Father's Day Art Project

Our Father's Day tributes were simple this year and given the schedule I've attempted to maintain in the last couple of weeks, simple was all I could do.  I saw this on Pinterest and loved it.  I decided to do this project with the kids way to late to order the PDF and ended up making my own using clipart from Microsoft that I edited.  This was so last minute that I didn't even have 11x17 card stock and had to print the image on two sheets of paper and tape them together ... real classy! 

The kids each choose a different shade of green pant.  We put the girls hand prints in the back ground in the darker colors, and layered the three younger ones on top.  Once it was all dry, I used a thin black ink pen to write each child's name and age on their hand print. 

Behind glass it looks even better and the seam, while noticeable, isn't too distracting.  I really love the results and it was a huge hit with GR ... though, how can he not when his other gifts were socks and the new Tom Clancy novel.  

Teacher Thank You's

This is what the kids gave their teachers as end of the year thank yous.  Alex gave his preschool teachers homemade brownies and Mom wrote down special things he loved about his teachers on a card.  I have posted the inspiration as well as a link to the file on my TinyStitches blog. Some where I have pictures of the kids with their teachers, but I'm not finding them at the moment.  As soon as i do, I'll post them. 

A couple of months ago GR ordered Faith in God posters for the girls.  Their arrival was quite timely.  They were shipped MONTHS after he ordered them, but arrived a week or so after an exhausting showdown, parent/child discussion about working on completing Faith in God goals, that went from hours to days in length.  

To make a lengthy story that does not make all parties involved look their best, our approach of "Please choose a goal from Y category and work on it in the four hours you have before church." did not yield the results we were hoping for.  In the days that followed, it was clear to me that if I wanted my girls to work on the goals in Y category ... that were "boring" ... I had to come up with ways to make them exciting, interesting and engaging in a way that will encourage and motivate the girls to willingly fulfill them.  

GR and I are hoping that these posters will work along with other strategies to help the girls take responsibility and accountability for completing their Faith in God requirements.   

Two houses ago, I found two poster frames at Target for $5 each.  I decided to use them to frame the girls posters. We are hoping this will be a cool and unique way for them to keep track of the goals they complete during Activity Days and be added motivation to complete others on their own so they can mark them off too.  Using a dry erase marker the girls can easily check off completed requirements and write out a plan for completing future goals in the margin space.

We're hopefully optimistic.  The plan isn't in full swing yet ... the frames need to be hung so the girls can really use them to do more than mark off things they have completed.  Then we'll work with them to plan out a couple of months of goals, on the plexi-glass surface, so when we say, "you need to spend time this morning working on Z goal." there is pre-agreed to, in writing plan to work from and will hopefully allow us to avoid massive, draining melt downs.

Happy Valentine's Day

We celebrated this Valentine's Day with a late dinner ... unintentional, but allowed GR to join us since his elementary school task force committee met earlier in the evening and he went straight there from work ... of heart shaped pancakes (with pink, red and white sprinkles), fresh strawberries, "homemade" strawberry sauce and real whipped cream.  YUMM!  I made a triple batch of mom's Feather pancakes and only a couple were leftover.  The strawberry sauce consisted of one can of strawberry pie filling whirled up in my mini chopper, and diced frozen strawberries cooked over the stove until thick and saucy.  It worked really well, and used up a pantry item that's been sitting far too long.  

After dinner we opened Valentines from the grandparents.  It was a really fun evening.

The kids enjoyed their classroom parties and handing out their Valentines.  There were only a couple of casualties which everyone weathered well.  We made candy cane hearts for the kids Valentines this year, using cherry flavored candy canes I picked up at Target at the 80ish% off after Christmas sales.  A link to the tutorial I used is here.  They are extremely fragile.  I purchased 192 candy canes to make the needed Valentines, but in the end, thanks to a number of casualties, we had just enough striped hearts for all four school kids to give them to teachers and classmates.  13+18+24+25 = 80 Valentines, or 160 candy canes.  In the end this "thrifty" valentine ... $1.70 for the candy canes + $7.98 for the bags + $3.50 for the paper backing = $13.18, cost ~$.17 each.  Having never priced out the kids valentines before, I guess $.17 is pretty good for a handmade valentine?

