What would you do if you caught Santa at your house?
What if Santa go stuck in your chimney?
Do you want it to snow on Christmas? Why or why not?
Have you been naughty or nice this year? Why?
If Santa asked you to fly in his sleigh, would you do it?
What is your favorite Christmas movie?
If you could chance the color of Rudolph's nose what color would you make it?
Sing me one Christmas Carol (then note which song they picked and how they sung it. This could be funny because kids are always mixing up lyrics!).
Nikolai: 1. Um... ( 2. walking dinosaur bones 3. give him cookies 4. help him 5. yes, because I would like it snowing so we can throw snowballs and make a snowman. I haven't even done those things! 6. nice, because I love my friends and because my birthday is coming up! 7. yes 8. ninja turtles and Christmas 9. brown, because it's my favorite color 10. frosty the snowman, frosty the snowman, frosty the snowman.... (repeat for infinity lol)... Samara: 1. raphael purple and pink 2. pink present 3. give him my present 4. I don't know 5. yeah, because I throw snowballs at Kiera 6. good, because I want a candy 7. yeah! 8. 9. Leave it red 10.
I have not posted in a long while! I've been lucky to get through day to day! This thanksgiving, as the kids and I discuss the holiday we are also talking about being thankful for what we have and what we are given. Especially since the start of school, attempting to introduce my middle to letters (I think we are going to wait and focus on other things, like this), and the baby needing much attention and rarely sleeping, having the visual reminder of things we are thankful for is so important. The kids and I need it (ok, maybe mostly me), and it's been fun!
I did a simple 'kids thankful craft' search. There are so many ideas on pinterest for thankful trees, displays, banners, and even jars! I've decided to go with a banner, writing what we are thankful for on leaves printed from here done like what was done here.
But before we got started with the leaves, I needed an introduction. Teacher me coming out here. They really have no frame of reference for the Thanksgiving dinner. I don't think I have really talked about it with them directly. And if I did, they most likely do not remember. Especially my middle, after all she is only 3!
I reserved a lot of books from the library. Some that we have been using are: (each book is linked)
It's been a fun. We have been talking about:
-The First Thanksgiving and how the pilgrims were thankful for the help when they needed it
-How to be thankful when you don't have much and are given something (even when it might not bee what you specifically want) <-- This one is because we have a hard time with that, just thankful for generosity
-Finding things to be thankful for when you think there is nothing to be thankful for
-Saying thank you to people for more than just giving you things
-Being thankful for God's grace and love
So far, I love it. Writing and coloring on the leaves is so fun.
My favorite one to this date is my middle, "I'm thankful for my heart that beeps". I think that is the cutest thing!
My little boy so far is thankful for star wars characters. Ha!
It might not be the most glamorous of banners, but it is something we've been looking at and reading as a reminder. It's serving it's purpose. The leaves have some thing written on the front and the back...
And, what I am very thankful for, is that this has been said by one of my littles...
I'm hoping to make this a tradition. Or at least some variation of this every year. I'm not going to save the leaves though. That would be too much, and I trying to use craft supplies not change their shape.
I am so honored that I got to test the first pattern for the new pdf designer over at Paraplu!
I set out to sew a tie last Christmas season but the husband wasn't too happy that the sewing patterns that I had found weren't real ties but those ones that clasp together under the collar. So I skipped it and just bought a slack and shirt set from Walmart.
I saw this pattern test call and had to jump on it! The pattern designer blogs over at Mae & K and was one of the co-starters for the awesome CraftingCon! She is seriously, just awesome!
Bella Sunshine Design (affiliate) has a new dress that is coming out! The Holiday Cutout dress is wonderful! Perfect for my St. Patrick's Day shirt for my little girl for this year! I usually buy St. Patrick's day shirts for the kids to celebrate hubby and my wedding anniversary, but how much sense does that make when I usually make the kids clothes? This little tunic and dress was perfect!
The cut-out dress comes in two different length options (tunic or dress). I picked half way between the two lengths for baby girl since she tends to be a bit longer than what her width size matches! My babies are such little skinny minnies! The dress has some ease to allow for layering too! Great for those of you who live in the cooler climates! It's in the 80's here so it's fantastic as it is!
There are several different options for the cut-out in the back for the different holidays, and you can applique the images on the front as well! I decided to just go with the cutout in the back. I loved the look of the dress from the front as it was.
At first Baby girl did not want to have anything to do with the ties on the side. I had to tie it in the back like a halter to keep it from falling off her. It was the only way she would not fuss over the ties! I bribed her with cookies to be able to tie them around the shoulders.
Check out Bella Sunshine Designs (affiliate) and take a look at the Cutout Holiday Dress and the other patterns she has out (the banded skirt is super cute too!). Right now the dress is on sale for 20% off using the code BLOGTOUR.
