Category: triplets

2019 in review

This year sure went fast!

I read about 100 books. (I didn’t keep track, but I think it’s safe to say 100.)
I sewed a million things. (Who knows? I also didn’t keep track.)
I went on 3 trips. (Serbia, Virginia/NY, Orlando)
I worked out at Orangetheory 85 times.
I wrote 46 blog posts (shameful!)

In 2020, I hope to read just as many books, and I probably won’t keep track of them. I’ll keep sewing, and hopefully I’ll get better about keeping track of my makes. I’m definitely going to travel more (Lisbon this month, Vienna in the spring, hopefully the UK in the summer, and Orlando again in the fall – all but one are work trips.) I have a goal of averaging 3 OTF workouts a week, but let’s say 150 workouts throughout the year. And since I’ve started another 366 project, my blog post count should definitely go up!

2019 in photos

January:

Was on sabbatical! Turned 44! Kristina came to visit!

Ferry mimosas
After lunch

February:

Still on sabbatical!

Rompers for my cousin’s sons
Mario shirt for Miles
Purple masks – $22

March:

Mardi Gras! Bought a new car! Sabbatical ended, went back to work.

Marching in Alla
Me as Frida
Shiny!

April:

Went to Serbia for work! Took the boys to Natchitoches!

Inside the High School Building

May:

Ran a 5K with the boys, sewed things, soccer ended (for the spring), went on a field trip.

June:

I made a bunch of shirts for Isa’s quinceanera! Soccer again!

July:

Road trip to Virginia and New York!

Linus cheering for his team

August:

The boys started middle school! Uncle Evan and Ellie came to visit! I sewed a dress for a friend!

September:

Went to Orlando for the Grand Meetup!

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October:

Hmm. Soccer? Yeah. Also I sewed stuff like Halloween costumes.

November:

Aunt Jenny and Uncle Rob and Emily and Andrew came for Thanksgiving! The boys started school soccer! I sewed a cool jacket!

December:

The boys turned 12! Christmas! We closed out the year with a bathroom flood!

Miles in his PSG PJs
I’m quite proud of how I wrapped the soccer balls
Yuck.

Christmas 2019

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Man, Christmas came fast this year, didn’t it? Stupid late Thanksgiving. In spite of the lack of time, it was still a wonderful day. So far (I mean, only 3 weeks in), the age of 12 is wonderful – there was no whining or complaining or anything this year. Well, very little.

As usual, I took all three boys out shopping by themselves for their brothers. First was Miles. He picked out gloves for Linus and pants for Oliver from H&M. And a shirt for himself that I told him to forget we were buying. After we shopped, we had sushi for lunch.

Linus was up next, and we headed to Baton Rouge for our shopping. I was meeting up with two dear friends (I don’t want to say old since they’re my age, but Kristie and I have been friends since we were 12, and Ann and I were freshman roommates in college.) So good to see them! Again, sushi for lunch. And later, Five Guys for dinner.

Kristie, me, Ann in 2019
Me, Kristie, Ann in 1996 or so

Linus got Miles gloves (cute) and Oliver a charger and cable for his iPod. He also helped me pick out an outfit for Miles from me and George. (Miles only asked for shoes and clothes for Christmas.)

Finally on Monday, Oliver and I headed out. We got all of our shopping done at Marshall’s and TJ Maxx, which are now Oliver’s favorite stores. He got Linus an Adidas backpack and Miles a Saints shirt. We did not have sushi, thank goodness. We went to Five Guys instead.

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Also Starbucks.

On Tuesday I had sewing to do – I had bought team fabric for each of the boys’ favorite soccer teams, and I needed to finish them up, but I couldn’t do it while they were home, so I had George take them out for a bit. Later we had steak for dinner and we watched Klaus (good!) and read The Night Before Christmas before I tucked the boys in.

Reading The Night before Christmas in 2019
and in 2008

Christmas morning was gray but the boys were pretty happy with their presents. Linus was thrilled with his Saints jersey (I was pretty excited because I bought it before he put it on his list) and they loved their gifts from each other and Kiki and Santa. It was a good morning. We had eggnog French toast and bacon and I had mimosas for breakfast.

