Halloween Style

 

The kids are all ready for Library Story Time Group.  This was the week before Halloween so they are all dressed up in the spirit of things.  Emmy's wearing a top that Grandma Betsy bought her and I had to cut off the selves and him it up because it's so warm here.  Lilah's shirt doesn't fit her yet, so I took a plain back tee she had and added a Frankenstein patch that we had.  I think they thought they looked pretty cute...wouldn't you agree :)

 Lilah's modeling the matching bracelets that Emmy and her have for Halloween that Mommy made them!

Here she's showing off the pretty Curly Ribbon Hair Clips that Mommy made for her.

Happy Halloween!

Story Time at the Library - Bowen

We love our Story Time each week at the Library.  Of all the free things the kids and I have done over the past few years this one is by far the best.  The women that put it on each week put a lot of thought and energy into it.  They sing and dance around to 12-13 songs, read 2 books, and have a craft afterwards.  Their crafts are not easy ones either.  Lots of time is put into preparing them! I have made friends with one of the ladies there, Tania, and we agreed that a Halloween theme would be great to do!  For Australia this is kind of a rarity and it's not really celebrated.  The kids were all invited to dress in costume and the girls and I made goodie bags for them.  I was just going to make some cookies to bring at first, then they looked so nice that I wanted to put them in individual bags, but the bags were so large that it looked like it needed more stuff in them.  I added a chocolate bar, a row of Halloween stickers, a Halloween toy or balloon and the pumpkin sign needed for the Trick or Treat night.  I then made up quick and easy tops of the bags using Martha Stewart Halloween Paper, some stickers and staples. And Walla..........we have goodie bags!!

 Here they are all together.

 I love making up goodie bags and could have kept going and filled them up more, but didn't want to wrap up tons of money in them.

I made up two batches of sugar cookies because I knew there was no way I'd be able to bake them and be left alone to decorate them without letting the kids do their own batch.  It took me 3-4 hours to make up the doughs, icings, and loading the icings.  Then start to finish 3 hours for the kids' cookies.  It was fun and they really enjoyed it, but I was glad when I got it all cleaned up and could start on my own.

This is Lilah's cookie creations.  I helped her to roll out the dough after she selected her color and then she embellished them with other colors.

Here's Emmy's cookies. She said the orange cookie was her and did that one completely by herself.  Her favorite cookie was the bunny rabbit.  She rolled out her dough herself and selected her cutter and I helped her with decorating ideas and technical things.

And here's Mommy's cookies!  I must send a big thank you to Grandma Betsy for sending over the cookie cutters!  They made the whole process easy because they imprinted the styling lines on the cookie.  I made tons of pumpkin, ghost, spiders, and bats.

 I made ghosts in purple too but didn't get a picture of them.  I don't think I'll ever do them again in purple because they came out looking like Grimace from McDonald hhaha

 I still had some dough left and decided that I wanted to do a new design so I used the gingerbread man cutter but moved the arms and legs a bit to try and get the cookie out of the traditional shape.  I used a butter knife to indent where I wanted the icing to go before baking.

I think my Mummies turned out really cute!

 

 This is still a post about Story Time even though I have you thinking about cookies!  Here's Emmy in her Alice outfit that I made her.  I think it is absolutely adorable and I was extremely pleased with it throughout it's entire construction.  It was an older pattern from 1982.  It wasn't an "Alice" pattern so I had to modify and simplify it and make it more "Alice-like".  Lilah was in no mood to be photographed so if you look at the picture again you can just see Lilah's face in the bottom right corner.  She was wearing the Chicken Costume I made last year.  Everyone loved her outfit and commented on it.  I thought she was the cutest chicken ever!  Here's a link to the Chicken Costume Post from last year. You can click on it worry free ......it will open up in a new tab/page.

Here's a group shot of all the children at the Library.  The three ladies dressed up at the back are the ladies that put Story Time together each week.

  

 Lilah had taken off her Chicken Hat by this time and you can't blame her because it was so hot out.  In the picture she was too busy watching the other children and babies and wouldn't pay attention to smile for the camera.  Notice Emmy is cheesing it in both photo's hahahhaha.  Such a ham!!

 

At the end of the Story session the girls handed out our goodie bags to each child on their way out with their moms.  This was Emmy's favorite part of the morning and she asked me if she could do it about a million times!  They had a total blast and so did I!  Halloween is still my favorite holiday!!

Mini Cooks: Kiddo Cooking Classes

We learned about Mini Cooks right before their last class till the new year. Emmy loves to cook so we headed over there on Tuesday morning. I was unsure how Lilah would be...weather she'd be happy with watching and just doing a little helping or if she'd want all of her own stuff. In the end she seemed very content to watch everyone, to sit on my lap, and only was naughty a few times.

Emmy minded well for her teacher Miss Fiona and did most of the steps herself with a bit of mom's help. They made Christmas Cakes! After class we stopped by Grandma & Grandpa Harrison's house to share them!


We're all ready for cooking class!

But first we need some Sister Love!

Helping Miss Fiona before class starts. She's also wearing her Little Missy Hair Bow.

When you join class you get an Apron and Chef's Hat! How cool is that!!

Here's our class. Lilah looks so teeny tiny watching the big kids!

Hardly ever smiling. That's my sour puss! She's wearing one of mommy's Aprons. If you'd like to order one for your princess please drop by Sewing By Sari and let me know!

Even though Emmy didn't attend the entire class and only came in on the last one she got to have a Christmas present too. They even handed out letters, envelops, and stickers for the kiddo's to write to Santa! For Australia, if you address your letter to Santa, North Pole post code 9999 a few weeks before Christmas your child will get a letter back!

