Adventures with TrumpetFamily
[all photos are over here in their own post!]
Yesterday, i spent the day with the TrumpetFamily.
no, wait. last week, ericainohio got a wild hair about sewing a bag for her daughter to carry her dance stuff to class...
no, it actually goes back a little further! last xmas, E got a sewing machine. she'd asked me for help using it, and sewing from patterns. She HAS sewn before, it's just been a couple *cough* decades.
we've tried a few times to sew, but we always get sidetracked with other stuff. :)
then G2 got signed up for dance/tumbling. and Mommy wanted her to have a cute little bag to tote her ballet shoes and sparkly skirts to and from class. we talked, we chatted, we text-messaged for a week solid. i guided her through pattern selection, and deciphering the code on the back. she went unaccompanied to the fabric store, and came out with (most of) the necessary components. (hard to buy "fusible polyester fleece" when you don't know WTF they mean. even i was thrown by that one). i talked her through opening the pattern envelope, identifying the pieces, and getting ready to sew. i talked her down when she washed her fabric and it came out all ratty-edged and wrinkly. i convinced her that using an iron would NOT compromise her standing and integrity as the anti-SAHM.
i arrived on Saturday in time for pre-lunch sewing. i was surprised that the kids weren't climbing all over me like they usually do. maybe they're getting bored by my visits? probably not ... E said they started looking at the window for me at 7 freaking AM!!! kids, i was even AWAKE at 7am!!! :)
The kidlets stayed in the living room with their movie, and when it ended, they quietly disappeared upstairs to play. i think maybe they knew that their mommy and i needed them to leave us alone? it was a pleasant surprise, although mildly worrysome to me, since they're usually tripping over themselves to get my undivided attention. but they were being their usual angelic selves, so i decided not to question it.
E had managed to identify the pattern pieces, cut them out, and even do one of the steps of the pattern before i got there. she presented me with her strip of stitched-together funky-patternd squares, nervously she waited for my approval. she did great. yes, really!
Next order of business was to lay out and cut the pattern pieces from the fabric. i tried to give pointers on how to best use the fabric so as not to have a ton of waste (although sometimes you just can't avoid that). she was confused by the directions, which assumed that you were using fat quarters, not yardage. i helped her pin, and directed her on cutting and marking the pieces. There were no Major Screw-Ups, although we had plenty of material on had had there been. Hooray!!!
approaching 1pm, we had to break for lunch. i cleared off the table and did other sous chef duties while E got to cooking. She's always amazed that we can work in the kitchen together without running each other over, but with effectively getting everything prepared. i think it's a woman-thing, or at least a cook-thing. we're able to anticipate the other's needs, and think ahead and time our moves so as not to dump boiling pasta water on the other. she says she and trumpetdaddy can't do that. heh.
the five of us feasted on E's World-Famous Gourmet Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, minus the pesto. *smirk* with Brownberry 12 Grain bread and copious amounts of butter and colby and provolone cheese from the deli, we hardly missed the pesto. really. we also had cherry tomatoes courtesy of a coworker's mom's garden, baby carrots, and the best damn grapes i've had in a VERY long time.
G1 devoured his food like the champ he is, and G2 ate her grapes and carrots and tomatoes, and eventually was coaxed into eating part of her sandwich. i think that might've been the first "meal" she'd eaten in a couple days. Aunt Cyd Rocks! :D
after lunch, our sewing was interrupted by helping D get the canopy set up in the back yard, and other pre-soccer/pre-dinner activities.
Shortly, the guys left for the soccer field, and us gals went back to cooking.
E planned to make the evil pampered chef alfredo lasagne for dinner, but with G1's soccer game at 4:30, we'd have to make it early and then cook it after the game. when Gracie saw that we had to make dinner and the boys were gone, she insisted that she wanted to help. E and i looked at each other and shrugged, and decided we could make it work.
