t ball

Lou finally joined a sport.  He's in a parent/child t-ball.  

He is one of the older kids (I guess kids his age, join a real league), but he is the best player on the team (says his mama) and is one of the best listeners.  

It's been a good start for him and a real confidence builder.

I love this picture of him drinking from the jug because he asked to do this.  I brought him a water, but the other boys were getting cups and drinking from the jug.  I told him I thought it was hose water and he said boys liked hose water.

Bee and I go and watch.  We cheer him on.

Daddy is one of the more involved parents in the group.  He usually ends up helping all the kids.

We are hoping this is just the start.  Next year, I think we're ready for a real team.

Hubby got me a new camera lens for our anniversary next week.   I took about 200 photos of Lou at t-ball all in the name of experimenting with my new lens.

  

I can't help myself

This post could be either about the container of lemon squares in my fridge or kittens. I've indulged in both today.   If you enjoy a good kitten picture, indulge with me.  Sorry, I'm not sharing the lemon squares.  Those are going to be my calories to run off!

These are my friends kittens.  We've seen them each week for three weeks, although I guess they are close to about 3 1/2 weeks in this set of pictures. 

There are 4 girls and 1 boy.

Bee is in LOVE with this one that she has named Sweetie.  or Cuddles.  or Love.

Thanks for joining me on this guilt free indulgence!  Do you want one of these lovelys?   Only the boy is spoken for!

closing up shop

It's almost time to get the garden closed for the year. I don't do a fall garden. Once school starts, I've moved on.  We picked the last pumpkin, which bring our total to 5.  W pulled up the rest of the sweet potatoes.  There were a few small summer squash, green peppers, and one weirdly shaped eggplant left.

I'll be retiring my gloves!  I trimmed and cleaned up the blackberry bushes and killed my poor fingers.  I pulled 7 thorn splinters and have a dozen more!

These lovely guys were planted in my white boxes.  There was a rumor at school that a little farm stand down the road had beautiful big mums for $5.50.  Awesome price for this size!

I picked about 3 gallons of green tomatoes and there are still about that many on the plants.  I ran out of time and energy. 

There were a number of ready tomatoes as well.  I wish I had the time, or really more, the energy or motivation to can one last batch.  A friend suggested I freeze some.  I did, but I'm thinking the flavor will be really off.

Lou cracks us up!  Look where we found his 'guys' after the parents do yard work/ kids play nearby day. It's a pretty good hideout!  This is our pumpkin from our years in FL.  You can't keep a pumpkin out for more than two days really in the October FL weather so most people buy a fake one.

chicka chicka preschool math

There's tons of fun activities out there for the Chicka Chicka books, but here are two things I did at preschool.  We had read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom last year, but not the 123 book. 

So a week or so ago I had a teachers choice theme on a math day.  I showed the pages of chicka chicka boom boom to review the plot of the story.  Then I read chicka chicka 123.  The kids loved it.  It was familiar and new at the same time.  This story counts to 20 and then counts by 10s to 100.  We aren't quite there for counting by 10s, but we all needed the counting to 20.  A few of the more mathematically accelerated kids I'm sure appreciated the counting by 10s.  This year I really want to keep them in mind. 

I wrote the kids names out a large chart paper and we counted the letters in each persons name.  We counted each as we worked on their page for our class book.  The page reads, "Chicka, chicka, boom, boom!  Will there be enough room?  ______'s  has _____ letters in her name. 

One of the gals I teach with had the fun idea to use old metal canning lids to use in an activity where the kids plunk them into a metal coffee can.  She did parts of a story or something.  I printed the numbers from the story on the lids.  I laid all the 'coconuts' out in the middle of our circle and asked the kids one at a time to find a number and add it to the tree.

I'm trying to plan fewer activities this year so I don't feel rushed to get to them all.  The kids are a year older this year and they can sit through a bit longer activity like this one.  Also, the kids are doing 1 sheet of 'paperwork' this year and that has to account for 10 minutes or so.  I am really enjoying them being a year older.  For the record, the boys are just as squirrely!

little wallet

My stepmom sent me this little wallet in the mail and asked for a few more just like it, with a few changes.   She liked that she could throw in a few credit cards and some cash and shop purse free. These three were for friends who have admired her existing one. 

