Chasing Babies... Growing in Grace

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Teaching Littles to Sew

Over the last year or so I've been wanting to start teaching Sweet Pea handicraft skills. Real, useful skills... beyond housekeeping, which is another post altogether. I've searched and I've searched, but not much comes back. There is plenty on teaching your kids to sew, but not so much in the preschool realm. Most things for the very young (she had just turned three when I started looking) list lacing cards or lacing beads or pasta on a string. Nothing against them, but it's not what I was looking for. I wanted something more... real.

One I did find brought inspiration. So I ran with it.

I grabbed a piece of pink felt, left over from my mom's visit last year, and put it in a hoop.

It's easier for her to turn the whole project over, rather than poke up from underneath.

As you can see, this first project was more about experience (and practicing not stitching around the hoop) than design. But she was so pleased with it!!!

Next, I drew a heart shape on the pink, drawing it on the front and back so she could flip it over to see where to sew also.

Once she was done she decided to make it into a pillow. I layered it with some pink cotton print, drew a line around the edge on the front and back and let her go.

I decided to teach her a running stitch. Maybe not the stitch I would use for the same project, but a good one to start on for her. Not every stitch is on the line, and I do take some of them out for her to do again, but she's learning.

And ultimately, it's about growing a love for sewing. Something she can do that's like mommy.

I'll have to share the results when it's done. But I love that it's a fine little beginner project for her... yet it's still real.

Labels: Heart Strings, Learning for Little Ones, Making Memories, Raising Children

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Our Fourth of July

Time gets away from me when we have visitors in our home. Then Grammy left and we started another adventure the very next day. All that to say, here we are, 8 days later and you're only just seeing pics from our 4th.

None of the headless people pics turned out great. Sorry. Suffice it to say that among the kids outfits you would have found red white and blue, though not necessarily all on each child. Still, if I'd thought to take a group picture, it was all there.

The day truly revolved around food. That seems a pretty normal holiday ritual. Even though, as it usually is, it was just us. Still I found some fun ideas to make the day special for the kids. In all the reading we've been doing lately, there has been plenty of talk about the American flag. Plus, Tornado has been recognizing it himself lately anyway. So I worked it in where I could.

Found this idea here via pinterest. She made it for breakfast and put cream cheese under the jam. I called it lunch and put our "Sunny Butter" (sunflower butter since our Tornado is allergic to peanuts) under the jam. The kids loved it and Tornado was delighted that it was a flag!

Cute cute cute. Their excitement made my day! :)

I found this idea online too, though, I'm not sure where. Sorry. I could have made one more column of hot dogs (we ate that many in the end since a friend stopped by to help My Beloved with last minute firework details), but I didn't have a tray to put it on.

Kids loved it too!

In my head I had a fun picnic or nicely laid table pictured. In the end the fireworks took up all but the little corner I cleared for Little Man to eat. The kids thought it was funny to eat on this little "table". My Beloved ate on the living room floor surrounded by fireworks he was attaching fuse to, and our friend stood at the end of the table. My mom and I floated around. Overall, I think the memories of the chaos in those last hurried minutes is more fun. :)

And to finish the evening we headed to church where My Beloved put on a 50 minute kid friendly firework fountain show. In retrospect, there were too many fireworks. We learn how to make it better every year.

He did a great job with his helpers and everyone seemed to have a great time! :)

I hope your 4th was fabulous!

Labels: As it happens..., Making Memories

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy Fourth!

This is what we'll be doing today.

My Beloved just loves fireworks. Every year for Father's Day we go down to a Firework tent a friend of ours has and he picks up a new load.

All of them

Several years ago we decided to include another family (with a young son) to join us when he lit them off. It was so much fun that we did it again the next year, but we invited a handful of families.

Last year, we needed a new place to do our "show", so we talked to our church. At the last minute plans were made and an email was sent out (with 2 days notice) that we'd be doing fireworks that Friday night at the church if anyone wanted to join us. The pastor loved it so much he said he wanted to do it more "officially" this year.

And so here we are. My Beloved's been working on the perfect show with a whole bunch of ground fireworks. Should be more than 30 minutes long with a huge finale. Now we're just waiting to see if we'll need that rain date.

These last couple weeks the kids and I have been reading about the colonists, the Revolutionary War, and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. With all that's going on in our country these days, sometimes it's hard to get excited about celebrating it. This year I'm excited to be celebrating our beginnings... and praying for our future!

Happy Independence Day to you all!!

