You Know You're a Mama of All Girls When...

I've got three little girls. No, not little in the sense that they're all under 10, but little in the sense that they're all under 5. Three little girl preschoolers in my home. As totally awesome as they are (They are the honey in my tea...or rather the sugar in my coffee. C'mon I'm a mama to three little girls; I need the ultra stuff.), they can be a complete riot at times. But I'm so crazy in love with each of them, as particular and unique as each one is, that I'd trade all the coffee beans in the world for them!

First, there's Naomi Simone, or as she used to refer to herself for the longest time: Naomi Simoni. Though I don't like using the phrase, for lack of a better word, she is a drama queen. Every emotion is fully felt and fully expressed, from "This is the worst day EVER and I'm just gonna die" to "OH MY GOSH this day is TOTALLY AWESOOOOOME!!!" She brings joy and life and excitement to every part of our home, since everything is a big deal. She forces me to see things as a child does, with excitement. (Well, unless she's in the pits of despair because she spilled her juice.) Once crazy about the color pink, she now says that red is her favorite color. I secretly think it's because her younger sister Mae is all about pink now and Naomi must distinguish herself. Naomi also thinks pink and red go perfectly together (and any form of stripes together, including pink and red).

Next is my sweet little MaeBalloon, AKA, Mae Juliette. At nearly three years old, she is the epitome of sweetness, cuddly cuteness and daintiness. But don't let those blonde curlies fool you, she is smart, with a vocabulary similar to her older sister's. Mae can entertain herself anywhere, anytime, and is perfectly content to sit quietly on my lap through a whole church service and possibly sleep. If there are no toys or crayons around, she can use her fingers to be little people and have whole conversations among them. With the sweet, there is hard-headedness as well, and hard to break stubbornness. It catches me off guard sometimes, but I know it's a fleeting thing that comes with the age of 2.

Lastly is my Illiana Sunshine, AKA Illy, AKA Baby Sunshine, AKA Illy Badilly, AKA Chilliana, AKA BillyPana (the girls give her lots of nicknames...as do my husband and I). Illy's not so girly girly yet; she's still all baby all over the place. At 10 1/2 months old, she is fast as lightening and adventurous. Today, I came downstairs and found her up on the couch, yet hanging halfway off the couch holding onto a giant potted plant with one hand and digging in the dirt with the other (somehow some of it made it into the mouth...blah). And yesterday, she came crawling at lightening speed towards me when I noticed something black on her chin. Thinking she'd gotten some dirt on her, I wiped it off and then looked at what it was: an even bigger BLAH, a chewed up boxelder bug. Her sisters found that amusingly disgusting. Illy is known to glean cheerios and other assorted dropped food from the kitchen floor, and she recently escaped into the bathroom and overturned Mae's little potty (that Mama forgot to empty). Despite all that, she is my piece of sunshine. One of my favorite parts of the day is when I go in to get her up before the other girls are awake, and she's sitting in her crib all smiley with her fuzzy blanket in hand and thumb in mouth. Then she smiles the biggest smile ever at me while reaching up for me!

So...you know you're a mama of all girls when...

1. You sort your laundry into darks, whites, and pink!
2. Your girls fight over who gets to be the "pink one"
3. You have naked Barbie dolls lying around everywhere; for us they're by the bathroom sink drying off after the girls' baths
4. Your children take forever in the bathroom because they have to make silly faces in the mirror for 5 minutes before actually "going" to the bathroom.
5. Or they take forever because they go to the bathroom together, with the door closed, chatting away for 10 minutes about princesses, stickers, pink, and dressing up
6. You get told, "That's so gross, mama; you should say excuse me" when you burp, but then you overhear them talking about poop, and pee, and eyeballs when you're not around.
7. The favorite cup is the strawberry cup with glitter inside of it.
8. You get asked to play Barbie's "The Princess and the Pauper" for the 10 zillionth time.
9. Your girls disappear when the babysitter shows up, only to come downstairs 5 minutes later decked out in a crown, high heels, scarves, and gaudy dresses to show the sitter how pretty they are.
10. You go shopping and pass the girls' clothing section and you child goes, "Oh this is cute. Oh, and I love this dress. Oh, and this is beautiful, mama."

I love my girls. They rock my world with pink and glitter. AND, they like to go hiking and camping, and climb things, and watch Dinosaur Train.