Dig It and still Learning Lessons

For months, the fifth grade has been working on their music program, Dig It: Traveling through Ancient Civilizations, and last night they finally got to perform it.  It was fun and the kids did a great job ... least you think I always say that, word is that the 4th grade was totally and completely ill prepared for their program (yes, Emily's that I sadly missed because I double booked myself).  Apparently, it was bad.  Really bad. 

But back to Dig It ... Rebecca and the girls in her class had the part of Egyptian Princesses.  In December Rebecca started telling me I was to sew 8 white Egyptian dresses for the girls in her class to wear for the performance.  I was doing no such thing, until I saw a note from the music teacher outlining costume needs for the program.  By Tuesday when I hadn't heard anything official, I emailed the music teacher.  The girls were to wear heavy eye make-up and had talked about some kind of headband/head dress, but hadn't really decided what it would be.  They wanted more, but didn't really know what.  

The internet mixed with desperation provided two "do-able" costume options I felt I could duplicate eight times in two days.  I wanted something I could bang out in an hour.  The headdress in this YouTube video fit my criteria ... Gold Jumbo RicRac and safety pins.  All the Egyptian costumes I saw had gold or colorful collars.  Using white butcher paper I made a collar similar to what I saw as a test.  We colored it jewel toned markers and added three tin foil diamond jewels to the front.  Cute and quick.  I emailed the teacher offering to do these two options for the kids, suggesting that we use the butcher paper at the school, orange or yellow, to make solid color collars for the kids to make.  

As you can see, the teacher took me up on my offer ... you'll also notice that the collars are NOT a solid color.  I did not stand my ground.  And I can't articulate why, other than I was in a hurry.  Wednesday after school I stopped in the office to show the music teacher the collar and get paper.  I had 15 minutes to get what I needed, pick up kids and get Sam to a dentist appointment.  The music teacher took one look at the collar I made - stripes and all - and never heard a word I said about, "What solid color would you like the kids to wear?  Orange?  Green is pretty.  What about blue?"   "I really like the stripes."  ... this is where I should have stood my ground.  I should have said ... Yes, I like how it turned out too, but I don't have time for stripes.  I have time for a solid color.  Which one would you like me to use?  ... instead I said.  "Well, we could layer them I guess."  

Despite the hours I put into them, and how upset I was at myself for not standing up for myself and sticking to what I knew I could do and handle, I am pleased with how they turned out.  Most of the girls happily wore them, and they did exactly what we needed them to, simply and inexpensively transform the girls (with the hugely helpful aid of their make-up) into Egyptians.  The time wasn't a total waste.  I reinforced the "seam" used to get the collar on and off with packing tape and they were reused the same night by the sixth graders.  Mrs. A is planning to laminate them for future years.  

I'm keeping this in mind for future Halloween costumes. 

FYI - The tin foil diamond shaped jewels ... I colored the tin foil with a gold maker (the bold colors of Crayola markers), covered it with packing tape so the marker wouldn't come off, and then cut the shape out gluing it on with a glue stick.  Surprisingly effective. 

GC Goodie Bag

I stumbled across this just a day or two before April General Conference and was able to pull it together for the sisters I visit teach, thanks to the Micheal's dollar bin, and little things I had on hand at home.  There were a few little modifications I needed to make, but the end result was fun, not only for conference weekend, but afterward too!  I'm looking for a little something to give this time around - so far I'm coming up with nothing ... so if you see anything, let me know!

Annual Retreat

The annual women's retreat was Friday night, and I hosted.  About ~20 sisters come and we had a grand time ... someone later described us as a group of misfit toys - not your typical group of stalwarts that come to relief society gatherings - and while I missed the regulars, I'm so glad we had the group we did ... we all had so much fun together!

For our fourth year (my first to plan) we mixed it up a bit - more out of necessity, and thankfully, this year, as it always seems to, it met it's purpose.  We opted to not have the overnight-er to make the planning easier and to lessen the burden on others (so few were able to stay the night, it hardly seemed worth the time).  We started late ... after date night and/or kids were in bed ... had a chocolate fountain! (yum!!  Thanks Becky!) ... and door prizes and goodie bags - cause that's what Oprah would do.  We sat and ate our chocolate and talked.  No workshops, no speakers, no singing, just talking. 