Oh, and I got excellent presents, which is of course the most important things. Two pairs of earrings I wanted and a gift certificate to a local glass studio where I’ll get to make something! So fun! I’ve always wanted to do that. And the boys picked out a glass penguin from the studio as well. I haven’t named him yet. Hmm.

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Also fabric and tea and the softest scarf from Nepal (where Kiki and Mike went in the fall.)

More pics of presents and whatnot:

Earrings and scarf
Nepalese fabric!
Kiki sent these to the boys. They cannot wear them to school.
Miles in his PSG PJs
I’m quite proud of how I wrapped the soccer balls
Linus representing his two favorite teams – the Saints and Real Madrid

We went to the pub for Christmas lunch, and then came home and chilled for the rest of the day. All in all, a lovely Christmas (even though of course it will never compare to 2016.)

Twelve years old

Happy birthday to my baby boys!

One dozen years. A gross of monthly pictures. Number one hundred and forty-four. I guess we can stop now.

(HA HA HA YEAH RIGHT THEY WISH.)

On Thanksgiving, I made them let me take close up pictures of their faces because I love their eyes. Of course they all had to smirk.

Those freckles kill me. ❤

Anyway, they opened presents this morning, but this evening we have to go back to school because they have to present some living history stuff. They’re decidedly not thrilled about that, but we’ll have steak for dinner after, which should make up for some of it.

Twelve years old. Can you even believe it?

And in case you want to see how much they’ve grown…

Recent goings-on

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted so I’d better get back to it! I was looking at my blog stats earlier today and I’ve only posted 42 times this year, which is waaaay fewer than any other year since my stats begin. Eek! So let’s see.

The boys had their first school soccer game. They won! They were put on the 7/8 grade team, even though they’re only in 6th grade. I like to think it’s because they’re just that good, but it’s probably mostly because they’re among the older kids in their class. In any case, I’m very proud.

There’s also been some sickness. Miles and Linus have both had a day home with me. Oliver was not happy.

Oops. I started this a week ago so I’d better finish. But at least now I can add some Thanksgiving pics!

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The wild grownups spent time watching recorded episodes of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. (Always watch Jeopardy first and then WoF so you can claw back a modicum of dignity.)

My sister and I went to Orangetheory on Thanksgiving morning.

 

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Sweaty sisters

The boys didn’t touch any of the three soccer balls they brought with us, instead playing football with Uncle Rob and their cousins.

After dinner on Thursday, we had a little early birthday celebration for the boys.

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And of course the money they got was immediately burning holes in their pockets, so we hit up Best Buy that night. Wasn’t too crazy, thank goodness.

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The long-coveted Xbox.

Grandee with most of her grandkids:

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So now it’s two days before the boys turn 12, so I need to go weep in a corner.

11 + 11

Some sweet smiles this time around, for #143.

Eleven years, eleven months. Twelve is only a month away, which sounds so old. But not as bad as a year from now when I’ll be sobbing about how I almost have teenagers. But I still have some time. Whew.

So much sewing

In spite of my lack of blogging, I’ve actually been sewing a lot lately. In between sewing costumes, I made Linus a Go To Jacket with a hood, but without a chin guard (it was too fiddly when I made Miles’s, so I decided it would be okay to go without. And it was.) He loves it, even though it’s inexplicably too big. I think because the fabric I got (a 97/3 cotton/lycra blend) was a lot stretchier. Miles’s was made of ponte and lined with a knit, so it definitely didn’t stretch as much. But I’m sure it’ll shrink and/or he will grow into it. 😀

Oh. And I have no idea where I went wrong with the pockets. This version had inseam pockets, but as far as I could tell, there was only one pocket piece, but I couldn’t find instructions on how to close the top. So I top stitched it to the front piece, which looks weird and I may re-do later. 🤔

Oh and I messed up one of the front pattern pieces but didn’t have enough fabric to cut it again so I re-cut the messed up bottom half, and then cut the other side in the same place to make it look “blocked” and on purpose instead of an accident.

