The playhouse is done!

All of that free time I talked about having is paying off. I just finished the play house I started over the summer. It's a slip-cover that fits over my dining room table -- you can also choose to make them to fit over a cardtable. It was a really fun project to do. I looked at several ideas online -- I followed the ideas from this one: http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/felt-playhouse.html. This link has some templates and good ideas about how to make the house.


Here's the front door -- the mailbox door opens to put notes through and the flowers (that are falling over) can be picked out of the grass. I will say that the door should be made out of something other than felt -- you can kind of tell from the photo that it's getting stretched out. In the blog above it looks like she used a heavier (maybe leather) material for the door.

The garden -- there are carrots and cabbage to pick out of the dirt and corn on the cob to take out. The grape vine was a brilliant idea I had one night :) The longer I worked on the house the more ideas I had to add to it -- this is the only one that I ended up adding -- at some point you have to be done!

Apple tree picking -- the apples velcro on the tree. You can also take some of the flowers out of the grass.

the animal door -- the kids wanted a dog and cat. It originally had a door that hung down but Beckett didn't understand he could go through it, so I cut off the door part and left it open.
After finishing it I had another idea for a play house. It would be really cute to make a red barn playhouse with big barn doors on the front and have animals on the outside. Beckett would LOVE that -- he's currently obsessed with barn animals. This was such a fun project and now I'm debating about what to sew next -- I'm thinking maybe some felt food.

Thanks mom for teaching me to sew and for buying me my first sewing machine!

Tallie's first day of school

Valencia started school one week before Tallie. Watching her big sister go to school helped her feel very excited about starting school. She kept telling me she couldn't wait until her first day, but I thought once it came down to going in without mom she would struggle. To my surprise when the bell rang and it was time to line up outside she ran right up and was the first in line and happily waved goodbye. When I picked her up she told me she LOVED it and was then disappointed to learn she wasn't going to school the next day (she's doing 3 days per week). On occasion - maybe once or twice a week I have her stay a full day and the girls love those days because they see each other in the cafeteria at lunch and then they have recess together. They really are best friends and think it's so fun to see each other at school.

Valencia wasn't totally loving school in the beginning, but now that Tallie goes too that's completely changed. They're both excited about school and on the drive home they love talking about it with each other. It's pretty fun to see. And I have to admit I am LOVING some me-time. Beckett takes a 2-3 hour nap while the girls are at school and it's such a nice time for me to work on personal projects and goals as well as to regroup and prepare for the craziness once I pick the girls up :)
Valencia has two uniform choices - the kakhi skirt and polo shirt I posted earlier and this jumper. Cute!!

Tallie also just celebrated her 5th birthday.

She requested a french poodle cake - which was a lot of fun to make. It turned out HUGE -- I sent Jared down to the basement to find a board big enough to put it on -- way to big for a cookie sheet.

First Day of Kindergarten

Valencia started kindergarten this week. She wasn't excited to go back to school -- she'd rather stay home and play with mom, but we really talked it up and made a big deal about it the last couple of weeks and it worked. She even got up extra early the first morning because she was so excited, but when it came time for me to leave her there she became very nervous and started to cry a bit. But by the time I picked her up she was happy as can be and had a great time at school. After her first day I asked if she would be scared again tomorrow to go to school and she said yes. She said it will take 10 days of going before she isn't scared.

She looks adorable in her uniform.

Tallie starts school next week and watching Valencia go is making her very excited about school. She loves having a big sister.