Friday, April 27, 2012

A little fishy


We've got a natural on our hands people! My little Cameron is a swimmer. I know he's only 6 months old but he really seems to have taken to the water. He's the youngest one in his class (all the other kids are 1 or 2) yet he doesn't cry at all, even when he first gets into the cold pool water. Every week there's always one kid (or two or three) who cries through the whole class. I suppose you could argue that he's too little to know any better and the older kids know that they have a choice to be in the cold water or not but even so, I hope that since we're starting so early he won't cry even when he realizes there's a choice. Only time will tell.

Anyhoo... here are a few pics from class. Every week the bleachers are filled with moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas all taking pics, video, waving and cheering. It all makes for quite a chaotic class with the kids crying, family snapping away from the bleachers and parents trying to teach their little ones to blow bubbles or hold onto the wall. Lucky it's only 20 minutes long!





Friday, April 20, 2012

DIY Party Hat & Cameron's 6 Month Celebration


Cameron turned 6 months old on Monday (April 16). It really is like everyone always says- time just flies by and before you know it they are all grown up. The last 6 months has just flown by and it just keeps on going by faster and faster the older he gets. It's moving so quickly that I missed his 5 month celebration. He was 5 1/2 months before I realized that I missed it! (Since he was 3 months old I've "celebrated" by sticking candles (unlit ones) into a cupcake and taken a picture.)


6 months is a milestone so this month I stepped it up a bit. All ramping up of course for that very exciting first birthday! So this month I got him a frozen ice cream cupcake (YUMMY!), made a 6 month topper for it and a fun little birthday hat!



I got the idea for the hat from Painted Preppy and tweaked it to make it work for me. The tutorial on Painted Preppy says to print out the hat template but I couldn't find it or a link anywhere on the page so I Googled party hat templates and found Oh Happy Day which has a downloadable template. Of course when I tried to print it out our printer stopped working for some reason and after fidgeting with it for a few minutes I gave up and just drew a template myself, basing it on the general shape of the Oh Happy Day template. I needed a smaller hat anyway, one that would fit Cameron so it ended up working out well.

Boo Kitty is a total photo bomber! Especially when it comes to pictures of Cameron. 
(Someone's a little jealous!)

Since I don't have a stash of fabric ribbon I ended up using scrapbook paper for the fringe instead. I simply cut strips, folded them in half and then cut them into fringe. Instead of stapling the fringe I taped it to the edge of the hat. To make the fringe topper I just cut fringe into a longer/larger piece of paper, rolled it up, stuck it through the top hole and taped it to the inside. I didn't put a chin strap on the hat because I thought that it would irritate Cameron and cause him to swipe at it so I adhered it to his head with double sided tape. It worked well and wasn't so sticky that it pulled his hair when I pulled it off.

Happy 6 Month Birthday Cameron!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Amish all around

Isn't it strange how you never notice something until it's something that has just come into your life?
Lately for me it's been all things Amish! Every where I seem to turn there's something Amish. Last week my BFF Paige and I took over Amish Country (read about our adventure here!). It was sooooo amazing. Since then I can't seem to get away from it. Yesterday I was scrolling through a bunch of funny ecards and came across this.


Then I discovered that just a few houses down from ours there are a bunch of Amish men working on a house in our neighborhood. To top it all off Paige called me yesterday to tell me that a new documentary series on the Amish was airing that night!

 Part of the cast of Amish: Out of Order

The series is called Amish: Out of Order and airs on Tuesdays at 10pm on the National Geographic channel. Featured on the show is Mose Gingerich a 31 year old ex-Amish who was featured years ago on the reality show Amish in the City. Anyone else beside Paige and I remember that? The premise was basically a big brother concept: lets see what happens when we put a bunch of Los Angeles kids with Amish kids in one house. Oh how we loved that show. Wish it were available on demand. I'd love to watch it all again. I just remember how at the end of the show Mose had carved each of the L.A. housemates a toy out of wood! So good- you just can't even write stuff like that! Anyhoo- back to Amish: Out of Order.

 (Mose Gingerich on the right)

The show follows the lives of a few young men and women who decided to leave the Amish and start anew in Columbia, Missouri a town that has become a refuge for ex-Amish. Some are fresh off the farm having left only a few months before and some have been out for years. Mose is the patriarch of the ex-Amish community in Columbia helping to mentor and guide kids as they make their way in a foreign world. The quality of the show, as far as filming, sound and editing is a bit weak but the content is great! Can't wait to see the rest of the episodes. I'm setting my DVR right now!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Oh My Amish!



So. Excited.

Just booked a two hour historical tour of Ohio Amish Country for me and my BFF Paige who is coming to visit this week! I know, whatta buncha nerds huh? For some strange reason we've both always been obsessed with all things Amish.

So since she's coming to Ohio for the very first time we thought we'd go big and take over Amish Country! I've been there a couple times since moving here 3 years ago but have only did some shopping.The tour includes a ride in a buggy. Soooooo exciting! A ride in an Amish buggy, I mean it just doesn't get any more Amish than that!

They actually have tours where you can have dinner with an Amish family in their home and then after dinner you get to hang out and ask questions! Now that would be so amazing! Unfortunately though that tour doesn't start running for a few weeks so we had to settle for the historical tour. Will put up a post of all the amaze balls pics I hope to take and of course a summary of what we learned and our sure to be hilarious and crazy adventures in Amish Country!

**Read the post about our Amish adventure here!**