Tab: End of Year Party

Tab's room mom wasn't able to make it to the end of year party, and since we recently became "friends I got put in charge of all of the games and such.  The kids had a blast racing their cups across the floor by blowing them with straws.

Tab and his teacher.  He adores her.  He couldn't be bothered to look up for a picture.

Each of the kids put their hand prints on a square and I put it together into a quilt for Ms. Southern as an end of year present.

The kids loved finding their hand prints.

The whole class.

First Day of School!

School started today...finally. This year we have two in school Tab started first grade.And here he is headed into school with dad. (Jason raced home from his overnight shift at the hospital in order to accompany him to school.) He was excited to see me at the end of the day and then seconds later completely melted because supposedly I am to send a snack with him every day. However nowhere in any paperwork did it state this. Apparently, according to him he was the only one without a snack. I felt like a schmuck. I feel like I should have known even though there is no way I could have known. Sigh...Benton started preschool today! It is only 3 hours 3 days a week but I think it is going to be good for him. He was excited about going, though his face in the picture looks more questioning.It is about at this point that he realized that we weren't in fact staying with him at school. (Will someone please teach my child to look at the camera.) He did really well according to his teacher. I guess he was a little nervous about playing with the other kids which is so NOT Benton. Alas, I'm sure he will adjust.
As some may recall last year I decorated/covered up logos on a book bag that we already had for Tab. Because we are cheap, I did the same thing this year for Benton. I took a book bag we had from storage and decked it out in pirate "stuff" per Benton's request. Pretty much the only difference between his and Tab's was that he wanted a hook on his instead of a skull and crossbones.
It had a sword wrapping around the top.And I made him a luggage tag and covered the straps with cool pirate fabric.Tab still has his book bag from last year but he did have to have an art smock for school. It was suggested that and old adult shirt would suffice but you know me. And I was sick of his long sleeve shirts getting ruined last year because they stick out, etc. So I made one. I just took one of Paisley's Ikea bibs and made a pattern that I enlarged to fit of course.
And the back is secured with a strip of velcro.
I put cuffs on the sleeves so that they would stay tight-ish around his wrists. Again with the pirates.And I stitched his name on it.

First Sewing Project

On a recent trip to my parents house I was working feverishly at my mother's serger so that I could make some princess dresses for Paisley for her Birthday. Tab kept asking if he could sew something. Finally I gave in and said yes. He decided that he wanted to sew a blanket out of "soft fabric". So grandma gave him some fleece from her stash and we took it home with us. After a few days of non-stop pestering we started to make his blanket.

First we cut out a million and one squares. I tried to convince him that we could just cut out two big squares and sew them together. But that wasn't good enough. He wanted it to be like a quilt. So we set to it. Then we began sewing all of the squares together.He got it down pretty quickly. Backstitch... sew....backstitch...The only problem was that he insisted that my machine stay set at the slowest setting. It made me kind of nuts. It was WICKED slow.But eventually, we finished.
And a closeup.
Benton couldn't be left out. He needed to show off his "blankie". We did not however make his. His was made by Jason's Cousin's wife, Harmony for Tab. Benton just adopted it as his own.

Halloween Fun!

For the first time ever our entire family dressed up for Halloween. We had a lot of fun with it. I spent way way way too much time making costumes and loved every last single second of it.

Tab and Benton were pirates.Paisley was a pirate's wench.You can see her black eye shadow and red lipstick a bit better in this picture. For the record, she loved having the make-up put on. I'm a little scared....Jason and I dressed up as a pirate and wench as well.The wench's out trick or treating.Trick or Treating fun. The boys were a bit lazy when it came to walking between houses.We started out our festivities,by carving our pumpkins.
Tab actually did a great job cutting.Benton hated pulling the seeds and stuff out.Paisley wanted to help.Benton loved helping to cut also.Outside with their pumpkins.

First Day of School!

Michigan starts school really late. Today was Tab's first day of kindergarten. He will be going all day on Monday and Wednesday and half a day of Friday! I'm probably awful for not being one of those mom's who cry and whatnot when their oldest starts kindergarten. I was more like thank goodness school is finally starting.

Here is Tab all ready to get in the car to head to school this morning!To drop him off every morning I have to park my car, get all 3 kids out and walk around the back of the school, where all of the kids line up outside the back door to their classroom. Waving goodbye.
Not even a single look back!We decided not to spend money on buying Tab a backpack just yet. We took a barely used backpack that I got from Novell when I worked there. I went to town doctoring it up for him. First was the skull and crossbones out of some remnant corduroy. I love the texture it gave it! Then I told him to pick out something that a Pirate says to put on it. He chose "walk the plank".
There was Novell lettering on the straps so I sewed some fabric over top to cover it up.I made him a luggage type tag for his backpack.Then he requested that I put a sword on it because we all know your not a good pirate without a sword!In an attempt to avoid all things school lunch, we (or should I say, I) have opted to pack Tab's lunch each day. I've decided to go with Bento style lunches, so I got him this set. So of course he needed a lunch box to carry it in. So I made him one just the right size to carry his lunch. I sort of used this tutorial.
And I made another luggage tag type thing for his bag too.

My First "Quilt"

I made my first "quilt". I put quilt in quotes because the top isn't pieced together and that is what I generally think of when I think of a quilt. Anyway. This was my first. I made it for Jason's mom for her birthday/mother's day. It was a crazy amount of work. The trunk it made up of all of our footprints and the top of the tree is obviously all of our hand prints. I used freezer paper stencils to do the lettering. And for the record a did all of the quilting of it on my machine. That was the most time consuming part and it took well over a spool of thread!

I am really happy with how it turned out. I'm proud of myself despite all of the flaws in it. So if you actually quilt just don't look closely. I learned A LOT while making this. I have to give many thanks to my mom for her help over the phone. Thank you for listening to me cry when I messed up and just needed to whine about it. Thanks for all of the tips and tricks. I only wish I lived closer so that you could teach me in person how to for real quilt.I love the fabric that I used for the back, it worked perfect with the colors on the front.And an up close shot of the top. We did Pais's hand prints in pink with Jason's yellow thumb print as centers like little blossoms. (Jason's idea!)