Easy Early Reading Game

My oldest daughter, Naomi, is 4 1/2, and I've been teaching her how to read this year as part of her homeschooling. Since she's only at the 4K grade level (or, in Ambleside Online terms, Year 0), I'm not doing too much with her for school. Mostly Bible verses, Bible stories, cooking, lots of art, writing letters, and easy math. But the most intensive thing I do with her is reading. She's so good with letters, and her vocabulary is awesome, so I figured I'd go ahead and start early with her. I'm amazed that after just a few weeks, she was reading 2-letter words and now 3-letter words.

I've been using the book, The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise (Classical Homeschooling method guru). It's great, because everything is scripted out for the parent who has never taught a child how to read before. I don't do as many repetitions as Wise recommends because my daughter just gets bored with it. We recite the "poems" like rap songs sometimes to make it more fun! My favorite part is that there are no goofy games added in as filler and fluff. I just don't like that kind of stuff. Yes, learning should be fun and engaging, but not just busywork. My daughter needs to know that what she's learning has a point and a value to it. She spends plenty of other time playing.

However, there are a few education games in the book as optional activities that are pretty fun! One is "Mix and Match Words." Here's how you can do it yourself:

Take 12 notecards and cut them in half width-wise (so you have 24 cards 3" by 2 1/2"
With one colored marker, write the following combinations on 8 of the cards (one combination per card):

• ip, in, ib, it, im, id, ig, ix
• These are word ending cards

On the rest of the cards, use a different colored marker and write one of each of the following letters on a card:

• b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, w, y, z
• These are beginning letter cards

Now, take the word ending card with it written on it and put it in front of your child. Then gather these beginning letters: s, h, f, b, k, l, p. Turn them over so that you can't see what's written on it. Have your child pick one and put it in front of the word ending card and read the word she made. If she reads it correctly, she gets the card; if not, it goes back in the "upside down" pile of beginning letters. Keep playing until your child has "won" all the beginning letters.

Here are other combinations to use:

• it with s, h, f, b, k, l, p
• ig with b, d, f, j, p, w
• id with k, l, d, h, r
• im with d, h, r
• ib with b, r, f
• in with p, f, b, s, w, k, t, d
• ip  with l, r, s, t, h, d, n, z, y
• ix with  s, f, m

This is a fun game to play, and you can add to it with 3 letter words made with the other four short vowel sounds.

Softie Plushie Dolly

Lately, I've become way intrigued by the Japanese kawaii stuff. It's all over the place in the crafting, blogging, sewing world. And I've been checking out "softies" lately. The girls and I looked at tons of pictures online of softies people have made and posted. Of course, they wanted all of them, so I saved a few images to my computer and decided to design and make softies for them for Christmas. So far, I've just created Mae's. It's cute, but I would have made it slightly smaller if I were to redo it.

The finished softie doll

Here's what I did:

1. I drew a sketch of a softie that I wanted to create based on Mae's likes

2. I drew all the "pattern" parts I'd need to cut out

3. I cut out the "pattern" pieces and then cut out the corresponding fabric pieces

(2 of the skirt pieces, 2 of the top pieces, 2 of the face pieces, 1 hair piece, 4 leg pieces, 4 arm pieces,4 ear pieces, 2 ear pieces from batting)

4. I sewed two arms and two legs and turned the pieces inside out and stuffed them.

5. I sewed the ears together with batting and turned those inside out.

6. I sewed the face together and turned it inside out and then top stitched around the edge. I added buttons for eyes and sewed a tiny smile with red thread in a backstitch.

7. I laid the hair over the face where I wanted it and folded it slightly over the back and stitched it into place all around.

8. I sewed the face to one of the top pink pieces using a hidden stitch like I use for hemming.

9. I sewed one top piece to a bottom piece and laid it flat right side up.

10. I laid the arms and legs and ears pointing inwards where I wanted them on top of the piece I just laid flat.

11. Then I sewed the other top piece to the other bottom piece and laid it right side down on top of the arms, legs, ears, and other side of body and pinned into place.

12. I stitched all the way around, leaving one corner open for stuffing. Then I stuffed it and sewed it shut.

13. I added trimmings (you could do this prior to sewing up the doll): a button that I sewed into place going all the way through the doll (so stuffing wouldn't slide around) and an apron that I cut out of an piece of curtain trim.

This is not meant to be a perfect tutorial. I mostly made it up as I went along (which meant mistakes). I've never made a stuffed doll before, so this is my first attempt and Mae is my guinea pig. Now, I'm sure I'll have to make one for Naomi, too, for Christmas!

I'm a novice sewer, so if I can make something up like this, you can too! Try it out and link back here with pictures!