For the door prizes, we asked each sister who came, to give a little of themselves to be a door prize for another sister.  The donation should be one of time or talent, and take no more than an 1 hour of time, in order to try and make things equal.  I loved watching their faces light up when they drew out their prize as they left for the night.  So fun.  I'm making Valarie a jar of bath salts.  

I really enjoyed the challenge of making the goodie bags.  It was time intensive, but the challenge kept me busy and creative for a solid month!  I wanted the sisters to take home something fun, but also functional.  Since we didn't have any workshops or classes during our evening together, the goodie bag not only served as a fun take home, it was essentially, a workshop in a bag.  Everything was handmade with materials that were inexpensive and easy to come by (the goal was to keep the contents to less than $1 and I did it, easily!), and something a novice could make.  I included instructions (email me if you want a copy!), so they could duplicate any of the projects to gift to neighbors, friends, sisters, or visiting teachee's later on.  

Each bag contained ... 

    * Bath Salt Pouches for the shower or bath - yellow and lavender wash cloths, top left of picture
    * Clothes Pins* - middle right of picture
    * Washer Pendant necklaces - bottom middle of picture
    * Petite Notepad - lower left corner of picture
    * Lemon Sugar Hand Scrub (not pictured, but were packaged in size 2 baby food jars)

I LOVE the versatility of a white lunch sack!  Everything got bundled up in the white lunch sack that I punched using a MS craft punch I found on clearance.  So pretty, so casually elegant.  GR made fun of me for spending 30 minutes punching 40 white lunch sacks.  "No one will care", he said.  Ha, ha, and ha!  While it didn't matter one way or the other if the bags were punched, it was one of the first things they noticed, and I'm grateful to those who noticed that little detail and said something about it.

The crazy thing, I hardly made a dent in my paper scrap stash.  I really thought making 40 of these paper projects would make a bigger dent in my supply.


* There are a hundred different ways to do this ... just ask google.  I used matte decoupage glue and found that cutting my paper strips to the size of the clothes pin worked best - 3/8" x 3-1/8."  They are clipped to a plain 3x5 card and had I had the cash, I'd have put them in a small baggie, but I didn't so the hung free.

Petite Chefs

Rebecca started planning her birthday party in December.  With the move, we finally had to tell her we couldn't discuss the party plans until April 1st.  For most of April party plans were being discusses right and left with modifications being given almost as quickly ... I don't think the plans were truly decided on until right before the party ... our conversations went something like this ... 

yes cake decorating would be a great idea, 
we can bake pizzas too, 
I don't see how there's time to bake cookies too, 
no a competition would not be a good idea, even if Emily and Halle are going to be the judges, and I don't think teams are a great idea either, let's just let everyone do their own, okay?
if you're going to invite 8 of the 10 girls in your class, you should invite all of them, I understand they don't all get along, if they don't want to come that's their choice.
you're going to have to choose between watching a movie and all these other things you want to do, I don't think a six hour party is going to work, honey. 
ooohh sequins monograms would be lovely, but not at $6 a letter. 

In the end she settled on a handful of girls, her good chums from school, to come for a night of cake decorating, making pizzas and well, eating and giggling.  It was one of the best birthday parties we've held, by way of my personal enjoyment and stress level, and the girls had a great time.  

We had a 6" cake for each girl to decorate with lots of candies and icing and sprinkles.  They also decorated cupcakes which we used as Rebecca's birthday cake at the end of the party.  While the girls decorated their cakes, I made pizza dough so they could each make their own personal pizza for dinner.  

Becca and I toyed with the idea of decorating aprons but that quickly became cost and time prohibited, so I opted to make the girls aprons, and I'm so pleased I did.  The end result was so much better than anything I could have hoped for.  To make them a bit more fun, I made each girl a little flower pin using scraps from the aprons and coordinating fabrics.  I love this tutorial!   


