Happy Birthday Mr. Washington

You may not realize that today is George Washington's Birthday. His birthday has been celebrated on the 3rd Monday of February ever since 1971 (you gotta love the Uniform Monday Holiday Act).




This song is from "Holiday Inn" a movie made in 1942 starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. My sisters and I discovered this movie about 15 years ago. We'd always wondered why in the movie "White Christmas" everyone knew the title song - and after seeing "Holiday Inn" we knew why. Irving Berlin wrote "White Christmas" for that movie!

"I Can't Tell a Lie" is one of the more humorous songs from the movie, which I recommend to you for your viewing pleasure. We just got it from Netflix and I had Ryan and Sabrina watch it with me. Original songs for Lincoln's Birthday, Valentine's Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas! Enjoy

Care package on its way

My 5 year old niece is going in for surgery at Primary Children's Medical Center on Monday. When I asked her mom what Janica would like for us to send her, her reply was "the story of Beauty and the Beast." Sabrina is sending Janica her Belle doll that she bought with her own money in 2004 (while visiting Nebraska because she forgot to bring "Baby Bunny" to sleep with and was quite distraught). Now we're hoping that this doll will bring some more comfort to a recovering cutie-pie. We hope you like the care package Janica! Have a speedy recovery!



I got the instructions on how to make the bag here. Sometimes it comes in really handy to have a large fabric stash.

Happy Valentine's Day

All foods heart-shaped for us today:

Pancakes
(purple because Roderic added blue food coloring in addition to the red)

Homemade pizza

Strawberry Shortcake
(Ryan hand-carved these, a tradition going back to our first Valentine's Day as newlyweds)

Quilting Bee

Last fall, when Ryan was on his week long adventure in the Sawtooth mountains of Idaho, Sabrina and I painted her bedroom. Blue. It had been pink since we moved in 2.5 years ago. With the walls no longer pink, the green ivy and pink flower quilt I made in high school (Laurel project) no longer matched her room, so I decided I needed to make her a new quilt. Sabrina picked out all of the fabrics for this quilt and I learned how to appliqué. The pattern wanted every solid block to have a flower appliquéd on it, but that became too overwhelming, so I did 5 instead of 20.

After helping a friend tie a quilt for her father-in-law, I decided that it would be good for Sabrina to invite friends over to help tie hers. Last month I had the brilliant idea to make me a deadline for getting the quilt done this weekend when they had no school. She invited 8 friends, but only 4 were able to come. The quilt was tied in 40 minutes. They were so fast! I wonder how fast it would have been if all 8 would have come! They had another 90 minutes before the parents would return, so they played a couple of rounds of "Curses". During that time I worked on binding the quilt and I got it finished before dinner, so she was able to sleep under it that night.

(Unfortunately, the blues on the quilt clash with the blue of the room. I think we may have to repaint...)

Children at work and play

Sabrina participated in "Stories Come Alive" Theatre Workshop. They performed an adaptation of "Stories from Wayside School" by Louis Sachar. Pretty funny stuff. I recommend reading the book.


Roderic got a LeapFrog educational game-boy thing for Christmas. The others love to watch him play. Sabrina helped me tie a train quilt for Hyrum. That boy never wanted to sleep under a blanket, but I thought if I made him one of trains, it might cure him. So far, it's worked!!!



My crazy boys love to play outside regardless of the weather. I'm glad I pulled this broken truck (note the front wheel) out of my neighbor's trash pile. They love it! Sabrina took the picture of Hyrum in the fire truck.

Valentine Idea

I was reading on nienie and she had this great zip-up sweatshirt on which gave me an idea. I could make one up for me to give to Ryan for a Valentines present! That way, I could be warm and show the world who I love! The words are embroidered with Stacy's embroidery machine and the heart is put on by hand appliqué by me.

If you would like me to make you one, the cost is $12 plus $5 shipping. Tell me the size and color (brown, green, purple, black, blue) of zip-up velour sweatshirt and the name you want embroidered, because I'm pretty sure you all don't want to tell the world you love Mr. Gibby, like me. Order by Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009 and I guarantee it for Valentine's Day! Just send me an email: malaunagibby@gmail.com