Fabric Playhouse

Of course the Family Fun magazine did it again!  They ALWAYS have something in the issue that I think I have to make or do.  Well, this month they had a fabric playhouse that you can put over a table.  The one in the magazine was kind of generic and boring fabric.  So, I asked my mother in law if she had some fun fabric that she wasn’t using or didn’t want anymore.  Well, instead of just a couple different ones, she gives me a whole garbage bag!!

Then, I got to thinking, it was time for my own sewing machine.  So, I went to a local store and bought just that.  A sewing machine that will maybe sew a straight line! :)  Nothing fancy, just wanted something to do some basic sewing jobs.

So, I sewed the top of the fabric house together so it won’t move on top.  Cut some windows and a door in the fabric.  Made a welcome sign. Got the card table set up.  And, wah-lah, we have a house!!

All the windows and the door roll up and attatch to velcro pieces.  Then she can put them up and down when she wants too.  As you can see by the big smile on her face that this is a hit!  She has been spending a lot of time in it!

Well, today, I got more creative.  I always wanted to try and make felt food.  Now, I am not crafty nor artistic enough to actually make the 3-D kind.  I looked some up, but just found it too complicated!  So, I did the best I could with my new machine and just made some things up.  Everytime I got one done, I would hold it up and ask Josie what it was!  She knew them all, so I guess they resemble the real thing a little bit!  I also made her some plates and napkins using some fabric and some felt.  I sewed the fabric on to the felt so that it is a little more sturdy for her food!  What is more fun about this is that felt sticks to itself so when she makes sandwiches, it will all stick together!  I started her off with a good chunk of food!  I will add more to it when I think of something or see something I want to try!  Now remember: I am NOT that great of a sewer yet, so bare with the fact my lines are not straight and they look pretty rough!  But to a 4 year old, they look like something bought in the store!  She LOVES her new food.

 

Some of the food I made: grapes, orange slices, apple slices, watermelon, buns, peanut butter, jelly, pizza, banana, eggs, ham, turkey, lettuce, pickles, fries, celery, carrots!  (The string cheese on the bottom right is not real!) Josie was eating her snack when I took this picture.  I hope to come up with some more food to add to our supply!  I want to make a felt board for inside her house, that she can place her food on.  Also, while I was at a garage sale today, I found this cute basket for .25 cents.  It is made of felt!!  So what better to store our felt food in? :)

Enjoy are fun new project and hopefully it will inspire you to do something fun too!  Can’t wait to add more to it!

2 1/2 hours!

I will embark on a new adventure tomorrow: Josie starts her second year of preschool.  She is totally pumped and totally excited to go!  I am very happy for her.  But in return, this leaves me with 2 1/2 hours for 4 days a week that I have ALL TO MYSELF!  I am very excited about this!  I will be able to run errands, shop, clean and just hang out at home.  No interruptions, no whining and no needs other than my own.  I can’t wait!

This brings me to think about what will happen a year from now. If Josie starts Kindergarten next year, as planned, I will have everyday to myself with both kids in school.  I am glad I have a year to decide what I want to do.  Do I want to go back to work?  What would I do if I did go back to work?  Do I want to find something part time?  Do I want to just volunteer some time to a local organization?  I still want to be able to be home with the kids after school.  I still want my weekends free to spend with my family and friends.  I haven’t worked for 6 years now.  I don’t even know what I would want to do.  Do I want to work with kids again?  Do I want to go back to school? 

Part of me thinks, maybe I should take some of that time, just to find myself again.  I won’t have to worry about the kids, I can focus on myself and try and find that person I used to be.  Or make the new me a better person.  I need to find happiness in more things.  Some of this I know should not be put off for a year, but I just focus on the kids and making our household run, that I put myself and my needs on the back burner.  Yes, that is probably the role of a mom, but we moms still need to watch out for ourselves.  There is something that is missing in my heart.  I don’t know what it is.  I am down, more than I am happy. I am edgy more than I am laid back.  I used to love more than I do. 