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Anyway, it’s super cozy and he’s happy so win!

The other fun sewing project was making a dress out of the sequined fabric I bought a year and a half ago. This fabric is so dreamy that I couldn’t bear to cut into it. And also I was terrified of sewing with sequins. And also I wanted a pattern that would have relatively few seams and nothing fiddly. At first I was going to make a skirt but the thought of putting a zipper in made me back off. Then I remembered the pattern I’d bought for me and Kiki’s Arsenal dresses this summer – the 100 Acts of Sewing Dress #1. It’s basically a shapeless trapeze tank dress but only one pattern piece so perfect! Who’d be looking at me with that fabric anyway?

I decided to line it with pale pink satin, and basically I just made the dress twice. I attached the lining at the neck, where I used bias tape to finish the seams. And I finished the arm holes of the sequined dress with bias tape (but the satin dress was just serged in matching thread.)

It was a bit big, (obviously this was before I made my Ellis skirt) but it worked well enough. I don’t have any great pictures, but I got a lot of compliments on it and it was comfortable and easy.

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Pre-event, when I was still wearing heels
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Oh look, there I am. Looks like I should have paid more attention to the side seam. Oops.

So what’s coming up?

Well, I need to make my own Halloween costume, but it should be fairly easy. And I’d like to make another Blackwood Cardigan, and another York Pinafore, and maybe some joggers, and this jacket looks intriguing but I haven’t had a ton of luck with Seamwork patterns. I really want to make the Tillery skirt out of denim, maybe? Or corduroy? Possibly the canvas I got at IKEA? But then I saw the new skirt pattern from Grainline yesterday and I’m a bit starry eyed over that. But maybe I’ll save that for the spring. Maybe they’ll finally expand the sizing on the Farrow dress that I’ve been dying over. And I’ll reward them by purchasing two patterns.

Oh shoot! And I just forgot I got the new Tobin Sweater pattern from Cashmerette, and they threw in the Appleton for free! That said, I’m not really into the idea of a wrap dress for myself, but I might try making it as a top instead. So yeah, I’m gonna be busy. 😀

(Speaking of Cashmerette, the most exciting thing happened this morning – I opened an email newsletter AND THERE WAS MY BUTT! Normally, I wouldn’t be excited about seeing my butt anywhere, but I was very honored that the designer chose to feature my version of her skirt! YAY!)

I’ll finish off this post with a photo of my (very tiny) closet. I took everything out of it that I didn’t make. So yeah, this is all me-made. (Not all of it, either, by a long shot!)

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Making Halloween costumes

I’ve told this story before, but I started sewing right after Mardi Gras last year. Right after I spent a day frantically buying random things and hot glueing and doing anything I could to avoid a needle and thread for our Mardi Gras costumes. All things considered, they turned out pretty well. But then within a week I fell headlong into this sewing obsession, and I had to wait until Halloween to get an opportunity to finally make costumes for the boys that didn’t involve tying fleece together or safety pins.

But they just wanted to be soccer players, and as you might imagine, we have plenty of soccer uniforms floating around. No sewing required. And then Mardi Gras came around again and they could not be convinced to go in costume (tweens, amirite?)

Now they are nearly 12 and my chance to lovingly craft costumes for them is probably nearing the end, so I hounded them endlessly for ideas that I could make. Inexplicably, Miles came up with a penguin, and Linus decided he wanted to be the Easter bunny. I mean, of course.

We had an event yesterday (Sunday) and these decisions came on Friday, so I didn’t have long. I could have made Oliver’s costume as well, but I was not unhappy to see that we could buy it at Target. So we did:

Hilarious, right?!?!?

So back to Miles and Linus. We went to Joann and bought a bunch of black, white, and pink fleece. I’d make Miles a tunic he could wear with black leggings, but I’d need to make Linus pants as well.

Since a penguin needs flippers, I didn’t want to just use a standard shirt pattern, so I thought the dolman sleeves of the Pumpkin Spice Dolman from Patterns for Pirates would work well. I printed out the smallest size and got to work.

