Lightening McQueen Book Bag

Well the almost 2 year old was jealous of the the Sunbeam's Book of Mormon book bag. So a few weeks after the first bag, I make him his own Lightening McQueen Book Bag.

 Needless to say, the almost 2 year old is thrilled beyond belief. He likes it with Lightening McQueen on the outside. I didn't have enough Lightening fabric to make handles in red.

 His barely fits a board book. He feels really awesome walking in to church with his own scripture bag, you can see his swagger in the way he walks when he thinks he is a big boy. Its the way he walks in the grocery store when its only him and me and I let him walk.

The unfortunate thing about his swagger is he walks EVEN slower. He is my slowest walker at this age. He can run fast but he walks slow. I was worried about him in nursery without his older brother with him. They are BFFs and for many months he was very unsure about his class, but boy does he love being the big man on campus. He is the second youngest in nursery, but he is positive he is now in charge. He spent 6 months learning the ropes, and now he is ready.

Book Bag

 In the beginning of the month my 3 year old became a Sunbeam at church so I made him a little book bag for his own Book of Mormon.

 Its been super good for his self confidence at church to have his own Book of Mormon especially in Primary. Plus we read out it at night during family scripture study.

I lined it with Cars Fabric. So technically its reversible, but I assumed he would keep the stripes on the outside. I was right, he gets so angry when his older siblings flip the bag inside out. I think its embarrassing for him.

High Altitude Play-Dough in the Bosch

I had strep throat last week, which was awesome, because my daughter's birthday party that included 10 kids was on Saturday and I spent the previous two weeks out of town. So come Friday I still had not planned anything to do at the party at our house. I decided play dough! I thought about buying it, because I always buy it. As far as I can remember I have never made play dough. Although I do know I played with homemade play dough. So I googled it.

Play-Dough in the Bosch.
Thankfully a few people had tips.

Also thankfully I have basic knowledge of cookie dough at 7,000 feet, or my play dough would have been a disaster.
I halfed the recipe because I made 6 different colors.

I poured my dry ingredients in the Bosch and mixed.

• 3 to 4 cups flour
• 1 1/2-2 tablespoons cream of tartar (I eyeballed it)
• 1/2 cup salt

Then I added my wet ingredients and let the Bosch mix for a few minutes

• 1 tablespoon+ canola oil
• 1 1/4 cups hot water 
• Food coloring

The recipe I found said to use the dough hook, next time I think I'll try my cookie paddles. It seems like the paddles would have helped the dye mix.

It was surprisingly easy. I'm not sure why I thought it was surprising that it was easy, because everyone always buys it. My almost 7 year old and 9 and half year old then hand kneaded the dough for over an hour until it was time for dinner.

I think this might be my new snow day activity. Perfect for kids with sensory needs after their snow gear is wet.

I also thought if I'm ever the room mom to older elementary schoolers that we might make handmade play dough for a class party, I think those older kids would love getting their hands kneading. 

Frozen Party

I know there are a million frozen party ideas online, but this is what we did. None of which was original. I have lots of snowflake crafts so it was easy to just slightly change. This was a temporary change. With this printable.

 I printed Elsa on paper, and melted Jolly Ranchers. I don't think any of the kids ate the cake just pieces of jolly ranchers.

 Nat requested pin the crown on Elsa.

 We printed the birthday banner from this site.

 For some reason I made a 6 year old two wreaths, that one in the background too.

 I made the pinata for her. She loved it. Turns out I made it too sturdy. Don't use packing tape, masking tape probably would have been better.

Valentine Bears

I made my kids bears. Wouldn't it be awesome if I edited these photos? I made them for valentine's day presents. If you look closely you can tell what order I sewed them in. I used this tutorial. I used fleece so it was a nice and easy project.

I also used this printable.

Door Hangers

My 7 and 5 year old really love things on their bedroom door, to indicate it is their room. When we moved around bedroom roommates, the toddler is now with the 5 year old, because the baby will be with the 8 year old.  (His birthday is coming, I guess both of their birthdays.)  I made new door hangers, but mostly because the old ones were wooden and made too much noise, making me crazy.  

 The embroidery isn't original designs, I saw them on pinterest, which probably came from etsy. They were on hoops not quilt squares though.  There is something about me in my third trimester that is drawn to making children's bedroom decor from unfinished quilt squares.  (Check out a year and half ago. Here and here.)

