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Our homemade Halloween costumes for girls

In the forth grade I tried making a costume out of two cardboard boxes to be a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from a rear view mirror with my friend Sarah. At the last minute we agreed the contraption would hinder our ability to run through her neighborhood gathering as much candy as we could before people turned out their lights. So we dressed up as something different.

In college my roommate and I shopped Goodwill for ideas and costumes the day of Halloween, totally on the fly.

When I was younger my mom made my Halloween costumes. I don’t remember any of them coming from a store. In this same spirt, I make my daughters’ costumes too.

I want my girls to be creative with their costume choices. Like we did,  before there were Halloween mega shops and costumes started appearing on shelves before the back-to-school sales were finished.

That’s why this year, starting in August, I immediately recycled all catalogues that came in the mail featuring Halloween costumes. I wanted to hear the costume ideas they would create on their own, without the influence of advertisements and marketing via our mailbox. It became my little experiment.

The other big reason I avoid store-bought costumes is because my girls are getting older. And the costumes available in the post toddlers sizes are mostly scary or skippy, and not warm enough to wear out on Halloween night.

The post  Taking Back Halloween: Fun & Empowering Costumes for Mighty Girls, at A Mighty Girl, does a nice job detailing what I mean here – including additional links to stories like Avoiding sexy costumes for girls, at CNN.com.

Finally, Saturday afternoon, just one hour before our neighborhood Halloween party – I finished making the last costume for my daughters.

It was the one I dreaded making the most. Because I didn’t know exactly how I was going to do it, until the moment I started sewing.

My middle girl decided to be a swan for Halloween. Not a ballet, fairy kind of swan with pretend wings. That would be too easy!

She wanted to be a white swan with real feathers and an orange beak!

It was the creative, independent kind of idea I was hoping they would come up with – so much that I wondered oh yikes! What have I gotten myself into?

But it worked out……

The skirt was made using two feather boas cut into four pieces each, and sewn to an elastic band forming the top of a skirt. Under the feather skirt is a hand-me-down flower girl dress that was handmade by someone (??) layered over a white turtle neck and gray leggings. Swans have grey legs and feet, which was an important detail my middle girl wanted to replicate.

Around her neck is a small boa and the two hair pieces are pre-made clips from the craft store. All the feather and boa things were on sale buy one get one half off the day I was there. For her beak we had a yellow body crayon from an old gift but the orange one was missing. So I layered her nose with the yellow crayon followed by an orange marker. I figured she’s covered her arms with marker before – so why not her nose?

My little girl came up with the idea to be a “Purple Baby Princess.”  Because she is OBSESSED with purple. Using a curtain from the girls’ old bedroom, with the addition of a some frilly, shinny princess details, her dress was done in a flash and totally on the fly. It made her very happy. 

Lastly, here is Fern, from Charlotte’s Web. She is posing sideways, looking just like the cover of the book! She is carrying a Trick-or-Treat bag featuring an illustration from the book that I printed (from here) on fabric paper and sewed onto the bag I made from an up-cycled coffee bean sack. The only thing I had to buy extra for her costume was the white collared school uniform shirt I found on clearance for $4.99.

All together now…taa daaaa! 

To see more of our homemade Halloween costumes, visit last year’s post on Easy to Make Halloween costumes featuring a Star Fairy, Yellow Jacket, and RainbowLadybug Fairy.

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Being patient, when handwriting doesn’t come easy

Handwriting doesn’t come easy for my kindergarten-aged child.

Therefore, when my middle girl spontaneously decided to make a card for dad last weekend – with a handwritten note – it was a monumental event!

I protected her space, and her work, from her sisters. I informed my husband what she was doing so he knew to make a BIG deal about it. He took the card to work, hung it on his wall and texted me a picture of it to share with our daughter.

We wanted her to know that her card meant a lot.

My middle girl, like my eight-year-old daughter who I featured in a post having a play date to write report on Elephant Seals for fun, has been in a Montessori classroom since she was two-years-old.

They have had the same teachers and even spent one year in the same classroom together.

But their learning styles are completely different, providing an interesting observation regarding their Montessori experiences and how they have benefited from it.

Handwriting is the perfect example of us putting our faith in the Montessori learning method and our belief that our middle girl would do it when she was ready.

Sometimes I wondered if I should be prompting her to practice writing at home. My instincts always answered no. Because I didn’t want to make it a chore that frustrated her – even though I wish she were better at it, and that it came easier to her.

