Chore Chart for the Little Ones

Ever feel like your toddlers need to learn a thing or two about a hard days work??? I know, they are little, but sometimes (when you have more than one especially) you could really use their help around the house. I made this chore chart for my little Sadie who is 3 and I'm sure her sister will be using it soon!

How does it work? Well, first you'll want to get some images online or through clip art. I just googled "chore chart pictures" and found mine. I did my chart awhile ago and couldn't find the exact ones, but there are some great ones HERE and HERE. The idea is to give her many opportunities to do something helpful, when she does, she can put a star where it belongs and at the end of the week....we count up the stars. The more stars she gets, the better her reward.
Anyway, continuing on... I got a regular sheet of white card stock and measured out how many chores I wanted and for how many days. I colored my little pictures, cut them out, and glued them on each Chore space with words to label them.

I labeled the days of the week and the title of my Chart with the saying, "I will help my family" in the corner. I laminated the whole sheet (I did this at our local office store) and then got sticky-back velcro (from Wal-mart) to stick on every square.
I then cut out some little stars (although you can use any image you want!) and laminated them as well. I put the other side of the velcro on the back of the stars.

All the stars are in a baggy and when she chooses to do one, or does so when asked (not begged), she can get a star from the bag and put it where it goes on the chart! She loves it!! I hope it works out great for you too :D

One more thing! We wanted her rewards to not by monetary or all bribes of junk food, so we chose rewards that were perfect for our family.

**Need some reward ideas?**
ice cream night
you pick the movie
camp out in the living room
board game night
game night (Simon says or Duck, duck, goose)
family walk/bike ride
bake cookies with Mom
Jeep ride with Daddy

Is Halloween Over?

I don't know about any of you, but I really procrastinated this year! We were supposed to go Friday night to our church's Trunk or Treat, so I was sewing away Friday afternoon. My little Sadie wanted to be Belle--"IN THE BLUE DRESS"!
She actually went to the Trunk or Treat with no zipper on the back of her dress. It was held on with 4 safety pins. I amaze myself sometimes....luckily it was done for Halloween and she was happy.
As for my Kelsey, she went as Dorothy, and her Grandma had the costume in her dress up bin for the girls. Poor Kelsey was sick for the Trunk or Treat and she didn't want to stay in her costume on Halloween, so this is one of the only pics we have of her. I think we will have to dress her up again :D

Hope you had a great Halloween! It is one of my favorite holidays....nothing but family activities galore!

Last minute accessories

Well, my girls already wore their Easter dresses to church last Sunday, but if your darlings are going to wear theirs this Sunday, there are some cheap accessories out there that you can spruce up.

I bought everything here at the Target dollar spot! Arent the gloves super cute?! Luckily, I bought them early, but my girls didn't even have their dresses yet. I had no idea what color they were even going to be since their Grandma likes to buy their Easter dresses.

I saw these same hats at our local Dollar Tree, along with some adorable basket purses (in different colors and styles) which I later bought, but didn't take a pic of. Anywhoo....the girls' matching dresses were pink and green (one of my favorite combos). So I took some ribbon...

FYI: if your outfits are pastel, Dollar Tree also sells many pastel colors for $1 a spool.

Happy Valentines Day....ummmm, yeah.

Yes, I checked my calender this morning, but since my camera/blog was on the fritz, I couldn't post the outfits I made for the girls for the big day! So, now I'm playing catch-up to post a million old pics. Anyway, here they are:



All that work to post this and a pic is sideways. Unfortunately, I'm lazy :) The outfits are pretty heart-tastic, but they've worn it a few times since then. I was going to go out and buy fabric, but it kinda defeats the purpose of saving money.

I had to include the pics of my little Pudding crying, because it was so darn cute (poor girl).

We also made these little hair clips for the other little girls at gymnastics.

Last minute gift idea

There is a little girl down the street who had a birthday party and decided to invite Pumpkin. Honestly, Pumpkin and I have never met this little girl before, but I know her parents. We had a lot of fun! Since it was kinda last minute, we didnt have a gift. They said we didn't need to give her one, but with time to spare, I decided to make this skirt for her. Happy Birthday, Hailey!

Gymnastics and Tutorial

We recently enrolled our little Pumpkin into a gymnastics class at one of our local community centers. At first, she didn't have a cute little leotard like the other girls (and she didn't really care), but one day she was talking to them and said, "I don't have one of those. I only have a shirt and pants." Then she ran to me and asked if she could have an outfit for gymnastics too. How could I say no?!

