Stick Puzzles

I'm always on the lookout for simple art projects I can do with Parker. Given his love for puzzles, I knew this would be a hit! I even had all the supplies for it! Granted, we only needed popsicle sticks and pencil crayons, but still...   :)

First we taped 8 sticks side by side so they would stay together. Then we turned them over and drew pictures on the front. As you can see I'm pretty limited artistically, but Parker thought they were great. His drawings were a bit more abstract--I guess he wanted more of a challenge when putting them together later!   ;)

Once our drawings were done we took off the tape and mixed up the pieces so he could put them back together. I think I'll put a couple of these in our diaper bag so he has something to do next time we're sitting in a waiting room. 

Canada Scores!!

Is it just me, or is anyone else happy the Olympics are finally over? Nonstop coverage for the past couple weeks has become more than tiring. Unlike Kyle, who likes to watch all the events, there are only a few I really care to see. I watched a little of the snowboarding and ski jumping but my main interest was in hockey. I know, I know, I can watch hockey almost any night of the week so why choose that sport out of so many others? Not sure... although it's always fun cheering for our favorite NHL team, it's different when all the best players come together to form an all-star lineup called Team Canada. The win is so much sweeter when it represents your country as a whole rather than just a city. And since hockey is Canada's game, it's always a big deal to see them play in the Olympics.

So our home was a house divided last week--just for fun, of course! Kyle somehow convinced Parker to cheer for Team USA, so I dressed Elise in her little Canada shirt and we had our own cheering section of red and white. When the USA and Canada hockey teams finally met, it was a tense two hours! As you can tell by the smiles, this picture of the guys was taken before the game...

Canada beat the USA--and went on to win gold--in both mens and womens hockey! We were so excited to see them win!! And in the process, I won a dozen cupcakes in a friendly bet with someone. Ah...the sweet taste of victory.  :)

 In celebration of our win and to cheer Kyle up I made a Canadian dessert called Nanaimo Bars. Chocolatey, custardy goodness in a pan! I think it helped.  :)

A Quilt for Parker

Kyle and I have been talking about getting Parker a new bed. A bigger, twin size bed. Or maybe bunk beds.

Elise is almost 18 months old, the same age Parker was when he started climbing out of his crib. And although we haven't seen her try to get out yet, she climbs on everything else so we're thinking it's only a matter of time before she tries to climb out of bed. But the kids share a room so we're trying to figure out how to fit in both a regular bed for Parker and a toddler bed for Elise, along with their dressers, toys, etc. We looked at some bunk beds but they were either too expensive or a kind we didn't like. We found a couple of loft beds at IKEA that looked promising... Parker could have the top, bigger bed and we could put his toddler mattress on the floor underneath for Elise. That way it would kind of be like bunk beds, just not as high. I guess we still have a little while to figure it out.

Anyway, since we were talking about Parker getting a bigger bed and all, I started thinking about needing twin-sized bedding soon. And although I'm sure our little man would love a big bright Lightning McQueen comforter, I have to say I'm just not a fan of the themed sets. I prefer to decorate with colors or make it somewhat eclectic. We've seen cute stuff at Pottery Barn but I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a bedding set. Once he's a bit older and can pick something out for himself we'll let him get a nice one, but right now, well....he's only three and is happy with pretty much anything. Which is a good thing because I decided to make him a homemade quilt.



At Joann's I came across this cute flannel. It had nice bold colors in the train and I found all the solid ones to match. Since it was on sale I bought a couple yards of each, not quite knowing how I would use it.

Most of the quilt patterns I like are more girly looking, but Kyle and I did like some simple striped ones I showed him on Pinterest. After looking up quilt sizes, I started cutting the flannel into strips and sewing them together. Parker's favorite color is green so it made it easy to find backing. I used green and white plaid that matched the colors on the front.

The last few quilts I made have a separate binding that was sewn on and then hand-stitched on the back to hide the seam. It's a pretty way to do it but it takes days to hand-stitch around a huge quilt. For Parker's I opted instead to fold over the backing and use that as binding on the front. It was so quick! It took less than an hour to sew around it by machine rather than spend days doing it by hand.

