Apron-a-palooza

For Mother's Day, I made sure I got this book (meaning, I drove around to three bookstores until I found it). I warn you now, even if you've never worn an apron, this book will make you want them. I say "them" instead of "one" because you'll want an apron for baking sweets, an apron for washing the dog, an apron for working in the garden, an apron for ordering take-out...you get the picture. Each apron is so cute, and the kicker is, there are pattern templates in the back of the book, so you can just make yourself as many as you can stand! (Be warned, though, my local Staples would not copy the templates on their big copier [something about "copyright law" and "lawsuits"--even though you're given permission to copy for personal use in the front of the book] and I had to copy mine on a regular copier and it ended up costing more than the book itself to get two patterns copied...

Anyway, I had signed up to participate in two apron swaps, so I got down to work over the weekend, and here are the results:

I learned that nothing will dull a needle quicker than sewing through four layers of binding, but I had fun. Now, since I know I'll be receiving two aprons in early-to-mid-June, I just have to restrain myself from making any more aprons until then...

Bobby's last day of preschool is today. I feel like that year just flew by! And the girls are down to their last three weeks or so. Their field day is next week, then there's other excitement like dance recital, a birthday, move-up day, and a visit from Grandma all coming up!

I'm still working on our summer plans. I think we're going to join the pool after all, so that will give us an outdoor activity--the pool is going to have later hours on Wednesdays and they'll allow floats in the big pool on Friday nights, so that should be fun for the whole family. I've also started reading Thimble Summer to the crew (thank you, Meredith) to set the stage...I'm also planning on reading The Long Winter (I thought it would be perfect right around mid-August) and then starting the first Harry Potter (at least with Caroline) toward the end of summer (I'm having a "back to Hogwarts" theme for the last week of summer vacay--I know, I'm a nerd). I think three novels is pretty ambitious for this crew. They did manage to sit through Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web over the winter, so I think they can handle it. I learned that they just love Shel Silverstein, so if I throw in a couple of silly poems, too, they'll sit for reading time pretty well.

We are also going to separate the girls this summer. Caroline has been asking for her own room, so we're going to be rearranging furniture after my mom leaves. We'll be losing our guest room (so Caroline will be getting the boot when we have guests), but at least we'll be able to have all the closets back (currently we have dressers in two of the closets). Caitlin is not excited about this change, so it could be interesting...and of course, I'll need to make a quilt for Caroline's new bigger bed.