I have to say I am super excited about the dress! All the seams are closed. The neck and shoulder are enclosed in the bias tape, the waist is enclosed in the lining and the skirt pieces are sewn with a french seam! I love it when it comes together so simple and wonderfully!
Of course I had to go with the hardest shape, the curves and points, for the cut out. LOL! But what would it be without the challenge? I am going to keep practicing with the turning and the topstitching! But as I look at these pictures I just can't help but love it!
These are the other ladies sewing up some awesome cut out dresses in a range of sizes!
For the last 6 years, since the hubby and I have been married, I have bought St. Patricks Day shirts. This year was the first year where I really sat back and considered making one for the kids. I have one up and coming for Baby Girl, but as for little man I am a bit stumped. I decided to compile some of the ones that I enjoyed and thought would be fairly easy. But I guess I kind of expected there to be more out there! There really isn't a whole lot.
I have lots of ideas for my little man now, and I am totally digging all those fonts and I might just go on ahead and make my own printable to freezer paper stencil for a shirt for him!
Check back later (Monday) for what I made for Baby Girl!
Do you do special outfits for your kids for St. Patrick's Day? What do you do?
Have you seen the Holly & Ivy Party Dress by GYCT Designs (affiliate)? I love this dress on baby girl. I live that it's easy to sew, fast, and has so many different options! Perfect for play, perfect for dressing up. It's just an awesome dress!
The dress has three neck lines; sweetheart, square and round. It has two sleeve options; long and short with elastic. The dress also gives directions for doing an overlay!
I did a regular one for baby girl in a square neck for Thanksgiving and an overlay with a sweetheart neck for her Christmas dress. Both turned out so cute! I capped the sleeve for the Christmas one, lined it and sewed it onto the bodice before doing the lining... That way all those bodice seams are hidden.
I am just glad it's done and over with. I love dressing up and seeing the kids dressed up. But, I am ready to move on to other projects without the added stress of complete utter perfection.
And our costume theme from this year, Batman! I briefly mentioned our costumes here with the printable I used to plan the outfits. I think we turned out pretty good!
I will spend the next few days talking about the costumes (something I intended before November), but it'll give me the opportunity to clean-up and play catch up on the mess that is in the craft-room. As that always seems to be the case after this time of year! LOL
I am so excited to share with you a printable for planning out kids Halloween costumes! I need lists to get things done. You should have seen my hair-brained attempts last year at creating the halloween costumes. I felt I was all over the place! After having created and {finally} shared my party planning printables with you through GYCT Sizzlin Summer Series and Baby Girl's 1st Birthday, I figured I could make one for Halloween costumes! Maybe then I might be a bit organized with it?
I know this is a bit early too, but if you are like me and need as much time as you can get then this is even pushing it!
So on the sheet, I have a spot for the patterns to use and a place to paste the inspiration picture for reference! I wish my printer was printing in color. So don't mind the black and white.
I thought this would be handy for taking with when shopping. I cannot shop for a ton of fabric at one time, and need to have a list handy and ready to just grab, cut, then go. The kids get super fussy super fast. So I have a section for the notions and fabric amounts needed.
The "to do" section is a checklist you can use to write down what needs to be done in order to finish the costume. Complete with a finished check box at the bottom of the sheet. Yeah, because it is always fantastic to say, "hey, I have finished something!" :)
As you can see, I actually added a background to this printable and I cannot handle not having it printed in color. I already started coloring in one as I was filling it out! LOL
Did y'all have a Happy Easter? We spent some time with family, got home really late... It was a good day, fun. I did not take many pictures. My lower back was hurting, so getting up and moving around was not happening. But I did ask a cousin to take some pictures for us using my camera. These two (we didn't take too many) were my favorite!
I love the smile on little man's face and how he is holding his sister's foot. :) Too Precious!
He just cracks me up! I love his little face!
It was a halfway homemade Easter. Nikolai was wearing his Number 9 Trouser's by Shwin Designs. I had made them for the pattern flip and blogged about them here and you can see him wearing them on his 3rd birthday here. I haven't figured out collars yet, so I have not really attempted too much for shirts in that yet... Any patterns or suggestions that explain the color step-by-step would be greatly appreciated!
Samara is wearing her Kenzie's Party Dress by EYMM that I had made for the blog tour. You can see that post here. I am surprised that she can still fit in it, I thought she was growing like a weed and expected her to grow out of it, but nope! :) I was going to take the elastic out the bottom, but she was just too cute!
And last was one that I haven't shared with you yet... My skirt. It's the Rabbit Rabbit Creation's Strip Quilt Skirt ... Man, I've been slacking! It's amazing what not feeling good does...
Love this skirt! comfy and cute!
The skirt picture was when I tested it. I love the look with the shirt, so I went with that for Easter. :) You could probably see from the family photo that my back was hurting, I was just standing weird. Kind of bummed that I didn't take more, but oh well... I got some and that is enough. :) And we had fun celebrating with friends and family and that is the most important thing! :)