Snow, Christmas, Coloring Pages, and Dum Dum Pops

This morning the girls and I decorated the tree with ornaments. We don't have a real tree; it just seems kind of ridiculous (yet fun) to spend $40 on something that we'll just throw out in a few weeks. However, even with some of the lights not working and a sparsity of ornaments, it still just feels nice to have a tree up in the house. It gives this time of year more of a special feel. And the girls LOVE it! Illiana came down stairs this morning to see her first ever Christmas tree and smiled big, probably wondering what it was all about. I thought she'd take off crawling towards it right away, but she just sat by me staring and smiling. She's such a sweet baby!

I'm thinking of making some sort of garland with Naomi as part of homeschool to spruce it up a bit (no pun meant), but am still looking at the options. For now, the girls are coloring away on their new coloring pages I printed up from Elsie Marley. She's putting up one page a day from her hand drawn Advent coloring book (which can also be purchased from her Etsy store).

Here are the links for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7. Stay tuned to her page each day for more pages to print and color.

To add to all the excitement, the girls woke up to--not just the tree up--but a snow covered ground and fat flakes falling down! After breakfast, they went outside to play in it, and of course, eat it!!

Here are some shots of all the happenings:

Mae's beautiful artwork

Naomi's colorful mittens

Even Mama colored a page that Mae shared with her

Mae's window marker creation

Naomi's window art with a snowy background

And the giant bag of Dum Dum Pops we've all been chowing

My favorite so far is the coconut flavor (what's yours?)

Handmade Gifts for the Girls!

I was sick pretty much everyday after Thanksgiving, so I had plenty of time to sit, or lay, around and sew. So, I took the opportunity to make some doll clothes for my two oldest girls and some little booties for my baby girl.

This will be the dress for Naomi's American girl doll, Elizabeth, that she's getting for Christmas. The pattern was free, and I found it here. It's called a wedding dress, hence all the whiteness. But I'm thinking of adding some crocheted flowers or ribbon or something to it. I think Naomi would appreciate that.

This is the front view. It should fit any 18" doll.

This is a view of the back. The pattern did not call for any kind of closure at the top, so I figured a button would work. I just used one of the spaces between stitches for the button hole.

And here is the dress I made for Mae's doll she is getting. I don't know exactly what size her doll will be, but I'm assuming not as tall as an American Girl. This is using the same pattern, except I did fewer rounds at the bottom and ended with two rounds of single crochet instead of one. I also added a round of trim that was 1 single crochet then two chains in each stitch. Makes it kind of ruffly. Finally I added a ribbon that was simply a chain stitch and weaved it through the middle.

This is the front view. I had these three colors, but not enough of one to make a full dress, so I made a tri-color dress. I actually like it better than the solid white!

And this is the back.

I love this pattern because it's so easy and works up super fast. It uses mostly double and single crochet with a few v-stitches (which is just dc & ch stitches). My favorite part is that it is sewn in one piece, so no joining parts together! And you know what that means! Fewer ends to weave in! Unless you change colors like I did with Mae's doll's dress.

Finally, here are the little booties I made for Illiana from this pattern here. I had to change the pattern quite a bit through, because my babies have all had fat feet and these booties just didn't cover those chubby baby feet. I added a few more stitches per row and moved the strap back a row to have it more centralized on the foot. These also were worked in one piece and super quick.

American Girl Clothes and Patterns

I heard through the grapevine that Naomi is getting one of the exquisite and fashionable American Girls for Christmas. Not from us, of course. $95 for a doll is highway robbery, but I do think the dolls and their books, especially, are a well-made and even an educational treat for a little girl who will treat them kindly. Naomi is pretty meticulous with her toys, so I think she'll handle the doll fairly well. When I asked her which doll was her favorite, I let her look at all the choices on the website, and she was dead set on Elizabeth, Felicity's blonde friend in an elegant pink dress. I like Felicity's red hair and purple dress better, but I'm not a little girl whose world is seen through Pepto-Bismol pink glasses. (Personally, Josephina is my favorite.) Naomi also really loves Addy, the other little doll in pink, but Elizabeth was her final answer.

Knowing that Naomi loves to dress her dolls up, I decided that I should probably make some doll clothes to fit the 18" inch American Girl doll, so I set out to find some crochet and sewing patterns that would work (ah, if only I could knit). Let me tell you, there are tons out there, but I needed quick and easy since Christmas is only 39 days away, I think, and I don't get much time to sew with three little lovlies running around and needy.

