Author: Shannon

A couple of weeks ago the Williams clan gathered at the Moore’s house to celebrate GGMom’s 88th birthday.  Here are some pictures from the day:

We got there early so we could put Paige down for her morning nap and Walker, Liam, Olivia, Matt, and David spent the morning playing Mario Kart together.  After the boys were cut off from one driving game they avoided withdrawal twitches by moving on to another…

Liam helps get Walker hooked.  Into his own game.  This is yet another example of the difference between the first born and the second born…

Caramel cake!

Contemplating wish options:

Dance party!

Liam digs in:

Paige joins the party!

Dueling laptops:

Entertaining Mama and GGMom:

Mutual Adoration Society:

Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie!

Baby Girl Never.  Sits.  Still.

Clapping with GGDad:

Whistling with GGDad:

Ham:

Back for more:

Mutual Adoration Society (2):

“Yaaaaaaaaay!”

It was a lovely party and Paige enjoyed stealing the show as usual!

The title of this post is a bit misleading.  It should be called “Things I Created A While Ago But Couldn’t Unveil Because I Had To Wait Until I Had Given Them To The Intended Recipient As Well As Things I Finished The Night Before Leaving Town But Couldn’t Post Until Just Now Because They’ve Either Been Dirty Or In The Process Of Being Dirtied.”  Somehow that wasn’t catchy enough for me.  Go figure.

First up is the birthday outfit I made for Sylvie’s 1st birthday.

I used a mash-up of resources to come up with this outfit.

First up was the Peek-A-Boo Bonnet from Made By Rae.  I put up an earlier post here about making one for Paige.

Peek-A-Boo!

But I (photographically) digress…I love the pattern and knew I wanted to make one for Sylvie to match her outfit.

It took me a long time to settle on which dress pattern to use and I eventually ended up winging it by taking the (adult) Spring Ruffle Top tutorial, monkeying with the proportions, and adding a ruffle to the bottom to come up with this:

I love the way it turned out and I wish I’d done a better job of recording what I did so I could replicate it, but that makes it even more special for Sylvie!

Next up were the bloomers.  After a lot of hemming (pun intended) and hawing I decided that although PJ loves a beruffled hiney I would skip the ruffles on the bum since there were already ruffles on the shoulders and bottom of the dress.  I used the MADE Perfect Diaper Cover tutorial (which was fantastically easy to follow and came together very quickly with the use of my new serger).

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Next on the docket was the repurposing of some of Liam’s old onesies.  Paige was in desperate need of something to sleep in and why pay for something new when I have something old that can be turned into something new without much effort?  I’ll tell you why.

I NEVER do ANYTHING without much effort.

It’s not in my make-up.  I’m a 32 year-old woman who is desperately trying to learn how NOT to go overboard on the details in every conceivable way.  I’m getting better in a lot of areas.  Apparently sewing is not one of those areas.

Anyhoo.  So I wanted to cut the sleeves of some of Liam’s long-sleeved onesies to make something for Paige to wear to bed.  All I really had to do was chop off the arms and run them through the serger to finish off the sleeves.  This should have taken a total of 15 minutes MAX (for 6 onesies).  Instead I ended up playing with different finishing techniques, adding ruffles, playing with the fullness of those ruffles, trying out new stitches on my sewing machine, adding a skirt, using buttons to cover boo-boos.  You name it and I did it.  For sleepers that will largely remain inside our house.  Because that’s just who I am.

I began with basic light blue, grey, & white long-sleeved onesies.  Here are the results:

Although I clearly have time-management issues, I’m calling this a win.  I love how everything turned out.  I learned a TON about the best ways to use my machines.  I dove right in to working with knits (which I LOVED!).  I learned that putting buttons on Paige’s shoulders is an open invitation for her to stick them in her mouth.  Constantly.  I just can’t wait to get back at it and use some of those skills to make more fun things for Paige.

I have an actual “latest creation” up my sleeve but it hasn’t reached its destination yet so the unveiling will have to wait.  Fingers crossed I finish doing the bulk of the prep for Paige’s birthday party very soon so I can get back into the s(e)wing of things with some more fun projects!

I know you can hardly believe that this will be the last post of pictures from Siesta Key this year.  You’re probably saying to yourself:

“Self (because I know that’s how you refer to yourself when no one’s listening).  I really wish Shannon had taken more pictures of her family at the beach.  She didn’t get anywhere near enough shots of her children doing cute things in the sand and it’s only been 4 weeks since she got home so you know there must be thousands more pictures that she’s spent those weeks sorting through, otherwise why has it taken her so long to finish?”

Well…you’re mistaken.  This will be the end.  Cry yourself to sleep if you must.  I know the withdrawal will be tough.  Without further ado (there’s been plenty of ado already, no?) here’re the rest of the pictures.

Hanging out at the pool with Mo:

Cooling off the handrail using the world’s worst watering can:

Mo makes sure it’s just the right temperature:

Watering his button:

Watering his noggin:

Mo looks on:

Getting ready to go out:

We got everyone all suited and coated up and then the rains came…

Matt decided to do a rain dance (I’m not sure that he realized that rain dances are typically performed in the interest of bringing *on* the rain, not stopping it…):

Waiting to go outside:

Boy under a basket:

Raingazing:

The sun eventually came out again:

Sink bath:

Baby Girl loves a bath, no matter where it takes place:

Measuring cup turned tub toy:

She looks *so* much like baby pictures of her Gran here:

Baby tummy!

