I’m telling you, it’s all about the school bus. Ever since Calvin started preschool last fall, he couldn’t stop talking about and asking when he would be able to ride on one, just like “the big kids”. Well, the day has finally arrived! There was a little bit of prepping before hand… like making him a new backpack/bag:
getting a new folder for school:
and new sneakers (can you tell he’s obsessed with Toy Story?)
Since he’s going to a private school, the public school bus will only shuttle him halfway and then transfer him to a second bus that will take him to Trinity. I was a little nervous about all the shuffling, so I made him a little “map” with his various bus numbers and had him put it in his pocket for reference :p Anyway, here we are waiting for the bus:
He looks like such a big boy in this one!
Here comes the bus!
He was sooo eager and promptly jumped on the bus, took the front row seat, and waved crazily at us from the window… which was so heavily tinted I couldn’t really get a shot of his excited little face:
Then we watched him go (we all got up early to send him off)…
Bye Calvin! Hope you have a wonderful first day of school!
You’d think that people who work for a place built entirely for little people (e.g. Strong Museum of Play) would be used to dealing with little people “mishaps”…
Such was the response to baby Stephen’s “mishap” as we were leaving after lunch. As I walked out the museum’s main entrance, baby in one arm and Charissa in the other, Stephen lets out a superior mini-man fart that caused a violent eruption of poop to shoot out of his pants, covering my arm and landing on the pavement. I’ve never seen people move out of my way so fast as I held him out at arms-length, poop dripping from my arm, scurrying to the bathroom. It was a disaster. I had to give him a “sink bath” (Am I the only one who’s ever had to resort to this?) since he was covered in the stuff. Anyway. Big commotion. The staff comes running in with rubber gloves and a cart full of toxic cleaning chemicals after being informed by the crowd of mothers running out with their children (okay, not that bad, but some did skip washing their hands…) Got him cleaned. All was right and good again. As we headed out for the second time, I had to take a picture of this:
Too bad I didn’t bring my fancy Nikon camera for a more “artistic” rendition of his hazardous material, now so properly quarantined… what a great way to welcome museum visitors… I wonder what they’re planning to do with it…
Sorry for the lack of posts. I’ve been too busy this week to put anything together. So to help fill the void, here’s a video the kids made for Jeremy while he was away during our Church Youth Retreat at Delta Lake (…Cornell CBS alumni? I have great memories of this place… like playing mafiaall night long and falling into the lake…) Just a heads up, this is looong.
I’m a guy when it comes to movies. I’ll take horror, brainless slasher, adventure, or action over drama or romantic comedy almost any day (also a big fan of fantasy and Tim Burton films). I haven’t found a “scary” movie buddy in Rochester yet so when Ninja Assassin arrived via Blockbuster (thanks Mazie for telling Jeremy about it :p ), I was all over it. I was expecting it to be one of those cheesy Asian kung-fu films (and yes, even when I know it’s going to be that bad, I’ll still watch it). It was surprisingly not bad. But maybe it’s because my expectations weren’t very high to begin with .
Anyway, I’m pretty sure the majority of those who read my blog don’t share the same taste in movies as I do (Can you imagine a group of women bringing over homemade apple pie with their cute Vera Bradley bags to watch “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and pop bonbons? Well, if this doesn’t sound like your ideal girl’s night out, don’t watch Ninja Assassin.) I may not be able to round up fellow-crafters-who-have-better-things-to-do to watch slasher films with me, or perform awesome ninja moves to protect my offspring, but I CAN ninja my way into slicing up an old shirt and making something out of it!
Quick N’ Dirty - The Drawstring Layered Skirt
You will need:
an old knit shirt (preferably long sleeved)
ball-point needle (not necessary but highly recommended)
sewing machine, thread, rotary blade and mat or scissors.
