Cora's Kindergarten Art

Easter and the slow arrival of spring

Addie's 9 month picture: the numbers are just stickers and she loves to pull them off her clothes! 

One day last week we heard Peter exclaim, "What? A Raccoon??" 

This little guy came to snack on the bird seed for a few afternoons. It was fun to watch him eat and I think he was amused watching us, too. 

Easter Eggs are to Easter what Snowmen are to Christmas. It's a season thing, not a religious thing. We had fun experimenting with different ways of decorating and dying the eggs.

Cora and I liked the ones that she scribbled all over with different colored crayons and then dyed them. 

It's hard work being a 3 year old!

I love this picture because it shows off Addie's blue eyes. I'm surprised how often even in West Michigan strangers comment on how blue our kids' eyes are! 

We lovingly call this the "Body Bib"! Cora can wear this over top of her nice clothes to keep them clean at meal times. I teased her once that she needed a body bib and she actually thought it was a great idea. Napkins just aren't enough some times! She picked out the fabric and I essentially sewed her a giant bib. She helped in some way with every step.  It turned out pretty cute, huh? 

Happy Easter! We enjoyed a wonderful worship service with our church family at Lee St and were treated with the Hallelujah Chorus as the postlude from a group of instruments: winds, strings, piano and organ. Beautiful! Then we enjoyed spending the afternoon with my parents and Deb and Eric and kids. 

Getting Ready for Baby #3

We learned in January that we are expecting a little girl! Notice the t-shirts...

Our friends had a baby in February and Cora and Peter love holding him! Even Peter is very attentive and curious about the baby. Isn't that the cutest expression on his face?

Cora did a great job holding the new little baby!

Cora snapped this picture of me on February 19...that have been about 25 weeks pregnant.

My SoulCare friends - a "support and encouragement group" for seminary spouses - threw a baby shower for me and the three others also expecting babies this spring/summer!

The SoulCare group who threw us the shower! 

I'd been itching for a sewing project so I made three of these sets for the other moms at the baby shower: a Snuggle wrap (swaddling blanket), baby bib and burp cloth.

See how the "Snuggler" works? Tuck the baby's legs in the pocket and then velcro the wings across the arms in a swaddle hold. Haven't actually tried it yet but it was fun to make for the other girls' babies. I got the free pattern from here:

cdn.makezine.com/make/craft/2010/04/lotta_snuggler_pattern.pdf

We are excited to meet this little girl. She's really starting to become more active more often during the day. I'm feeling good considering I'm now 30 weeks along - only 10 to go!!! We have an infant car seat and stroller, crib and pack and play, a front carrier, a breast pump and that's about it for the big stuff! My sister has offered her other large baby gear items for us to borrow if we have need and room for things like a swing or bouncy seat, and also bottles and clothes from Elena. I am eager for garage sale season since we will need to find newborn and 0-3 month-sized summer clothes since Elena and Cora were both born in the colder seasons. I actually registered at Target for some baby items that either broke, wore out or I got rid of before we moved but would still like to have again! Hopefully since I registered there they will also start sending me some coupons and free samples. :)

November Recap

November was a full and wonderful month:

Cora had a preschool mini-program where the students got to take turns putting on a small puppet show for parents. I've started volunteering in her classroom each week and am really enjoying getting to know the other students. I'm very impressed with her teachers and the program.

 Great-Grandpa Peter Buteyn passed away right before Thanksgiving, which meant that we got to remember and celebrate his life with lots of family. It was extra special to see Grandpa Bierma and Uncles Doug, Greg and Ryan for a weekend.

 Cora lost her first tooth! We noticed it was wiggly and within the week it was dangling by a thread and she finally asked Daddy to pull it out. Only about three days later the tooth next to it was very wiggly and she swallowed that one while eating a snack! Here is her last picture of her full mouth of baby teeth:

 And the picture of her after she lost the first one!

 We had a warmer and wetter November that what is probably normal for here. We ended up having a lot of play time inside since it was both rainy and cold and dark after Peter's naps. Here Cora is playing with "Ooblick". At least that's what I called it when I was younger. Cornstarch and water mixed together make a fascinating texture activity. Or repulsing! Cora loved it, Peter hated it.

 We also attempted home made finger paint (thanks to Pinterest). It was fun, but the texture wasn't great for painting. I'd call it "Finger Globbing" rather than "Finger Painting". Again, Peter wasn't crazy about this tactile adventure while Cora was engrossed in mixing colors and squishing it between her fingers for over an hour.

 The leaves finally finished falling from the trees. It seemed like a very long, gradual progression of leaves changing colors and dropping off trees this year. It truly was a beautiful fall! We managed to get some hiking in while the fall leaves were still nice and crunchy! It's amazing to see the ground completely covered with a blanket of red, orange and brown leaves...and to actually be able to see through the trees for more than 10 feet.

I also had a doctor's appointment that confirmed that I really AM pregnant with our 3rd child! We were able to hear the baby's heartbeat and later had an ultrasound to verify how far along the pregnancy is. We can expect to see this baby around the first week of June!



