We're in the Land of Enchantment (New Mexico for those of you who didn't know) and since Nana and Papa don't have wireless, we're off the grid for awhile. I'm actually posting from Papa RayRay's office while he plays with Sweet P.
Sweet P and I are both sick (and tired). Luckily, she's been getting in some good naps since we got to NM.
I'll be back to posting in a few days, but until then...may God bless the last few days of 2010 and the first of 2011! What do you have planned for your new year?
A few things on our agenda:
*A 2nd birthday
*Auntie Kannon's graduation from LSU
*Another soccer season for the Farmer
*New gardens at the farm and one at home
*A new truck!
*And hopefully some visits from family and friends (hint, hint)
DIY Nativity
I found this adorable DIY Nativity at Catholic Icing. What a delight that she was sharing her printables for free! And I love the results. I didn't print out all the pieces because I wasn't sure we'd have enough time to do it so I just did Mary, Joseph, 2 camels, a donkey, the Angel and the baby Jesus.
Maybe I should have let my kid color them, but I decided I'd do it, put them together and surprise her with them. She, of course, went straight for baby Jesus. We'll use these for our Advent tradition tonight and hopefully for years to come. Visit Catholic Icing to get your own!
Happy Birthday Jesus!
...and wonders of His love
Auntie Rosita makes our cards every year and this year's might just be my favorite of all time. It's a trifold--Joy to the World is on the front, the letter is on the back and We wish you wonders of His love is on the flap when you open the card. The pictures are all on the inside. There are 12, one for each month. We were a little worried about how that would turn out, but it ended up looking great (in my opinion!). Nana Nancy was the photographer for our family picture in the middle at the Colorado farm over Thanksgiving. Merry Christmas to you and yours! Joy to the World, the Lord is Come!
Visit RositaDesigns.com to have Auntie Rosita design your next Christmas card, baby announcement or invitation.
Quilted Numbers
I discovered this project when my friend Red made it as a new baby gift for our friend Jess. (Red is an amazing seamstress. She's currently on vacation from Etsy, but check back to see the awesome things she does!). She made the whole alphabet, but I was a bit nervous about taking on so many letters when I really didn't have a clue what I was doing! I did end up figuring it out and these were born:
I found the templates for the numbers at Oh So Happy Together and printed them out. I bought green fabric with white polka dots and white flannel as the filler. There are 2 pieces of white flannel on the inside because I wanted them to be a little stiffer. Then I followed the directions on Oh So Happy Together.I cut them out on our trip to Colorado and they sat pinned together waiting to be sewn for 3 weeks while I tried to use up the brown thread on the bobbin in my sewing machine. Alas, it wouldn't run out so I ended up taking it off to thread white onto the bobbin. They took about an hour to sew. I think it would have gone faster, but I'm an amateur sewer and (ahem) am not so good at sewing a curved line (so there was a lot of seam ripping and redoing and ripping and redoing). And if you haven't noticed, numbers have a lot of curves in them. Have you seen the number 8 lately?
Once they were sewn together I threw them in the wash. I dried them and when they came out they were all curled into a ball so I ironed them to flatten them out.
My lines may not be perfect, but I love the finished product and I really hope Sweet P does, too. I think they'll be a great learning tool. When I get home I plan to make a + and - sign for them as well.
Quilted Alphabet up next? Let's wait and see how these go over first!
Linking up:
Stay Tuned...
In the next few days I'll be posting pictures of the gifts I made Sweet P for Christmas. I wanted to show them to the Aunties and Gammie in person before I posted (since they read the blog) and now that they've seen them I can share them with you! You'll just have to wait a bit longer because I haven't taken pictures of them, yet. But they're coming!
We're in Texas for Christmas and can I just tell you (and make you Iowans just a teensy weensy bit jealous) that it was 82 degree today! 82!!! We were smoldering in our long sleeves, jeans and boots. Where are my shorts when I need them? White Christmas? I think not.
Tot School: Travel Edition #2
Sweet P is 19.5 mos old
We left town on Thursday morning so we were at Gammie's for 1/2 of our week. We also had a LOT to do before we left so our activities were sparse this week. But at the start of the week we made our fun Santa Handprint Craft and our Fingerprint Snowmen.
We made ornaments at our friend K's house and fingerpainted in the process. Unfortunately, we used the wrong kind of paint and it all chipped off by the time we got home. Any ideas on what paint we should have used? We used tempera.
Christmas erasers: These were an advent gift and we used them to practice matching. She was able to match each one and even matched them by shape when I flipped them over (picture side down). One of the snowmen made it into our food bag and came with us on the trip. Sadly, his head was removed during transit.
$1 Books: Our friend Amy gave us this book as a gift and it's a great find! It doesn't have a great story (just the lyrics to We Wish You A Merry Christmas), but it has great colors and a wheel that you turn on the side and once she figured it out she had a ball with it.
Looking at ornaments and an Usborne book party: She loves to go around the tree telling me each ornament. Later this day we went to an Usborne book party/bow/Pampered Chef party at a friend's house and she had a great time playing with the other kids, books and toys.
Car trip: Lots of books (including our Christmas book), playing with the Bumble in a baggie!, Hermie the Elf (the finger puppet) and mini magnadoodle.