While the girls and I were doing the party, GR took the four other kids to dinner, and then Mother's Day shopping.  Becca got upset that she didn't get to go out to dinner, and Emily and Sam were sad they didn't get to decorate cakes.  How do you win?!

I'm hoping I can figure out how to help the this summers birthday parties be just as fun and easy going for us and the kids.  For sure we need to have one for Emily.  The poor kid hasn't had a birthday party with friends, that I can remember since she was three or four maybe.  So, this is the year, wish me luck that I don't get totally wiped out by the rest of the summer and poop out. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Initially, I planned on setting up the craft/sewing room last. This week has proved that I cannot leave this portion of boxes for weeks and weeks. My kids, especially my girls, are very art oriented and they need their supplies.

Weeks ago, I purchased Valentine pencils and made sure I knew right where they were so they could get taped to store bought Valentines this week. Easy peasy, no stress. I got out voted. They all wanted to make them. So I went digging for boxes marked 'kid craft supplies' and 'scrapbook paper,' and 'craft/sewing room' to retrieve the needed supplies. I am more than a little embarrassed at how many boxes of supplies I have ... and they all need to fit in one room. We have now created a plastic tub to contain all the Valentine supplies. This years Valentine's turned out very cute and the children are all very pleased with what they created this year!

I'm so proud of Alexander! Look, he wrote his name on each of the Valentine's he gave his preschool classmates! Then he wrote each of their names, too!

The big kids spent Wednesday afternoon totally in the zone. The entire kitchen island was covered in paper, tape, glue, pencils and lots and lots of Valentines!

Tomorrow we're having GR's parents over for dinner - spaghetti and meatballs - and the girls are making dessert. They haven't narrowed it down yet, but the clock is ticking so I'm sure they'll figure it out soon enough.

Hope you have a fun filled Valentine's day that includes good chocolate!

P.S. Look at these paper boxes! I went looking for the MS Craft supplies necessary to make them at Michaels this week ... no luck. I'm making them just using my basic supplies ... they aren't prefect, but oh so cute! Wouldn't these make sweet shower favors, or little gift boxes for oh so many things! I love how easy it is to make them exactly the size you want for the contents.

Black Friday

The only Black Friday Sale I shop is the Joann's sale. Black Friday means seriously cheap flannel, and well, I use a lot of flannel. Mom and I go every year no matter where we are for Thanksgiving. Last year was the first year we skipped it ... I had lots of flannel from the year before that I hadn't cut into and couldn't justify going. Most of that same flannel still hasn't been cut into, so again, we seriously considered not going. BUT the girls need jammie pants and I didn't have flannel that's really suited for 8-9 year old girl jammies. And really, for $1.49/yd you can't pass up a chance to add just a few more yards.



So now I need to get busy making jammie pants!

Diversion

I don't always focus well, especially when my feet are held to the fire by deadlines, and often get distracted by other "more exciting" things. Yesterday afternoon and this morning, when I should have been cleaning my house and preparing for tomorrow, or sewing pillowcases and photographing them for this weekends sale in the shop, I started something new to go above my mantel...



The inspiration and directions came from this tutorial. The pine cones, from the neighborhood park the kids and I went to for playgroup when they were off school. While they played, I picked 1/2 a brown paper grocery sack full. It wasn't quite enough, so GR picked more for me this morning after purchasing our new dishwasher* and I was able to finish it up after lunch.

The directions say to use a Styrofoam wreath form. Styrofoam wasn't on sale when I went to purchase a wreath, and I wasn't willing to pay $7 for a small wreath form when a larger straw wreath (~14" in diameter) was 1/2 off, costing a grand total of $1.80. I wrapping the straw wreath in brown calico from the gifted-to-me, box of vintage fabric, securing it to the form with lots of straight pins. It worked like a charm, and means I can return the $4 can of brown spray paint.



I love the way it turned out, even though it isn't as nicely staged as hers. Mine really needs some stylizing help ... Sara I so wish you lived next door! Maybe when I get the nativity up and some greens on the mantel it will help anchor and define the space ... who knows.