I love them, because they are silent, and each kid has their own.  But overall I ended up hating this project.  I had to will myself to finish.  I'm having the hardest time naming this baby, so his square doesn't have a name. 

Speaking of names, last night my oldest suggested Elvis Lee.  Kind of catchy actually, but I'm not using it.

Mustached Tooth Fairy Pillow

Remember the preview the other day.  Well I finished it the next day, and now I'm posting.  I love it so much.  The felt tooth is double sided with two pieces of felt, so there is no exposed stitches from my embroidery.  My seven year old still hasn't lost any teeth so the pillow is plenty in time. (Sad day for him, both of his parents lost teeth later than average, plus he didn't get any baby teeth until he was 14 months old, so he'll loose teeth even later than his parents.)

Fits a mini card, with money.

Stay tune, of course my daughter wants a girly one.  Even though she probably has another two years before she loses any teeth.  I'm sure she'll be late too, but not as late, because she grew teeth a good 5 months before her brother.

Copy Cat Easter Crafts

I found these crafts online, and copied them thinking my kids would like them.

I made this wreath from my cardboard circle.

Originally I used a foam insulator pipe.  Epic Fail! Pinterest Fail. The foam doesn't hold its shape.  I spent a lot of time and energy making the foam insulator a perfect circle, and then with in a week of sitting in my closet all wreathed up, it ended up like this, so I pulled it apart and used cardboard instead.

Tooth Preview

I made this little guy, while sitting next to my husband as he watched USA vs. Mexico World Cup qualify game. (Apparently it takes a year and a half to qualify for the World Cup. It was a tie.)
I think he is super awesome!
My kid loves mustaches like only a 7 year old boy could find them funny. So I've been waiting to find a mustache craft for him. Other than that I think mustaches being the new put a bird on it is silly. And actual mustaches on men are gross.

Lazy Leprechaun Treats

I saw a picture of a really cute jar of Leprechaun treats. The bottom was gold coins, then skittles sorted in the rainbow colors, topped with mini marshmallows. I decided I wanted to copy. Instead of chocolate gold coins, I wanted caramels because I wanted to eat caramels. Then the night before, I was too lazy to sort the skittles. Then my laziness topped out with using asparagus rubber bands around the lids. It's the only rubber bands I had, and string seemed super hard to tie. The kids were super excited even with my laziness. As far as visually it was a fail, as far as fun it was a win.

Summer School

My son is doing school every week day this summer.  Well maybe not everyday, if we have something planned for the morning we'll skip it, and for other reasons. Want to know the main reason he is doing school work all summer, it has nothing to do with the statistic that he will lose 30% of his knowledge over the summer.  It has to do with he drives me crazy when his life is unstructured.  He cries, and whines, and so he is DOING school. He is too precocious for our own good.  This is what I came up with a school jar. 

 Each activity has a clothes pin and he picks two a day.  Once he has done all his clothespins, he puts them back and and we start over.  I thought this would be effective because some of the school activities he does not like, but those are the ones he actually needs to work on over the summer.  This way it is not me assigning it, it is him picking it. If he wants to do more than two work activities a day then, he can earn his quarter to put towards buying new books. His dad decided he could do math worksheet to earn new books.  Yes, we have a reader on our hands, but he also likes to do math too.  Each worksheet is worth a quarter.

I also made a Learning Jar for my daughter.  I don't care if she uses it but I didn't want her to feel left out.  It has more than coloring, things I want her to learn over the summer like counting to 10, recognizing numbers, writing N, learning phonic sounds of some letters.  My husband wondered why I didn't have learn ABCs on one, I said I don't want her to learn the names of the letters until she knows the noises they make.   When I read alphabet books with my toddlers I don't say A is for, I say, ahh (the sound of A) is for. But her jar has fun things too, like stickers, cover the page in stickers, she is only 3.
Would you like to know what my son has to do this summer?

• Writing Page (Describe ___ use at least 4 sentences) He does not like this assignment, hopefully him picking the topics will help.
• Reading what he chooses, and then telling me the summary, and main idea
• Bridge Book (a workbook we bought from school)
• Learn to Tie Shoes
• Debate  my husband came up with this (this is he gives me 5 pro or cons of the a topic, for example why is it good to play outside) (We are working on explanation and comprehension this summer.  We know he is comprehending but his teacher will want evidence he is understanding, so he needs to work on explaining.)
• Dictionary my husband came up with this.  He has a elementary school dictionary, he will have to look up a word, write how to spell the word, and what the word means.  Hopefully as the summer goes on he can summarize the definition instead of copy.
• Math worksheets
• Science, I haven't really planned what this means yet, but he loves science
• Maybe I should add, practice riding a bike.  Especially the two wheeler not the training wheel one.  Then again any pedaling motion he does, I am relieved about. No scooter allowed.

Backpacking Beanies

We were suppose to go backpacking about a month ago with another family.  The morning of I decided I was not going to carry heavy knit beanies for three people on my back. Sleeping in beanies is necessary, especially at our elevation.  So I quickly sewed up some fleece hats.  They are slightly hideous, but still great for sleeping. I made them super long, because the only thing I hate more than being cold in an old sleeping bag (my husband bought me a new one last year) is waking up cold because my beanie popped off my head. That way we can roll the brim lower and stay warmer!

 I used this pattern for mine.

The kids got bunny ones, because I knew they would think it was awesome.  I relearned an important lesson with fleece, make sure the stretch goes the right way before cutting and sewing.  Nan's was wrong :(

More Mini Quilts

My daughter was pretty jealous she didn't get a mini quilt.  So I let her pick out the material out of my stores, and she was pretty excited about the light pink the corners so then I picked the material around the pink. Part of the reason I used the black polka dot on my daughter's quilt was she was pretty excited about the pink and black home design items at hobby lobby.  

 Funny how the quilts ended up opposite.  The matching four squares is the light in the boy quilt and dark in the girl quilt.  The only think I know about quilting my mom taught me-- light dark.  You have to put a light square next to a dark square and a dark square next to a light square.  She taught me a lot of other things, but it falls on deaf ears because I can't cut straight and quilting is a lost art with out straight lines.

 Look how happy my child is... homemade sewing means love according to my kids.

Little Cupcake Apron

I love cupcakes, I love material, I especially love material with cupcakes on it, and since I'm also enjoy sewing aprons, I made my daughter an apron. We only have one child apron, and the kids fight over it now when we bake, so I whipped up another one.

Super Capes

This is the third to last texas project I will post. While visiting my mom in Texas in August, she helped me make capes. We made a Super J cape.  J picked out the colors, lets just say I was right when I told his preschool teacher his two very favorite colors where blue and yellow.

He likes to run "super fast".  He also picked out the patterned material for the J symbol, and he wanted a diamond shape.  

We found the tutorial here. We needed a cape, so he didn't have to use baby blankets anymore.

Then we made a birthday cape for the friend that introduced J to wearing blankets as capes.  That is a B for the friends name, not birthday.  I wasn't in attendance at the party so I have no idea if the friend liked it.

Part of me wants to make a princess cape for Nan baby, I already have the material and everything, but the other part of me knows, I should wait.

Needed More

This apron needed more. The pocket was too yellow, it needed an embellishment. I decided to go with buttons, because I thought they would be fitting with the depression era colors in the material being. It looks so much better now, it my opinion.

Turns out half aprons can double as full aprons, for toddlers. My daughter requested to wear it.

Just involved some jimmy rigging of the back straps, and going around the shoulders instead of her neck.

She and her sticky hair look good.

 

Tah dah the finished product. Like I said much better with the buttons.

Everlasting Cupcakes

I finally finished my kids play cupcakes.  I tried to be green and reuse stuff instead of buying a $15 cupcake set.  I ended up buying two spools of ribbon and silicon baking cups, so I probably didn't succeed in being green, but I did spend less money.  If you look at the pictures closely, you can see I gave my kids a used cupcake pan.  Its cleaned but slightly stained. There are two chocolate cupcakes, two yellow cupcakes, and two white cupcakes.  Chocolate cake goes well with chocolate frosting or white frosting so then I didn't have to buy more ribbon, after using my ribbon on the shirt.  I used this tutorial, expect I used calico not felt. The most useful part, machine sewing the top on first and then hand sewing the bottom, I was trying it the other way and it didn't work.

I think the chocolate frosting is my favorite.

 

Circles are extremely hard to sew, they turn out looking like rounded rectangles.

 

My baby loves them, most kids just love the cupcake tin and silicon baking cups, I should have saved my time, my kids love silicon baking cups, they play with them for hours.