Here are some links to things I found that I'd like to try to make. First and foremost, the tutu. A tutu is an essential for any little girl and her doll (We signed Naomi up for ballet classes starting in January with Parks and Rec...only $35 for 12 weeks!). Next, a crocheted vest that I'm sure could be embellished in any number of ways. There is a link to a little skirt for the doll at the bottom of the page. And this page with tons of crochet patterns, like a jacket, short sleeved shirt, long sleeved shirt, pants, skirt, etc. Not all these will be for Christmas, but birthdays and such. Notice most of the links are for crocheted clothes. It's kind of a pain to get my sewing machine out and then have to clear it off the kitchen table for every meal, so until I get a table and corner of my own, I will crochet more than sew.

Hope you enjoy the links! Feel free to comment with other links you've found!

DIY Rainbow Crayons

Today the girls and I finally got around to a fun kid craft that I've been wanting to do with them for a long time. With a love of coloring, the girls go through crayons pretty quickly, with many of them breaking or getting worn down after much use, so we end up with lots of little broken pieces. A week or so ago, I went through their crayon boxes and separated out the little pieces into a bowl for us to make rainbow crayons with.

The girls have been pretty excited to do this project, so today I told them if they would help me peel the crayons that still had paper on them, then we could make them. Since the sun was shining and there was, miraculously, no cold wind blowing, we sat outside on a picnic blanket peeling the crayons and eating cinnamon swirl bread. Afterwards, I let the girls put the crayon pieces into the muffin cups to make their own color combinations. I had to help Mae a little, because she wanted to put giant handfuls in each cup. Although they each got to make 12 crayons (a muffin tray full), I think they could have made better crayons if I'd only let them make six each. The results were a little thinner than I was hoping for, but usable nonetheless.

I think I may have let the crayons "cook" a little too long. My whole kitchen smelled like candles when you blow them out after I took these out.

Easy Peasy Skirt from Fitted Sheet

This was probably the easiest piece of clothing I've ever sewn. My mother-in-law gave me a bunch of material from a fitted sheet in a really pretty cornflower blue color. The sheet was the kind that had elastic all the way around, and not just on two sides or just the corners. She used the middle, flat part for something else and gave me the edges to use for whatever. I took one length of it and sewed it together for a skirt with a back seam. Then I simply hemmed the bottom. Voila! A skirt for my four year old. Sorry for the poor picture quality; Naomi is almost never still and these were taken on my phone's camera. 3.1 megapixels, but still not as quality as our regular camera.

Naomi trying desperately to be still.

We like the whole skirt over jeans thing here. It's warm and cute.

And what photoshoot of Naomi would be complete without this face?

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

Today's Crayola Fall Color Week color is CHESTNUT BROWN! I tried to figure out exactly what color that is...I need to get an expanded box of crayola crayons "for the girls" to really see. Anyway, here's my little MaeBalloon's feet in my big ol' brown mary janes.

Burnt Sierra Delayed

Here's my Burnt Sierra photos, late but here, for Elsie Marley's Crayola Fall Color Week:

Illiana's Butternut Squash

Burnt Sienna on Baby Illiana Sunshine

Fall Color Week #1: Brick Red

Meg from Elsie Marley blog is hosting some photo fun with Fall Color Week. Today's color is Brick Red! Here's my input...of course it involves my little lovlies...well, two of the three.

Naomi in her brick red sweater and little sundress I made her toppling Paddington as naked Illy watches

Naomi attacks

Handmade Christmas

I've been reading so many crafty blogs lately with all these ideas of clothes and things to make yourself, that I've gotten pretty inspired to do handmade gifts for my girls for Christmas this year...and for others if there's time. I found some patterns for Barbie type clothes here and here. And I want to make a dress for Naomi using this tutorial, all I need for it is an unwanted button down men's shirt.

Who wouldn't want to make dresses for these little beauties?

Speaking of button down shirts, I've come across many sewing tutorials for repurposing unwanted men's (and women's) button down shirts into more fitted shirts, western style shirts, and dresses for girls. I asked my husband a while back to see if he had any unwanted button down shirts, but he pretty much wears them all (especially when I'm not caught up on ironing, which is basically always). If anyone reads this and wants to donate unwanted men's and women's button down shirts to this cause, feel free to contact me and send them my way!

DIY Hair Detangler

All of my little girls--at least the ones with hair--have very curly locks. Everytime we go out, everyone comments on how much they love their hair, their Shirley Temple curls, etc. But it takes a lot of effort, and sometimes tears to get those curls to curl and not just frizz out! I've tried wetting their hair and then combing it out and then putting mousse in it, but unless they've just had a bath and had their hair completely washed, it usually turns out like a frizzy kid-afro! And there are tears involved in the combing through countless tangles. I used to buy detangler, but it's so expensive for such a small amount that we use up so quickly, so finally this morning I figured there must be something I can make myself, since there are so many websites about how to make your own shampoo, conditioner, soap, oil treatments, etc. The result is so much easier than I expected. Just take a 9oz spray bottle, put one inch of conditioner in it, and then fill it the rest of the way with water. Shake it up and you're all ready to go! I'm going to try it out today!