Gracie pulled up a chair to the counter, and while E did the stuff on the stove, Gracie and i did all the other prep work. first we dumped the ricotta into a bowl, and stirred in the egg and parmesan. there was much grunting and other sound effects with this, especially when stabbing the egg. Grace like that part.
she saw mommy cutting up vegetables, and wanted to help. a quick over-her-head conferenced occurred, and the next thing she knew, Gracie was cutting up mushrooms with a butter knife. OMG, that was a HUGE hit. she takes her duties very seriously, and got upset when i tried to "help" (ie. speed things along).
next we stirred in a can of evaporated milk into the jar of alfredo sauce (OMG. SO. Freaking. Good!). she even helped shake up the jar to get the last bits of sauce. :)
then it came time to assemble. Grace helped with that, too, handing mommy the sticky cooked noodles (she didn't like those), helping sprinkle the grated cheese, and probably her favorite, smearing (flinging!) the ricotta on the noodles. even with pre-schooler assistance, we got done in record time, and got to the soccer game just after it started. not bad. not bad at all!
Gabriel's first soccer game of the season was today, too, and Aunt Cyd was more than happy to come along to watch the Purple Thunder play. i really do love watching little-kid sports. spectators are only allowed on one side of the field, the other being reserved for the team/coaches. this year was different in that the coaches weren't allowed ON the field with the kids, and they kept official score.
D had a very nice set-up for his team: the canopy to provide shade, a really cool six-seat fold-up bench for the team, plus the usual water and wet washrags and such. a fellow coach commented on his "stadium" with much admiration and jealousy. :) D later said he learned a lot from last season, and feels a LOT more organized and prepared this time around.
the sun was out and beating down, but a good stiff breeze and the occasional sprinkle kept things bearable. gracie made a friend, and played with him for a while, and sat with us while it rained lightly. we made use of the umbrellas more for the sun than the rain.
D's got a good team this year. he's got on kid that's MILES above the rest. dear god, this kid is doing footwork you don't see until HS/college at least. there's a couple others that are damn good, too, and the rest are very enthusiastic and happy to be there. i didn't notice anyone with a bad attitude on the field or otherwise showing poor sportsmanship (not that D would tolerate that!). a good mix for a team, i think. i shot an obscene number of photos, most of which captured something good (if not G1, then a teammate or a good action shot of something funny, like a kid picking at his butt).
E and I totally weren't paying attention to the score, but G's team won, 2-1. there was much celebrating later.
back home, we popped the lasagne in the oven and i got things ready for dinner while E bathed the kids and D decompressed from his first victory of the season with phone calls to spread the joy, and planned for the next practice.
we feasted on the killer lasagne (wow, using evaporated milk instead of regular milk really made it rich, and oh-so good. *mental note made*), salad of romaine and baby spinach, plus more baby carrots and the last of the tomatoes. everyone ate very well, and there were E's homemade oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert. well, for those who still had room. D offered to clean up while us girls wrangled the kids to bed.
Grace had not yet got to show off her new dancing clothes, and we'd promised she could. i grabbed my camera and we headed upstairs for the fashion show. she tried on her leotard and little flouncy skirt, and danced around for me. i took a bunch of photos, and tried to take a video, but there wasn't enough light, so you can't really see her (or anything for that matter). quick costume change, and she showed off her bike-tard (leotard with bike-short-style bottom, all one piece. crazy-comfortable) and did more dancing and tumbling, and was joined by her brother. again, i took 534798674 pictures, and a few were pretty good.
then it was time to say goodnight, and i gave hugs and kisses, and broke Grace's heart when i had to tell her that no, i was not staying over and wouldn't be there in the morning. i made a note to plan to do that again soon. something about me being there when they wake up really pleases them.
kids in bed, kitchen clean, tummies full. time to get down to business.