 I finished it up this morning while Elise was sleeping. Parker loves it! Now he just needs a new bed for the new quilt. :)

BEARY Cute Valentines

I've been trying to explain to Parker what Valentine's Day is. Although Kyle and I don't typically celebrate the holiday ourselves, I want our kids to know what it's for so they can join in the fun along with their little friends. Not sure if Parker totally gets it, but I asked if he'd like to help me make some special treats for his and Elise's friends. Of course he said yes.  :)

Because they would be from (and FOR) preschoolers, I didn't want all the commercial heart covered ones that say "I love you" or "Be Mine." I wanted something a little more kid friendly so we made our own. And, rather than candy, we were planning to give teddy grahams as a treat. We just needed some kind of bear-themed tag to tie on the bags. I went on Pinterest to see if there were some free printables available. There were a few pictures I liked, but I still didn't care for what they said. I did like this cute little bear face, though, so I copied the bear and pasted it onto a word document. It was shrunk down and our own message added in, and here's what we ended up with...

As I was getting out the supplies I wondered if the teddy grahams would need a bit of color added in. We had a package of pink candy melts and a small heart mold. I made just enough that each bag would get three hearts. It made it slightly more girly, yes but kids like color.  

Parker helped scoop the bears and hearts into the bags, then they were tied with a red ribbon.

Aren't they cute?! 

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Green Muffins

The past few days if I mention I'm going to make dinner, Parker follows me out asking to help. Although there hasn't been many things he is able to help with lately, I hate turning down his offers to come out and be of assistance. I want our kids to learn how to cook and to enjoy trying new foods. So I decided that whenever possible, meaning when I have food prep that's kid friendly, I'm going to let Parker help even if it takes a little longer to get the meal ready.

Since tonight's dinner is already in the crockpot I asked Parker if he'd like to help me bake something this morning while Elise was napping. I had copied a recipe from Pinterest for green muffins--what little boy wouldn't like that?! When I told him what we were making, he was SO excited to get started! Did I mention green happens to be his favorite color?  :)

Here is the recipe I used. The bright green color is from spinach! There's a little sugar and some applesauce in the recipe to give them a slightly sweet taste.


I wasn't sure what Parker would think when he saw me putting big leaves into the blender, but I told him they would turn the muffins green and he didn't seem to mind... actually, he added them in like it was just a normal ingredient.

We scooped the batter into a mini muffin pan and Parker pulled up a chair to watch them bake. A few minutes later we had nice puffy green muffins! He couldn't wait to try them. I'm sure he would have grabbed one hot off the pan if I hadn't been there to keep his little fingers back.




We had lunch a few minutes later so along with our sandwiches I gave both kids a couple muffins. Parker loved them. He ate four (or was it five?) at lunchtime. Elise picked hers up and looked at it for a minute before taking a bite. She ate hers a little more slowly, so I'm not sure if she loves them (although she seems pretty happy with it in the picture).

I tried a couple, too.  ....can't say I love them...  but they're okay. And if it's a way to get more veggies into Parker, then I'm totally fine with making them again!  :)

December

I had good intentions of posting earlier this month. Every time I sat down, though, I would either forget what I wanted to say or realize the pictures I wanted were still on the camera and unaccessible at the moment. And now here we are at the end of December already! Just so I at least get one post written this month, here's a quick summary of what we've been up to the past few weeks...

The first week of December we went to a dinner party in Salinas. Kyle's company has a nice Christmas dinner each year and it's always in a different location. They take the employees (and spouses) out to dinner and then put them up at a nice hotel for the night. I haven't been able to go for the past three years because we either had a new baby or had nobody to watch Parker. But this time both kids were old enough to leave with a sitter and Kyle couldn't stay overnight because he had to work the next morning. So I could finally go!! I was excited to get dressed up and have an evening without the kids. Maybe next time I'll remember to get a picture of us on the way out...

And we've been making some holiday craft projects! I found gingerbread man kits similar to the ones we made last year. Here are the finished men (and woman). I'll let you figure out who made which one...  :)

We made penguins, too. Six little ones came in the package, and the pieces were stickers so they only took a few minutes to assemble.






Next we all made a gingerbread house. I've been wanting to make one and Parker is old enough this year to help stick the candy on. I considered making one from scratch so it would actually taste good but I didn't know if I wanted to spend the day measuring and baking huge pieces so I cheated and bought a pre made one. The downside is that all the large pieces were broken. So when I assembled the house it had icing 'glue' all over the sides to hold the pieces together. But by the time we finished decorating it you couldn't really tell. I had set out two trays of candy and Parker didn't stop decorating until every last piece was used! He had so much fun and it turned out pretty cute!