Tooth Brush holder

Again, being painfully practical, I needed a solution to keep C and P's toothbrushes and toothpaste from rolling out of our medicine cabinet. So here's what I came up with.

So simple and it's been working great! Here's all you need:

3 toilet paper tubes

a scrap piece of cardboard for the base

4 pieces of fabric approx. 6" x 6"

hot glue gun

Glue the fabric around the toilet paper tubes and around the cardboard base. The fabric is a little wider than the tubes so just fold the edges inside and glue them down. Then hot glue the tubes to the base. Voila! The variations of this are endless. Unfortunately the tubes aren't quite big enough for adult sized toothpaste, and brushes are too topheavy, but it has solved this problem for me in a simple, cheap, crafty way!



More bibs

If it isn't obvious, I've had the crafting bug lately! Unfortunately I have a hard time doing anything that isn't completely practical. But thankfully, I have a new niece to make something for.

I altered my original bib pattern to have rounded corners, to give it a softer appearance. I also took the advice of the fabric store attendant and DIDN'T prewash the fabric! Eeek! I thought that was a cardinal rule of sewing. So, my sister will have to tell me how they wash up...I also used cotten batting instead of polyester. It's more absorbent and less bulky so the bibs are a little more trim and attractive. At least I think so!

I chose three coordinating fabrics to make them reversible.

Side 1:

I also attempted to do some embroidery-type quilting, to prevent seperating and puffing after the many washes they will probably sustain. 

Side 2:

What do you think? I'm really happy with them, but like I said, we'll have to see how they work, practically. They are sized for a 6 month old to 2 year old child. (Can be used for older children but it might be too small, depending on the child.) Definitely intended as a meal-time bib, not a drool bib for an infant. My sister requested the ties, rather than velcro, since it's too easy and tempting for a child to pull off a velcroed bib. I agree, although when Cora's hair got a little longer it was hard to tie bibs on her. I had to teach her to how hold her hair up so I didn't tie it in the knot! Good thing my kids don't grow hair until they're almost 2!

Any ideas to make them even more attractive and useful?

Tile Coaster Craft

Craft night with girlfriends! Yeah! My friend guided us along this simple Tile Coaster craft.

 Materials needed: tiles (small for coaster, large for trivets), Modge Podge, tissue paper or napkins, scissors, brushes for applying Modge Podge, felt or cork and hot glue gun.

Cut pieces of tissue paper that you want to use to decorate your tile. If using napkins you'll have to peel the layers of paper apart so that you get one thin layer.

Using a paint or sponge brush, apply a thin layer of Modge Podge to the tile. While still wet, place tissue paper pieces on tile, then cover with another good layer of Modge Podge. Set aside to dry. When dry, apply a sized piece of felt or cork to the bottom side of the tile with hot glue so that the tile won't scratch the furniture it's intended to protect.

So simple, affordable and attractive! I went with holiday themed coasters because we did this craft soon after Christmas, but now they are packed away waiting for December!

I have not used Modge Podge enough to perfect the technique. Does anyone know secrets of how to avoid the wrinkle affect that usually happens with Modge Podge?

Make your own Neck Gator!

Brad and I love our neck gators. Recently when we took the kids up on the Mesa we were surprised at how windy it was and that their hats weren't going to be enough to keep them warm. So we each gave them our neck gators. Neck gators are like scarves, but better because you don't get stuck with a tail to keep track of. They're not fashionable like scarves, but functional and cozy!

On the way home I realized that I could probably make child-sized neck gators for them. So I tried it! Here are directions for adult sized neck gators. Adjust them to whatever size you need for a child. Just make sure it will be big enough to stretch over their little heads!

All you need is fleece and matching thread. I used a piece of printer paper as my pattern. Sized 8 1/2 by 11 inches.  Lay the paper on two layers of fleece, the short side along the fold. (It's hard to see, but the fold is nearest the camera in the picture.) ***Make sure that the stretch of the fabric goes the long way with your pattern, otherwise it will have a hard time getting over your head.

Cut. You should end up with a rectangle 8.5" by 22".

 Fold the rectangle over the long way and pin. (Shown below it is now 4.25" x 22".) Sew the seam, leaving both ends open.

Now stick your hand inside the tube you've created and pull one of the 8.5" edges through the tube and match it up to the other edge. Make sure the right sides are still together, and try to keep the seam lined up. Pin and sew almost all the way around the tube, but leave a couple inches unsewn to turn it inside out.

Now turn it right-side-out through the hole you left unsewn. You can hand stictch the opening but it will be on the inside of your neck gator so no one will see it anyway. I just machine stitched it and it looked identical to my store-bought gator.

 Now turn the tube so the seams are on the inside. You're finished!

 Here is Cora modeling my adult-sized neck gator. I made one adult-sized for her and it works great. The one I made for Peter I took in by an inch or two and it was a better fit.

Happy snow-fun! (Now that spring is almost here...)