we still had a lot of work to do on the bag, but i knew we could do it. I made two mistakes "helping" E with her sewing: (1) i didn't make HER read the directions and ask me to help decipher -- i read them and told her what to do. (2) i skipped a key step, and didn't realize it until it was too late. nothing that we couldn't fudge (or rip out and fix), it just meant that she'd have to do some hand sewing later. *sigh*
back at the table, we finished assembling the bag, and then the lining. E got to sew not one, but TWO round pieces to not-round pieces -- it's a round-bottomed draw-string bag. she didn't like it, but she did it just fine. our differences in "acceptable level of perfection" became pretty clear here, but we're still speaking, so i guess we got through it ok. :)
by this point, we were slap-happy and had slipped into the late-night everything-is-suggestive mode. D walked in at one point and asked us WTF we were doing. i think all we could do was giggle.
then things got serious. we had to attach the lining to the bag so that both parts were facing the proper direction AND the top edge was finished. i had to read the directions twice to finally get it. i explained to E, and i thought her brain would melt. she totally didn't get it, but did as she was told. she handed me a stitched-together, wrong-side-of-the-lining-on-the-outside-of-the-bag-oh-dear-god-we-fucked-this-up-my daughter-is-going-to-be-devistated piece, and i totally blew her mind by flipping it inside out, stuffing the lining where it was supposed to be, and handing her the neatly lined bag with finished top edge. heh. i still don't think she knows how i did it. but i did, and a couple stitches and a two pieces of ribbon later, we were able to present a lined, finished, drawstring ballet bag to Derek before my departure. i can't wait to hear grace's reaction to it.
my departure was delayed by the usual late-night story-telling and musical education (New Orleans Night on Austin City Limits), but i was home safe and sound before 2am, exhausted, parched from the sun, stuffed from all the good food, and pleased with the day.
it makes me both happy and sad that i feel more a part of this family than i do my own family. it makes me happy to be included in so much that they do (even D&E's parents know me now!), that the children enjoy and look forward to my visits (and it's not because i bring them stuff -- most of the stuff i bring gets handed the E on the sly so as not to cause problems or to be set aside for a special treat) and that they treat me like family when i visit (like not busting ass to make the house spotlessly "company clean"). but it makes me sad because my own family (with the exception of Wes and Penny) really are too caught up in their own lives to bother with me. i'm sure i'd understand more if i had a spouse and kids, but most of what i do with E and family is just tagging along on their usual weekend stuff.
Yesterday, i spent the day with the TrumpetFamily.
no, wait. last week, ericainohio got a wild hair about sewing a bag for her daughter to carry her dance stuff to class...
no, it actually goes back a little further! last xmas, E got a sewing machine. she'd asked me for help using it, and sewing from patterns. She HAS sewn before, it's just been a couple *cough* decades.
we've tried a few times to sew, but we always get sidetracked with other stuff. :)
then G2 got signed up for dance/tumbling. and Mommy wanted her to have a cute little bag to tote her ballet shoes and sparkly skirts to and from class. we talked, we chatted, we text-messaged for a week solid. i guided her through pattern selection, and deciphering the code on the back. she went unaccompanied to the fabric store, and came out with (most of) the necessary components. (hard to buy "fusible polyester fleece" when you don't know WTF they mean. even i was thrown by that one). i talked her through opening the pattern envelope, identifying the pieces, and getting ready to sew. i talked her down when she washed her fabric and it came out all ratty-edged and wrinkly. i convinced her that using an iron would NOT compromise her standing and integrity as the anti-SAHM.
i arrived on Saturday in time for pre-lunch sewing. i was surprised that the kids weren't climbing all over me like they usually do. maybe they're getting bored by my visits? probably not ... E said they started looking at the window for me at 7 freaking AM!!! kids, i was even AWAKE at 7am!!! :)
The kidlets stayed in the living room with their movie, and when it ended, they quietly disappeared upstairs to play. i think maybe they knew that their mommy and i needed them to leave us alone? it was a pleasant surprise, although mildly worrysome to me, since they're usually tripping over themselves to get my undivided attention. but they were being their usual angelic selves, so i decided not to question it.
E had managed to identify the pattern pieces, cut them out, and even do one of the steps of the pattern before i got there. she presented me with her strip of stitched-together funky-patternd squares, nervously she waited for my approval. she did great. yes, really!
