Baby Crafting

I have been able to get my crafting hat on for a few minutes each day. I am glad to say that baby B has stuck to a 2 hour morning nap. (CHEER!!!) This has allowed me a bit of time to work on a few things that have been on my "want to make list" since he was born 5 months ago. Luckily for me a friend of mine just had a new baby girl, so the urge to sew hit me hard. I decided to make a few burp cloths somewhat following the tutorial from Homemade by Jill. I really liked how they turned out.

I then kept going. I have found that Baby B really likes his crinkle blanket, so I whipped one of those up too.

I love this fabric. It is super cute and soft since it is a flannel. The ribbons are a fun touch.

Lastly I made my favorite personalized onesie. I have a new sewing machine which has an embroidery stitch. I am getting used to it, so this might not be the best. I think my favorite part was adding the little bling in the middle of the flowers. Every girl needs bling!

Lastly I wanted to make a little something for the mom. Since this is her 6th child, I figured she has gotten many a baby present in her day. I wanted to find something just for her. After searching the Internet for a little I came across some special cookies. These "magic" cookies help produce more breast milk. Hey, that is what they claim. I decided to google a little more and found an oatmeal chocolate chip recipe to try. Now all I had to do was find where I could buy brewers yeast (the magic ingredient). Luckily Whole Foods carries it :) The recipe makes a whole lot of cookies so there were plenty for me to keep and give some as a gift. I eat one a day and I swear they work. I have been pumping a bunch to stock up for my return to work.



So that about covers my crafting for a few days. Love me a baby to make things for!

Can You Do It?

“Take Our Children to the Park…& Leave Them There Day”
Saturday, May 22nd is the first ever day in which children 7 years and older can participate in this event. It was developed in order to help neighborhood kids come together to play. In today's world we as parents are not too quick to let our kids outside without us let alone at a park. This makes it hard to let them out since we are busy and can't always be watching them. This also means that other kids are not outside cause we are not. I let my kids out when others are out, but not alone. So if we are not out, then others might not be out...you get the circle right?

I think that I am pretty good about giving my 7 year old some experiences with Independence. She has ridden her bike around the block to get a friend, walked to a friend's house alone, and even stayed in our house alone while I ran to the store. I have yet to leave her at the neighborhood park without me there however. I'm not sure I can do it. I trust, her but not everyone else. That is the problem. Guess this weekend might be a good time to try.

This is also a good time to see who is in your neighborhood. If all the older kids are at the park mine might find someone to play with. Since we don't go to the public school, like most of the kids in the hood do, my daughter often claims that she has no one to play with. This could be the event I have been looking for.

What about you? Are you in?

Softball

B playing first base. She is so serious.

She hit the ball! Run, Run Run!


Hanging in the dugout!

B has tried many a sport in her 8 years. Most of them have been the ones Daddy has wanted her to try. Golf, tennis, skating, basketball. I guess I have gotten in gymnastics, and now softball. I used to play when I was younger and loved it. A ton of her friends were going to play this season too so I figured it was a good time to try. She is on a team with 5 girls from her school and is happy. The worst part is the team name. A true CUBS fan can not put on this uniform without being a bit unhappy.

She is rather good for her first time. She can hit the ball every time, catchs pretty well with the mitt and is the quickest on the team. The "games" consist of every girl getting to bat, no outs, and no runs being kept. It is all about learning the game and having fun. I even had fun this morning at the "game".

Yes, her team is the WHITE SOX. How can this be? Thank goodness it is only for a few more weeks. Then we can get rid of this ugly black stuff. :)

A Little Bit Frugal

I have a list a mile long of craft projects to complete. I think I continue to add to the list instead of completing items on the list. However once I finished painting the dining/computer room I was a bit motivated. Photos have been rehung, baby photos of little B were taken and hung as well. Now I just needed to upgrade my memo board by the computer. I used to have a metal strip on the wall that I hung magnets off of, but I am tired of that and need more room. I wanted a "fancy"cork board but was not happy with the $20+ price tags. I knew I could do better.


So off to Michale's with my 40% coupon. I found a 11x14 piece of cork for $1.25, a black frame for $2.99, and a piece of scrapbook paper for .79


So for $5.00 this is what I came up with:



I added the metal strip at the bottom of the frame too. I like that I have the option of cork or magnets now. The paper goes very well with my green walls. (not that in this picture you can see that) This is a bit of color now by the computer instead of just papers.

Few Special Moments

One of my special Mother's day cookies. I make sugar cookies and frost them. Then the girls wrote/decorated them using food pens.

My B on her First Holy Communion Day. So pretty and so excited about this special day.

A's 5th birthday cake. My first attemp at fondant. I made the fondant from scratch and it was easy and fun.

So Behind

Ever since my 2nd child was born i have been keeping a monthly journal for each of my kids. With the birth of our 3rd I now have to journal for 3. There have been times when I'd miss a month, but due to my blog I was able to recap easily.

A turned 5 the other day and so I decided to journal. Being her birthday I thought it was a good idea. Well I knew I had missed a few months, but not an entire YEAR! I had not written in her journal since last July! Not getting the mommy award now am I? I decided to check on the journal of my first born. Luckily I had been catching up on hers for I was only behind a few months. The worst part was that when I went to my blog to "remember" what took place in the missing months I was lost. I have not been blogging much either. So now I had to remember what took place.

I am up to date on the 1st and 3rd children, but have a lot of remembering to do for the middle one. I am actually thinking of doing a "year in review" for her and starting again next month. It might be faster and a whole lot easier.

Date Night

One might think with a title like this I would be telling you all about a fablous night out that I had with my husband. Well not so much.

This date night was between a daddy and his girls.

This is not the best photo of the 3, but they were too excited about getting to the dance on time to take photos. The 3 had a good time at the dance and were super tired when they got home.

The best part was that I got my sister to babysit the baby and I went to a friend's house to hang with other moms. It was a good night to get together since the dads were out with some of our kids.