If you have access to pine cones and like this look, it would make a fantastic handmade gift. Just make sure you have lots of similarly sized small pine cones, a hefty supply of hot glue and block out a good 3 hours to glue all these puppy on - or choose a slightly smaller wreath.

[* We finally gave up on the old dishwasher. I know after all that waiting and heartache, we finally decided to walk away and sever our ties. GR was completely fed up; he's the family dishwasher. Same problem, dishes, especially glasses on the top rack, coming out in worse condition than going in. Sears had some good pre-Black Friday sales and we found a good middle ground dishwasher made by Bosch, that will suite our needs and be one more added "feature" to the house when we go to sell in February.]

PRE Thanksgiving Festivities

Today became a bit crazy busy with kid festivities... I as in charge of playgroup this month and scheduled a little Thanksgiving activity this morning, quickly followed by the school kids Thanksgiving feasts at school. Add to that the special snack Rebecca requested to take to school today for her party today, and it was a late Wednesday night.

In preparing for playgroup I found some really fun activities that I thought I'd share. Only two made it to our playgroup agenda, but the others might be good activities for your kids in the hours leading up to the feast.

Oreo Cookie Turkeys
Pilgrim Hat for Boys ... Pilgrim Hat for Girls
Thanks and Giving Tree family activity - a good FHE activity
Thanksgiving songs for preschoolers

Gobbling Turkey Apples (snack) was a huge hit with the playgroup kids and something small fingers could do pretty easily.


Paper Cup Turkey - I'm thinking these will make great place cards for our Thanksgiving table!


Alex, Anna and I finished up early at playgroup and headed to the elementary school to eat the annual Thanksgiving Feast served at lunch. We had a good time sitting with each child and enjoying lunch together, and I'm really glad we were able to continue this little tradition with them.


Late yesterday afternoon Rebecca explained that her class had earned a movie party and they could bring snacks to class if they brought enough for everyone. She had some elaborate plan to make sugar cookies in the shape of hands to look like turkeys and asked to make the sugar cookie dough. I handed her the recipe and she made it, stuck it in the fridge, and ran off to Activity Day girls. There wasn't time to make hand-print turkeys using sugar cookie dough, even if I do have a hand cookie cutter. But I was able to pull this off (pretty stinkin cute if you ask me) and thankfully it was an acceptable substitute:


We're changing things up for Thanksgiving this year and I'm hosting. Everyone's bringing a little bit of the meal and we're doing a bit of furniture rearranging to fit all 14 of us, but I'm excited to celebrate one Thanksgiving in this house before we move on to larger spaces next year.

Their latests craft obsession

In the last week or so these perler craft beads have been the kids craft of choice after school. We've had quite the neighborhood craft circle as kids crowd the dining room table making shape, after shape, after shape. Above is just a small sample of what they made - 7 kids can really crank out a lot of designs! It's a super cheap craft they can do (other than the melting with the iron) by themselves and doesn't take any prep work on your end.

The multicolored circle was made by Alex. I was shocked he finished it when I put the group of green ones in the center for him. Don't you love the end result?! The two squares are Sam's; the dolphin Emily's and the bottom heart, Rebecca's. Some of these are getting shipped to Sister Aunt Barb who's birthday was earlier in the week and her box is still sitting waiting for a few more treasures before it get's shipped off to sunny California.

If you're considering these activity beads for you kids, might I provide a few tips ... since over the last year and half that these beads have been apart of my kids craft cupboard, my approach has evolved.

• First, melt the daylights out of those beads - you want them completely fused together, otherwise they break very easily.
  
• Second, in comparison to some of their other crafts of choice (paint, glue, clay/playdough, etc.), the mess here is minimal ... I should explain that those beads end up everywhere ... but I no longer get down on my hands and knees and search for every bead, sorting them back into their little compartments. Whatever the kids don't get picked up gets sucked up by the vacuum, thank goodness for vacuum hose attachments
• Third, all projects must be finished, no unfinished projects sitting on the buffet for weeks and weeks getting knocked about. They are now, either finished right then and there, or they are dumped back into the bucket.
• Fourth, encourage your children to give their creations as gifts ... that way someone else has to figure out what to do with all these masterpieces. They make fun "sun catchers" for your windows, key chains, and coasters.
  