It’s all so crazy and a whole new thing to think about.  I’m glad I have a year to figure it out, but I will start with my 2 1/2 hours of alone time to work on the future me!

Got to love a sensory table!!

I know you have seen pictures of the kids playing with a variety of things in the blue water table we had.  Well, I recently sold that one and bought a better one.  One that has more space and a more flat surface!  Let’s just say it’s going to be a big hit!  I LOVE changing this out and letting the kids explore new things!  We don’t do a ton a messy ones unless it’s nice enough to be outside!  I am excited to come up with some more fun ideas and some old favorites!  I have to find some things to entertain Josie in the mornings before she goes to afternoon preschool.  This will be perfect!  So, if you have any awesome sensory table ideas, please pass them on!  Not so much the messy ones until I can figure out where to make those kind doable inside! 

I made some more colored rice this last week.  It was fun for a couple days, but they kept fighting over certain things so it had to go away.  We will try again in a couple months.  Even I had to join in on the fun!

After the rice got put away, I decided to get out Jayden’s legos and throw them in there!  I find he plays with the legos more when he can see all the pieces that he would want to use.  He had ran an errand with his dad when I had switched it over.  When he saw it, he was thrilled!  So, for now, the legos will be our sensory!  By the look of the picture one would think they won’t fight over them!

So now, I will be on the lookout for fun, new, CLEAN ideas for our table!  Can’t wait to see what we can come up with!

First Day of School: Through the eyes of a S.A.H.M.

I have blogged about this before, but the day is coming upon us this week!  On Wednesday, I am going to be sending my first born off to Kindergarten!  Although he is totally excited and wants to go tomorrow, this mommy is having a hard time.  The other day, standing in the grocery line, tears formed in my eyes!  I must be a wussy mom! :)

Since his birth almost 6 years ago, I put my own life and career on hold to be a stay at home mom.  There were many long days, but there were also many awesome days!  The coolest thing is that I have got to see every milestone in his life, first hand!  I didn’t have to hear it from a day care provider.  I find myself lucky that Kevin’s job allowed us enough money for me to stay home.  Yes, there have been sacrifices, but all has been worth it to see the world through his eyes for 6 years! 

He was an awesome baby.  Although he was 9 days late and made me go through 27 hours of labor, he was worth it!  He loves life.  He loves to learn about the world around him.  His favorite tv channels are the Discovery and History channels.  He has always been fascinated by wheels and how things work.  I had to learn the names of all the trucks, tractors and equipment out there.  He never wanted me to just say, “it’s a truck.”  He had to know exactly what is was!  (and still does)

As a toddler, he was still pretty awesome!  He loved when his baby sister came into the world.  He was very protective of her.  He could not have been prouder to have a little sister.  He has always loved helping in the kitchen and of course playing with all the pots and pans.  As I went through pictures to put on here, there were way too many to choose from.  But I can say this, his 6 years of life have been filled with many fun adventures, many fun crafts, many fun family outings, and many fun family nights at home.  We kept busy and that’s the way I like it!

My note to Jayden is this:

Jayden,  I hope in the first 6 years of life, that I have taught you the right way to manage through life.  I hope I have taught you how to be the best you can be.  I hope I have taught you to treat your friends the way you want to be treated.  I hope I have taught you to laugh and enjoy life.  I hope I have taught you to cry when you need to cry and feel sad when you need to be sad.  I hope I have taught you to stand up for yourself and the ones you love.  You are an amazing little man and I can’t wait to walk you to those doors in a couple days and watch you walk in so proudly to your first day of school.  I know you are going to do great!  You will have so much fun.  Just be who you are inside.  Never pretend to be someone else.  The morals and values we have set in you, should lead you down an awesome path of life.  And when I give you a hug on Wednesday and you turn to walk  into your classroom, if you see tears in my eyes, please know it’s because I am sad that I won’t get to be the one to do all the fun things with you anymore during the day.  I am looking forward to watching you grow and learn.  I love you my little man! – Mom

Bouncy Ball Painting

We busted out the bouncy balls and used them for a different reason other than bouncing them and losing them down the driveway on to the street!  My friend and I were talking about marble painting.  Well, I don’t have any marbles so she said to use bouncy balls.  So, I went out to the garage and found all the bouncy balls and various other balls.  Some plastic golf balls, and other plastic balls. Gave the kids some paint choices and some paper in a box.  Roll away and see what fun picture they could come up with. Now that they are dry, I am going to cut a couple down to a frame size and hang them up in our art area in the basement.  Very easy project for anyone to do!  Try it out!