Boy, it sure is easy to sew when you don’t have to worry about finishing seams!

Miles also needed a hood for his penguin head, so I used the pattern pieces from the Go To Jacket I am working on for Linus, and just used a pajama pants pattern for the bottoms. (I would have used the P4P pattern for this as well, but I had a Simplicity pattern for kids’ pajamas that was just as easy.)

Then I cut out a white chest piece and sewed a red bowtie (guess where that pattern came from?), stuck that on, cut eyes and a beak from felt and voila! We had a penguin!

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Next up, the Easter Bunny!

This bunny got a pink belly and we made him a Halloween-themed bow tie. Because the Easter Bunny respects holidays that aren’t his own. He didn’t need a hood since we’d purchased ears. I used eyeliner to paint on whiskers and we dug out Linus’s Easter bucket and filled it with eggs. I also found some gloves that belonged to a Mario costume from a few years back. Too bad one was lost at the mall. Oh well. But still, the cutest Easter Bunny ever (promise he and the penguin weren’t as grumpy as they look here.)

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Since Halloween isn’t for another couple of weeks, I have some time to adjust and finish their costumes. Miles needs shoe covers for penguin feet, and he wants the belly to go down further. We need to attach a tail for Linus, and maybe figure out how to secure the ears onto his head better. And of course I need to make my costume (no spoilers.)

Month 142

I am amused when I look at this month’s picture next to last month’s. Finally some consistency from month to month!

Except this time Linus is a blond, and a few differences in jacket situations. But still. As close as we can get.

I want to include Ziggy in this month’s post because he’s so darn cute. He probably warrants his own post because look at that face. Those ears!

I think he was looking at a squirrel. I mean of course.

Things that are good

Okay so I started this a while ago, but I still want to post it. Better late than never!

New (old) alarm clocks.

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Sesame noodles (and drooling over the recipes on my New Orleans Mom teammate Shannon’s blog.) Also these Pork Dragon Noodles, which since I started this post a month ago, I’ve made a few times.)

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Buying a cheap phone for the 11 year olds.

Because 11 year olds now want to wander the neighborhood with their friends.

Fun: stalking the 11 year olds on their first neighborhood wander. (Shh.)

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Even better: getting pics from friends in the neighborhood of my kids on their walks. (It takes a village.)

Seeing my niece AND getting to eat an amazing lamb wrap for lunch. (Hair dye would be a good thing, too.)

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Sewing and 40th birthdays and good friends. (Gonna have to post more on that dress later.)

Dogs in sunglasses:

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Smiles with teeth:

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Friends who drop off a bag full of sewing goodies from an estate sale (not shown: a zillion packs of bias tape, dozens of zippers, elastic, etc etc etc:

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And getting to see 800+ of your closest coworkers. But that’s for another post. 🙂

 

11 years, 9 months

My hearts. 11 and three quarters. Almost 12. Stop, time!

PS They’re loving liking middle school. How cute is Miles in his PE uniform? (He has it first period.)

Bench picture #5

When Uncle Evan and Ellie are in town, I take a picture of them on a certain bench in the LSU quad. This is number 5.

2012:

April 2015:

2017:

2018:

And today!

It’s always Linus, Ellie, Evan, Oliver, and Miles.

First day of middle school!

Middle school. I sure hope it’s kinder to them than it was to me.

I promise, they’re happier than the smiles (or lack thereof) would indicate. Especially Miles. That’s his “smile.”

They enjoyed looking at all of their past first day of school pictures, so I had them re-do this one from 8 (eight!!!) years ago.

They’ve changed a little.

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Sigh.

For now, our bus stop is literally a block and a half away, which is amazing. But we will probably move to one a bit further away so they won’t have to be on the bus for two hours (!) every afternoon. I’ll enjoy this little walk until then.

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Getting on the bus!

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Sewing tangent: I made Miles’s jacket and Oliver’s leggings. The jacket was a real labor of love, it’s the Go To jacket by Patterns for Pirates. I’ll post more about it later.

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There’s that smile again!