Bean Bags

This summer, I was visiting a friend of mine and she had Letter Bean Bags. The girl's loved them and played with them A TON while we were there. I decided to make some for the kids. I naively thought, I could finish a set in one night. Not sure where I got that idea!

I printed off the letters, cut them out, traced them onto applique paper, cut them out again, cut my fabric into squares, ironed the letters onto the fabric, sewed them on, put the bean bags together (I stitched around each one three times because I don't have a Serger), filled them, and then finally hand-stitched each one closed. NOT the quick, simple project I envisioned which is particularly silly since I was aware of the process BEFORE I started. (I guess 'perfect' me does things way faster)

Originally, I planned on making only Uppercase Letters but then I decided to do Lowercase too, because I have no filter when it comes to projects. I hate to admit, but I really did think - "No big deal to do lowercase too and how fun would that be?" Ironically, everyone else seems to be able to see what I am getting into...everyone but me! :)

These were finished several weeks ago and the kids love them! We play hide a seek, matching games, sorting games, and Paul plays catching and tossing games with them.(With the kids not by himself...although he probably would play with them by himself) In the end, I am glad we have them but would be in no hurry to take these on again.

My redo on these would be making the Uppercase letters just a little bit
smaller so they weren't so close to the edges.

Names

Now that Paul is gone all day, I find that getting anything done during the day, beyond keeping the house clean and kids fed and happy, is tricky. This is a big adjustment for me - I used to be able to pawn kids off on Paul and get lots of stuff done. My project time is now after bedtime while Paul studies, so what I normally could have done in one or two days, I finished in a week! I decided to just celebrate the fact that I finished them and I love them!

Hudson

Bristol

Vienna

Shhhh, Quiet

Here is Sunday project #2 - I actually started these about a month ago and the goal was too finish them BEFORE we moved....it was a nice idea anyway! I think they turned out good though and the girls love them!

Some of the pages are too hard for Bristol to get conceptually but she is learning fast and having fun in the meantime. Here are some of the pages - some of them are my favorites - some are the girls: (Sorry some of the pictures are hard to see...not a photographer obviously)





Flower Garden





Making Ice Cream





Picking Apples



Counting

Matching Shapes

Letters

Matching patterns

Match the Presents

When I got all of the pieces laminated for these books this was the result:

HOURS of cutting fun!



Job Charts

These are the girls new job charts! We just clip the chart onto their boards and they get to put stickers on for every job they finish. Maybe now they won't find it so surprising that I make them clean up their toys every single day......here's to hoping anyway!

Stuck on You

Church is wonderful...are you sensing a but coming? BUT it can be tough with three kids. How do people do more than three? Something to look forward to I guess :) (Not an announcement) Anyway - I decided to copy my brilliant sister and put together some church activities for the girls. Here is project number one:

STICKER BOOKS 

I love how these turned out! The girls carry them around and 'read' them even without stickers - they only get stickers on Sunday. I have a bunch of stickers that the girls can put on the pages during church - a nice, quiet, holding still activity. These books are especially nice because I can just take the stickers off and use them the next week and the next and the next. Here's to hoping for a smoother Sunday next week!