1. Lay your shirt flat and smooth out wrinkles.
2. Starting from the bottom, slice your shirt width-wise (from side to side) into three bands, each a different height (the longest should be the length you want your skirt to be from waist to hem). You now have three tube strips.
3. Open up your tube strips and put them over and on top of each other so that the longest is on the bottom/inside and the shortest is on top/outside. Match up the top/waist.
4. Pin and stitch around the top, 1/4″ from the edge, securing together all three tube strips/layers. Set your stitch length and thread tension higher and sew along the top edge again, creating small gathers.
5. 6. Measure your child’s waist and cut two 2″ strips from the remaining t-shirt so that, when sewed together at the ends, equals that measurement.
7. Adjust your gathered/ruffled skirt piece so that it measures the same as your waist strip. With right sides together, sew the waist band to the top edge of the skirt, 3/8″ from the edge. Flip the waist band up…
8. and fold over to the wrong side. Stitch all the way around to form a casing.
9. Find the center front of your skirt and snip a tiny hole in the top layer of your waist band casing.
10. With the remaining part(s) of your t-shirt (I used the sleeves), cut a long 2″ strip (about twice the length of the waist measurement), fold it in half lengthwise and sew 1/4″ from the edge, and turn your tube right-side out to form the drawstring.
11. Use a safety pin to thread your drawstring through the waist band casing.
Our summer days are quickly filling up with activities and fun! A little late in coming, but here’s what we did during our memorial weekend-turned-week-long-vacation-at-my-parent’s-house:
Attended a wedding and spent time with some old friends:
Painted our nails for the first time ever!
Did some upcycling…
Made a new dress and took pictures of the kids…
And finally, finally succeeded in making a (matching) top for myself. You have no idea how many hours and fabric I sacrificed to reach this point… oh, and I also realized how difficult, awkward, and depressing it is to have to model something yourself. Almost as bad as shopping for a bathing suit… I must say, Charissa is much better at this than I am! (And thanks to my little sis for taking pictures!)
And now, for my quick n’ dirty tutorial of “The Boardwalk T-Dress” - an easy peasy way to upcycle a free career-fair t-shirt that your boyfriend or husband just can’t seem to let go, or any t-shirt for that matter! And the best part is, there’s no need to serge or zig-zag raw edges because jersey doesn’t fray! Yay!
You will need:
a t-shirt
a ball-point needle, not necessary for constructing the dress, but quite so for your sanity’s sake in working with knits!
scissors or rotary cutter and mat
paper, scissors, ruler, and a pen
a tank top in your child’s size
1. Fold a piece of paper in half, and using the tank top as a reference, trace half of the tank along the fold, creating your pattern.
2. Get your t-shirt.
3. Turn your t-shirt inside out and place your pattern on top.
4. Trace your pattern onto the t-shirt.
5 and 6. Using a ruler, extend both sides to the desired length (for my 3 year old, I extended it 11″ down from the bottom of the armpit).
7. Cut the t-shirt along the lines. With right sides together (as it already is since the shirt was turned inside out!), sew together the sides. You now have a tank dress!
8. Take the bottom of the t-shirt and cut off a strip (mine measured 5 inches wide).
9. With your sewing machine stitch length set to the longest and tension set to the highest, sew around the length of the strip, 1/4″ to 1/2″ from the raw edge. You now have a ruffled band.
10. Adjust the ruffles so that the length of the band is the same as the bottom of your tank dress.
11. With right-sides out, place the ruffled band slightly over the bottom of your tank dress and pin in place (optional. I don’t do this, I place as I sew).