Next order of business was to lay out and cut the pattern pieces from the fabric. i tried to give pointers on how to best use the fabric so as not to have a ton of waste (although sometimes you just can't avoid that). she was confused by the directions, which assumed that you were using fat quarters, not yardage. i helped her pin, and directed her on cutting and marking the pieces. There were no Major Screw-Ups, although we had plenty of material on had had there been. Hooray!!!
approaching 1pm, we had to break for lunch. i cleared off the table and did other sous chef duties while E got to cooking. She's always amazed that we can work in the kitchen together without running each other over, but with effectively getting everything prepared. i think it's a woman-thing, or at least a cook-thing. we're able to anticipate the other's needs, and think ahead and time our moves so as not to dump boiling pasta water on the other. she says she and trumpetdaddy can't do that. heh.
the five of us feasted on E's World-Famous Gourmet Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, minus the pesto. *smirk* with Brownberry 12 Grain bread and copious amounts of butter and colby and provolone cheese from the deli, we hardly missed the pesto. really. we also had cherry tomatoes courtesy of a coworker's mom's garden, baby carrots, and the best damn grapes i've had in a VERY long time.
G1 devoured his food like the champ he is, and G2 ate her grapes and carrots and tomatoes, and eventually was coaxed into eating part of her sandwich. i think that might've been the first "meal" she'd eaten in a couple days. Aunt Cyd Rocks! :D
after lunch, our sewing was interrupted by helping D get the canopy set up in the back yard, and other pre-soccer/pre-dinner activities.
Shortly, the guys left for the soccer field, and us gals went back to cooking.
E planned to make the evil pampered chef alfredo lasagne for dinner, but with G1's soccer game at 4:30, we'd have to make it early and then cook it after the game. when Gracie saw that we had to make dinner and the boys were gone, she insisted that she wanted to help. E and i looked at each other and shrugged, and decided we could make it work.
Gracie pulled up a chair to the counter, and while E did the stuff on the stove, Gracie and i did all the other prep work. first we dumped the ricotta into a bowl, and stirred in the egg and parmesan. there was much grunting and other sound effects with this, especially when stabbing the egg. Grace like that part.
she saw mommy cutting up vegetables, and wanted to help. a quick over-her-head conferenced occurred, and the next thing she knew, Gracie was cutting up mushrooms with a butter knife. OMG, that was a HUGE hit. she takes her duties very seriously, and got upset when i tried to "help" (ie. speed things along).
next we stirred in a can of evaporated milk into the jar of alfredo sauce (OMG. SO. Freaking. Good!). she even helped shake up the jar to get the last bits of sauce. :)
then it came time to assemble. Grace helped with that, too, handing mommy the sticky cooked noodles (she didn't like those), helping sprinkle the grated cheese, and probably her favorite, smearing (flinging!) the ricotta on the noodles. even with pre-schooler assistance, we got done in record time, and got to the soccer game just after it started. not bad. not bad at all!
Gabriel's first soccer game of the season was today, too, and Aunt Cyd was more than happy to come along to watch the Purple Thunder play. i really do love watching little-kid sports. spectators are only allowed on one side of the field, the other being reserved for the team/coaches. this year was different in that the coaches weren't allowed ON the field with the kids, and they kept official score.
D had a very nice set-up for his team: the canopy to provide shade, a really cool six-seat fold-up bench for the team, plus the usual water and wet washrags and such. a fellow coach commented on his "stadium" with much admiration and jealousy. :) D later said he learned a lot from last season, and feels a LOT more organized and prepared this time around.
the sun was out and beating down, but a good stiff breeze and the occasional sprinkle kept things bearable. gracie made a friend, and played with him for a while, and sat with us while it rained lightly. we made use of the umbrellas more for the sun than the rain.
D's got a good team this year. he's got on kid that's MILES above the rest. dear god, this kid is doing footwork you don't see until HS/college at least. there's a couple others that are damn good, too, and the rest are very enthusiastic and happy to be there. i didn't notice anyone with a bad attitude on the field or otherwise showing poor sportsmanship (not that D would tolerate that!). a good mix for a team, i think. i shot an obscene number of photos, most of which captured something good (if not G1, then a teammate or a good action shot of something funny, like a kid picking at his butt).
