The girls don’t have nearly enough to wear especially in the dress department, so I was compelled to make them more (tongue is firmly planted in cheek here). Once again the Matilda Jane knot dresses have been the inspiration for me to make these dresses. I was very surprised at how easy they were to put together and cut out which is always the lengthiest part of the project. Many experienced sewists may gasp at this statement, but I used the rotary cutter for the entire cutting out of the pattern pieces. However, the front and back yokes were the only non-rectangular parts of the garment, and there was only one curve to those as well. My new serger also made the project much more streamlined and easier to proceed through the project (thanks, Mike, for my early birthday present). The girls were very excited to try on their new dresses and got to wear them to church today. I already have another project lined up to make for them, but I don’t know if I’ll have time this week to get them finished due to our upcoming trip to MN. Make sure to check out the gathered pockets I also added to each dress (the 3rd picture shows the detail).

Each year in Burlington, WI there is a festival devoted to one of my favorite foods–CHOCOLATE. Mike knew that this would be right up my alley when he heard about it, so he made sure to keep our schedules open for the Memorial Day weekend. Annie was super excited about going, too. She asked if we should pack up our bags the night before and get up to leave at 6:00 a.m. that morning (keep in mind, it started at 10am and was only a 45 minute drive). Annie was a bit disappointed when our entrance into the park didn’t produce chocolate covered EVERYTHING like she must have envisioned, but we all still managed to have a lot of fun. In reality, the festival is more of a carnival with lots of rides, food booths, games, and other vendors. There was an air-conditioned tent in which all the chocolate events occurred such as chocolate candy bar eating contests, candy wrapper fashion show, and lots of chocolate vendors. For $3 a patron could purchase a ticket to get a sample from 6 different vendors which we were all too glad to purchase. There was also a booth for a free Nestle Toll House cookie fresh from the oven. YUM!

Right at the entrance of the festival was a Marine booth with a pull-up challenge. Of course, Mike had to give it a go and resulted in 12 pull-ups. Annie did 1. Mimi and I didn’t bother.

Prior to getting on any rides we measured the girls,so we’d know which rides were appropriate for them. We got each girl and daddy an unlimited riding band.

The Spider was one of the first rides for them. Look how happy they all are.

This is the ride that did it in for Mike. The centrifuge-like contraption spins you around at a very high speed making it so your body sucks up to the wall. Mike was pretty much done for the rest of the day but did ride a few of the non-aggressive rides with the girls later that day.

I told the girls that this is the closest either one of them will get to ever riding a motorcycle.

Despite his nausea, Mike did manage to have fun on the bumper cars.

Violet discovered that she really likes snow cones. We were willing to share with her since it was such a stinking, hot day.

The life-sized, chocolate Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory display.

I kind of wish I had entered.

So fashionable.

This little guy was roaming around the park and talking to people along the way. Mimi had no problem mingling with it, but Annie was quite spooked and kept her distance.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8meCmn0wqM

It was a fun day!