Labels: Making Memories

Thursday, June 14, 2012

First Day of Spring Celebrations

Almost summer??? Then I suppose I should post about our "First day of spring" celebration!

With a new baby born just days before the first day of spring, I still had high hopes for a special day. We picked up library books to start up my latest homeschooling plan. Our first unit would be spring... original, no?

Since I brought our little Belle home on the actual first day of spring, I decided to bump our "celebration" to Friday. Daddy would be off work still and grandparents were still here. Perfect!

My kids had their first ever egg hunt. We don't do anything "egg" related for Easter, but both My Beloved and I grew up with "Easter Egg Hunts" every year. And baskets. And bunnies.

So when we determined early on that we wanted Easter to be all about Jesus, I knew that, one day, I would have to institute a special "first day of spring egg hunt".

We started pretty simple. I picked up a couple bags of plastic eggs in advance and filled them the night before. Each kid got a paper "lunch" bag that I folded down to make a nice sized "basket" for collecting their eggs. Just before the hunt began, I grabbed my bag of eggs and went out back to hide them. I knew just how many we had (33 I think) so each kid was allowed 11 eggs (though I think I increased the older ones and decreased Little Man's for time sake). I put some up high, some down low, some in easy places, some in hard (I thought).

After everyone was done, we headed back for the front door where they found this shared "Spring Basket" waiting on the front steps for them.

I simply used a basket we already use somewhere else and added the fabric and some blue "grass" someone gave us last year because they weren't going to use it. We were going to make cookies, but when friends brought us a bunch of cute "spring" cookies they had decorated, I just put a few of those in there (we're talking simplifying with a newborn here people!)

I had also asked my mom to find and send us some "Simply Fruit" fruit roll ups because I haven't found them in our stores. That was a fun treat for the kids (and me!) And the punch balls were from some other little gift a while back that we'd never used and forgotten about, so I put those in there. (Sadly, I'm not sure we've done them yet.)

The kids thought it was all great!

Inside the eggs??? Not chocolate bunnies and jelly beans.

Nope... "Bunny" crackers (health food version of fishy crackers), almonds,

raisins, and cute little gummy "moose heads".

(I was fussing about wanting the gummy bunnies, but they were more expensive. I was reminded by My Beloved that baby moose are born in the spring too. I guess I was still stuck on the "Easter" part of the whole thing. Glad to be reminded!)

It was a great day!!! What memories we made! And they got to eat the contents of their eggs for lunch! :)

Labels: As it happens..., Little Moments, Making Memories

Friday, May 18, 2012

Field Trip Friday

This past Saturday, our family had an opportunity to go on a field trip to see fire fighters in action.

A house owned by the organization My Beloved works for is scheduled for demolition, so they donated it to the local fire department to use for practice.

Unfortunately, the aren't able to burn it down and actually fight the fire due to some legal issues and the location of the house, but there are plenty other things they can do.

We were running late, and I feared we'd be missing big things, but when we arrived, they looked like they'd hardly been there. A group of about 6 fire fighters stood around talking. This gave some time for the kids to look at the truck. The boys especially liked it!

The first order of business was to get there with axes and open the walls and ceiling "looking for hot spots in the walls." We didn't get to go inside with them, but My Beloved asked if he could come in and take pictures. Since he's an EMT in the same township (and had his t-shirt on), I guess they didn't mind. This way the kids and I could see what was happening inside.

This guy was showing the others how they can kick into the drywall to make a ladder. Crazy!

After the inside was sufficiently damaged, they got their smoke making machine out and filled the house with smoke. What a great opportunity to show the kids what that looks like.

Then the guys suited up. Apparently, these guys are certified to fight fires from outside. Today they would practice the inside stuff.

They made dolls out of fire hose and hid them in the house for the trainees to find.

The kids and I talked about how they take air in with them because they can't breath in the smoke.

It was apparently very dark in there...

and very smoky! The pictures don't do it justice.

My Beloved took the kids in part way to the kitchen so they could see what it was like in a smoke filled room. They practiced crawling through it to get outside. Tornado kept trying to stand up and Sweet Pea really didn't like it.

As it turns out, she's woken up twice this week from nightmares. When I ask her what's wrong, she tells me (in her half asleep voice) that she couldn't see in the smoke. Ahem. Who would have expected that to backfire on us???

Still, they have experienced it now.

Little Man, Belle and I stayed outside.

Then, the highlight, My Beloved asked if the kids could have a ride to the top of the hill and back.

Little Man, especially, was thought it was very cool!