Ruffle Sleeve Top in Pink

I saw this tutorial over at Sparkle Power for a Ruffle Sleeve Top and decided that I needed to make one for at least one of my girls. Then I saw this version of it over at MADE and decided that I wanted buttons on mine as well (to hide my messy stitches...and for cuteness). Below is my version for Mae, my 2 1/2 year old, using the 2T/3T measurements from the tutorial. I did not have any 1" elastic on hand, so I used 1/2" for the top and 1/4" for the ruffle sleeves. I added pockets and buttons, and, after many dumb mistakes (sewing late at night is not always a great idea--thank God for seam rippers), this is what I came up with.

Apologies for any poor image quality. I used the camera on my new phone, and I'm still getting used to it. Also, you may notice mistakes; that's because I'm pretty new at this whole sewing thing. I've never made pockets on anything before, so these I just kind of came up with using guesswork. Check out the original tutorial for great step by step instructions accompanied by photos. My little Mae Balloon was napping after a great first half of a day of potty training. No accidents yet! She's a trooper and has a bladder like her sister's--steel!

36 Weeks of 4K

It used to be called Preschool, but nowadays, schools are calling it 4K. The other day one of my next door neighbor's kids told me that I should send Naomi to 4K this year for school, that she'd learn a lot of things to help her grow. This same little girl just finished 4K this spring and is now in just K.

I wonder how Naomi will feel when she realizes that she is not doing school like most kids do school, since she will be homeschooled by me and Jake. Most of the kids around here started back to school on Tuesday this week, and I can't imagine Naomi getting on the bus every morning and being gone half the day. It would be so weird, and I don't think she would have liked it at first. Besides the fact that we're rarely dressed as a family by the time the buses get here. I know I'm not even out of bed when the bus for the high school kids comes driving through at 6:30 in the morning!

Anyway, today, Jake took the two oldest girls to work with him today so I could plan out Naomi's 4K year, homeschool style. We're starting a week later than most around these parts, but does it really matter? She's four! I am mostly focusing on teaching her how to read, how to write her letters better, and then reading good books to her myself. We'll throw in a few fun things that help get her ready for math, drawing, science, art, music, Bible, etc. But she loves books and drawing, so I want to get her reading on her own and have a lot of time to just create.

Having the whole day with just Illiana (who's either sick or having some major teeth cutting going on), I was able to plan 36 weeks worth of stuff for Naomi, so all I'll need to do each week is write out a daily plan and reserves some books from the library. I'm excited to go through all the Beatrix Potter and Winnie the Pooh stories with her! We bought the complete sets of both earlier this year, and I think the girls will really like listening to them.

Once Naomi's six, we're going to start with Ambleside Online, a Charlotte Mason type curriculum found online, using mostly books we can get online or from the library!

Paper Doll Chains

My oldest daughter Naomi is in love with this project. And it’s so easy for me to set it up for her. I found the idea in some toddler activity book someone gave us a while back, and my little artist is hooked. All I do is take a long sheet of paper, or several pieces of paper taped together, fold accordian style to however wide I want my “dolls” to be, draw an image of a boy or girl, and then cut it out. Now, I’m no talented artist, so the drawing part is hardest for me, but Naomi doesn’t need an extravagant figure. She just likes to color their hair, clothes, and shoes in hundreds of different ways. She totally reminds me of myself when I was younger. I used to draw clothes all the time. Anyway, here are some shots of her creations. My header also features her artwork.

Stinkin' Diary

So, Naomi is the queen of hilarious expressions! The other day we were reading a George and Martha book, and in the story Martha was writing in her diary, trying to keep its contents secret from a spying George. When we got to that part, Naomi asks me, “Mom, what’s a diary?” So I explain it to her.
A few days later, she holds up her notebook and says to her dad, “Hey Daddy, this is my diarrhea!!” When she told me later, I couldn’t help but crack up!


Then yesterday, we made her a PBJ with blackberry jam. Usually she gets strawberry jam, so this was something totally new and different. She took a bite, and with a really loud voice (what else is new) exclaims, “OH MAN! THIS…IS…AWESOOOOOME!!
I love how excited Naomi gets about stuff. I’m not sure really where she gets it from, as the rest of us are pretty mellow people. But I sure am glad to have her in the family; she brings the party on here!

The Little Artist's Paint Creations

Naomi got some new paints for her birthday this month. Here are some of her creations.