A Plethora of Little People Parading

oh, and one gun. Zoe and Ace had friends over yesterday afternoon. For entertainment, we set up my camera on the coffee table and did a quick lesson on stop animation…here are the results:

Little People Making a Little People Movie 1 from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.Zoe and L’s first attempt…

Little People Making a Little People Movie 2 from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.And second, with me directing. Don’t you just love the little hand that appears and disappears…eerie huh??

Little People Making a Little People Movie 3 from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.Ace and J…after about five shots, they were done…oh, the attention span of five year old boys!!

Little People Making a Little People Movie 3 from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.Liam had to get in on it…he chose the gun as his subject. Fitting for him.

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Why I’ve been semi-absent this week

So, my first attempts at real sewing with Zoe’s swimsuit, I got brave and decided to make some more things. I found this website and really got pumped at all the adorable outfits. So, I just had to make one for Zoe and a matching one for Ceili Rain. Then, I found a dress for Zoe that was just a little short for a six year old bouncy girl so I needed to make some pantaloons to go under it. I found that pattern here. And then, going through all of the clothes, I realized Zoe needed some pjs/nightgowns. I also realized that I had a ton of fabric that my mom had found at some place and given to me and that my mother-in-law had persuaded me to keep when I went on a cleaning rampage. So, I bought a nightgown pattern from Simplicity to make one. After announcing all of my ambitious pursuits to Grandmere she set a time to travel.

And here is the fruit of our efforts. She was a great teacher. I’m still not quite sure how we got all this accomplished with five children constantly wanting Grandmere’s attention or needing my disciplining…but we did.

I did not get pictures of the nightgown or pantaloons but I did get some of the dresses! My plan is to make at least two to three more nightgowns/pjs for Zoe for the winter. Then she should be set for a good amount of time.

Getting measured…yep, the consignment clothes are still there. And they still are right now…I’m working on it.


Deuling sewing machines…this was Tuesday night trying to make headway before Grandmere had to leave on Wednesday.

The sewing diva…

and the wannabe!


The skirt to Zoe’s Twirl Dress (Ellie’s Twirl Dress from youcanmakethis.com to be exact). Let me just say that was a lot of material and a lot of gathering. Not sure I’ll do this one again. But it did turn out adorable…scroll down.

Zoe put it on and couldn’t stop spinning…well, she did stop several times because she kept falling, but she did love it. The pattern also came with instructions for a headband which was super easy.

Princess #2 with her twirl dress. She didn’t spin but she looked equally adorable. No headband for her but check out her “kicks.” I found the FREE pattern and directions at TackyLiving.com. And yes, these are just like those expensive leather type shoes. Since Ceili Rain isn’t walking yet, I bypassed the leather sole and went for a cute matching one…that’s the only changes I made. They were amazingly easy!

Ace asked to get a picture with her, and I willingly obliged.
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The Sound of Music

Mark and I have talked a little here and there about Zoe and Ace starting to take piano lessons. We both really feel that Ace might take to piano. So, every once in a while, I would search for pianos here and there in the classifieds and craigslist. Never really finding anything. Until…the day of Ace’s birthday party I spotted an ad. Mark called and the lady wanted $50 for the piano! Too good to be true? Not sure, but we went to look at it and Mark was satisfied with it enough to go ahead and pay for it. We had a day to rearrange and make room for it and then Mark and a neighbor headed out to get it. When they got it back, another friend showed up to help move it in. They called another friend when they realized how heavy it was and when two wheels broke off the back (stop laughing all you musically inclined readers, it was $50 okay…so they have to play an octave lower because some of the keys stick and some others make a “dud” noise). Anyways, the fourth friend never showed up, so three middle aged (yep Mark’s so there now) men hoisted it up the back steps and through the back doors. Here they are in the process:

It was really heavy, or so I was told.

Going into place. I’m hoping to have someone come and look at it in the next couple of weeks to let us know if it’s a keeper with a few adjustments or if it’s beyond hope (or our bank account). After that, we’ll start Zoe and Ace on piano lessons.

We had to move a lot of things around as the piano went where our books were. In the process, we had to get rid of an L-shaped desk. I listed it on craigslist for $50 and guess what?? It sold in two days too. Basically, we got a free piano!

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Announcing, CeiRai’s Blog

Yeah, I know I’m clogging up the blog world with pictures of my precious baby…but come on people! She’s adorable!! Am I right or am I right???

Anyway, last night we pulled down Liam’s baby book and flipped to four months…guess what? Ceili Rain is Liam with a dress on (or not as the case may be in these photos). They look exactly alike minus the blue eyes on Liam and light brown eyes on Ceili Rain (yep brown, but not as dark as Josiah’s eyes).

“Iiiii’mmmm cute!”


Even with…Drool flying out my mouth!

Ceili Rain isn’t all that’s been happening around here. Stay tuned for “How We Do Things: Homeschooling” and some more posts about a new arrival and family and faith…it’s going to be a good week next week!
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Sweet Like Sister

First of all…Don’t deny it…she’s adorable!!!

Secondly, I found this dress while sorting, tossing, and repacking all the kids clothes. It was given to Zoe by a precious family friend. Now, if you know anything about me, I’ll take handmade gifts over anything store bought any day. There’s just something about someone giving you something that they put together with their precious hands that totally makes me get full of warm fuzzies! You know they care and want to show you that…that’s special.

Anyway, this dress was made by our family friend for Zoe as a baby and I absolutely loved it. It’s a beautiful white dress with ever so light pink decorative stitching around it. Now we got another little one wearing it. Ahhh!



And third, after months of obsessing over the photos over here, Mark (the computer guy, also known as my main squeeze), has figured out how I can do it on his operating system (linux) using a photo editing program! Yippee…he’s going to see if it runs on my rusty rickety Windows as well. Anyway, give me your opinion about the “blurs” in the above photographs. I’m still playing around with the program trying to get the right look/design that will work…I guess it’s just going to depend on the photos and what’s going on. Mainly, for these, I was trying to fuzz out the mounds of clothes going to consignment! I think I like the very top one the best.

I love this little heavenly handful in her heartily handmade dress!
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The Fam

I love these guys! I am truly blessed with a beautiful fun family.

These were taken while we were visiting family 4th of July weekend. Carey Jenkins was our photographer and she was great working with eleven children and six adults! Here’s just a glimpse from that day. If you live in her area and are looking for a photographer, giver her a call!!

My dad saw this picture and got his breath caught up! Yep, that’s a lot of kids!!


How adorable is he?!?
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Let’s Face It!


This is the “monkeys” favorite lunch. Ritz crackers with peanut butter (or chicken salad), grapes or cherries, pretzels, peaches and/or apples, raisins, and strawberries. I mix it up from time to time but this was what we had last week. So much fun and usually nothing left on the plate at the end of the meal.

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It’s Snowing!

We made snow last week using Insta-Snow. The kids loved it. It was not my intention for it to cover the kitchen floor, but it happened. I took it away shortly after and put it in the freezer. My intention was for them to use it to make snowmen, however, they took it out side with some friends and made snowballs and had a snowball fight. Oh well.

But before all that, the boys decided to throw it on each others heads.
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