I feared if I made her do it she would rebel, it would backfire, and I would be taking the fun out of learning. So I didn’t do it.

Her teacher assured us she was on track and she would do it when she was ready. We waited, hoping she was right.

Last week in the parents library at our daughters’ school, I picked up the book Montessori Read and Write, a parents’ guide to literacy for children.

The first page I flipped to when I opened the book was randomly page 32.

“Children learn best when they have chosen an activity themselves,” jumped out at me in bold print.

I know this. I have known it for a long time. But BANG – it’s so nice to hear it again. Because it is SO true!

Early on we recognized that our middle child is the student who learns by observation, and will wait until she is fully motivated to join in.

She is helpful. She is a leader in the classroom, respectful to the environment and her classmates (so we hear).

On the other hand, she does not bring home a bag full of completed work on Fridays like my oldest daughter has always done. She doesn’t wear me out asking how to spell endless amounts of words until I send her to fetch her own dictionary, like my oldest girl has done since she was five.

We try not to compare our kids. However as caregivers we have the most experience with our own children.  So not comparing them is nearly imposable as we make parenting decisions and evaluate if we are doing a good job raising our little people.

Last year, when our middle girl would have been considered in pre-k, we wondered if she would ever learn write her name. In the beginning of the year her teacher agreed that she would keep a watch on the situation, and possibly give her a gentle push to choose more challenging work that required a pencil.

We were all crossing our fingers and believing she would do it when she was ready.

And by the end of the school year, with all the tools and knowledge readily available to her, she did it!

She started writing when she was ready.

Handwriting still doesn’t come easy for her and it’s not her favorite thing to do. She doesn’t write birthday cards for her friends for fun, and she still writes letters backwards.

She did start kindergarten writing her first name, but not her last name. She started kindergarten already able to read basic words and Bob Books. She enjoys doing the parts of the horse lesson at school and learning about water and land formations.

She is smart! She enjoys learning. But handwriting doesn’t come easy.

She can however, write in cursive (the traditional Montessori way of teaching handwriting) when completing reading lessons with objects, like a jack – followed by drawing a picture of the object and writing the name beside it.

“Look mom,” she said proudly showing me her work from school. “It’s a perfect cursive j. It’s my best one ever!”

Yes it was. And I could tell by looking at her paper that she worked a long time on the lesson – erasing, and rewriting to get things right. Doing a good job was important to her.

Just like when she was making her card for dad.

“I want to do my best handwriting,” she said. “I want this to be perfect for Daddy.”

I fought back my emotions of sadness watching her work so hard, while being joyful at the same time seeing her proudly working to write the words, “I love you Dad.”

She erased, and started over, and began her card by asking me, “How do you spell I?”

It was bittersweet.

She made that card because she wanted to, out of the goodness of her sweet little heart and she happily tried her very, very best.

Then she sealed it in an envelope and put out for a surprise for dad to find while vacuuming out the cars.

As a protective mama bear, I pulled my oldest girl aside (who was already on the verge of causing an upset about where the card was being placed for the surprise) and told her she better not say A WORD about that card not being perfect when daddy opened it.

Things come easy to her in school. She’s always been a fast learner. At age six she had a calendar and kept track of all the family events and important dates, writing them all down and checking them off after they were over.

My middle girl will be six in five weeks. She’s still a little foggy on what happens which days during the week.

But I’m not comparing! I’m just saying, she will do things when she is ready.

I’m sure it’s not the only example of when things won’t come easy to her. But I have faith that she will do her best when she chooses to do it herself.

 

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Montessori in action with my child who loves to learn

My oldest daughter requested a play date with her friend so they could research Elephant Seals. Honesty, I didn’t know what she was talking about at first. I did a quick search to verify there is such a thing, and thought what did our parents do before Google? 

She was persistent about me arranging this play date.

The proposed report was for fun, not an assignment from school. She and her friend read a book at school about Elephant Seals in their free time, after they finished their weekly work plans. And they wanted to know more.

So during fall break last week, I arranged a play date and offered to take them to the library. They were thrilled about going to the library!!!

In addition to the book they chose on seals, they used one library card to split 36 books (the maximum allowed to check out at one time). I had the librarian print out two lists of the book titles they were checking out, and when the girls got home they diligently marked each of their lists as to who had what books to make sure they all get returned properly by the due date.

And they wrote a report on Elephant Seals. For fun!!!

Seeing these two friends sharing a love for learning that has become a part of who they are was a sweet ah-hah moment for me. It is the result we hope for from a Montessori education. When children have a inner desire to know more, to learn, because it’s what comes natural to them. And no one has steered them down a path to experience learning in any other way.

