DIY: Elsie's favorite night gown

What do you do when your husband will no longer wear the incredibly soft, but slightly ill-fitting and somewhat immature t-shirts he got years ago from Hollister? 

Turn them into nightgowns for a little lady!

This one is Elsie's favorite:

It started out like this:

I just drew a dress shape on it and cut it out, leaving the neck and top seam uncut.

Put right sides facing each other and sew it together, and voila! Super cute and very soft night gown.

Rawr! I'm a dinosawr!

Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas!

I'm pretty sure Elsie and Fox are Santa's favorite elves.

What fresh (wet) devilry is this???

Everything is so gorgeously new for Fox. 

Bath time is absolutely shocking...

Here he is just going about his day, when suddenly his mom takes off all his clothes and puts him into a little pool of warm water.

Everybody's got something to hide...

...except for me and my monkey!

Masks are fun.

Build Me Up, Buttercup!

Click the video below to see the cutest version of "Build Me Up Buttercup" you've ever seen.

Okay, so they aren't perfectly coordinated, but I'm just proud that she actually danced! 

(Instead of standing completely still or crying, which is what some kids do.)

Elsie's First Recital

Elsie started gymnastics at Gainesville School of Gymnastics when she was two. It was the type of class where the instructor spends a few minutes during the first part of the class showing everyone what they should do, then the moms take over to help the little ones through all the activities (usually while the teacher went back downstairs to talk on the phone or just straighten up the rest of the gym. Honestly it kind of bothered me that nine times out of ten the teacher didn't stay with the class for the mere thirty minutes.) When she turned three she moved up to the class that moms didn't help with, which I thought would be really liberating (for her and me!) but Elsie just wasn't a fan. Three year olds are not exactly masters of patience when it comes to waiting for their turn on the equipment. Since her interest in gymnastics was starting to wane we let her try a dance class...

 and she LOVED it. 

This week she danced in the fall show- her very first time doing anything in public. I was so proud of her! 

My parents brought her flowers and she just absolutely beamed. It was the first time she's gotten flowers!

Faux camping

We really miss camping this time of year, but with a newborn it just isn't going to happen, so we re-create our favorite part of camping by setting up the play tent, building a big fire in the fire-pit, and roasting marshmallows in the back yard. Then we go sleep in our warm comfy beds. I asked Lillie to tell me a scary story. It was epic.

Pumpkin Tea Party Picnic

If this isn't just the most precious tea party picnic in the world I will eat my ugly Australian hat.

Welcoming Fox to the Family

Introducing the newest member of the Ackerclan:

Baby Fox*

7 lbs, 10 ounces

beautiful bouncing baby boy.

Elsie couldn't be more thrilled to be a big sister!

 *Not his real name!

Frozen Movie Night

I've lived in some pretty great places...

 By the ocean in St Marten...

 In a beautiful high rise...

 in New York City...

 and compared to the exploits of some of my compatriots who've continued to travel, my familial endeavors probably seem boring and tame, but then we have movie night out behind the old train depot in Flowery Branch, complete with a picnic of Chick-Fil-A,

 a fire truck,

 cotton candy,

 pre-show kiddie karaoke,

 and of course...

BUUUUBBBBLEEESSS!!!

To all the Dads and Stepdads out there...

Happy Father's Day!

(Sorry for the crappy photo quality- it's just a phone pic of the chalk art I put up this week.)

I know she'll grow out of it, but it's so cute...

Dear Elsie, 

There are a lot of words you can't pronounce properly yet, 

and it is adorable.

 My favorite is your name

(which isn't actually Elsie- shocking, I know; a mom using a pseudonym for her child on the internet?!?)

The reason I kind of love that you can't pronounce your name well is because I love your version of it: 

"Wee girl"

You're three now, and beautiful, and outgoing, and sweet and every time you run up to another kid and introduce yourself with "Hi, I'm Wee Girl" it is so incredibly precious. 

I love you, my wee girl.

Easter 2014

I like to make Elsie something special for every holiday.

It makes it more fun, and getting something Mommy-made makes the day a little more special.

For previous Easters I made her stuffed bunnies, but since we're drowning in stuffed animals (seriously folks, please, in the name of all things cute and squishy, please please stop buying her stuffed animals. She never plays with 90% of them, but it makes me feel like a monster every time I go to rid rid of some.)This year I make her a little bunny purse, and filled it with her favorite candies.

 It was so easy to make I whipped up a bunch for her little cousins. They're just felt and ribbon with very simple painted on faces. I would say it was the star of the Easter basket, but I think we can all agree that that honor went to the giant chocolate Easter bunny.

One of the perks of living back in the same area where I grew up is that Elsie can participate in all the fun holiday traditions that my family has done such an awesome job as maintaining over the years.

 

We've had an annual egg hunt at Concord Baptist church since before I was born, and probably before my mom was born. Shoot, I wouldn't be surprised if my grandma hunted for colored eggs stuck in the big iron church bell when she was a little girl.It makes me so happy to sweet Elsie having as much fun as I did there when I was little.

Ackerboy

Dr A and I just found out that the newest addition to the Ackerclan is going to be a boy!

I eventually told him...

Elsie found some stale candy hearts leftover from valentine's day. 

We read them and counted them and made little heart stacks. 

For some reason she put them all in her shoe for a while, 

then she decorated the sleeping cat with them. 

I picked them up off the dirty floor and left them on the counter so I could throw them away when Elsie wasn't watching. 

Dr A just walked in and ate them all before I could say a word. 

Not sure if I'm being cruel or kind by keeping the tales of their grimy adventures to myself at this point.

Elsie of the mountain

 While we work on her new bedroom there's a mattress in our living room. 

Elsie calls it "The Mountain" and it is pretty much the greatest thing that has ever happened to her. Today's naptime forecast is looking pretty great considering she's spent all morning climbing up, then jumping as high as she can. 

Mattress leaned against the couch = good times, who knew?

Chalk Art Wonderland

It was a beautiful day for a chalk art competition!

My Alice in Wonderland themed entry:

I won the "most popular" prize!

Unfortunately, I forgot my gloves and my hands ended up a raw and dirty mess. 

(When chalk breaks, skin rubs pavement- ouch.)

Elsie's first "real" hair cut!

I pride myself on being a pretty crafty lady, a mender of socks, a repairer of hems, and stitcher of leggings from old t-shirts.

Cutting my daughter's hair has never seemed like a very big deal (I cut my own for years when I was younger and had access to mirrors that allowed me to see the back of my head while I cut.)

 Dr A's mom has a professional stylist that comes to her house and cuts her hair for her, and offered to have Elsie's done professionally for the first time while she was there.

 Expecting her to be fidgity, I gave her a Leapfrog tablet to play with to distract her, and sure enough, she barely noticed anything was happening at all. 

The stylist said she'd never had such an easy time cutting a toddler's hair.

Duck Dynasty Chalk Art

I don't watch the show, so I had to do a little googling before putting up this chalk art. 

It's kind of fun getting requests sometimes instead of just doing what I feel like, because it's like a challenge. 

I'm not great at faces, either, so this was a double challenge.

Elsie The Cowgirl

Sometimes a girl just wants to get on her cow and bounce away.

Unfortunately, this girl hasn't figured out how to bounce away on her cow without ending up on her face.

This toy gets a 

10 for cuteness

7 for fun

3 for safety

11 for how funny it is when she gets mad at her cow after she's flipped bum over tea kettle (without being seriously hurt, of course).