It's the simple things

I have been busy today finishing up some carseat covers. Tansley, my 3 nearly 4 year old found a discarded piece of material and asked if she could have it.

The scrap of material as she found it.

 I told her that she could and off she went and I continued sewing. About a minute later she returned and asked if I could put some velcro on it to make a bib for her Fluffy. I have been know to say "When I am done doing what I am doing, then I will do what you want me to do." But today I chose differently. Maybe it was because I felt sorry for her because she has been sick all day with a headache(which I think is totally unfair for a 3 year old), fever and achy muscles. But I'd like to  think that it was because I am trying really hard to be a better mom. A more attentive mom. A more patient mom. A mom that just stops what she is doing and takes 30 seconds to sew a little piece of velcro on a scrap piece of material. So, I put the car seat cover aside, found some velcro a put a little piece on, and voila! A bib.

Tansley and her Fluffy(the cat) and Yellow(the dog)

Tansley was so thrilled, off she went to put it on her Fluffy and I started on the carseat cover again. A minute later she was back asking if I had another scrap of material to make a bib for her Yellow(she comes up with very creative names for her creatures). We found another piece of material and I made another bib. She told me how much she loved me, gave me a hug and headed upstairs to show her older sister, who then wanted me to make a couple of bibs for her creatures. Another few seconds and I had another child tickled pink. I am still not finished the carseat cover, but that's OK, I'll get back to it now that the kids are in bed. 

The recipe for the yummy cookies in the previous post

Peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies
1 cup margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup chunky peanut butter
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup rolled oats
at least 1 cup of chocolate chips
preheat oven at 350F. Beat together margarine and sugars. Add eggs and beat until smooth, add peanut butter and mix well. Gradually sift in dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips and rolled oats, mix well. place on cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

PS. The video is on my facebook page if anyone wants to see it.

I may have done this in the wrong order.

Kymberly was a mess after supper...as usual, so I put her and Tansley in the tub while Kathryn and I worked on her collages in the previous posts. When the kids got out of the tub it was still pretty early...too early to put them to bed. So of course they wanted to know what they could do. I remembered that I had promised that we would make cookies or something today, so I suggested that we make cookies. Kathryn wanted peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. So away we went. Kymberly got right into it. I took video, but it is too large to be uploaded here, I'll see if I can cut it down. Here are the pics of our cookie adventure, after bath and before bed, good planning!

Kymberly getting right in the fun

Kymberly mixing the butter and sugar

Peanutbutter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Picking in the dough...Don't tell Daddy :)

The finished product

The beginning of a chocolate covered face

The Letter 'B'

The Letter B

Again this kid is creative. She had more pictures but I can only put 16 in a collage. How many 'B' words can you find?

The Letter 'P'

The Letter P

Kathryn got creative and tried to get some pictures of her 'picking' up something and 'putting' down something. She's also got a picture of a 'person' and something 'pretty'. Do you know which is which? How many 'P' words can you pick out?

Keeping Kathryn busy

Fancy Pillows

Kathryn has been out of school all week. She's been begging me all week for something to do. Yesterday we made pillows. She had seen some pillows like it at a store and had asked if I could make one for her
sometime. So when she was bugging me for a craft to do, I suggested that we look at my fabric box and see what there was to make a fancy pillow out of. She helped me lay out the fabric. I cut it out. she helped me pin it. And then I had her sit on my lap and push the foot pedal of my serger to put it all together. We made a pretty good team. She loves sewing, and I would have had her do it on her own little machine, but this fabric was more than her machine can handle. I had both Tansley and Kathryn pill the pillows with foam bits...what was messy. Kathryn helped me pin the opening closed and she did the hand stitching to finish it off. She did a pretty good job. This is how they turned out.

The girls enjoying their new pillows

Today, she's been bugging me again for something different to do. We went for a walk, went to the library and post office. But again, just while I was taking a moment to check my email and favorite blogs she's wanting to know if I have a craft for her to do. Both Kymberly and Tansley were napping. The first thing I see is this great idea on I never grew up. Kathryn loves taking pictures. For the past 4 summers she has documented our vacations with her own cheep film camera. So for Christmas we invested in a fairly inexpensive digital camera for her to use for such occasions. So I put her to work taking pictures with her camera. We start easy. I want her to go around the house or yard and take pictures of any thing she sees that starts with the letter 'P'. After she figured she had found everything she decided to start on the letter 'B'. We are going to work on putting them together after supper in a collage. We'll post therm when we are done. 

She might be trying to tell me something.

I just finished feeding the girls a very uncreative lunch of mac n' cheese. Kymberly was squawking from her highchair, but my bread machine was beeping at me to tell me to add the chocolate chips and nuts to my banana split bread, so I told her to wait just a second. I promptly hear the sound of her bowl and spoon being thrown on the floor, followed by the sound of fake snoring. I finished what I was doing and turned around to see her with her head down, laying on her folded arms and she is pretending to snore. hmmm...Do you think she might want to have her nap?