E and I totally weren't paying attention to the score, but G's team won, 2-1. there was much celebrating later.
back home, we popped the lasagne in the oven and i got things ready for dinner while E bathed the kids and D decompressed from his first victory of the season with phone calls to spread the joy, and planned for the next practice.
we feasted on the killer lasagne (wow, using evaporated milk instead of regular milk really made it rich, and oh-so good. *mental note made*), salad of romaine and baby spinach, plus more baby carrots and the last of the tomatoes. everyone ate very well, and there were E's homemade oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert. well, for those who still had room. D offered to clean up while us girls wrangled the kids to bed.
Grace had not yet got to show off her new dancing clothes, and we'd promised she could. i grabbed my camera and we headed upstairs for the fashion show. she tried on her leotard and little flouncy skirt, and danced around for me. i took a bunch of photos, and tried to take a video, but there wasn't enough light, so you can't really see her (or anything for that matter). quick costume change, and she showed off her bike-tard (leotard with bike-short-style bottom, all one piece. crazy-comfortable) and did more dancing and tumbling, and was joined by her brother. again, i took 534798674 pictures, and a few were pretty good.
then it was time to say goodnight, and i gave hugs and kisses, and broke Grace's heart when i had to tell her that no, i was not staying over and wouldn't be there in the morning. i made a note to plan to do that again soon. something about me being there when they wake up really pleases them.
kids in bed, kitchen clean, tummies full. time to get down to business.
we still had a lot of work to do on the bag, but i knew we could do it. I made two mistakes "helping" E with her sewing: (1) i didn't make HER read the directions and ask me to help decipher -- i read them and told her what to do. (2) i skipped a key step, and didn't realize it until it was too late. nothing that we couldn't fudge (or rip out and fix), it just meant that she'd have to do some hand sewing later. *sigh*
back at the table, we finished assembling the bag, and then the lining. E got to sew not one, but TWO round pieces to not-round pieces -- it's a round-bottomed draw-string bag. she didn't like it, but she did it just fine. our differences in "acceptable level of perfection" became pretty clear here, but we're still speaking, so i guess we got through it ok. :)
by this point, we were slap-happy and had slipped into the late-night everything-is-suggestive mode. D walked in at one point and asked us WTF we were doing. i think all we could do was giggle.
then things got serious. we had to attach the lining to the bag so that both parts were facing the proper direction AND the top edge was finished. i had to read the directions twice to finally get it. i explained to E, and i thought her brain would melt. she totally didn't get it, but did as she was told. she handed me a stitched-together, wrong-side-of-the-lining-on-the-outside-of-the-bag-oh-dear-god-we-fucked-this-up-my daughter-is-going-to-be-devistated piece, and i totally blew her mind by flipping it inside out, stuffing the lining where it was supposed to be, and handing her the neatly lined bag with finished top edge. heh. i still don't think she knows how i did it. but i did, and a couple stitches and a two pieces of ribbon later, we were able to present a lined, finished, drawstring ballet bag to Derek before my departure. i can't wait to hear grace's reaction to it.
my departure was delayed by the usual late-night story-telling and musical education (New Orleans Night on Austin City Limits), but i was home safe and sound before 2am, exhausted, parched from the sun, stuffed from all the good food, and pleased with the day.
it makes me both happy and sad that i feel more a part of this family than i do my own family. it makes me happy to be included in so much that they do (even D&E's parents know me now!), that the children enjoy and look forward to my visits (and it's not because i bring them stuff -- most of the stuff i bring gets handed the E on the sly so as not to cause problems or to be set aside for a special treat) and that they treat me like family when i visit (like not busting ass to make the house spotlessly "company clean"). but it makes me sad because my own family (with the exception of Wes and Penny) really are too caught up in their own lives to bother with me. i'm sure i'd understand more if i had a spouse and kids, but most of what i do with E and family is just tagging along on their usual weekend stuff.