Making a break for it:

Dinner, Big Olaf style:

Liam approves:

Pok & Mo (enjoying a little Chocolate Almond for Granny, no doubt):

Paige was majorly bummed that she’s currently not allowed to have dairy or nuts…

…so she went outside to enjoy the porch with Granddaddy:

Still miffed that she wasn’t allowed any chocolatey goodness…

…but then Liam finished up and came out to do a little dance for her and she cheered right up!

Plotting her next move:

Being photographically uncooperative:

Bonk!

Checking out her Beach Bazaar goody with Mo:

Every year as a child I was allowed to pick one goody from the Beach Bazaar.  We’ve continued the tradition with our own kids.  The whole place is full to the brim with ticky-tacky crap: fake roaches, highly inappropriate mugs, seashell necklaces, etc.  My kid?  He finds the only train in the place and decides he MUST take it home.  Here he is showing it off after we got back to the condo:

Mo kisses!

Mo enjoyed Paige’s goody more than Paige did:

It was a wonderful trip and we’re already looking forward to next year!

We convinced (and by convinced I mean we announced, with no other options given) Pok to go with us to the beach one afternoon so we could get some family shots.  I couldn’t be any happier with how they turned out.

The first step was to figure out how to work the remote control.

Testing, testing…

Still working…

What you don’t see in each of the shots above is that Matt was desperately trying to catch himself in midair using the remote.  In each of the above attempts the remote fired at the wrong time.  If you know Matt you know that there was no way he was giving up that easily…

After we got that out of the way we had to get situated…

But when we finally got to this point, the results were well worth it!

Then we broke it down into a smaller group.  I LOVE this shot!

This is just after we lost Liam…

Thankfully Paige was having a blast with Mo and Pok and I got the chance to take some pictures:

W.O.W.

Liam had a major case of the wiggleworms so he and Matt decided to go for a short run to shake some of it off…

This is where Paige discovered that sunglasses also make great teethers…

Paige also had a case of the wiggleworms so Gran took her on a little walk:

And here they come!

Crossing the finish line:

Paige makes her way back into the sand…

A shot that captures both Mo’s and Pok’s feelings about the beach…

Paige demonstrates her standing prowess:

Liam makes his mark:

Heading out to the water:

My sweet boy:

Showing off his new Lightning McQueen shades:

Brother & Sister:

Stay tuned, (I know this is shocking, but…) there’s still more to come!

Liam shows Paige the finer points of sand shoveling:

Baby Girl’s got style!

Three cheers for BOGO Walgreens shades!

It’s just almost more than I can stand!

“OOOOOO!”

This is not a fluke.  Baby Girl loves anything that rolls.  She’s trying desperately to learn how to kick before she learns how to walk.  She just added to her vocabulary with (you guessed it) the word ‘ball.’  Matt’s trying to decide if she should be a top professional soccer player or President of the World.  I can’t make this stuff up.

Game face:

You don’t think she’s Matt’s daughter, do you?

Engineers:

Contemplating her navel (and where it might possibly have gone):

Sunny smile:

Happy girl, happy yogurt container:

Happy yogurt container = impromptu beach golf tee

I still can’t believe she kept those glasses on the *entire* time we were at the beach that morning.

Contemplating her next move:

One of the few shots from the entire vacation of these three in the same frame:

Wow.

Hmmmmm…

Anybody have a quarter?

Liam gets a little help with castle-building from Granddaddy.  Paige contemplates the most efficient way to destroy a sandcastle.

Mo!

Sharing shells with Mo:

Matt:  How big a moat do you want me to dig?

Liam:  This big!

Paige and two of her admirers:

Tall and small:

These are the best examples I have to show the enormous clumps of sand around her mouth.  Clumps that pale by comparison to the ones that actually made it *into* her mouth.  Really.

Filling the moat:

Physically restraining Paige in the name of moat preservation:

“Ta Da!”

Building a castle that’s just right for smashing:

See?

“Thanks, Daddy!”

Taking a dip:

Riding the waves with Daddy:

Another attempt at a few pictures of the three of them…Liam’s face tells the story:

Paige’s body continues the story:

Paige fleshes out the story (and by flesh I mean flesh wound — on her brother’s face.).

Close:

Closer still:

Closest:

Even more to come!

On our next late afternoon trip to the beach Matt brought the kite and attempted to fly it with Liam.  The wind wasn’t completely cooperative and the string ended up in a tangled heap, but the journey is what matters and it was a fun trip getting to that point.

Matt did manage to get it off the ground:

Liam races over to have his turn as soon as he realizes that there has been successful liftoff:

Liam helps:

Before we released Paige I took advantage of the situation and got a quick shot of the two of us:

More kite:

Father and son:

Liam takes his turn at the controls:

Paige entertains herself (and Gran) with the beach chairs:

I LOVE this shot!

Momentary togetherness:

Little boy, big shades:

Making the necessary “cool guy” adjustments:

Paige admires his work:

Inspection:

Love.

“Sand!”

Off she goes (again)!

Notice how we keep getting closer and closer and closer to the water?  We learned our lesson from the previous visit and everyone was dressed for both sand *and* water this time.  Very wise decision.

“Seaweed!”

“Check it out, Mama!”

W.O.W.

Love.  Love.  Love.

This was the portion of the afternoon where Gran worked furiously to keep Paige from drowning while I was busy taking pictures…

Brief break:

Ahhhhhh…

Gran got quite a workout:

See that look on Paige’s face?  Unadulterated exultation, fists clenched, ready to wind up and go again?  Yeah.  That wasn’t a fluke.

Love.

After she took a taste of sand salad with saltwater dressing…

Ahhhhh (again)…

Goofy girl:

Beach boy:

Sheer joy:

Almost two weeks later and my body and my house have still not recovered from this trip, but looking at these pictures makes me want to do it all again tomorrow!