A "New" Bike for Our Big Girl

Anja has quickly outgrown her first bike. It was a hand-me-down from Eli. Eli has also recently outgrown his bike and it's now a good size for Anja. She actually didn't complain when we told her she was getting her big brother's bike again, but I felt a little bad that she's getting another hand-me-down. So I did my best to spruce it up for her. It could use a paint job ...but I'm not sure I'll get around to that.

Old bike:

New...ish bike:
I peeled off the "Pirate" decal and recovered the bars with a fun laminated fabric that just velcros on. I think it would look super cute spray painted teal blue, but that seems like a lot of work!

*On a side note, do the shorts look familiar? I'm making good use out of Elegance & Elephants Bubble Pocket Shorts pattern! For these ones I added a lace overlay to the pockets. I think I'd prefer them without the lace, but I wasn't sure if Anja would wear them if they were just plain brown. She calls these her "skirt shorts" because she thinks the lace makes them look like a skirt.

Mother's Day DIY Gift

Mother's Day is coming up in a few days ...I wanted to make something for her this year, so I went to Pinterest for inspiration. I found a great tutorial for "dressing up" reusable bags. My mom is a practical person and I know she uses reusable bags all the time, so this is something I'm hoping she'll appreciate. I found the tutorial on Thirty Handmade Days.

My version is slightly different from the one on Thirty Handmade Days. Their tutorial says to paint "Joy" on the banner, but I found some pretty vintage sheets at the thrift store and wanted to use them. So, instead of painting the word I made an applique with my vintage fabric.

The little bag made out of my vintage fabric holds 4 magents. I made these magnets by printing off pictures of me and my siblings and then I used modge podge to secure them to the back of little glass stones. I used a hot glue gun to attach a magnet to the back.

...that's me holding the cat. :)

Father's Day: "Daddy Doll"

Happy Father's Day! I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating the dad's in your life. We did! The kids and I spent the week preparing to make this day special for their daddy. I made a doll to look like their daddy using this tutorial I found by Shwin&Shwin (a guest post on No Big Dill).

I asked each of my children what their favourite thing is to do with their daddy (I had to guess with Isla since she's not talking much yet). I took a picture of them doing their favourite thing with our daddy doll. I put the pictures in their Father's Day cards and tied the daddy doll on top of his present.

 Happy Father's Day!

Valentine's Day

There were lots of celebrations at preschool today. We of course celebrated Valentine's Day and also Eli's birthday. I stayed to help out. It was fun to see how my boy interacts at school. I'm so proud of him. All the kids exchanged Valentine's cards. Eli was so excited that he spent the majority of his time at preschool guarding his Valentine's box. With the help of photoshop I created Eli's Valentine's cards.

I made the kids heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and gave them a few Valentine's chocolates.

Eli decided to decorate his pancake with his chocolates.

Anja had them all eaten before I even got her pancake on her plate.

Valentine's Day Craft

Today, my kids and I made these crayon hearts using Martha Stewart's instructions. As a kid, I loved crafts that involved melting crayons, so I thought it would be fun to do this with my kids. I think their favorite part was pealing the paper off the crayons as normally they are not allowed to do that.

This was the point where Eli decided he had done enough. He's becoming less and less interested in crafts lately.

I used construction paper to protect my iron and ironing board from the wax paper and crayon shavings.

Next time I'll use less crayon shavings as it turned out a little thick and not as transparent as the ones Martha Stewart made. But then again, kids crafts aren't supposed to be perfect.

Homemade Play Kitchen

Anja and Isla got a play kitchen set (made with love by mommy and daddy). I fell in love with this kitchen. So, I begged my husband to build it and I did the painting, sewed the curtains and made the hardware choices. We were able to make the whole kitchen for about $125, which considering how much the plastic ones are, I think is a pretty good deal.

They LOVE it!!!

Jellyfish in a Bottle

In the middle of November we had a couple of weeks that were very cold. Taking 3 young kids out in that kind of weather is not fun, so I tried to find some new activities we could do indoors. I came across "Jellyfish in a Bottle" from Bhoomplay's Blog. My kids LOVE underwater animals. You can probably find everything you need for this craft at home: plastic bottle, plastic bag, string, water and food colouring. I had to make most of it myself as it was a little too hard for them, but the most fun part (adding the food colouring) can be done by the kids.  My pictures don't show the jellyfish very well, but check out the jellyfish on Bhoomplay's Blog.

Giant Ruler Growth Chart

I've been meaning to make a growth chart for my kids for um... about 4 years now. I wanted something that would be timeless and would match the decor of different rooms if we ever move, or if I just want it in a different room. I couldn't decide on what I wanted which is why it took me so long to make one. A couple of weeks ago I came across this one and LOVED it. And, just my luck it included a tutorial. I was able to make the growth chart using materials I already had so it cost me $0. I didn't stain the wood using coffee grounds like the tutorial suggests because I had extra stain left over from a previous project and thought that would be easier.