Eric Carle Inspired Craft

Hi, my name is Kathleen, and my three year old is not potty trained.

Alex and four little friends and the mama's are doing a little co-op preschool once a week. We each take a turn teaching and hosting our little 1.5 hour class, and Tuesday was my first time teaching. We choose our own topics and I went with Eric Carle (author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar).

My lesson consisted of some pretty basic stuff ... reading lots and lots of Eric Carle books and acting them out. a simple craft, a matching game using characters from Eric Carle stories (if you want a copy of the cards, let me know and I can email you the PDF) and lots of free play outside.

Cindy was the first to teach and her main piece of feedback was, the kids aren't into crafts. With this in mind, I went with a coffee filter butterfly to go along with The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I did a trial run Monday morning, and Monday night when the kids got wind of what I was doing, this little craft turned into an impromptu FHE activity. They had such fun! We have butterflies all over the house! They have a life span of about 14 days right?







As part of my prep for teaching, I went to the library and picked up a big stack of Eric Carle books - holy cow that man has written a TON of books! - to go along with some of the ones we own. It was nice to have a book for each of the preschoolers to hold and look at, but more than that, my own kids have loved having all of them around the house to look through. It's been such a positive experience, that I'm now in search of other authors to "feature" in our reading basket here at home, rotating them every week or two.

One of the things I love about Eric Carle book's is that Sam can read them. They aren't too long, and the vocabulary is on his first grade reader level. I'm thinking we'll try some Fun with Spot books by Eric Hill next, and we'll see what the librarians suggest, but I'd love to hear your favorite authors for preschoolers - both for independent reading and for reading aloud. A definitely bonus for beautiful, interesting, and creative illustrations.

Excess Inventory - aka A Giveaway

A good portion of my spare time the later part of last week was consumed by this little book.



Saturday was the BBQ contest - GR took 2nd place this year! - and our quarterly Primary Activity. We focused totally on the scriptures for this activity. We noticed that many of the older kids couldn't find a scripture when given the referrence ... they couldn't tell you if it was a Bible scripture, Book of Mormon, etc. And some younger kids were only really familiar with the Book of Mormon, not the Bible or vice versa, and definitely not the Doctrine and Covenants or Pearl of Great Price. Because of time constraints, we focused mainly on the Bible and Book of Mormon, having mini break out sessions (grouped by age - jr/jr, jr and sr) for the Old Testament, New Testament and Book of Mormon.

I taught the Jr New Testament session focusing on the teachings of the Savior by looking up scriptures in the Bible. I had kids in my group Sam to Emily's age and wanted to give them a take home reminder that would further help teach them about the New Testament. I instantly thought of a handout my Mom used in her primary teaching days - My Story of Jesus from a 1974 Friend and reprinted in March 1999. Since they range from new readers to strong, avid readers, I felt my handout needed to "grow" with the kids. I wanted it to be more than just a coloring activity, I wanted it to be something they would keep and use for a while.

I combined the illustrations from the Friend with coordinating text found in the New Testament Stories for Beginning Readers and included the scripture reference. Hoping my new readers like Sam can look at the picture and read the simple text, and my strong readers like Emily, would read the simplified story and both could practice looking up the scripture stories in the New Testament. I also included a couple of pictures from the Gospel Art Book and a few songs from the Primary Song book that talk about the life of the Savior. I am really pleased with how well the book turned out and the kids were genuinely excited about them too.

It is nearly impossible to accurately estimate how many kids you will have at an activity like this. I figured it would be 18-20 for that age group, but just to be safe I made around 24 books. Of course I have extras and the thought of deconstructing them kills me. Would some of you like to have one of your own for your kids church bag?

If so leave a comment between now and Monday morning, I've got at least four copies I can mail out, so I'll randomly pick four names if there are more than four of you who'd like a copy.

By the way ... it's a standard 4x6, inexpensive photo album and all but the last three pages are filled up. So your child can add some of their favorite pictures of Jesus if you'd like.

Today ...

Yesterday, I finally convinced Rebecca to let me take her picture in the shirt I finished for her back in April. I really love it and wish I had time to make it a couple more times for her and Emily both.