Imagine that? Writing a report on Elephant Seals for fun? I would have never done that as a kid.

We are definitely getting our money’s worth – or she is, really. The benefits of Montessori education are huge. I feel so blessed to be giving her this inspiring experience.

While sometimes I fantasize about homeschooling, I know could not have taught her to love learning so independently. In no way do I deserve all the credit for this awesome kid.

I can teach her the love of sewing. But loving to learn academically stems from being part of an enriching environment with interactive tools that are not driven by a curriculum of worksheets geared towards test scores or grades or daily quizzes.

It’s a process that inspires children to want to know more – to do homework for fun. It extends the natural curiosity of a toddler into an eager-to-learn school age child. And doing so in a group with other children has been a key part of the process, in my observation of my child.

The girls were delighted and entertained to learn how much an Elephant Seals weigh, where they live, what they eat and why they are called Elephant Seals. I was delighted to see these girls being such sweet little nerd friends together, sitting on bean bags on the front porch with papers and pens surrounded by books and information printed from two research websites for kids.

I had a mini flash forward to days of high school study sessions with friends. And I liked the way it felt. Big kid days are going to be fun.

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Snapshots from the Cruze Farm Corn Maze

We had the pleasure of attending a beautiful birthday party at Cruze Farm Corn Maze Sunday.

Everyone in these local parts know about the wonderful, organic milk from the Cruze Dairy Farm. And thanks to an article last month in the New York Times about buttermilk that featured Colleen Cruze of the Cruze Dairy Farm – now LOTS more people have heard the buzz.

There are many wonderful photos and information marketing the corn maze on the Colleen’s blog Cruze Farm Girl. She does an amazing job of selling an image of the farm that hits home with consumers looking for good tasting, real dairy, from a fresh local source.

I’m here to share a few of the sights I took in while I was there. I hope you enjoy.

If you are local – visit the farm! Book a birthday party, take a hayride, buy a pumpkin and drink some milk. Next weekend is the last weekend for the corn maze – so don’t delay.

And yes, it IS true that Cruze Farm is now selling cow shares for raw milk! You have to pick up the raw milk at the farm, or at the Saturday market downtown which ends next month. Colleen’s dad, Earl, is the guy to call about raw milk shares (see photo for number).  Here’s why I love raw milk.

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My Third Baby Turned Three!

My baby girl, who I call a toddler, who is barely really a toddler anymore — is now Three!

She jumps on EVERYTHING, off of everything and even attempts to jump out of the bathtub! During our recent hike up Mt. Leconte she earned the nickname Little Jumper because when walking on the trials she stopped to jump on every single rock.

So we got the girl a bounce house for her birthday, hoping it would do the job of keeping her little for a while longer. Jump away my sweet baby girl!

We ate yummy cake, celebrated with a few friends and had a simple backyard party – with a bounce house that is. Okay, maybe not so simple. But she is my baby girl. And OMG she is THREE!

As a mama gift I sewed her this dress, like the ones I made the big girls for their first day of school.

I loved on her all day long.

And at 11:45 p.m. – on the exact the moment she was born – I ate my last piece of her birthday cake while I looked at photos from her birth. And I cried, of course.

Happy Birthday sweet baby girl!

It seems like this day, welcoming this baby girl into our arms and singing happy BIRTH day for the very firstsime, WAS JUST YESTERDAY.

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A Simple Moment

A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.

If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read.

We have more than one moment this week, because I couldn’t choose. They are all from our visit to the Halls Fruit and Berry Patch, with some friends.

A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.

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Sew a shower curtain into a window curtain

There is a prominent, low to the ground window in the girls’ bathroom and I wanted to have a curtain that was the same as the shower curtain. The bathroom is designed for 3,6 and 8 year-old girls. I wanted a fabric that was whimsical but not little girlish, and incorporated everyone’s favorite colors. For photos of the full bathroom go here.

The shower curtain I used is called Hip Paisley, and it’s by Peri. I purchased it on Ebay, and contacted the seller to see if she had a second curtain. She ran an Ebay store so she had two. I used shower curtain hooks and a tension rod to hang the curtain.

Sewing it was a simple and satisfying project.

Here’s how I did it

1. I hung the whole shower curtain on the curtain rod, and cut it to fit the windows – while it was hanging.

2. Lying the fabric flat, I cut the curtain liner to the same size making sure the salvaged edge of the liner fabric was at the top of the curtain.