12. Straight-stitch the bottom band to the tank dress. Almost done! Cut two strips from what remains of your t-shirt and tie them to the shoulders to make bows (refer to the initial/finished product pictures). You can also cut another strip and tie the two tank straps together in the back if the straps lay too wide on your girl’s shoulders… or just to add a touch of cuteness
I think this was Calvin’s first Mother’s Day where he had a decent grasp of what the day is all about. All week long, he’s been whispering in my ear, “Mommy! I have a secret. It’s a surprise. I can’t tell you. You have to wait until Sunday!” It was so cute to see him so excited. And not just excited because he had a “secret”, but because he couldn’t wait to make me happy Hehe. I think that alone makes mommy-hood all worth it. So on Sunday, he gave me a card and a little painted treasure box wrapped in tissue paper:
Needless to say, I love it (even though I’m pretty sure he got a lot of help from his teachers… but it’s the thought that counts, right?) and plan on framing that picture and letting it hang somewhere until the construction paper is all faded. Yeah I know. So cheesy and sappy. But, you know, he’ll always be my little boy, even when he’s all grown up… B.O., pimples, hairy legs and all
Speaking of being all grown up, while we were waiting for Jeremy and Charissa to finish up some mother’s-day-dinner shopping at Wegman’s, Calvin, laying lazily on a bench, suddenly looks up at this old lady walking by, alone, and says, “Happy Mother’s Day!” The old lady was so thrilled… and speechless. After a few moments, she manage to ask for his name and comment on how sweet he was. I didn’t say anything. But inside, I was so proud of him. So proud that he was able to show a bit of compassion and kindness without any sort of prompting or previous “instruction” from me. I loved the picture and box I got from Calvin, but those three little words, uttered to a total stranger, was my real mother’s day gift from him, and makes picking up all those dried buggers hidden under his pillow and finding a five-day-old loaded night-time diaper stashed away in his closet all worth it… maybe I should stick a trash bin next to his bed…
“Oh, almost forgot, I am modeling a tie-appliqued shirt that I designed. All by myself. That skull-and-flame fabric is pretty cool.”
“So cool that I even had my mommy make a matching onesie for my baby brother.”
“Yeah. My mommy is pretty awesome (and nutty). She even made cool favors for my friends (lip smackers, flower head bands, sparkly heart bracelets, and golden-books pins for the girls; hand-drawn superhero t-shirts and funky monkey pins for the boys.)
“My daddy is awesome too. He paid for my very expensive party at Bounce-it-Out so I could eat pizza and cake on a cool inflatable throne and bounce all night with my friends, even after the party was officially over, to get our money’s worth!”
“I’m not the only one who’s reached a milestone. My 6-month-old brother Stephen recently started eating mushed-up food. And if you’re wondering why his mouth is so dirty… well, mommy says that feeding Stephen is like war: you’re constantly aiming for a wildly moving target. My mommy doesn’t have very good aim.”
“I know. Scary stuff. Don’t worry Stephen, in a few months, you’ll be able to eat dumplings and hamburgers. I think. Actually, I’m not sure if you’ll be big enough. I don’t think mommy knows either. She seems to be winging it with you, third time around…”
“Baby Stephen also has an interesting way of sitting… or rather, not sitting. He doesn’t like sitting. I don’t blame him. Sitting doesn’t really get you anywhere.”
“But what does get you somewhere is crawling! And baby Stephen is one smart cookie. He skipped over all that sitting nonsense and moved right into crawling. Since mommy is too lazy to take a video and upload it to You Tube, I’ll just put up a picture of my cool baby brother rockin’ some shades!”
“Far away, my god-sister R also reached a milestone. She finally learned how to poop in the potty! To congratulate on her fine achievement, I had daddy email her a picture of me pooping on the potty!”
“Actually, she asked for my picture. I think she likes me… per the conversation she had with her mommy the other day…”
R: Mommy, I poopied on the potty! I’m old now! I’m older than grandpa. J: No, you’re not older than grandpa. If you were older than grandpa you’d be married and have kids. R: I wanna marry Calvin! J: Oh you wanna marry Calvin? Do you like Calvin? R: Yeah, I like Calvin. J: Why do you like Calvin? R: Cuz Calvin’s mean. J: Um, ok. Well Calvin’s not mean. Why do you wanna marry Calvin? R: I wanna marry Calvin cuz he knows how to poopy on the potty. He learned how to do it. I learned too just like Calvin. Can I see a pic of Calvin pooping on the potty? J: Uh Mommy doesn’t have a picture of Calvin pooping on the potty, but we can ask Auntie Jen if she’s willing to let you see one hahaha.