Now, they sell tights with the bottoms cut off, but this was quite a bit cheaper. I got this 3-pack at Walmart for $3. The less we spend the better, because who knows....she might not like gymnastics at all! :) I thought I would give a tutorial on these just in case anyone was thinking of doing the same thing. OR...you could just make them because they look cute with the little flower. These would look adorable under a denim skirt.

Cut off the ends. I only cut off a little bit so she could wear them longer. Since they are so stretchy, it really doesn't matter if there is excess. You can even go shorter if you want to make them capri-length tights.

Hem the bottom with a zig-zag stitch.

Gather left over fabric from toes in your fingers whatever size and shape you want your flower. There really is no right or wrong way. Hand stitch together, and stitch onto tights. And...then you are done!!

Just for Baby

Well, I went to a baby shower today for the absolutely adorable Josephine!!! I mean, her cheeks are HUGE and I love it. Whether the cheeks are in the front or the back..."I like 'em big....I like 'em chunky." That was a Madagascar quote (for those that think I'm losing it). Pumpkin LOVES watching movies.

Anyway, I took ONE picture of the outfit I made for her before I went to the shower. I just zoomed in differently a few times :) I know, I really need to velcro a camera to my forehead. Well, here it is:

I really wanted to personalize this for her. Hence the monogram, but I forgot that she already has a lot of hair...I should've made hair clips instead. :( The bow and the tulle are my favorite.

Bears and Honey

I saw this fabric at a thrift store and HAD to have it. If I was smart enough to take a nice picture of the pattern, then I would have, but obviously I'm not, so......(wow! that was a pretty bad run-on sentence). There wasn't much of the fabric, but that is only a minor detail. YOU CAN'T STOP FATE!

Then my mom gave me an old velvet skirt she had and no longer wanted (there's fate again). I decided to make some skirts for the girls and used the velvet underneath and made a big bow out of it. I like it when embellishments are big....very big.

I had them wear it to church (of course I didn't take pictures---again), and found that I had to make a quick adjustment before leaving the house. See, I thought that I could accurately guess what Pumpkin's waist size was (she was asleep and I was getting quite a bit done). Long story short, I had to cut open the skirt, tightened the elastic, and did a little baste stitch to keep it closed. But...it still turned out okay...phew! We were only an hour late for church. HAHA Just kidding....we were on time.

It's CRAFTIN' TIME!

One thing that we gave the girls for Christmas was their own CRAFT BOX! I highly recommend them, because they get to do whatever they want and truly be creative (without a hovering mother). This box is actually a fishing tackle box, which is something I learned from my mother long ago.

I used a lot of stuff that I had and never used, like pom-poms and various foam stickers. I also had a small container of beads and gems. There are also various crayons and markers that no longer have a home (or the other markers wore out) that I threw in the box. Some of the crayons are even from local restaraunts.
I bought a very big bag of foam stickers on clearance at Jo-Anns before Christmas. There are also plenty of craft supplies at your local dollar store (like pipe cleaners). Of course, what would a craft box be without paint and glue?!?!

I love this because she can just sit at the table and go crazy. Nothing was really expensive, and the whole point is to make a mess and have fun.

Happy Holidays!!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year! Now it's time for me to get back on track!

But first, I had the GREATEST idea ever to make all of our tree decorations, and make them edible (can you sense the sarcasm??). I started the day after Thanksgiving and ended a few days before Christmas. It wouldnt have taken so long if I wasnt working on about a million other things!

I made the names of the girls and our last name. The rest of the gingerbread cookies, were snowflakes. I have always wanted to string popcorn around my tree, but it is NOT as easy as pictures and TV make it seem. I go to string one, and it would fall apart in my hand!! There was a HUGE mess! Although, I really enjoyed it and I think I want to make this a tradition every year. Especially now that I know how big of a project this is.

Then there was this great idea from Trey and Lucy! I got the towels at Target for $2.50. It was something easy and Christmasy to have Pumpkin wear. I like that it has a snowman, rather then Santa, so she can wear it throughout winter.

In the picture above, she is laying over a huge gap in between the chair and the coffee table. She can be a little odd sometimes...I have NO CLUE where she gets that from. wink-wink