Rebecca managed to break her glasses ... again ... I'm starting to question why these were recommended for kids given how easily they have broken. Anna took them off Rebecca's face, and wham, the ear piece was broken. Yesterday, she set her glasses on the bathroom counter, so she could brush her hair. She accidently set the hair brush on top of her glasses and the snaped in two. She wasn't being careless or silly, there was no loud crash, or bang. Thank goodness for warranties. When the gal who works in the frame shop saw GR coming, again and saw Becca's glasses, she said as soon as the new frames come in, she's going to order a back up set so they have a spare on hand for the next time this happens.

Felt Sandwich Bread Tutorial

It's ready!! I'm hoping that although only one of you requested the PBJ sandwich tutorial/directions, a few of you were secretly hoping I'd post them even without saying so.

You'll see they are super simple to make, but I wrote out the directions after the fact, so please let me know if you have questions. I'd suggest getting the supplies to make 8-10 slices of bread (yielding 4-5 sandwiches) so the kids can really do something with them once you give them all the fixin's.

I have in my mind picking up some green and pink and white and red and yellow/orange, etc., to make leaf lettuce, ham and turkey, tomato slices, American or cheddar cheese and expand our Sandwich making opportunities. But we'll see ... just watch the felt sales and stock up so you've got everything you need. It's a great little project for keeping your hands busy while you watch a movie and the end product is perfect for entertaining the kids on a rainy afternoon or a blazing hot afternoon, two things our summer has had a lot of so far!

Eternal Family Olympic Games

Saturday morning was my very first primary activity - that is, from the planning vantage point. I work with amazingly creative and fun women who totally know what they are doing, and I was very grateful to only have a supporting roll in the planning process.

This year our theme in Primary is "My Eternal Family." Since families need to work together to be successful, we settled on an Olympic game theme, and created outdoor relay activities that related to gospel concepts we've been talking about in primary so far this year.

• Love Strengthens Our Families – Balloon Hug Relays
• Dads Strengthen Our Families – Stroller and Lawn Mower Relays
• Moms Help Build Strong Families - Rotation Relay - make PBJ, diaper baby, fold towel, sign check.
• Immersion (Baptism) Game – Dunk the Bishop game
• Prophets teach us how to strengthen our families game - Follow the Prophet Cakewalk
• Temple blessings unite my family – Tug o War for temple picture game

I got to use some of my creative skills in the tasks I was delegated and I have to say it was a lot of fun to spend some time doing a little sewing and graphic design in preparation for today's activity.

I made the makings for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out of felt - because Moms help us eat nutritious food. There are lots of really complicated and involved ways you could do this, but was going for fast, simple, mass production, and this totally worked for what we wanted [and the kids have been having a blast running PBJ restaurants and making stacks of sandwiches for each other!]. I'm thinking of creating a little PDF tutorial on how to do this, if anyone is interested, let me know.



I also made some baby doll diapers out of scraps of flannel - because Moms care for and nurture their children. Sam and the girls are seriously excited about this addition to their doll clothing collection! I used this pattern. It's super easy, and I was able to make five of them pretty easily. If you make these for a small doll like the ones my kids have (they are about 14-15" dolls), consider shortening the back tabs that wrap around to the front a good half inch on both sides,



My graphic design - and I use that term loosely as to not offend those who are truly skilled in graphic design - dabbleings were put to work making the advertising fliers. We invited parents to stay for our activity as spectators to cheer on the different events - the Olympics simply wouldn't be the same without cheering spectators! So I created tickets, loosely based on the Salt Lake City Olympic Game Ticket I found on eBay. The great thing is we had quite a few parents come and watch, which was great fun!


I needed a fourth "event" in the Mom Relay ... and came up with this one ... Moms help us obey the commandments and live the gospel, like paying our tithing. I made big faux tithing checks and had the local print shop turn them into a pad of paper for me.

