My little Princess!!!

Well its Friday!!!  I did it!! I can't believe I did it but I put something together in 3 days and she loves it and that is all that matters to me.  She makes my heart melt some days!!  I am learning a lot from her innocence.  Honestly it makes me wonder where along our growing process that we stop learning to be so thankful, so happy with what we have, and just all around grateful.  Before I post pics I will say this, She looks precious and beautiful.  However, I am not really sure it looks like a princess dress it looks more like just a dress.  Without proper tools, lack of experience, and such a time crunch I am very happy with it and she is only 2.  She loves it and was so excited to wear it today and that is all that really matters.  Enough words here are the pics, see for yourself!!!

Trying to make mommy happy and wearing this big over sized ridiculous princess hat.

  

Just in case I made another little crown at 1 am last night. 

Looking cute and admiring myself in the mirror.

Maybe this thing isn't so bad after all!!

Back to admiring myself!

I am tired but it was so worth it!!!  We will just have to wait and see if the dress falls apart or stays together.  Happy Friday !!!!

Lesson Learned and Time challange

Well we all know that I am the most organized person there is.  As you should know I am just joking of course!!  Any way, weeks ago Ivy's school had a note for the parents and it had cute little princess and knights on it.  I assumed it was some party and decided I would translate it when I got home.  Well, with our trip to Croatia coming up in a few days, I put it on the table planning on translating it that evening. I am sure you know where this is going to go.  So we went on our trip and got back on the Monday before Ivy's birthday.  Well, it sat on the table until that Friday where I decided to clean off the table and put items in my room. Well there is sat and sat.

 Fast forward to this Monday. A lady of one of the boys at daycare was nice to offer me a ride as she saw me lugging this huge trash can that I had to return for the school.  On the way there I decided to ask her what RosenMontag was.  I don't think I ever got the real explanation, just information on where the best parades are and that this Friday is Fastnacht.  This is where people celebrate and dress up in costumes etc.  She proceeded to say like at the Krippe ( what they call the day care). "You know this Thursday and Friday ( Friday is the only day Ivy will celebrate as she doesn't go on Thursday) they are having a princess and knight theme and the kids have to dress up in costumes!! " At this point my draw was dropping and my face was red in embarrassment for not being more organized with my daughters school life.

Well, I got home that night and the first thing I did was translate that darn piece of paper I had for several weeks.  Google didn't like a lot of the words but what I got from the translation was that there are no limits but you had to make the costume.  Its MONDAY night and I have to have a princess costume made for Ivy for Friday morning!?!?!?!?

Well that was my lesson learned.  You guessed it my time challenge is a costume in 3 days!!!! Plus I still had to buy the supplies.  OH boy what fun.  I feel like I am on special olympics project runway or something.

Any way, I sat in bed that night coming up with a vision.  We shall see how it turns out.  Any way, So Yesterday Ivy and I went to town and I bought some supplies.

I bought a pack of long sleeve onsies, two things of pretty shiny fabric, some lace, ribbon, and other colorful lacy things in the picture. To make it even more fun I left all my sewing supplies in Colorado. You guessed it I am hand sewing this bad boy myself.  Exciting!! Never hand sewn a thing in my life and never have ever sewn a piece of clothing or a dress at that !!!  This is going to be great!!  To make it even better I have no cutting supplies but scissors (bought extra fabric so I could folder over my bad cuts).  I started off with breaking the first 2 rules of sewing I did not pre-wash nor do I own an Iron.  We don't have a dryer and it takes 2-3 hours per load no time for that so I had to cut corners.

Last night before Ivy went to bed this is what I had done so far.  

It looks ok. Its just the bottom I am making ruffles to sew on top.   I got all but 1 ruffle hand made.  So I was in decent shape, in my opinion. I tried it on Ivy, its a good length and everything. Here is the clincher, I left a slit in it so Ivy could move.  She loves it so far and is so excited mommy is making her a dress.  The problem is the material is not flexible and when I put the ruffles on I am afraid it will be too tight, or the split will not open and she will not be able to sit, or it will just snap and she will get upset.  So as I lay in bed last night I did some more thinking.  IT makes it hard be she loves it as is. .  

So as if I didn't need more of a time crunch I went to the Euro store ( dollar store) and found a stretchy workout halter top.  It was really cheaply made but in my opinion it is flexible and comfortable and it was a 1€.  I was sold.  I came home ate lunch did some measurements and cut the strap and about an inch off the top to get the same length as the one here in the picture.  I kept the one I already started as with the lack of time I didn't want to spend the time ripping out the stitches.  Since I had 2 more why not start a new one and let Ivy decorate this one with sparkles on a rainy day and she can have a play outfit for around the house.  The split goes way up high so she is not wearing it out.  

Here is what I accomplished today 

The white is so plain and the other looks so much prettier, but this one actually looks better and will look much more colorful when finished.  I will give you a sneak peak at it pinned with one ruffle!!!

