Royal Treatment

One of my niece's birthday is coming up and she will be turning 5.  I recently got a new sewing machine and wanted to make something pretty for her.  She and her big sister love to wear dresses and since I have two boys I don't have many opportunities to make dresses.  I found a tutorial here to follow easy to understand instructions for a beginner sewer like me.  First I hit the thrift store for fabric.  I found a white sheet, a light blue sheet and a pair of light blue knit pants.  I cut the pants along the seams for the bodice pieces.  The pants also had a tulle material overlay that I used for the center of the bodice.  I used some lace trim I already had in my crafting supplies for the bodice as well. 

Then I cut out the material for the skirt from the white and blue sheets.  I started with the white puffs on either side of the dress.  Then I stitched on the blue skirt and hemmed it up.

A Cinderella dressup ball gown for my princess of a niece!  It doesn't look as nice as the one from the tutorial and it didn't turn out as nice as I had hoped but I am a perfectionist with less than perfect sewing skills.

Coffee House Chats

This week I was doubley blessed to have two "coffee dates"!  Tuesday I met with my friend CH at The Metropolitan Coffee.  It had been a long time since we'd been able to get together to visit.  We talked about what we had been reading and, as per her request, I brought "show and tell".  It was a sample booklet of Seeking Him: Experiencing The Joy of Personal Revival bible study workbook by Nancy Lee Demoss and Tim Grissom.  The sample only has 5 days (one week's worth) of the 12 week study.  It is really good!  My friend CH is studying to be a counselor and she shared some of what she had been reading for her studies.  It really is very interesting and points back to God's plan for each of us and how merciful He is to us.
My second "coffee date" was with my bestie DW at Cool Beans.  We met for brunch after picking up my oldest from cross country practice.  She took an early lunch break and my boys and I met her at the train depot where Cool Beans is located.  I think both of us were pretty tired (this heat wave is zapping the energy right out of us) as we didn't really chat as much as we usually do!  That and we were hungry so we got busy on our food!  We talked about attending the free live music concerts all the coffee houses have (usually on Friday nights) and other fun family things to do before the summer is over.  School will be starting before we know it and we'd rather not spend the rest of the summer on the couch watching tv!  
I am so blessed to have such good sister-friends to get together with, talk about what God is doing in our lives and pray for one another!  Thank you, ladies, for your friendship!

Bestie DW and me at Cool Beans.

Making Memories

Since I blogged about our Mother's Day adventures, I wanted to share about our Father's Day outing as well.  My older sister and I conspired together again to do something special with our Dad.  We made sure he was free on June 20th and I picked him up and met up with sister in a nearby town.  We drove to a shopping center to stop at a Starbucks for coffee drinks, then hit another store for some Krispy Kreme donuts after a little browsing.  Donuts are kind of a special thing between us sisters and our Dad.  We have precious memories of going into town after a trip to the dump with our dad and picking up some donuts to snarf on the way home.  Mom wasn't too keen on us being so sugared up but it didn't happen often and it was great father/daughter time!  So we wanted to indulge in that special time again but our stomaches couldn't handle all that sugar so we stopped at a grocery store for some fruit and yogurt to try to balance it out a bit.  Dad knew of our plans for coffee and donuts, however, the next part of our adventures were a complete surprise for him.  He has always wanted to teach his daughters about gun safety and to take us shooting but most of us just weren't too interested in it.  My older sister and I have recently become a little more interested in learning to shoot a gun and knowing how much it would please our daddy we decided to take him to a shooting range for some target practice.  As we parked, my dad's face bore a huge smile!  This was going to be great!  I also had both my sons with me as well and they were super excited about shooting real guns as opposed to the bb gun, paintball guns or nerf guns they've shot in the past!  We got all paperwork signed, geared up and headed into the range.  Dad did a little review of what to do with each of us as we took turns shooting our targets.  We all did really well!  I think Dad was just as pleased watching each of us shoot as he was in shooting.  He had that proud daddy/grandpa smile the whole time!  As we were turning our gear back in and leaving the store the owner came out to talk with us.  He asked where we were from and how we'd heard about them.  He was very nice and we told him we'd love to have a range even closer to us so hopefully in the near future we'll be able to just go into town here to go shooting as a family!  We had such a good time together with our daddy and even though he didn't walk away with any typical Father's Day gifts, I think it means so much more to have spent that time together and made such great memories as well as strengthened our relationship as father and daughters and grandsons!  Love you, Daddy-o!

Grandpa giving instruction to his grandsons.

Proud Dad with his oldest daughter.

Daddy shooting.

Daddy looking on as I shoot at my target.