Sewing and Hiking

It took two busy families with four little ones each about five weeks' notice to find an entire Saturday available, but we did it: Yesterday my friend and I sewed all day with our two babies at our ankles while our husbands took the six older children hiking at Grandfather Mountain.

My friend Mari and I have trouble finding modest, soft knit cotton nightgowns for our girls. I've been sewing my girls' nightgowns for a couple of years for the above reason, so I offered to refresh Mari's memory of how to sew, which she had been taught as a child but hadn't pursued in years. We were both so excited to have an entire day to focus!

Mari's 10-month-old Millie was at a perfect, easy age to be a sewing companion. She sits, but doesn't yet crawl, so she sat still, playing with baby toys or sewing scraps, cooing to herself and laughing madly--charming us both.

Could you not just eat up our goddaughter?

Joseph was pretty darned easy himself, just hangin' out with us, happier when he was up close to the action.

Playmates starting early

Sometimes Joseph did not want to lay down by himself any longer and then more dramatic measures had to be taken to continue sewing while occupying the baby. Above = One five-month-old happy as a clam.

Mari and I were sewing four identical nightgowns in sizes 7, 7, 5, and 2, so we did them simultaneously, like piecework in a factory setting. Therefore, none of the nightgowns are finished, but all are about 80% done. We plan one more work night after bigger children are asleep and she can come over to my house, our babies sleeping nearby in case they need us for night wakings. Photos of the finished product to come!

Meanwhile . . . 

Two dads had six children ages 7, 6, 5, 4, 2, and 2 on a mountain. I was promised ahead of time that no suspension bridges would be crossed and no bodies of water entered.

Yes, this bear was in an enclosure and my family was on the other side of the fencing.

See? No children in that body of water. Not like I worry or anything.

Look at the two-year-olds holding hands! Despite it being oppressively hot and something like 90% humidity here, it was surprisingly cold up on the mountain, so the dads bought the children expensive souvenir sweatshirts.

Balacing

My children not crossing the suspension bridge

A five-year-old whispering something sweet to my 2-year-old, I'm sure

The day ended with such festivity! My in laws had recently returned from a week away to find major water damage in their home. Plumbers have descended and industrial fans are blowing for three days to dry it out, so we received a call on Saturday asking if Chris' parents could spend the weekend at our house and arrive in a few hours. Of course, no problem! Even better than their being so gracious about the fact that my house was not in clean, tip-top shape, they said they'd just purchased a lot of groceries and could they bring all the food and cook a feast that night? And could the D----s stay after the sewing-and-hiking day to join us for dinner? Why yes, we wives couldn't say 'yes' fast enough and our families were fed a much better meal than we were going to scrape up from our respective pantries after sewing for seven hours straight.