30 Day Pinterest Challenge: Day 3 & 4

Day 3: Salmon w/Pomegranate and Fennel Salsa

Day 4: I Spy Quilt progress

I have been wanting to make an "I Spy" quilt for a long time. I finally got around to stealing bunches of my mom's fabric and cutting 5" squares out.  Now I have lots of novelty fabrics to make quilts for my friends. I found a few I Spy quilts on Pinterest and decided I liked this style, with a little "frame" around each block the best.  I am happy that I purchased a bunch of denim fabric for another thing, because I think it makes the perfect border for this kid quilt.

My vision is this becomes a favorite blanket to play on or take to the park.  When the quilt is finished, the family will be able to play two games with the quilt.  1) " I Spy with my little eye: a sunflower" and then the kids can find those on their blanket.  2) Matching, as there will be 2 owls on each quilt.  Somebody can point at one owl and somebody can find the other. 

Some of my favorite moments as a mom have been spent on a blanket outside on a nice day.  My kids are already too big to spend very long on a blanket now. And it has to be a much bigger blanket. :)  Time to make new memories of fun things to do together, but those times as babies crawling around were super sweet. 

My kids have fun helping me pick out the fabrics for my sewing projects and arranging the squares out on the floor.  E doesn't have as much patience as H does, but he likes it for a few minutes at a time.  You can learn a lot about colors and patterns.  But, the most important thing is they know how happy someone is to get something homemade. 

Wrapping Paper

   The kids and I are embarking on a very serious task for Christmas. Homemade wrapping paper. It's a pretty awesome concept, right?  I hate spending money on something that gets thrown away immediately.  I am constantly recycling gift bags for birthdays and such, but I like for Christmas gifts to be wrapped. Weird.  Also, I had a ton of paper grocery sacks that were piling up and I HATE TO SHOP.  I bought all of our gifts on Amazon in 8 minutes.  Then they were delivered to our house in 3 days.  I picked up some tape at Walgreens and we are all set! 

  The process goes a little like this.  First, make hot chocolate.

Then get out paints, cookie cutters, markers, etc...

And ignore the messiness that is my basement. I just had it finished and moved my craft/sewing stuff yesterday.  It is still a disaster.

Dip and stamp away!

Proud moment: My Kindergartener wrote out "stocking" and "Merry Christmas" by sounding it out all on her own.  I mean it doesn't look anything like "stocking" or "Merry Christmas" but that is still some amazing emerging literacy skills! BTW, if your Kindergartener can do better, don't burst my bubble. :)

My Snowmen handi work.

H's Christmas trees, decorated.  I liked the way she put a print in them.

Jingle Bells

 E and I practiced printing the trees evenly

 H's favorite ---I traced the Gingerbread Boy and Girl stencils. She got busy decorating them.  She is working on another set as I type.

Stars

Finished product

(You can't see it from this picture, but H wrote "HO HO HO" on the package.  I thought that was pretty great as I didn't tell her to write any words on anything.  She was so proud of herself that she wrote "HO HO HO" correctly.  "I can't believe I can write HO!" she said.  Giggles.)

First Day of Preschool

With his new personalized bag!

Excited that there is a Froggy book in his reading loft, just like the Froggy book at his sister's school.

Playing cars.

Jungle Gym

Driving the boat

Watching the Amtrak train.

Riding the raccoon.

I love that there is as much thought put into the outdoor play spaces as there is in the classroom. 

E had a great first day at his new preschool.  It has an AMAZING playground that overlooks the railroad tracks.  He got to stop, watch and wave at an Amtrak train.  He can't wait to go back.