Sensory Bin: Gammie made us this awesome sensory bin when we got here. It's full of tiny ornaments, seashells, beads shaped as animals, jingle bells, wooden shapes (ovals, hearts, squares, stars and crosses), decorative stones, buttons, mini clothes pins and tiny (really too tiny to be playing with) sea creature toys. She still loves dumping it all out on the floor and scooping it up.
Music with Auntie Kannon: She listened to her favorite Florence and the Machine song on Auntie K's new headphones.
At the park: It's too cold in Iowa to go out and swing, but not in Texas! We went to the park and all she wanted to do was "wing." We tried to feed 2 ducks, but they weren't interested. So we watched fish eat the bread instead!
Fingerprint Snowmen
While we had the paint out for our Handprint Santa Craft, we also made 2 fingerprint snowmen. Aren't they cute? I colored in the body parts for Sweet P and let her decorate the rest. I used white tempera paint and blue cardstock. This is her Christmas card for my grandpa (her great grandpa).
This is a quick and easy craft for kids of all ages. I think it'd be fun to make a whole village of fingerprint snowmen!
Wordless Wednesday
And a Humble Bumble update for Auntie RoRo and anyone else who cares!
He went from this:
To this!
Handprint Santa Craft
Gammie emailed me this craft and while it was meant for a card I decided I could put it onto a t-shirt. I also changed up a few other things. Gammie thought it would be a good idea to use pompons for his hat so she sent me some (thanks mom!) and I decided to use a bell for the top of his hat. I also didn't have googly eyes, but did have some felt to make eyes. You'll also notice he has no mouth. Oh c'mon, it's covered by the beard! I had everything I needed except the t-shirt and it was $2.99 at Hobby Lobby.Here's what you need:
The Craft: Handprint Santa
What you need:
T-shirt
White and pink fabric paint
1 red button
2 small pieces of black and white felt
1 large piece of red felt
Red embroidery floss
White and black thread
1 jingle bell
Cut out a piece of red felt in the shape of a stocking hat or a simple triangle would work! Stitch the felt to the t-shirt using red embroidery floss.
Use white thread to sew pompons to the bottom of the hat. I just used a regular stitch on everything. Cut out 2 white circles and 2 black circles from your felt. Sew the black felt to the white circle to create an eye. Repeat with the other eye.
Use a paintbrush (or if your child is old enough they can stick their hand in the paint) to brush white paint on your child's hand. Cover it well as the paint will soak into the t-shirt.
Stamp your child's hand fingertips away from the neckline of the shirt to create Santa's beard.
Dip your child's finger in pink paint and dab two prints to make his cheeks. Allow to dry for about 30 mins.
Sew his nose (red button) to the shirt using red embroidery floss, then the eyes with white thread.
Use embroidery floss to attach the jingle bell to the tip of his hat.
And there you have it! Handprint Santa in no time!
If you don't want to use a t-shirt, you can do all of the above with cardstock and paint.
Tot School: Week 7
Sweet P is 19 mos old
In other news: I got the Nikon back on Wednesday! Whoopie!
Here's what our week looked like:
LeapFrog Fridge Farm: Sweet P has finally gotten the hang of this and matches the animals! A few weeks ago she just ran around pushing the chicken on top that plays a variety of songs.
Painting: This is the only evidence I can give you of our painting escapade! I'd post a better photo, but the items she's painting are gifts for Gammie and Nana and they both read our blog!
Sensory bucket: Same bucket as last week, but this week we got to play with it in our basement! I added some disco ball ornaments that broke from the loop you hang them with and some washed laundry scoops.
Wooden snowman: This guy was her advent gift on Wednesday (he was a $1 at Joann's fabrics) and she is too hilarious with it. She thinks it's funnier when you hold it up and refuses to hold him up to her face now! Before we colored him, she gave him different colored eyes using pompons.
Stickers! Another advent gift (from Auntie RoRo). I wrapped an empty kleenex box w/ wrapping paper scraps and let her go to town.
A mighty humble Bumble: The Farmer got this as a stocking gift one year and I found it while digging for some tape the other day. I showed it to Sweet P and she made the little growl she does when she sees his ornament on the tree and we took him upstairs. The packaging says it takes up to 10 days!!!! to fully grow so he's still in that cup of water!
Naming ornaments: She loves to walk around the tree and tell me the names of each ornament. It's too cute and she's usually pretty gentle!
Gingerbread houses: Our friend K came over and made gingerbread houses with us on Thursday!
Water fun! We've spent a lot of time in a steamy bathroom this week trying to ease Sweet P's congestion so Friday morning she climbed up on her potty/stool and went to town in the sink. We've never done this before and I think she would have stayed there all day!
We also got to play outside a little bit this week! Daddy took her out while I was working and they had a blast. Good thing we played outside while we could, since there's a blizzard watch now!
And with that blizzard watch...we had our first actual snow! I ran out and put some in a bucket for her to play with. She kept saying, "Snoooowww!!!" And I think was a little confused when it melted.
Books this week:
Play and Learn ABC book: Roger Priddy (This is a great book and Sweet P has learned the words Yawn and Umbrella from reading it!)
Peek a Boo What?: Begin Smart Books
If You Give books: Laura Joffe Numeroff--Gammie got all of these for Sweet P last year and they are such great books. If you haven't read them, you should definitely check them out.
If You Give a Pig a Party (Sweet P's favorite because of the balloons)
What a great week and despite her sickness, quite busy running around town! How was your week?
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