Thomas went Trick or Treating for the first time this year. We went to 6 houses before we saw some kids throwing a football in the street. Thomas thought this was far more interesting and fun than trick or treating so we watched them for a while and then went home. After we got home Thomas helped pass out candy. I think he liked that more than trick or treating too, but he sure was a cute trick or treater.
Thomas and Isaiah both have been having fun playing around the house recently. Although Isaiah recently started crawling he still likes sitting with a box of toys. Thomas likes to be more adventurous and jump on Daddy and play horsey.
Thomas likes to play trucks and to link them together. It might be hard to see in these videos, but he is trying to figure out how to get a small truck to tow a much larger Transformers toy.
When I mentioned to people that I was trying to grow corn in my garden, I was often told that you needed a green house to grow corn in Alaska. Well, I harvested our crop of corn this week and here is what I got.
Adria had the same attitude about growing tomatoes. She had more success with her tomatoes than I had with my corn.
We recently returned from a trip to Oregon. We spent the first week with my parents in Corvallis, then I left to go to Denver for a work trip and Adria and the boys spent the second week with her parents in Portland.
We had a good trip. Here are some pictures from it.
A day in Newport
We had a fun time at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Thomas liked looking at the fish a little bit, but he liked to walk around and scuff his feet on the gravel pathways even more.
Thomas didn't want to try out the touch pool, but Adria, and Grandpa and Grandma liked it.
After lunch we were planning on going to the beach, but the boys fell asleep in the car so we visited the Yaquina Head Lighthouse instead. Grandma and Grandpa stayed in the car while Adria and I climbed to the top. It was interesting to learn about the history of lighthouses.
Here is Thomas playing with a toy shark that the waitress at lunch gave him. I named him "Sharky"
Corvallis
The boys also had fun in and around Corvallis. They had fun at the park:
And they had lots of fun playing the old toys at Grandma's house. Thomas spent a lot of time linking the cars together in a string and pulling them around.
Cannon Beach
One day while Adria and the boys were in Portland, Grandpa and Grandma Davis took them to Cannon Beach. They had a good time, although it took Thomas a little bit to decide that he liked the beach. Isaiah seemed to like it from the start.
Here is a slideshow of all the pictures from our trip:
I took the boys to the state fair this week, to take advantage of the last bit of summer weather. We saw more huge veggies (last week at the u-pick farm we bought a zuccini the size of a watermellon for a little more than a dollar, but I thought of making it into muffins before I thought of taking a picture of it)...
A couple of months ago Adria made Thomas and Isaiah little toddler chairs. A couple of people asked for the secret of how she made it. Below are the directions for the chair:
DIY Kid Chair
For this project you will need 2 yards of 42-46 inch fabric, one package (2 ½ yards) of ½ inch bias piping, 1yard of 1 inch velcro (sew on). All seam allowances are ½ inch or as small as you feel comfortable with.
A- Backrest
B- Chair Back
C- Seat/Sides/armrests/backrest width
D- armrest front
E- armrest front
F- seat front
Click on any of the pictures for a larger view
1. Cut two identical 18”X21” rectangles (18 inches tall, 21 inches wide) with top corners rounded (A, B) and one 18”X51” rectangle (C).
2. Folding A in half (by matching rounded corners), trace a 6”X11” rectangle with top corners rounded, in the bottom right corner. Cut through both thicknesses, creating pieces D and E.
3. Cut 5 inches off bottom of remaining piece A, creating piece F.
4. Fold piece C in half (hamburger). Draw a chalk line (parallel to top edge) 5 inches from top that measures 16 inches from center line. Cut on chalk line from center through both thicknesses.
5. Pin piping to outer rounded edge (right side of fabric) of pieces A, D, E and top edge of F, with round part of piping facing inward and unfinished edges of piping and fabric matching.
6. Machine baste piping to fabric sewing directly on top of the piping stitching (my basting is in green thread shown here on top of the brown piping thread).
7. Right sides together, pin rounded top edge of piece A (the edge with piping) to top edge of slit in piece C (arrow indicates correct edge of slit in piece C), remember, right sides together, with piping in between. Stitch on top of basting (place under needle with wrong side of piece A up so you can see the basting line).
When you are finished with this step your project will look like this (notice the piping is showing between right sides of fabric):
8. Pin lower edge of piece A to lower edge of slit in piece C (arrows indicate corresponding edges). Start on one side of slit and move around lower edge of A pinning as you go. If the fabric edges do not match perfectly, try to distribute the extra fabric evenly so that the slit is completely closed.
9. Stitch. Stitch over piping line at each end of this stitch as follows:
This may create a pucker on the right side of the fabric. Turn this part right side out to make sure there are no holes. If there are, give more seam allowance toward the end to close holes. No one will notice if the pucker is bigger as a result (but they will notice holes). Right side out, your project should look like this:
10. Right sides together, sew pieces D, E and F together as shown, without sewing over piping in piece F.
Shown below is how to sew pieces D and F together right up to the piping at the top of piece F, but not over it. I repeat: leave the piping on piece F free.
11. Pin bottom edge of piece C to top edge of piece DFE (arrows indicate corresponding edges). These two pieces may not be exactly the same length. This happens because of the seam allowances between pieces D, E and F, but makes it a whole lot easier to cut at the beginning. Try to distribute the extra length evenly on both sides (but don’t worry if it is not exactly the same on both sides).
12. Sew piece B to the back (technically, that means the top edge of piece C, 5” above the slit, but looking at your project, it should be obvious what I mean by now), RIGHT SIDES together. Turn right side out.
13. Now you should have something that looks like a bottomless chair. The bottom (unfinished) edge of the chair should be uneven in that the corners don’t all match exactly. Trim the bottom edge so that the corners match. Measure each bottom edge (they should all be pretty close to the same length). Using some extra fabric, make a piece that has the same dimensions as the bottom of the chair (with sides the length of the edges you just measured). This usually means you will have to sew some extra fabric together and then cut the sides to fit. Then, right sides together, sew the new bottom piece to the lower edge of piece DFE (so that when turned right side out, edges of the same length will correspond). The project should now look like this:
See, my bottom piece is actually two scraps sewn together and trimmed.
13. Cut your yard of Velcro (both loop and hook sides) into 2 1/2 inch strips and detach the hook and loop sides from each other.
14. Fold the bottom raw edge of the chair inside about a half inch. Use a zig zag stitch (not too wide) to attach the loop (soft fuzzy) side of the velcro strip over the folded raw edge, so that when finished the Velcro completely covers the raw edge (creating a hem) and faces inside the chair.
15. Sew the hook (scratchy) side of the Velcro to the right side of the bottom flap, around the edges with the same (not too wide) zig zag stitch. (If you are using a fabric that frays easily, overcast the raw edges before sewing the velcro on.)
Now the Velcro edges will attach on the inside of the chair as shown.
16. Now you are ready to stuff your chair. Use boxes first if you want to conserve stuffing, and then whatever else you have around that is soft (i.e. old sweat pants, baby blankets, quilt batting, camping mattresses, etc.)
Or the easiest but most expensive way to stuff is to buy a 6 inch foam mattress pad and cut it into the dimensions of your chair. After stuffing, close the Velcro around the bottom and enjoy!
What is dipnetting? Here is the explanation in 3 easy steps:
Thomas recently turned 2 years old. Here are a bunch of pictures from his 2nd year of life.