Creative Treasures

I got to chalk another item of my summer to-do list with the kids.  A friend and I went to a pottery place.  I had not been there before but it was something I have wanted to do!  Totally worth the trip and we will go back again!  Jayden chose to paint a car!  I know, such a shocker!  And Josie chose a Caterpillar.  We picked out some colors and started painting away.

I told them before we got there that they had to take their time and concentrate on what they were doing.  They did awesome and I can’t complain about their finished product!  Next time though, I might just take them one at a time or have their dad go with me.  Then I don’t feel like I am running from one side of the table to the other to help them. 

Here is Josie’s finished product!  Very cute!

And this is Jayden’s finished product!  I was very proud of both of them and can’t wait to do this again!  Now we just have to wait a week until we can go pick them up! 

Canvas Painting

A few weeks ago Micahels had some canvas on sale for pretty cheap. I could get a two pack for 5.99.  Which made each piece 2.99.  So I figured it would be a cheap enough craft to do.  I was curious as to how the kids would paint.  I wanted the whole canvas painted, more abstract than an actual picture of something.  The kids LOVED this activity!  I for sure thought Josie’s colors would be more organized and Jayden’s would be all a mess.  Well, they surprised me and it was actually the other way around!  It was such a fun craft to do.  I will be watching for more canvas to go on sale.  Nothing like having the kids’ art work to look at on the walls.  Next time, maybe I will let them do an actual picture!  Here are some photos from our fun painting experiment!

I told Jayden his looked like some water with dirt and grass.  Josie’s looked, well, like a tornado! :) And the clips we use for chips made great to keep their sleeves up on their paint shirts!

Medicine…UGH!

The last couple weeks we have been discussing medicines with Josie’s pee doctor.  I knew from day 1 with the second round of the medicine it was not going to work!!  It wasn’t working before, why would it work now.  I gave it a try, because that is what they wanted me to do.  Well, of course, Mom knows best!  It isn’t working!  So, we are now moving on to another medicine.  This is going to be a patch.  I’m hoping it doesn’t leave her with many side effects.  The main one will be skin irritation.  I’m hoping it goes well as she won’t have to do liquid medicine!  So, keeping my fingers crossed that this works and it will make life so much easier for her!

The other thing, she has to be on a antibiotic for awhile that will keep her from getting infections.  She has pretty much had an infection for the last 3 weeks or so.  So, now we have to give her this medicine daily.  She hates it and there is no tablet form at all for kids.  So sad.  Infections: Just go away!

I am praying to God we can get her bladder calmed down so that she doesn’t have to take all this medicine.  I’m not thrilled about giving it to her, but I also don’t like to see her suffer.  It’s so sad to watch her have a spasm, especially a bad spasm.  If I could, I would take this all away from her!  But for now, we will continue medicine and pray we find the right one that fits her body and helps her out! 

Again, the doctors we have been dealing with have been great!  I can’t ask for anything more than someone who listens and is willing to work and find what works.  Our pediatrician does not seemed thrilled by all this medicine, but hey, he’s not the one that has to deal with it.

I think it’s just frustrating how much of a whirlwind mess it has been the last couple months.  I can only do so much to help her out, but apparently a lot of it is out of my control! So, we will just be patient and see what happens. 

The good thing from Josie’s doctor appointment today – she went from 3% the weight chart to 6%!  Such a hefty girl, I know!  And that is why we call her, Peanut!