“Hehe. Last but not least, my mommy reached a milestone!… of sorts… she finished her very first quilt!”
“From up high, it looks like a gigantic potholder!”
“She was thrifty in using up a lot of scraps. She was also cheap, lazy, and scared of buying, sewing, and stippling batting so she used a piece of fleece-backed-jersey-knit leftover from something else. She was also too lazy (did I mention my mommy was lazy?) to cut her own binding so she cheated and used biased tape instead… and ended up coming one inch short… which explains the the little cover-up loop that makes the quilt look like a giant pot-holder. It’s okay though. A lot of baby blankies these days come with the loop so it can be attached to a stroller handle, hence, preventing the blankie from completely falling off the baby and onto the road… and yeah, my mommy only wished I could talk this well Just kidding! (says my mommy). Hoorah for speech therapy!”
“Preettty…”
“I think this blog has also reached a milestone… in terms of how much you had to scroll down to reach the end of this post…”
Short post today. I’ve been working on my new header (among other things). I think we’re going to go out tomorrow, just so all three of them can wear these shirts It took me just about forever to sketch and color them using Crayola fabric markers (more on that later)! I can think of so many other “threesomes” to make for the kids…
Well. Sort of. I’m looking at my calendar and thinking, “June is almost here!” (Translation: “Oh no! School is almost out! What am I going to do with the kids!” Frantically starts google-ling for summer camps and activities…) Which is sort of true and not true. Feels true to me because this year is trucking along a little too fast for my liking
So let’s see… what have we been up to…
We finally went to Strong Museum of Play. Awesome place. And like the name suggests, it is a ginormous… playroom. But like a bazillion times better.
We were all so excited to go:
Waiting… patiently… to get our passes:
Sesame Street!
Pretending to be Spiderman:
Um, Jen, can I please get down now? I can’t believe you’re making me do this…
After visiting Storybook Land, Dr. Seuss Land, Lego Land, Castle Land, La La Land… It’s time to go shopping… at Wegman’s! The greatest supermarket on earth:
“For once, I get to buy some ice cream!… Oh wait! It’s empty inside! What a rip off!”
Time to check out:
Visiting the butterfly garden:
So much fun. But quite tiring. So what do you do when you’re pooped and don’t feel like cooking?
Find some cheap child labor and get them to cook for you!
Just kidding. I helped. A little In the meantime, I made some bibs for Stephen:
I think he likes them…
Also made a crinkle bag for him to play with (You know those plastic party bags that make crinkly sounds? Yeah. Stephen is obsessed with them, so I stuffed one into a little pouch so he doesn’t accidently suffocate…)
Speaking of parties, Calvin got to go to the zoo for a classmate’s birthday party last Sunday… and as usual, I decided to make a gift for the birthday girl:
Some of you might have already seen me list this in my store. You can read more about it here.
Speaking of birthdays, Calvin’s is coming up next week! To celebrate, we invited all his classmates to this inflatable play place. A shot of his invitation:
So in an effort to teach my kids a little something real about Easter, I wrote a little ditty in conjunction with our craft yesterday. Here is how it goes:
So not only does it teach uppercase AND lower case “T”, it hopefully relays a little gospel too! Calvin really enjoyed singing the song. And so we spent a good amount of time, me playing on the piano, and him singing along using the printout I created. If you’d like to do something similar with your children, you can download a copy of my “The Letter T” song.
I have great memories of this place… like playing mafia all night long and falling into the lake…) Just a heads up, this is looong.
Just kidding! (says my mommy). Hoorah for speech therapy!”