3. I hemmed around the edges, sewing the liner into the hems, by folding over the fabric.

4. On the top seam, I used a long 3/8 heat n’ bond strip instead of actually sewing it because I didn’t want to have a visible seam since the curtain already had one and it would have altered the ascetics of the design.

5. Add grommets for a decorative touch, and hang on rod.

The finished product…..

The top with heat n’ bond on salvaged edge of liner….

The backside hem….

The matching shower curtain….

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Princess and the Pea Tooth Fairy Pillow

Sunday, on the same day as my oldest daughter turned 8 – my middle girl lost her first tooth – and then her second tooth!

It all happened upstairs, in the girls’ bathroom. With a big sister and a friend helping to “loosen it up,” before my middle girl pulled out her own, very first tooth. Shortly after the first came out, her sister pulled out the second tooth!

We had a big day planned of birthday ear piercing for the NOW 8 YEAR OLD in this house. And it was the morning after we hosted her Backyard Movie Night birthday party.

I had been procrastinating making a Tooth Fairy Pillow, hoping the big event would wait until Monday. But it didn’t. Or they didn’t. I’m sure the big girls had a hand in getting those teeth out!

Either way my middle girl was thrilled.

Before the day’s festivities began I dashed downstairs and rummaged through my supplies to make my middle girl a Tooth Fairy Pillow!

I returned upstairs and hung this on the bed, hopping it would make feel special.

The fabric is the Princess and the Pea, by Heather Ross. It was leftover from a skirt I made for one of the girls. The fabric on the back is the same fabric as the tooth pocket on the front. The ribbon has wires on the edges and was in my rummage bin of ribbons.

I took my daughter into her room with her eyes closed. This was her face when she opened them!

She didn’t waste any time putting the teeth in the pillow.

The next morning she found two rolled up $5 bills. One for each tooth. That is the going rate here for loosing your first tooth. From then on out it’s $3 a tooth in our house.

What does the Tooth Fairy do at your house?

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Backyard movie night party for our girl who is 8!

Age 8 is sounding very big to me today. Maybe because it is. Maybe because she is my first baby and she will always be the first to do things in this family of girls. Maybe because I’m still getting used to the idea of having a child around here blaring her own music, hiding out in her new room, and asking to be around friends every single day.

This weekend was our first big kid birthday party – for our girl who is now 8!!! The music selection was big – all hand selected by her and songs that she knows every word of the lyrics. We are entering the days of boy bands and pop music at our house. It will be a long road, with three girls who will one day be 13, 16 and 18 all at the same time.

However this weekend we certainly had fun with it.

My daughter got the idea to have a backyard movie party from her cousin. I was not planning on having a party for her this year. She has had a party every year since she was born. My toddler girl will be 3 next week and I wanted to put my efforts into finally having a party for my baby girl. Not to mention our kitchen is being renovated and I have no way of making food for a party right now.

But I said yes. Because it was a fun idea. And I love creating birthday parties for kids.

I made the invitations in a Word document printed on white card stock. The stars are punched with a scrapbooking hole punch. We mailed them using regular 4″x8″ envelopes. Doing it this way was simple, cheep and it only took about an hour.

For our purposes here, I removed our phone number and address from invitation for security reasons. I left my daughter’s name, which I usually keep private in this space. Her and her friend made such cute party signs featured in all the decorations, that I didn’t want to alter those images. Since a name can not be Googled from an image, I’m making an exception to my rule in this post.

This is the first time I have planned an outdoor party because I always feared the chance of rain. I thew caution to the wind this year and hopped for the best. It rained that morning, the ground was still damp at party time, it was cloudy and on the cold side. But it didn’t slow us down from having fun! And now I’m a BIG fan of backyard parities.

Since the ground was a bit damp we took our outdoor rugs from our front porch and laid them in the grass for the movie. I put out stacks of blankets for them to snuggle up with, kid’s camping chairs and bales of hay to lie against. Some of the children brought sleeping bags. My daughters brought out the beanbag and red kid chairs. As well as a mini trampoline they saw as a perfect seat! But what the heck? It was their party!

From my side, this party was put together on the fly and on the cheep.

The projector is an old work projector a friend had from doing Power Point presentations in 2004. I borrowed a receiver and speakers from another friend who lives up the street. I asked several people if they knew anyone who had an old pull-down screen, like the ones schools used to use with an overhead projector for math class (yep, I’m old). A friend of mine’s church had one, which happened to be in our neighborhood too.