Did any of you see this craft in the July issue of FamilyFun? I thought it would be perfect for any of the little sibblings who came with moms and dads as spectators. We modified the construction a bit to fit the supplies we had on hand. We'd gotten a box of straws donated from Sonic for another project and had lots of extras. Instead of using a dowel, we'll taped three big Sonic straws together for the handle. We also used our rotary cutters to cut and fringe the bags - so slick and made making 25 possible. One last tip ... used bags make better pom poms than new bags. New bags take a bit of russeling and scrunching in order to fluff up and make a decent pom pom. The kids LOVED these and several asked to take theirs home!

A Quick Fix Tutorial - aka - Say NO to Free Advertising

Christmas 2007, my wish list had on it "Reusable shopping bags." My mother and brother both got me some fantastic bags that I love and use constantly. I love the fact that I can easily fit $100+ worth of groceries in 4 bags or less. And they are easier to pack than plastic and hold more!

If your not a huge fan of advertising the local establishment - in this case Walmart. It's really easy to cover it up in a fun, chic way. Here's what you'll need ...

2 - 50¢ reusable shopping bags from Walmart
1 fat quarter in a coordinating pattern or shade
ruler
rotary cutter and matte - or scissors and ruler
blue bobbin thread - as close as you can come to matching the color of the bag - if you care, if you don't, any color will be fine.
coordinating or matching thread for the top.
Iron
Sewing machine


* Iron out any wrinkles or creases in your fat quarter.
* Cut the fat quarter into four strips 4.5" x 22".
* Sew two strips together along the 4.5" edge, matching the design of the fabric as best you can to hide the seam. Finished strip should be 4.5 x 40ish
* Trim any excess so seam is 1/4".
* Iron down 1/4" - 3/8" of raw edge, on both of the long sides of your strip of fabric.
* Pin fabric strip over printed Walmart logo, starting and stopping, in the side gusset panel of the bag. Use a ruler to measure ~ 5" from the top of the bag to insure your fabric strip straight all the way around your bag. I found that the exact measurement varied from bag to bag, as the logo must have shifted a bit during the printing/sewing process.
* Trim fabric leaving 1/2" overlap, plus 1/2" to turn under. Pin in place.
* Sew fabric to bag, sewing, 1/8" from the edge. Sew down overlap flap.
* Reinforce pre-stitched side seams of bag and handles if desired.



* * * so why did I make these? read on ... * * *

When GR was called to be Bishop, I got a couple of good pieces of advice from women who's husbands had had a round or two at Bishop or Stake President. I loved my friend Kay's piece of advice. She said, with a chuckle, "One night Howard (her husband) rolled over in bed, at about 11:30pm and said, oh by the way, we'd like you to serve as _______." Kay said, don't let him do that to you. If he wants you to serve in a calling, make him issue it correctly! ...

A couple weeks ago our primary presidency was reorganized. Late Friday night, after GR gets home from "errands" (our buzz word for him doing church work) while I'm working on the computer, he sits down next to me, and says ... "I've been meaning to talk with you about something." "As my husband, or as my bishop?" "Bishop." ...

Our new primary president asked me, her first councilor (eeek!), to work with our nursery leaders. We have nearly 18 children between our two nurseries and our budget is quickly getting eaten - literally - by these little ones. So in an effort to provide some variety in the weekly snack time menu, I "created" these nursery snack bags, adding the strip of fabric to hopefully keep it separate & easy to identify, from any reusable bags nursery families may have at home.

Each Sunday, a tote bag will go home with a child from each of the nurseries so they can bring a special healthy snack to share with their nursery friends the following Sunday. We're still planning on providing basics like cheerios & animal crackers, but this way each of the children can share their favorite snack and participate a little more in their nursery experience.

Graduation Time

The children have had a number of student teachers this year. Rebecca's had two student teachers this year, and at the end of the future teacher's term with the class, they are presented with a teacher starter basket filled with school supplies to help him/her start up their classroom in style. The classmates are all encouraged to bring something to contribute to the basket ... pencils, tape, post-it notes, markers, stickers, paper clips, staplers, etc.

I love this idea and wanted to create something unique, practical, oh so very useful, and expressed a little of what my children love. I settled on labels ... originally thinking of them as bookplates, but really they can be used on anything ... and have since added note cards to the mix.