Ok, enough posting this mamma has her work cut out for her and its 8pm Wed night.    Does she finish it in time?? Does it fall apart?? Does it even look decent enough for her daughter to wear out the door??? Dant dant da!!!!!  Stay Tuned!!!!!

I am back and starting off with Ivy's 2nd Birthday

Sorry I have been slacking on my blog.  One of my New Years Resolutions was to keep up with my blog and well I am off to an awful start. I have been learning how to better organize my time and schedule ( another resolution) so hopefully I can do more things like blog, knit, and read.  I apologize for the long delay but I promise I will do a better job.  Being  a stay at home mom is harder then one thinks. Yes, I hear it from a lot of people how hard can it be when Ivy goes to day care 3 days a week.  Think what you want, its only 6 hours a day, 3 days a week.  I don't have a car, and I am in a foreign city and doing my best and I am happy with how things are going and that is all that counts.
Enough excuses, lets get to the good stuff.  So as you all know Ivy turned 2 on February 13th.  I can't believe my little peanut is 2 already!!!  Where did the time go??  She had , well a 3 day celebration.  I tried to make her day special, but all it did was pour here as it does in the winters in Germany. We made the best of it and she had fun but we got soaked!!  Her and I spent the day in town doing some of what she loves.  If it were not raining we were to go to her favorite park.  Instead, we went to town and watched the fishes in the underground part of the market. She enjoyed a pretzel and had fun shopping with me.  Before getting on the bus we stopped and got a balloon for her.  Balloons are her favorite.  Then after her nap we painted and played until Kevin got home.  We had what I would call an Ivy hodgepodge dinner.  A hodgepodge of  all her favorite foods and we finished it off with chocolate  ( no cake since she was getting cake Friday and Saturday).  Then we opened gifts and played and let her stay up late.  I baked a cake for school.  Friday they had a little party for her.  Her tagesmutter made her a crown.  They sang songs, she blew out a candle , and they ate cake.  I got to see some pictures from it and she looked so happy and like she had so much fun.  Then on Saturday we had a little party at our house for her.  I have read that parties are not for the kids at 2 years old they are for the parents and family members.  I wanted to do something special for her and I wanted her to have a good time.  She loves being around other children and I knew that more then anything that is what would make her happy.  So Kevin and I decided we would brave it out and invite 5 children to our apartment.  We had a good turn out and had 4 out of 5.  We warned the other tenants of the building prior and I may be wrong but I think we were the only ones in the building that day.  There are only 3 other apartments but I think we scared everyone off for the day.  Any way, I didn't do the typical American theme party, or a structured party.  After all, it was a 2 yr old birthday.  I invited what I would call her best friend from school. Her name is Laya.  I hope to get some pictures from her mom and share them with you at a later date if possible.  Kevin and I were so busy we could only get a few pictures.  Any way, I let the kids have free play until 3 (party was 2-5).  I played kinder musik in the background.  At 3 we ate snacks. We did family style since they all ate at Ivy's little table. I had a plate of veggies and cheese, and a plate of fruit and butter crackers. Oddly, the veggies went first , then the cheese and crackers and only a little bit a fruit.  Smart kids!!!  Here are some pics of them sitting around the table eating!!! Ivy decided to wear her crown while she ate.

The little girl sitting next to Ivy is Laya.  They are just the cutest .  Her mother (Jen) and I are planning on getting together one afternoon with the girls and get coffee. Jen is going to show me some real German culture and I am very excited about this.  After snack , They had a few minutes of free time while everyone finished up eating. Then I decided to do a simple game with them to keep them busy.  The first game we did was dancing ( Tanzan) all the kids loved this and had a blast.  I would put on music and when I stopped it they were to freeze.  The kids who stopped and froze got stickers.  They all really enjoyed it and even the parents got in on the dancing.  Here are a few pics from that.  

Then we played one other final game.  I made some fish out of construction paper and put paperclips on the end of them.  I took a wooden dowel rod and attached a butterfly magnet we had to it.  They had to catch a fish. The fish had a number on it.  That number matched a prize.  They fished until they caught one and then their turn was over.  Everyone of course got a prize. They all really enjoyed it.  

Here is a picture of my little cutie taking a break from all the fun to get some water and some fruit!!

Sadly, Kevin and I were so busy during the cake time that we didn't get a picture of the cake ( I made it all from scratch even decorated it myself).  We also missed pics of her blowing out the candle as she went so fast she didn't give Kevin a chance.  Laya's mom says she has 2 ok pics from her phone and she would email them.  Assuming I get any videos/pics from her I will eventually post them.  Ok, well its late and I need to get to bed. I have decided one of the reasons I got so behind on posting was I wanted to keep you all up to date.  That was impossible when I just didn't post as much.  So if I get behind I will just move forward from that point instead of going backwards with things.  I think that will be easier. Since I started off with Ivy's birthday and I don't have anything at this point to share.  I will go back and post about Strasbourg next.  Before Ivy turned 2 we took a last minute trip to Split, Croatia.  I will post about that also.  I will try to get these two posts out in the next few days.  I hope you enjoyed this and I will do my best to stay on top of things this time.