Tricking my three-yr-old into eating "yucky" vegetables

Immediately following my newest favorite show "Nate Berkus", "Great Day St Louis" came on TV. They showed tricks for tricking your kids into eating more vegetables.

Sophia has recently discovered "junk food" and now all of a sudden vegetables are "Yucky!". She happened to look at the TV at the same time "Great Day St Louis was showing veggie pizzas and asked if we could make those so what's a mom to do but break out the veggies and a little pizza sauce and cheese to make veggie pizzas. I happened to have some of those lower fat turkey pepperonis on hand too so she used those to make the funny faces. The one on the small round pan, Sophia said looked like her. I don't see the resemblance but why argue with a kid's imagination so I lovingly agreed.

We used what we had on hand: mini bagels, pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni, skim mozzarella cheese, olives, peas, greens beans, and mushrooms to make our funny pizza faces. You can try this too and maybe your kids will want to eat their "Yucky!" vegetables too.


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Strawberry dress

I guess the warm weather last week influenced me to make some spring/summer clothing. I sewed this little spring dress for Sophia. Too bad it snowed last night again so she will not be wearing it anytime soon. It is a very simple style so it needed a printed fabric make it cute.


The dress is a loose fitting dress that is made to overlap and then ties in the back which adds some detail because of the contrasting piping. Because the dress is not a fitted style and completely adjustable, my ever-growing daughter may be able to wear it through the summer. At least that is what I am hoping.

The funny thing is I actually put it on myself not tied and it fit me like a loose-fitting tank top.

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T-shirt transformation into graffiti

We started with A plain old T-shirt that already had a few paint stains on it




First, I told Sophia we were going to make a craft after we finished our daily lessons.


She was so excited when I handed her a paint pen and told her to paint on this old shirt. She started painting some lines and squiggles with red.


Then, she added some black paint.


A little more paint added here and there by my little cutie pie.


Next, she painted some white lines.


More white lines.


It needed a little more red.


Even more red


I think this looks like graffiti.


Here she is displaying her proud new graffiti style fashion. When the paint dried, I cut the old T- shirt neck out and made a scoop neck and added some serged ruffles out of a long strip fabric to the neckline and sleeves. Now, it coordinates with her polka dot skirt we made last fall. She added a turtle neck and leggings so she could wear it today since it turned cold outside again. Can you see how proud she is of her new Sophia graffiti style shirt?

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Is my dog smiling?

I serged this dog crate liner for my dog out of some scrap fabric I bought from the discount remnant bin at the fabric store. Poor doggy had somehow managed to crack the tray that covers the crate bottom, maybe from running while sleeping or something. So today I pulled the whole crate apart and made some quick temporary repairs with some duct tape to the plastic tray and scrubbed the whole thing down really thoroughly. I usually do that outside periodically but with all the snow have not been able to use the hose to really clean it out for awhile. She looks happy that her bed smells fresh and clean and has a new soft flannel and fleece blanket to sleep on. I wonder if she knows I made this especially for her. I know she sat next to me and watched me serge it so early in the morning one day last week.

Is she smiling?



She is yawning and ready to cuddle up on her new blanket. Good night sweet doggy. Have sweet doggy dreams! We love you.

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Kaylee today

Standing to get her toys out of the toy bins in her room






It looks like she found what she was looking for.  This is one way to bring your books to mommy to read.  She is crawling with her book in her mouth.  Then, she looked up at me and laughed and put it back in her mouth and did it again.  She is so funny.

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Reversible dog crate blanket liner

Posh puppy bed, well not exactly. I have a Labrador Retriever so "simple" is better. To anyone who has one I can leave it at "enough said". However, for those of you who have never had the lovely pleasure and challenge of owning one of these beautiful high energy eating machines, Labradors eat as much as goats. I think they may even have some goat back in their lineage somewhere although that has never been proven and is just speculation on my part.

Anyhow, my lovely sweet eating machine needed a new blanket for her crate so I whipped this one up on the serger while the rest of the world slept this morning. I didn't put fancy blanket bindings or ruffles or rick rack, although I could have on this because chances are it will be eaten by my sweet eating machine downstairs on a particularly boring afternoon.



So here is a very simple reversible dog crate liner blanket for my dog. It is made out of a soft red fleece and paw printed flannel cotton scrap. I used a simple three thread rolled hem to finish the edges in my serger.




Now, I may have to make a blanket for my cats because it looks like someone is already a bit jealous and trying this blanket out for size.


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Strolling with the walker stroller

Kaylee is pushing toys in the stroller


Look, it is my Valentine kitty.





Sophia is drawing elephants with markers

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Busy little girl

Playing Princesses



Playing shapes



Vvrrooom!



Making noise with blocks



Making funny faces at mom

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Drawing some "friends"

We have been home a lot more this winter because of me not wanting to expose baby Kaylee to all the nasty germs because she was a preemie. I worry about the kids passing crud back and forth and all of us getting sick. As a result, we have been home a lot.
so, I am wondering if she is just lonely drawing "friends."

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Serge oodles of fluffy ruffles

My sweet daughter modeling my oodles of serged fluffy ruffles.

I have been wanting to try to make a fluffy ruffled scarf for awhile. I first saw these in a high end fashion store a short while back in knit and loved them. And what girlie girl doesn't want more fluffy happy ruffles in her life to dress up a plain old T-shirt?

I knew I could make a ruffly scarf but just needed to find time to try it. I love to find trendy fun things and figure out how to make them. I have allergies to wool items so I tend to shy away from anything knit. I thought maybe if I just make this out of a lightweight scarf fabric it would look beautiful. I love the rolled hem setting on my Serger that let's me make sassy ribbons out of the smallest tidbit of fabric and scarves out of the most exquisite silk pieces.



So yesterday at naptime I serged the edges of this fabric with a three thread rolled hem to start. Then, I set the ruffling foot in place and serged oodles and oodles of ruffles to 1/8" wide elastic and like magic I had my very own ruffled scarf that my daughter had to try on immediately. I may never see my fancy fluffy ruffled scarf again but it was fun to make. I just might have to sneak it back out of her room at naptime today or make another.

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My tiny dancer

Tonight was viewing night and they got to put on costumes.


Show off her little costume


My little ballerina


Sophia playing the tambourine while tap dancing

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Creative misuse of a toy

Kaylee was crawling around on the floor and decided to crawl right into the bottom of her exersaucer. She was playing in the top part earlier today.


Isn't she silly?

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My little hearts for my little Loves

Sophia showing off her new Valentine's hairbows I sewed for her during nap. I didn't notice she was carrying her toy pink elephant under Nano until I looked at this photo. Oops!



I have been wanting to make some of these "3D" hearts for awhile and thought it would be fun to make some Valentine's hairbows.

Oh and I know these aren't "bows" but "hairbows" in our house refers to anything including just plain old rubber bands that has to do with hair barrettes or hair ponytail holders.







She was really excited about some heart-shaped hairbows to wear for Valentine's Day.




I am making some for Kaylee too even though she doesn't have much hair yet.


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More lessons for school

Sophia and I study every day. I tell her we will play school and we use real world examples to learn and then reinforce what she learned in an activity worksheet.

Here are just a few days of the past lessons



Science: washing hands to prevent colds and germs spreading.



Social studies: the liberty bell lesson



Upside down
Math: counting and adding
Social studies: the Statue of Liberty
Handwriting and fine motor skills


Science: animals that come fro
Eggs.



Reading and phonics: letters and sound


Same
Math: counting and more or less

Kaylee is learning too. She is learning a new sign: wave bye bye. She knows "milk" and "eat".



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