This wasn't a public thing and we were the only ones there to watch. The kids did a lot of running around and even climbed a tree in between having something to look at and watch.

Most people schedule a field trip to the fire house... this was so much better. I think they are doing similar practices the rest of the month... maybe even using their fire hoses eventually. Perhaps we'll return!

Did your family go anywhere fun this week???

Labels: As it happens..., Homeschooling 2011-2012, Making Memories

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Our Special Thanksgiving... simply!

This Thanksgiving was very different for us this year... and yet, very much the same.

The same in that we were just us. We usually are. No family near by. Friends invite us to join their big dinners, but we haven't in years.

But different? It was different because for the first time in years (since kids maybe) I made a point to make the day special. Just for us!

Very tasty stuffing... my first attempt. Can't wait to eat the left overs!

We've been reading about and talking about Thanksgiving for more than a week now. Learning about the pilgrims, etc.

Maybe next year we'll do some sort of count down. Every night the kids would ask if "tomorrow" would be Thanksgiving.

It worked because at 7:15 I heard all sorts of noise coming from down the hall as the children had awakened each other excited that it was Thanksgiving... soon they were running into my room, leaving a very displeased baby alone in the dark! :)


Mmmmm... and I may have heavied on the pecans... it was like Pecan pie on sweet potatoes!

The other thing I did to make it special, was to plan ahead! This isn't something I'm always good about following through on. And not everything got done. But some did... for instance, the sweet potatoes were cooked and in the fridge a couple days ago, only waiting for they very yummy topping to be added this morning (I subbed our Evaporated Cane Juice for the brown sugar, real eggs for fake, and left out the lemon extract.)

Last night I was making cherry pie and the cinnamon rolls we had for a special breakfast.

My Beloved smoked this chicken on our grill... yum!

We simplified! It was just us, and even though part of me wanted all the traditional bells and whistles for our special dinner, our little family of 5 doesn't need that much food! We left out the mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, and even let the cranberries go at the last minute for sanity and energy's sake! Having a "let it go" attitude about some of those things helped me stay a nicer and less stressed mommy!

We also ate chicken instead of turkey. Monday or Tuesday I realized we hadn't picked up our free turkey from the grocery store... and they are always frozen. Instead of freaking out or taking a stress causing chance, we decided to pick up the free turkey later and planned the chicken I already had thawing in the fridge for today!

An extra step in simplifying for me was to let My Beloved prepare the bird! He enjoys being in the kitchen (I'm blessed!) and with my permission to do whatever he wanted, it's even more fun for him. We borrowed a smoker and put it out on the grill! Mmmmm...


My first attempt at cherry pie... in a new pie plate.

Yet another way to make it special??? Factor in family favorites! My Beloved has been making little comments about cherry pie for years. This year we actually bought a bunch of sour cherries to put up, but I had yet to try a pie. As you can tell, it didn't go great... and it was way too sweet. I think we'll cut the sugar in half next time, or just try a different recipe entirely, but it was special because of the heart behind it.

Special dinnerware and glasses can take it over the top!

Another way I worked to make it special was to set a pretty table (disregard the boxes behind!). Yet without loosing the simple. The picture at the top shows our simple table. The addition of a colorful table runner, candle and the napkins I let my daughter pick out for today made it pretty! The extra special glasses that even the children got to drink out of made this a meal they were super excited about.

When asking what she was thankful for, my little Sweet Pea (3.5 years) said she was thankful for her drink. Plain old apple cider in a stemmed glass!

Found this little idea... kids love them!

I'm not a crafter by nature... not with the kids anyway. Limited patience and a bit of OCD that I got from my mother (she knows) makes me choose reading with them over crafting most days, but they saw this one in an email I had up the other day and have talked of nothing since. They even deliberately saved the toilet paper rolls! Every day I say, yes, we'll do it, but not right now. Then yesterday I decided it would be a special thing to work on today. We did have fun... and it took, off and on, all day! :) I helped a lot, but they felt like they were doing it and they are enjoying playing with them. It was dark when we finished, but maybe I can get some better pics tomorrow outside!

Lavender... never flowered, but maybe I can save this!

Speaking of outside... the rest of our day was so delightfully spent... outside! When My Beloved stepped out around 11 to start up the grill, he called back in to ask if I'd been out there yet. I'd been cooking, changing diapers and crafting all day... I'd barely looked out. But it was beautiful. He grabbed his guitar and said I could send the kids out. They were thrilled!!!

Then I decided to join them with Little Man and finally pruned back my lavender. It was a little out of control! I saved a bunch of it to dry.