I tried a few different materials. The original one was a leatherish material, so finishing the edges was not an issue.  Since I was working with much different fabrics, the edges and thickness were the major issue.  It needed to be slightly stiff but thin at the same time.   these are the cast offs.  To stiff, to fluffy, to thin.

I ended up finding this orange and white floral fabric to be the best weight.  It was something I picked up for a skirt and then realized at home that it had some too much body to it to be a skirt.  It has a bit of gloss to it too.  I'm certain it was from the red tag table and no one else knew what to do with it either.  It has made lovely coffee cozies.

I made several and tweaked the pattern each time.  It was tricky to get the width wide enough to hold the cards but not let them tumble out.  Each one really needed tested and finished up with a little extra sewn line to size it.  I took a bunch of photos to do a possible tutorial, but I'm just not feel'in it.

I must have ended up with 8 of these in order to get 3 I was able to send away.  I kept one that wasn't as pretty and sent one away to a long lost sister.  Ok, she's not long lost, but she lives far enough away that it seems like that.  This coming weekend I get to see both my sisters and I'm pretty much excited.  Plus there are two birthdays so it's going to be even better.  Ok, enough about that.  I'd better do some packing.

mamabee sweat shop

I'm bringing in cheap labor.  Lou and Bee started taking an interest in sewing this summer when I was teaching some lessons out of the house.  They were jealous and asked immediately for their own sewing lessons. 

They both sew remarkably straight lines. Pretty soon I'm going to be able to outsource.  The best part is that they work for candy.

We propped the foot pedal up on a shoebox and the kids are able to do it all by themselves.  Bee has started a quilt, wait until you see her fabric choices!

pants to skirts

I know I mentioned a few times what great hand-me-downs we get for the kiddos.  We have such sweet friends who supply us with clothes and we always love when it's our turn to hand down.  There is a family who we have befriended and they have both a girl and boy, so they make great playmates.  They are Pentecostal and the girls do not wear pants.  Bee mostly has worn dresses and skirts herself, on her own accord, so it hasn't been a big deal.   During our last clothes drop off/picnic, the mom told me how some of the moms will take a pair of pants and make it into a skirt.  I googled this and found several ways to do it.  I worked up a few pairs for her that will make perfect spring skirts.

The legs get opened by pulling out the stitches. I also pulled stitches up the front and back a bit to make them come together more easily.  There is the option of adding a panel in the newly formed triangle or bringing the to side in together in the front and again in the back. 

Bee will. not. wear. these camo shorts.  will. not.  She says they look like boy pants.  I thought I'd try this method on these guys too.  Maybe they won't look boyish in skirt form. 

I tried both ways on the first two skirts.  I used the left over material from the length of these pants to make a ruffle.   I used every scrap of fabric to get it together.   Bee insisted it would fit again and it almost did. 

These two were easier and faster and just got a panel sewn in.

For Bee's, I just brought the leg openings together and ironed and sewed in place.  It's cute.  If I had one, I'd wear it.  She won't wear it.

I'm pretty excited to send these along to my friend now.  It's opened up a whole new world of re-purposing clothes.  I'm planning a set for myself next. 

Here are two of the blogs I had seen on pinterest that I had looked at for ideas.  Here's the ruffly skirt at The Frugal Girl.  Here's the panel skirt at Katie Blog.

mama cat -the first week

Good friends of ours just had kittens. Their sweet little girl cat was just a few months old and hadn't been to the vet yet for her 'appointment.' 

They had company over and the little girl got out for just a few minutes.  Now, she's a teen mother.

Here they are at not even 24 hours old in the first three pictures.  There are 5 babies. The father is a no show.

And then at 1 week.  They were just starting to open their eyes at this visit. We're going again this week.  This one is named Black Beard.

Bee (who had pajama day at school) finally got to hold them.  She was giddy!

The mama cat moves the babies every morning under the bed and my friend moves them out each day.  I wanted to see the mama carry the babies in her mouth so I set one out of the box.  It was slowly creeping away and mama caught it.  She didn't carry it, the other babies were keeping her busy.  Bee kept feeling sorry for it and putting it back.

Oh my goodness.  Look at that face! 

Being a mama is hard work.  I imagine being a teen mom is harder still.