what she wanted, and after I suggested the princess crown idea a dozen or more times Mimi finally gave in to that concept. All in all, I think the plates turned out darling and will be even cuter once the bright colors show through. It was a very chaotic afternoon with a squirmy baby and toddler, but the kids still had a lot of fun and will certainly be pleased once they get their projects back.

The artistes.

The artwork. Julie and I ended up having to commandeer Alex and Mimi’s plates because they both kind of gave up and the work involved was a little too intricate for their chubby fingers.

Chloe did surprisingly well considering she was made to sit in her stroller much of the time. She got to paint two magnets, an ice-cream cone and a puppy dog.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and yes, I gave Violet her own lollipop. Poor Violet had nothing to do other than be patient for 2 hours. When she’s old enough I’ll take her to make a project.

Good times!

E.T.A.: The girls insisted on wearing their crocheted hats after they dug them up from the basement. And they also kept saying they wanted to be twins today.

The girls had a lot of fun trying them out.

In the meantime, I did complete another project for the girls. I made them ruffly leggings (again influenced by MJ designs). The leggings ended up being fairly simple to make after I overcame a few sewing-with-knits-for-the-first-time headaches. Unfortunately, the consumer fabric world doesn’t make many cute, knit fabrics suitable for leggings available to the general public. I had to settle from little selection, but the girls were still thrilled. At least Annie was; Mimi is a whole different story. She is apparently anti-leggings and is currently in talks to spearhead the “Coalition Against Leggings” (otherwise known as CAL).

As you can see, she’s already made quite a home for herself around here.

Mimi was smitten from first sight.

Annie is just glad that she’s now able to get Sadie out of Mimi’s constant grip.

I’ll bet it’s difficult to tell which cat is the real cat.

On Friday I had the pleasure of spending the day and evening with Anut Sara crafting and chatting and eating many sweet treats. It was decided ahead of time that we’d repeat our holiday-themed crafting session where we bring a craft for each person to make. This time we did Easter crafts, and both Sara and I had eggs on the brain. We had a lot of fun, and I hope we can do this again over and over and over. Such a good time!

Sara’s projects included candlesticks, wooden eggs, and lots of paint.

Here’s Sara painting polka dots on one of those wooden eggs.

My project comprised of tons o’ ribbon, lollipop sticks, floral tape, oasis, excelsior, and a bucket.

Violet got to play with Cheerios. She experimented with wearing them, choking on them, and spitting them out. Eating them was not on the agenda.

Jim, Sara’s husband and my brother-in-law, was a good sport about my presence and stayed out of our way most of the night. I think he was just happy he could hog the t.v. and watch rock concerts.

And the results. I actually forgot to snap a picture of Sara’s craft that night, so the second picture is showing the crafts being used as a centerpiece for our Easter brunch the next morning. The first picture is of Sara’s eggs in a bucket. Notice that her ribbon-wrapped eggs are much better wrapped than mine.

Meanwhile, Daddy and Grandma kept the big girls. They went to the Arboretum and dyed Easter eggs. Later that night Daddy and the girls met up with Jake, Steph, Dylan, and Maya to see How to Train Your Dragon at the Excelsior Dock.

At the Arboretum.

Dying eggs. Look how bright and vibrant they turned out.

As you can see it was a busy day for everyone. So much so that Grandma and Mimi were completely spent by the end of the day.

Stayed tuned for part ii tomorrow where I post about our Easter brunch and egg hunt.