How to make a superhero cape

Well, we all know how to make a superhero cape. But how to make one that doesn't choke your child? I came up with the easiest one ever.

Take one of your husband's old t-shirts. The bigger, the better. Whatever color. Don't worry if it has armpit stains, those will be cut off.

I have no pictures of the following, because I did it a while ago. But seriously, so what if you make a mistake? Don't you have at least seventeen old t-shirts lying around the house?

Cut off the arms. Slice it up the front up to the neckline, but don't cut the neckline. Carefully cut around each side of the neck, to the shoulder seam, leaving the circle of the neck intact. Cut down each shoulder seam to where you had sliced off the arms. Then spread out the fabric. You will have a squarish piece of fabric with a circle of neck at the middle and divots cut out where the arms used to be. The neck should still be attached all the way around the back of the shirt. Capes are roughly triangles. So, make a triangle shape, with the circle of the neck at the top. Do it however you think it looks right. Don't cut too far into the back of the neck where it is still attached. It should look something like this:

What you can't really tell is that after I made the "triangle" and put it on my son, the bottom corners dragged the ground because it was very long, so I just hacked off each corner until it didn't trip him up. This is going to be dependent on the size of the shirt, probably.

The rest of it is merely a "fitting" issue.

First, have your child step into the neck with the cape part in the FRONT:

Then have him work it up around his chest right under his arms. The cape should still be in the front.
Next, have him tuck his chin and start to flip it over his head, keeping his arms on the outside:

If you have to stretch the neck, that is fine. And the first time you do this, it seems like you are hurting your child. And he may complain. But if you have stretched it enough, it should be ok. See?
Then just continue flipping it over his head until it is flowing down his back.

I think this makes a kid pretty happy:



This will not fall off his shoulders as the neck is wrapped under his arms and around his back. It will not choke him if it gets snagged on something. And when it gets too stretched out to work anymore, you can make a new one! And I am sure there are some of y'all crafty types out there who can think of all sorts of things to decorate the cape with. Or, do the directions backward and keep whatever design on the shirt intact.

See? Easiest choke-free cape EVER.

A Good Friday Miracle plus Theology from a 4yo before 7:00 a.m.

My children slept for nearly 11 hours. Thomas, who routinely wakes up at 5:00 or before, and who has never slept pas 6:00, woke up at 6:15. This is miraculous. Seriously.

And then Jonathan woke up about 6:30 and ran into our room and said, "Daddy, I had the most exciting dream!" When Marcus asked him about it, he said, "I was at Gramma and Grampa Bucher's house!" When asked what made it exciting, he said, "I played inside and outside! And Gramma Bucher and Grampa Bucher were there and Karen (the lady who helps with my grandmother) and Gramma Wenger AND Grampa* Wenger!" I repeated that last and he said, "Yes!" and then paused for a minute and asked, "Will God do the same thing to me that he did to Grampa Wenger? Will he make me alive again after I am dead?" When I said yes, if Jonathan believed in Jesus, he said, "Oh I DO believe in Him!" and then asked for breakfast.

*My grandfather, Karl F. Wenger, died at the end of September, 2010, at the ripe old age of 92 1/2. I was positive that I had posted something about it then, but it must have been only to Facebook. Which makes me think that I should write something about him here. Perhaps I shall.

Random photos of the wedding.

Now, don't get all wiggy...this WAS more than six years ago.

But someone recently mentioned weddings and I thought of it.

This was one of the windows inside the 18th C. church with a lovely arrangement of hydrangeas.




This is us, outside of the church, before the ceremony. (Yes, we saw each other before the ceremony...we didn't want to make everyone wait while we took pics afterward.)



This was immediately after the ceremony. First pic of us as Mr. and Mrs.



This was such a funny picture with my cousin's daughter, our flower girl. She had just turned four. Isn't she just adorable?



We had a large reception. The church didn't seat very many people, and the wedding was near my parents' home. So, we had the reception at their house, and they invited all their friends to the reception. This is a photo of our rector giving the blessing before we cut the cake. We tried to have a bit of a ceremonial aspect to it since about half the people couldn't be at the actual wedding.

This is another photo of the cake. I LOVED my cake. Originally, it was supposed to be white piping that mimicked the beading on my dress and was going to have a burgundy bow on the top which was going to cascade down the side. Each of us only had one attendant, and our accent color was burgundy. But the cake guy said that he was worried about the stability of the burgundy fondant and suggested the piping in burgundy. I think it was just lovely!



And here is a last photo of us being smoochy post-toast. The toast was a whole other ball of wax. We had prosecco instead of champagne, and had it as our only alcohol. It was a late morning wedding and this was, essentially, lunch. Seemed odd to have lots of booze. But the caterer didn't bring a corkscrew. So, there was my sister, in her maid of honor finery, yanking corks out of dozens of bottles with the corkscrew in my dad's swiss army knife.


I could bore you with many more photos of the wedding, but I won't. Suffice it to say, we had a lovely time, and we continue to be happily married.

Oh LOOK, a gratuitous cute photo of my two boys: