A Simple Skirt

Sydney is very tall for her age. As her doctor told us at her recent check-up: "She's the size of an average 8 year old." Yep that's my girl...well her daddy's girl. I love her beautiful height but it does make buying clothes for her a little tricky sometimes. Especially since most skirts for little girls are getting shorter and shorter these days. And while I'm tempted to go on and on about my frustrations with that I'll continue on to a lighter note.

After some searching for skirts she could wear to school (they need to be mostly navy, light blue, white, and tan) and not finding much selection I decided to make her one. I made this little skirt for her a while back and she wore it quite a bit throughout the spring. It is perfect for her and makes everybody happy. Her school is happy with the colors, Mom and Dad are happy with the length, and Sydney is happy to have a unique skirt to wear to school and show off her individuality.

It is from the Lazy Days Skirt tutorial. It was so easy to follow and super simple. I will definitely be making more of these for the coming school year. The fabric is from Anna Maria Horner which I had in my stash and the ribbon is just a basic navy ribbon I picked up at JoAnn's.

Beginning embroidery

Sydney is always interested in trying different crafts. I have been meaning to let her experiment with some hand embroidery for some time now. Last week I let her pick out some fabric and thread from my stash. She picked out some Anna Maria Horner fabric (she is a girl after my own heart) and some pink thread (of course). She decided to add some stitches around the different designs on the fabric. We talked about all different things we could do with her embroidery once she was finished: a shirt, skirt, purse, etc. In the end she decided she wanted to use it as a hankie so that she could start using it immediately.

New armoire

We have a 9 month old explorer living in our house. She loves anything off limits including any of big sister's toys, Daddy's flat screen and Blu Rays, and Mommy's crochet hooks and sewing supplies. In order to create a safe land of adventure in the apartment we have been doing some spring cleaning and decluttering. We also finally added this beauty to our living room. I love love love it! There is still a bit of cleaning and organizing to do and then of course my favorite: decorating. It feels so good to go through the house and organize. We are known to move often so usually the cleaning and organizing happens then. However, we have been in this apartment for over 2 years so it was time. I have a few projects in the works so look for some actual crafting up soon.

Hiking

In an effort to spend more time outdoors I have been taking the girls out hiking recently. Here in Southern California the weather is beautiful and perfect for being outside right now. Often Sydney will get frustrated with hiking and complain that her legs hurt after only a few minutes so I decided to give her a little motivation. To encourage her to explore and look at the world around her we made the following:


Basically, I had her use markers to color an egg carton. Then on our hikes I simply encourage her to find different objects in nature that match her colors. The picture above is some of her treasures from today.

Book Review: The Caboose Who Got Loose

The Caboose Who Got Loose by Bill Peet is another family favorite here. First it is a fantastic story full of whimsy and imagination. I must say it is really fun to read aloud. Secondly, it is illustrated by Bill Peet! He is an amazing illustrator. I think it is important to give children examples of high quality art whether it is in books, the music you listen to, or places you take them to experience architecture, design, fashion, etc. Of course, books are an easy and economical way to share the world of art and imagination with your kids.

Favorite Things: Afternoons at the Park

We are lucky enough to have a park right across the street from our apartment. It is not the best park by any means neither in playground equipment or setting but it is wonderful to have a park so close to home. Even though it is the middle of winter we are still able to go frequently. Sydney loves running around playing, Vi enjoys being outside with new things to look at and explore, and I am thankful for a few moments in the sun with my girls and a book. I do realize that as soon as Violet figures out how to crawl these moments of sitting on a small blanket with a book will be over. Our time at the park will become chasing her around and taking all sorts of leaves and dirt out of her mouth but for now I am loving it.

Book Review: Yummy Yucky

I have always loved reading and I aim to pass that love of books onto my girls. There are lots of great resources out there to learn ways to make reading fun for kids but I think one of the most important is to just spend time every day reading with your kids. I have been falling a little short on this lately so I thought that doing little reviews on the blog might help motivate me to get back into the habit of sharing books with the girls. We will just see how it goes. This first one is going to be simple!


Yummy Yucky, by Leslie Patricelli, is one of our favorite board books. It was given to Sydney as a gift a few years ago from Courtney. I love that it is simple both in words and pictures, making it easy to flip through the pages with an infant who is not too interested in reading yet. Plus, it is a funny way to teach a toddler about what's ok to taste and what is definitely yucky, like the trash can and blue crayons. Look for it at your local library or purchase it for lots of giggles with your toddler.

Valentine Paper Hearts

Sydney made these paper heart garlands to hang in the front window for Valentine's Day. It was inspired from Marta's beautiful and sophisticated version. It was so beautiful and I knew instantly that Sydney would love all the hearts in the window.


First, we collected papers from Mommy's stash in reds, pinks, and blacks, scissors, tape, and string (or in our case pink embroidery thread). Because Sydney is still learning to cut I thought she could use a little help with the heart shape so I just gave her some heart-shaped cookie cutters to use as templates. They worked perfect because they are nice and large for her to hold on to as she traced and after a few hearts she was cutting away confidently without the 'template'.


Meanwhile, I prepared seven lengths of string that would hang in the window. Once Sydney had a good stack of hearts she taped them onto the strings.



Finally, we hung them up.


I think they look great...especially with all that rain on the other side of the window.

Flashcards

We have been busy around here lately trying to soak up the last bits of summer. I am definitely ready for fall to come with the cooler weather, celebrations and traditions, and a more predictable daily routine (hopefully). Until all those things settle in though we are still rushing around BBQ-ing, playing outside when it's not too hot, and making weekend trips to see friends and family. In the hopes of getting back into that routine I have been trying to spend a little time each day with Sydney working on words or letter sounds or beginning mathematics skills. Here are some flashcards we made together. Sydney picked a book she wanted to learn to read and we picked some words out for her to learn. Then I added a couple of my own too. We will see how she does; right now she knows what all twelve say so she has the tendency to just guess the words.

Hope everybody's getting ready for the season change too because I am praying it's a cold one.

2 Months Old

Yesterday Violet turned 2 months old. How time flies. It seems like we are still adjusting to being a family of four and yet when I pause and look around everybody seems adjusted except me. I am still amazed each time I look at my girls and think of what an awesome responsibility God has given Shane and me. They are such amazing girls; His creations!

Vi is learning all kinds of new little things these days. It is as if she wants to remind me each day that she is growing up already. This was her earlier in the week giving us a show of facial expressions and smiles to start our day. How can I not feel incredibly blessed? She is wonderful!

Preparing for Baby #2

Things around here are beginning to look different. We store most of Sydney's outgrown clothes and toys at my parents' house and my mom brought down all the baby stuff yesterday. Sydney and I immediately starting washing and organizing everything.


Let me just say that there is ALOT of stuff! It is a bit overwhelming really. Now we have little outfits ready in the closet and tons of little blankets ready to wrap up precious little toes.

I still have a pretty sizable 'to do' list before she arrives but I am starting to feel closer to being ready.

Painting with Sydney

Sydney has really developed a love of painting. It is a rare day that she does not ask for some sort of painting project. Most days I let her watercolor; primarily because it is washable and stays pretty well contained on the table. We have started exploring other painting options and mediums though. It is fun to watch her experiment.


Recently we used fabric paint and tea towels from Ikea to make gifts for her Oma and Grandma's birthdays. I just cut sponges into shapes and let her dip them in a little bit of the fabric paint and then arrange them on the towels, inspired by this post. She used a leaf shape for one and a star shape for the other.


Today is just beautiful outside so I let her paint outside and make a mess. This is her first canvas and it is fun to see her painting out there through the kitchen window. At first she was timid but of course she quickly jumped in with both hands...literally.

Her own style

Sydney has begun dressing herself lately. The picture above is her a couple weeks ago. We are finding out that her taste is very eclectic, to say the least. She is also big on layering which is fine for winter; however, today I had to explain that she had on way too many clothes for the warm 77 degree weather outside. I guess at 3 1/2 she didn't realize that leggings, a skirt, a dress, a tank top, and a thick wool sweater were too much to play outside in the sun.

Great Morning Tradition

Amanda Soule is so inspiring to me as a mother. I love her book The Creative Family and I am looking forward to reading her newest book soon too. Her blog post today really touched me. She talks about setting up an activity for the kids before she heads to bed. Then when the kids get up they have a fun way to start the day. What a great way to start our days on a positive note and encourage our kids to be active either with an art project or fun activity. I am looking forward to trying this out with Sydney some times.

I remember growing up that my mom would surprise us with lavishly decorated dinner tables for different holidays. I have distinct memories of arriving home after school to find an array of Valentine or Saint Patrick's Day treats overflowing the table in the kitchen. It is these little things that we do as parents that make the biggest impression. A little forethought and planning goes along way in our children's eyes. So whether it is preparing something for the morning, after nap-time, or after school think of something fun to surprise your family with this week.