Eli Turns 2!

I have a 2 year old! Yikes, when did that happen! To celebrate, we did a BBQ in the park with family and our friends to Hornibrooks. The park had a water feature that the kids could play in after dinner as well, so it made for a really fun evening. We were exhausted from camping the night before (yes, that post about our first camping trip...) and so I was ready to crash when the party ended, but it was an awesome time with family. Eli wasn't too excited about his presents (except his new bike) because he was tired and overwhelmed. But he loved the water at the end!

 This boy takes after his Grandma McKee. He ate 4 pieces of Watermelon, and wanted more.

New Bike!

 Happy Birthday Baby Boy! I love you more each day!

First Camping Trip

In keeping with wanting to do fun things close by home, we went camping as a family for the first time. It was quite an adventure. But we had a blast. We went to Champoeg State Park and used our tent (for the first time). While we didn't get much sleep because of Eli, we did enjoy it and plan to go again. Here are just some pictures of the night.

 Roasting his first marshmallow.

 First S'more

 Our little non-sleeper. When we finally went in to bed, he decided it was play time for a few hours. Boy, were we exhausted!

And playing some disc golf the next morning.

A Day at Astoria

David had some time off of school, call it a mid-Summer break, at the end of June/first week of July. It was glorious to have him to ourselves for 2 weeks, even if having him home totally messed up mine and Eli's schedule/routine :). We wanted to do some fun things closer to home, so one day we headed out to Astoria, OR! I'll give a run down of our day via pictures, and try not to overload you.

We arrived just in time for lunch, and stopped at the Bowpicker "restaurant". Fish and Chips place that is only open when they want to be/weather is good. Literally their sign said: Open from 11-ish to 6-ish, weather providing.

 And while Mommy waited in line, Daddy and Eli played with rocks. We arrived just in time because the line can get to be 2 hours long and is quickly grew after we arrived. Whew!

Next Up, the Astor Tower. Quite the climb up, threw a few airplanes off the top, and what a view!

 And you can't go Astoria, without at least looking at the house from the Goonies. So here's proof we did.

{We were having trouble with our camera, so some pics came out blurry}

Then we headed to play in the water. We ended up playing on the river much longer than we expected, and all for sunburned for it. Oh well!

Eli wasn't too keen on the water at first, but eventually he enjoyed it. 

 So bugged this is blurry!

 

Then a quick stop at the beach to see a famous shipwreck:

Time to get food. We went to this yummy family pizza place in Seaside, and let Eli play in the boat in their outside seating area. Notice his cheesy grin.

It was a fantastic day! So glad we finally made it to Astoria!

Finished Quiet Book!

Yay! It is done, and has been for a few weeks. But now I can share the completed project. Obviously, my previous post showed all the pages that I did, but this post will show the completed book, with my friend Jessica's pages. If you want to see more about her pages go here. I will also share where I got my ideas/patterns. So...enjoy!

Front Cover. I took some old jeans and cut the legs to make my cover. Harder to do than I thought since the jeans were flare leg, had stretch, and were well loved/stretched out. It took some convincing to get the denim as straight at possible. But hey, it was free!

Alphabet page. I used the back pockets of the jeans I cut up to hold the letters. The letters are just flocked, iron-on letters from Jo-Ann.

 Jessie did the Shapes/Weaving page. I got my idea for the Caterpillar from this website: http://aprongirls.blogspot.com/2010/08/quiet-book.html

 Jessie did this cute Road page.

Here you can see the other 2 puzzles I created for Eli. A tooth (in honor of David), and the fish page below.

Pattern for Fish Puzzle page: http://thestillers.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-make-quiet-book-puzzle-page.html

 Dress the boy I just found a clip art I liked for the shape of the boy, then traced around it to make my patterns for clothes.
Tent page I made my own pattern.

Jessie did the barn and sock matching pages

Jessie also did these seasons pages.

Jessie did the clock page. I created my own pattern for the mail page.

I made up the 5 little ducks page

I got my pattern for the shoe page here:   http://leafytreetopspot.blogspot.com/2010/05/quiet-book-page-lacing-shoe.html

The animal train page was a mixture of my own creativity, and some help from this circus train page found here: 

http://www.imagineourlife.com/2011/09/27/circus-train-quiet-book-page/

And Jessie did the Mr. Potato Head page.

All in all, I'm happy with the way the book came out. And I am sooooo glad that it is done! After I finished it, I went about cleaning my sewing room so that I can move on to other projects!