Now she's smiling! Miss Fiona didn't forget about little sister Lilah and she got a special present too. So Kind!!

Uummm yummy! The best part of class is the treats at the end!

We're hoping to join in the New Year providing it doesn't fall on our Fairy Dancing Class times. If you are interested in joining! Go here for more info.

Thank You Miss Fiona!

Halloween Party

I took the girls up to the local flower shop who just happened to be celebrating it's 50th birthday on Halloween weekend. There was a jumping castle, face painters, and free balloons for the kids. The loved it of course and they got to wear their Halloween outfits. Emmy didn't have one that fit anymore, so I made her a skull dress out of an old t-shirt and used skull & cross bones satin material for the ruffles. I was aiming for a larger size 3, but I think it came out more like a big 4, but now it'll fit her for a long while. She's wearing a long sleeved shirt and pants under it because it's cold right now, but last year it was shorts and t-shirt warm. Because it's spring I think you can get a mixture of both.

She loved getting her face painted and sat perfectly still like a pro, but she's had it done now several times so she knows.

Lilah's had hers done before too but I had her sit on my lap this time because the ladies were a bit scary. We went for a quick and simple pumpkin to match her shirt!

Here's the material for the ruffle.

And here's the skull t-shirt print. This dress could even double as a pirate dress if I put red leggings under it! OoOOoo what a great idea!

Showing some pumpkin love!

It was sooo windy!!

I told Emmy to wave hi to Grandma Betsy! So this one is for you Mom xo!

She loves to sew!

Emmy wants to sew so badly with me. I of course want her to learn to sew and I think it'll be a great skill for her to master at a young age if she wants to. My goal is to have her on my machine by the time she's 7 or 8! So right now when she's asking me "Mommy, can Emmy sew too?" I set her up with large long needles and some yarn and let her string it though fleece. She's done it several times now and the picture above is the first time she did it and let me tell you.... she was SO PROUD of herself! Since then I've let her try a sharper needle and smaller thread and she's done very well with that too.

Her other favorite "sewing" she does is pinning. She'll sit on the floor with me when I'm pinning something and ask for some needles so I'll give her 3-4 and show her where she can pin and she'll put them in and then take them out and then pin again. Adorable!!! I can't wait till the day that I get to post her first real sewing!!

Last Day of Playgroup - Dinosaur Theme

This past Friday was our last day of playgroup until next term. They pick a theme and everyone is invited to dress up and bring a treat to share. I love any reason to dress in costume so of course I was super excited for the girls :) I ran by spotlight and got some green felt and about 2 hours later I had two cute Dinosaur Costumes. I made the hats, tails, and pants. The girls each wore the only all green shirts they had. If I would have had more material I probably would have made them tops too, but I didn't want to spend anymore money on something they probably wouldn't play with all that much. That being said..... Lilah LOVES her tail and when we put it on her she'll leave it on for hours and runs all around.... I think she likes that way it feels when it bounces behind her. I was pretty close to making them pink dino's since they are girls but then I decided to go with green because this is one thing that we can pass down to a boy when we have one :) *crosses fingers*


I'm so mad at myself. I forgot to take a picture of the treat that I made. I made mom's White Fluffy Icing but used less butter than the recipe called for. Added sprinkles.... rolled them into egg shapes then rolled them in green sugar. I laid them on a bed of green easter grass and made a cute little sign that said "BEWARE...DINO EGGS" They tasted great and I was very pleased with how the texture turned out. They held their shape but also stayed soft on the inside but it didn't get a hard or crunchy outside. Basically this icing is the best icing ever! Maybe I'll share the recipe with you if I'm feeling generous hehe.

Okay....now about our time at playgroup. The girls were super happy to be there like always and they started out with a little bit of playdoh play but Emmy quickly moved onto painting which always ends up being finger painting hahhaha such a mess!

While I was helping Emmy do that...Abby and Lilah were at the Glue Station making a "thing".


Later on they went outside to play and hardly anyone was out there because it was so cold out, but that didn't stop them. Emmy really wanted to play in the sand box and last time I told her that she couldn't that day because she had tights on but I promised she could play the next time.... so I was forced to keep my word. They had a great time despite me freezing my butt off. After that it was clean up time, story time, then snack time. Their favorites to eat that day were the strawberries, gummy bears, crackers, sugar cookies and jello. The best part of playgroup is when it's over and they crash for a LONG nap hahhahahha They won't understand why we won't be going for the next couple of weeks, but the next time we go back they'll be very happy!


Here's a picture of the other little boy that was dressed up. I was super surprised that no other children were dressed up. Looks like great minds think alike though :)

Bring On The Art!

I made a cute smock the other day for Emmy to wear when she's at playgroup. They have smocks there but she bounces around from each of the table activities so fast that all I get done is putting on and taking off a smock, and you have to leave the smocks for the other children to use when they start to do that activity. I thought this would be the easiest way for me to make it more simplified for all of us! I just love it and I think it's so cute. The arms and back are soft t-shirt material....I think a jersey knit and the stripped fabric is canvas. I did have paint go through it when she really pressed up against some, so I need to sew a 100% water resistant material to the inside. I was thinking an old table cloth would work great or I could just go and buy a small bit of plastic material. Either way....I'll get it fixed!

Emmy taking a picture of me taking a picture of her hahahha she tells me "mommy say cheese" *smiles*

This was so easy to make! I think I'll be making lots more :)