Aside from gingerbread and penguins I also decorated Christmas cookies this year. I don't typically spend a lot of time on them but I wanted to make some pretty ones. When the kids were napping last Saturday I made a batch of royal icing and began decorating several dozen cookies. They took a while to finish, but I enjoyed being more creative this year. I packaged most of them in small bags and gave them to friends at church the next morning. Kyle enjoyed the leftovers. :)

I had signed up to bring cookies for Christmas dinner as well, so I made another batch. I didn't want to spend all of Christmas eve decorating these ones, though, so I used soft butter icing and sprinkles. But they weren't just any cookies, they were a cookie Christmas tree!

Isn't it great?! Everyone thought it was cool...and everyone wanted to be the last person in line so they got the huge cookies on the bottom.  :)

Christmas is so much fun with little kids! Over the two weeks leading up to the big day he asked me at least once a day if it was Christmas yet and if we could open our presents. I finally showed him on the calendar how many more days it was and we began counting the number of sleeps left.

On Christmas Eve, it's our tradition to open our stockings and one gift (a new pair of pajamas). Among other goodies, we each get a movie in our stocking so we end the evening by watching a new movie. However, this year we had company for dinner, so we were a little late opening things and we skipped the movie. Then we get up Christmas morning and, after breakfast, open the rest of the gifts.

Parker was so excited! We try and take turns opening gifts so we can see what everyone got and the fun lasts longer. But after tearing open a couple gifts, Parker came over to the tree and started looking through the gifts, asking which ones he could open next. He just couldn't sit still!











Elise, on the other hand, couldn't care less. We tried to help her open some but she kept walking away. She would pick up a bow or something that was already open and go walking out of the room with it. We finally gave up and left hers in a pile for later. It's been almost a week and there are still a couple she hasn't opened. We'll just wait until she's grumpy and needing something new to play with.  :)

 Seems like we were in and out every day last week! Monday and Tuesday we saw Kyle's parents and a sister who was in town visiting, then we had Christmas in Manteca with Kyle's family, we were able to see friends that had moved and were back in town for the holidays, we brought our nephews home for a couple days, and we had friends over Friday morning for lunch and to play games. It's been a crazy, busy week!

Thankfully this week is a bit slower. No big plans for New Year's Eve. Staying in our warm house, watching a movie, eating ice cream and snuggling under a big fuzzy blanket sounds like the perfect ending to our year.
We're so thankful for all the ways God has blessed us this year, and are looking forward to seeing what 2014 will bring for our family.

Happy New Year! 

Parker's Dog Kennel

As I may have mentioned, Parker has a thing for dogs (puppies, as he calls them). At last count he has eight small stuffed dogs that he carries--or leaves--all over the house. I was wondering how to keep them all in one place, partly so they are picked up, but also so he knows where they are if he wants them. He needed a dog kennel! :)

I was wanting to make something anyway, so I figured this might be fun. And when I mentioned it to Parker he thought it was a great idea. So off we went to Joann's! I already had decided I would make it similar to Daisy's (our real dog) kennel. Which meant it would have mesh sides so Parker could see the dogs inside, it would need a big door on the front, and a handle so he could carry it around. 

I bought a few large sheets of plastic canvas for the sides. I knew Parker would want green yarn on the edges so I basically just gave him a choice between various shades of green. And of course, he picked the brightest one. Nice!  :)  The only thing I wasn't able to find was a handle. Joann's used to sell handles for making purses but they no longer had them in stock. So the next best thing was a large 'D' ring--it would be plenty big for Parker's little hands. I grabbed a couple yarn needles and we were on our way home. Even though he knew I was making it, I didn't want him to see it until it was done so I waited until the kids were napping before starting it. 

I didn't have a specific size in mind, so I just cut the canvas sheets in half for the sides. But I thought that might be too big for a little guy to carry around, so I cut it down a couple times until it seemed like a good size--big enough for his dogs, but small enough for him to carry.  I cut out the two end pieces and a door and started stitching them together at the edges with the bright green yarn. I wasn't quite finished by dinner so I put it away and finished it after they were in bed for the night. Here it is after stitching it together. 

The next morning while he was at breakfast I put one of his dog blankets and two puppies inside and took it out to show him. Seems like he was pretty happy with it!

Parker carried it around all that day! He brought it from room to room and sometimes would go set it down next to Daisy's kennel for a while (pardon the mess--Daisy just had a bath!).

I still need to figure out some kind of 'lock' for the door so it will stay closed. But, as Kyle pointed out, stuffed dogs aren't going anywhere. So I guess there's no hurry.  :)