"mom, can we make valentine cards this year?...and can I make 21 pom-poms to go with them?"

(while I admit the finished product for all the kids' cards turned out very cute, and we really did have fun making these "Jackson-Pollock-esque" cards with pom-poms attached for G, and robots drawn on the front for W & C, the night before Valentine's Day there was much procrastination, very little patience, definitely annoyance, and maybe yelling and tears that caused me to tell S at the end of the night "NEVER AGAIN!  We are buying them from the store next year!," to which he gave me a look and chuckle that said "yeah right, when your daughter wants to make cards and a craft next year you will TOTALLY  do this again.," and I have to admit he is right - I love Valentine's Day with kids..."

so we ended up getting her new jeans anyway...

my darling daughter wore holes in the right knee of her 3 pairs of jeans in the span of a week and a half...  

thought I was being super mom by not just buying her new jeans, but instead sewing adorable patches over the holes so she could keep wearing them...

then in the span of another week and a half, she blew holes in the patches, and also in the other knees of all three jeans...

so we ended up getting her new jeans anyway...

a gift for my new neice or nephew...=)

for: brother M and sister-in-law A's baby

pattern:  Lola Owl

fabric:  Panache line by moda (to match baby's room and quilt!), ivory corduroy, brown, gold and ivory wool felt

time to do this?:  brought to you by Mrs. L - she offered to take the boys for an afternoon while G was at school which allowed me time to get going on this project (thanks L!!)

can't wait to meet you little one!!!

valentine cards!

Valentine's Day is a huge day in kindergarten.  Their big unit in February is on the post office, so they all make shoebox mailboxes with the purpose of delivering Valentine cards for each kid in class.  G came home at the beginning of the month with "address labels" for each of her classmates, and was supposed to make a Valentine card for each and label each envelope.  This was a great project for G because #1, she loves crafts and making cards and things, #2, she got a lot of great writing practice writing everyone's names on the back, and #3, she was very excited about giving to others.  I stepped in to help her find a card that she could make 23 of them without getting bored and me ending up finishing them.  We decided to go with a simple version of print-making with a cookie sheet, paint, q-tips and card stock.

 

They turned out great and G was so proud of them!  And what were the boys doing while G was making cards?

 

It was baths for all after that...

a belated gift for my birthday boy...

 

In thinking about gifts for this past Christmas, I got the crazy idea in my head that I needed to make handmade gifts for everyone.  There are days that I just need to make something, or want to make something!  But the reality sets in and I realize that the timing is just not right with the ages of the kids right now.  It is better than it was a year ago, and will be better in another year, but I just can't do everything that I want to right now.  

But I held on to this project.  I found this idea for fabric nesting dolls on the blog, Made By Joel.  I adjusted the sized so I could make our whole family and drew the patterns on cardstock.  The pattern for the largest puppet I made 10.5 inches tall and 6.75 inches wide, and then I stepped down 1 inch in height and 3/4 inches in width for each consecutive puppet so they would nest. 

I used natural colored denim for the fronts of the puppets, and different colored fleece for the backs (so nice and soft to play with!).  I hemmed the bottom edge of the denim so it had a nice finished look, but didn't need to with the fleece.

After I had all the pieces cut out, I drew the people onto the denim with a black sharpie.  Now I don't draw free-handed very well, so I copied the people from this paper city (also Made By Joel) and sized them accordingly and printed them out.  I then taped them to one of our sunroom windows and was able to see through the denim to draw.  I wanted our family to look like us, so I used the paper city figures for their shapes only, and then added my own clothing design touches. =)

After that it was only a matter of sewing the fronts and backs together and then getting them wrapped up for my birthday boy (he didn't mind receiving the present a little late!).  I think all the kids (and maybe even the momma and dadda) are having fun with these.  And that they nest is not only neat for storage, but part of the fun for playing!

2010 Advent calendar

I love the idea of doing something for Advent with the kids, but day-to-day life never seems to afford the time to make or plan something out. We have done a few different things the past few years, but with the kids' ages and attention spans it was kind of hit or miss. So I finally resigned myself to give it a few years. Then I found this Advent calendar, and knew we could do it - or at least try! I printed everything out, modified some of the activities, and G helped me put it all together. I figured if it didn't work out I wouldn't be out much time or materials - only paper, envelopes and paperclips! But it turned out that the kids loved it, and S and I really enjoyed it too.

We hung the calendar on the dining room wall.


Each day had a small Bible passage from the Christmas story. To help the kids listen and remember the story, we had them act out the passage using our incredible nativity set (made by S's Uncle D).


They really liked this part!


Following the Bible passage, there was an easy question or two and then a fun activity for the day. Here they were dressing up like Mary after reading about the angel telling Mary she would have a son, Jesus.


Here they were getting piggy back rides after reading about reading about Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem.


Here they were at the Holidazzle parade (thanks for the pics Auntie C!) after reading about the angels apprearing to the shepherds and the glory of the Lord shining all around them. I modified the activities suggested to fit our schedule and what I wanted to do with the kids. Our yearly family trip to this fun Christmas light parade happened to fall on a perfect day! (as did caroling with our church - that happened on the day we read about the angels singing to the shepherds!)


Here they were with their star cookies they made with Aahma B after reading about the wisemen following the star.


We enjoyed this little calendar and how it helped us keep our focus during this blessed season. With all the chaos of our lives at the time and the busyness of the season, we were able to take time each day to read the Bible, think and talk about the birth of Jesus, and do something fun together.