Caleb's quote of the day...

Hubby says (taking about his busy sister): She has too much on her plate.
Caleb: that's cause she like's to eat!

First Day of School 2012

The Muller kids started school today!  We were about a week behind the rest of the neighborhood, but that flexibility is one of the joys of homeschooling!  We normally start the Monday after Labor Day, but the teacher got a bad cough that lasted for over a week and fell a bit behind schedule.  :)

One of the things on the schedule was some back to school shopping....

Set up some fun things on the kitchen table for them to see in the morn...

They were quite happy with what they saw. 

Caleb said to me "I thought today was gonna be boring, I didn't know we were getting presents!"  :)

Before breakfast - some fun coloring!

Kid's choice for breakfast....

Why Cheerios of course!

 Caleb asked for a picture with his presents...

 ...and Emma needed one too!

Dressed themselves... pretty good!

All dressed up and no place to go :)

Most days you will find us in jammies or sweats, but today was a special day!

Then we got to work! 

Caleb is working on mostly 3rd grade work and finishing up some 2nd grade work. (If he were in public school he'd be starting 2nd, so we're doing ok :)

Emma is starting with 1st grade this year.  (She'd be in Kindergarten)  Her learning style is quite different than Caleb's.  She seems to not get frustrated as easily as Caleb, but her attention span is a bit less focused than he was at her age.  

Love learning their little quirks... the fun has just begun!

(Sorry no pics of actual school, we just got busy and I forgot to keep snapping pis)

Dress Refashion

Bought this dress 5 days before my brother-in-law's wedding.

I had bought another dress months before that I was just not happy with. So I took one last desperate trip to the thrift shop to see if I could find something. I found this long evening gown that was black (which didn't thrill me since the dress I had already was boring black) but after closer inspection I found that this dress had some potential for color.

*Sorry for the poor quality of the photos and the lack of photos. Didn't really decide to blog about this until half-way through and was too rushed to remember pictures along the way.

I decided I would cut the dress to the knee.  I then decided to take the (underneath) colored fabric I cut off the dress and make it into a belt/sash.

After that, I realized I could cut the black fabric a couple inches shorter to expose the underneath fabric!

Was excited to find color under the black fabric! Not just any color - but purple! The accent color of the upcoming wedding!

I used my "rolled hem" presser foot on my sewing machine for the two hems.  If you've never tried this presser foot before, do so!  It is great!  I've used it years ago, but I have now discovered a new love for this foot :)

Great video tutorial for rolled hem foot here

I was SO thrilled with the way it turned out!  I really liked that it had purple to compliment the colors in the wedding (since I was partly involved by reading during the ceremony) and it matched perfectly with the Best Man and the Flower Girl! (My Hubby and Daughter :)

My post about the wedding here

For those of you interested...
I spent $11.24 on this dress at the thrift shop (on 25% off day)

Gained another sister!

This Labor Day weekend I gained a new sister! My brother-in-law Darren married his lovely Pina.
Andy was the best man and Emma the flower girl. The ceremony was beautiful!
Love my new sister-in-law! I have known her for a short while, but feels as though I've known her forever. She's an awesome woman and just right for Darren. I've been told she's a lot like me in the sense that she has a laid back, easy going personality. And she's Italian! :) Although much more Italian than me! (very jealous of her ability to speak Italian!) SO glad she is now officially apart of the family!

Emma's plastic smile :-]

There's a good smile!

Emma rode to church in the limo with the girls.  She quickly grew fond of the Jr. Bridesmaid Chiada

I felt so special when they asked me to be involved in the ceremony by reading from 1 Cor. 13. (followed by her Uncle who read it in Italian) 

Darren reciting his vows.

Sweet moment when Darren spoke of and gave Pina a ring his mom gave him to give to his future wife. 

You may now kiss the bride!

This is Pina's Mom and Dad. We've been able to meet and spend time with her family on many occasions. They are just so wonderful and warm.

Family picture #1

Pina went from having no nieces or nephews to having 7!

 We all got to ride to the reception in style! 

Made a deal with them - if they give me a nice shot, I would take silly pics of them. 

  

 more requests of silliness...

Family picture #2

Andy's cousin's baby, Emm. She is soooo adorable   

Emma and her buddy!

Justin took this one. His idea... pretty good! 

Family picture #3 (my fav!)

 Had some dirt on my heels after posing for the previous pics. He was cleaning them for me. 

Entering the reception.

 NFL theme song played right before the new Mr. & Mrs. Muller entered.

 First dance "I Finally Found Someone"

They were so cute dancing together.

Flower girl and Best Man

 Cousins

Siblings with spouses 

Emma's other buddy Giada (Maid of Honor's daughter) 

 The cake was just the beginning of the dessert...

The boys enjoying the dessert ROOM! Here you see chocolate fountains

 Waiting for waffles and ice cream

 The cotton candy was quite popular amongst the young.... 

...and the not as young....

Caught Em getting another zeppole!  (I don't blame her, the best I've ever had!)

Emma with her strawberry and nutella crepe after she watched it be made.

Uncle D helping Emma light her sparkler. 

Emma got herself a little boo-boo after touch the wrong part of the sparkler :( 

Tired girls. (Emma still icing her finger)

Exhausted boy.

These are some of the photographer's pictures that were on a screen playing at the reception. 

Their photographer was AMAZING!