Thanksgiving in Denver

We traveled up to Denver for Thanksgiving last fall, staying with family -- including three cousins, which our girls loved!


Richard and Laura had just moved back to Denver from Tulsa last September, and were unpacked enough into their new house that they didn't mind our family of five moving in for a week. One of the highlights of the week was a night out -- Richard, Laura, Dale, and I went to a Broncos game while the grandmas watched all six kids. Despite missing the first part of the game due to a seating confusion (four other people showed up just before kickoff with tickets for our seats!), we had a fantastic time. And the Broncos won, too!

We were busy through most of the week and unfortunately missed out on several adorable pictures of the kids together, but we did manage to take a few.

Here, all six kids (Sarah, Elizabeth, Adelaida, Benjamin, Cordelia, and Estella) look out the back door at a squirrel on the deck.


The kids had a movie night one evening, watching Ice Age and eating popcorn. On the couch are Benjamin, Cordelia, Elizabeth, Adelaida, Sarah, and Estella.


Getting all the kids together and sitting was rare. Most of the week was more like the following pictures.

We were fortunate enough to watch an impromptu dance recital in the kitchen (while we were preparing dinner, of course). It started with Sarah, Elizabeth, and Adelaida ...


... showing us all of their dancing poses ...


... and soon Estella and Cordelia joined. Estella brought my shoes into the kitchen, increasing the tripping hazards, and Cordelia decided to do a toddler headstand under Adelaida's princess dress. It was chaos.


During another meal prep, we had five little kittens (Adelaida, Estella, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Cordelia) crawling around the kitchen. The kids had a blast together!

A special bond

Estella and Cordelia certainly do share a very special bond. They sleep in the same toddler bed (despite the fact that we have two beds in their room, Estella has always joined her sister in Cordelia's bed), pat each other's backs when they are upset, and love to feed each other. Lately, they have enjoyed giving each other adorable little kisses, too!

Cordelia gives cute little smacking kisses, and Estella gives great big sloppy open-mouthed kisses. They give kisses when they hurt themselves, and the kisses often magically heal the hurts. Here, Estella had bumped her head on the closet door and Cordelia immediately jumped up to give her a kiss. The kiss healed the bump, and Estella was laughing within seconds!

How to patch holes in jeans

For the first four years of her life, Adelaida could be described as cautious, gentle, and calm. Her clothes looked as good when she outgrew them as they did when she first got them. Then she turned four and suddenly she was rough on her clothes! During two weeks in January, Adelaida wore holes in the knees of two pairs of jeans. Both pairs of jeans were hand-me-downs, and if we didn't have two more little girls who could wear them in about a year, we'd probably throw them out. But we do have two little girls who will need Adelaida's hand-me-downs, so I decided to attempt to mend them.

Please remember that I am not particularly artsy or craftsy, so this was quite a big project for me!

The first pair of jeans has heart-shaped pockets. I wanted to add another denim heart to cover the hole in the knee. I found some iron-on denim patches, but was warned that the iron-on backing often peels off.


I first cut out a heart-shaped patch and ironed it the over the hole (the blue color is from the wash-away marker I used to trace the heart).


To complete the look and keep the iron-on patch from falling off, I sewed around the heart with heavy yellow thread (like the heart-shaped pockets). It didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped, but not bad!


The second pair of jeans has pink stitching around the waist and embroidered pink hearts on the back pocket.

 

I cut a round-cornered rectangle of iron-on denim and ironed it over the hole in the knee.


Next, I stitched around the rectangle with pink thread.


Finally, I stitched two pink hearts over the patch.


The final product looks pretty good, much better than the first pair!