I got to preschool this morning to pick up Sam and the teacher pulled me aside (oh crap!). Conversation went as follows:
Teacher: Sam is having some issues being outside. She seems to really hate being cold. Today she didn't want to play and hated wearing her gloves. She stood by the door and begged to go back inside.
Abbie: Sorry. Her hands do tend to get colder faster than other kids but normally she is pretty good about toughing it out.
Teacher: You may want to start having her outside more often so that she gets use to the elements and is more comfortable outdoors. Just something to work on at home.
Abbie: (with sarcasm in my voice): We will work on that.
Good grief! Seriously? It's MY kid that doesn't want to play outside? That does not look good. The teacher and other moms don't know that I have this blog and now I certainly can't tell them that the mom of the ONE kid that complains about being outside has a blog all about teaching her kids to love nature. Crap.
But point taken - we need even more outside time to toughen my kid up!
Moving on...something else to work on. My crafting skills. In the spirit of this non-plastic, homemade toy Christmas I have been wanting to think of something that I could make for Sam. Then I saw this tutorial. I instantly thought, I can do that! So today while BOTH girls (allelulia!) were sleeping I got to work. I didn't have the exact supplies that we needed but I thought I could wing it.
I used a stained onsie of Avery's that could not be saved for someone else, some left over wooden rod from other projects, ribbon and beads that we had in our crafting supplies. The sewing was the hardest part because I don't have a machine or any real skills in that area. Other than that it was just a whole lot of hot glue!
I swung it around for a few minutes once it was all together to make sure it would hold up and the strings instantly became a tangled hot mess. Clearly ribbon (like they use in the tutorial!) would be better choice! Oh well, she won't care. Do you see that I put an "S" bead on it for her? Pretty proud of myself for finding that in the bead bin!
So this will be in Sam's stocking this year. And even though it is not perfect and may not last that long I am pretty proud of myself that I made her something for Christmas.
Are you making anything for your kiddos this Christmas? There is lots of inspiration out there in blog world if you have crafting skills. But apparently you can attempt crafts even if you don't!
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The Nitty Gritty!
I am not going to give you a tutorial on how to make this because mine is certainly not a good example of what it should look like! If you like the idea head on over to Handmade Tuesday's at Ladybug Blessings for the tutorial. The instructions there are great. And the author of the post is actually Tammy who blogs here. You should go check her out because she has the most adorable "Thankful" book tutorial up on her site right now. No chance I am that talented but it is still fun to dream!