We hooked up our old portable car DVD player to the receiver and ran it all through the 2004 projector. It worked fabulously! I felt so amazingly resourceful. And I was incredibaly thankful for my husband who made sure it all worked, and was in charge of setting it up.

This is the first birthday party I have ever held where I didn’t make anything. Nothing! I didn’t sew anything. I didn’t craft anything. And I didn’t bake anything. What I did do – was make use of all the things we have used in the past.

Our Picket Fence Chalkboard provided an awesome board for announcing the movie and showtime.

The gazebo was decorated with these fabric chains I sewed together for my toddler’s Potty Party. The felt Happy Birthday banner was purchased from Chinaberry about five years ago. Hanging it is a tradition for all our birthdays. The small lanturn lights were a touch added by the kids, which were hanging in the basement. The birthday girl borrowed the disco from a friend.

My daughter had a friend over the day of the party to help decorate. They really took ownership over this task and had a great time. They made many happy birthday signs. A few of them used our chalkboard signs I made using old frames, boards and chalkboard paint. Again, they were made for my toddler’s Potty Party, knowing I would reuse them for occasions like this.

I LOVE that the kids made the signs this time. This really was a kid party, by kids and for kids. 

Most all the decor is in low lying areas, and on a child’s eye level. Some of that reason is because they put it there. The other reason is that when I’m looking for a table to put something on it seems all I can find are kid-sized tables. I suppose that’s just our way.

The basket of glow sticks (from the dollar isle at Target) and battery operated flicker tea candles (left over from Halloween last year) were a huge hit after the sun went down.

The girls also decorated our backyard Fairyland with signs and leftover decor from other uses, like the fabric chains I made for a toddler busy bag swap.

My favorite thing the girls came up with, was how to set up the movie concession stand. I had big grown up ideas of how to make it cute using a festive green table I was going to haul over from the neighbor’s basement. But the kids had their own ideas. They saw the railing of the gazebo as a perfect spot where friends could stand and “order.”

My middle girl said she would run the concession stand, and put a chair behind the table with three pillows stacked on it for her to be tall enough to reach the customers. She never actually sat still long enough to do so. Which was fine.

This is what they came up with, enlisting a little grown up help hanging the signs and gathering supplies. I made the drink bucket ahead of time, using Chalk Ink – which is what the kids used to make their chalk signs too.

It seems my spirt of reusing things is getting passed down to my daughters. They decided they wanted games at the party. So they went searching for cans and containers for a ball toss game. The bunch even includes one with a 7 on it, from last year’s party.

They made up rules, drew chalk on the ground for a tossing line, found ping pong balls for throwing and gathered old things from their rooms to use as “prizes.” This game was a huge hit! My daughter went running through the house three more times during the party to restock the prizes. I loved that!!!

Since I didn’t have the option of baking a cake. I took a hybrid approach and ordered vanilla cupcakes with white icing (no colored food dies) and had the girls decorate them at home. I still can not believe their were 8 candles on that cupcake! 

And finally, once it got dark —- came the main attraction!!! It was showtime. It was SOOOOOOO fun. 

After the movie the children were picked up by their parents. For a takeaway gift we did movies I found on the discount isle at Target. They were all $5 each. We had 16 children there, including my three. I wanted to have enough movies for children to choose from, and for our friends with three siblings to not have to get the same movie. I’ll return the leftovers. I loved this idea, given to me by a mom friend. It was simple. It wasn’t wasteful, and I didn’t send kids home with more sugary snacks than they already consumed at the party.

Present opening was a blast. My daughter has a really great group of friends, from our neighborhood and from school –  most of which she has known since we moved here when she was one, or when she started school at age two.  She had a friend give her a box of cheese crackers because she always takes hers at lunch. I thought that was hilarious. The homemade cards from friends were precious and so meaningful.

When It comes to thank you cards, I’m the worst at making my kids sit down and write thank you notes. This year I took a group photo of all the kids at the party and will make an online photo card to send to the guests thanking them for coming to the party. I have the perfect picture! I can’t share it here, but I wanted to share that great idea with you, passed along to me from a veteran mom friend who helped me out lots with this party. She tamed my visions of a big Pinterest style over-the-top event.

It was a perfect party for a perfect 8 year-old. And I was happy to help her host it.

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A Simple Moment

A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.

If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read.

My daughter shows me the “inventing table” inside her fort at school. And I have my ah ha moment #487 on why I love sending my kids to a Montessori school.

A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.

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