Custom Boutiqe Clothing! Size 4 One of A Kind

Note: This is a Sticky Post, which will stay here until the contest is over. Please scroll down a little to read any newer posts that I might be posting until the contest is over. Thanks! Also to check out other great give aways please click on the Fall, Y'all button, or click here. Shannon, at Rocks in my Dryer is hosting this great giveaway!

Ok, I had to join in this great give away. I have seen it on other blogs, and was wondering what it was all about. Then I went to the link and found out that people are giving away some really nice stuff!

So I decided to jump in a join everyone giving away all these wonderful goodies.

So what am I giving away? Well, I sew, so I decided to give away an outfit that I made to sell on ebay, but never got around to putting it up there.

This outfit is made in size four. It fits my petite five year old. It is a five piece set, is carefully handcrafted.

Please forgive my Sweetie for the funny poses; she was complaining about the sun shining in her eyes. LOL

In the first picture is Sweetie Pictured with a pheasant dress with contrasting fabrics. There is a coordinating detachable sash that is tied with green satin ribbon in the back.

Sweetie is wearing a pair of jeans with hart pockets on the front. The bottoms are ruffled with both fabrics in the pheasant dress.

Take the Jeans off, and you have a sweet dress. This set also comes with a matching ribbon T-shirt for playing.

To top of all the goodies I made a bow using the ribbons in the ribbon T-shirt. This was one of my first attempts making bows, so it isn't that professional, but I still think it is pretty cute!

This is sewn in a smoke free home. This outfit was only worn once for professional pictures I had done last year for fall. It is one of a kind. That means there is not another like it. It is size 4. The seams are professionally surged too.

To win this item, just post a comment! Then on Sunday night I will draw a name randomly, to see who wins. This contest is open to only those who live in the USA. I really can't afford to ship internationally. Also, please be sure to leave me a way to contact you so if you win I can let you know! Thanks. Have Fun! :)

For more great giveaways, click on the Fall Ya'll Button.

Wordless Wednesday~Daddy's Little Man

For more Wordless Wednesday Photos please visit here.

Rowing~The Storm in the Night

Rowing the Storm in the Night, was a bit more difficult than The Story about Ping. The language of the book, was a bit more advanced than the girls were used to. However, after two weeks of reading the book every school day, the girls really began to love the story.

In the beginning it was very hard to keep their attention; on the dialog especially. Towards the end Sweetie almost had the story memorized. I am a bit pleased with this. Now we will be able to read more advanced books without her attention falling short of the story.

This book was jam packed full of Science and English. Here are a few of the areas we explored with Storm in the night.

1. Clouds. How they are made, and different types of clouds
2. Rain. How it rains
3. Electricity
4. Family relationships
5. Fear
6. The Five Senses
7. Facial Expressions
8. A little bit about America
9. Similes
10. Onomatopoeia
11. Sources of light
12. Vocabulary

The Batteries in the camera were low during this book, so I didn't get as many pictures as I did with The Story About Ping. When I make a post of the Learning Folders of The Storm In the Night, I will take some detailed pictures of that, and then you will have a chance to see more of the girls work.

In Case you are wondering what an Onomatopoeia is, it is a sound that an object makes. For instance a Clock says, "Tick tock, tick tock" a car says, "Vroom Vroom!". Those are examples of an Onomatopoeia. Pretty Interesting Huh? :)

One of the girls first projects was exploring family relationships. The Storm In the Night's main characters are a little boy Thomas and his Grandfather. Thomas admires and respects his Grandfather very much. So I had the girls write a letter to their Grandma & Grandpa and their Nana & Papa. Then they made them a magnet for them. We haven't sent them yet, (Sorry grandparents!) because I just haven't gotten a round to it yet. Dumb excuse I know. :-

The finished Product

For Art, the girls cut out Clouds and colored them. They made a thunderstorm scene with the clouds. You will be able to see this in their learning folders.
This is Bean intently watching our own rain maker. We put boiling water in the bottom of a jar, closed the jar, and put ice on top of the lid. This showed how the sun heats up the water, causes it to evaporate, where it comes into the cold air, and then rains.

We also did a little experiment with why it thunders. I tried explaining to the girls why there is sometimes lightning in a rain storm. It was a little above their heads, as I am sure alot of this stuff is. But it is still fun, and they are enjoying this.

Anyway, I lit a candle, and I told the girls to pretend that flame was like lighting. Lightning is very hot, just like that fire. I then place a balloon on top of the flame, and it popped. I was hoping to show the girls that the heat of the lightning caused the air around it to *pop*. Well, it didn't quite work that way. Sweetie started to cry because I popped her *favorite* balloon! :)

We also did an experiment to introduce the five senses to the girls. I got a pile of colorful toys, and placed them on the floor. I told the girls not to touch them. I then asked them to describe the toys to me.

For smell, I blind folded them, and had them smell vinegar, lemon juice, perfume, and eucalyptus oil.

For touch they felt a nail file, A nail smoother, a hard ball, and a soft two headed cow.

For taste they tasted, pretzels, chips, taffy, honey, and lemon juice. The picture above is them tasting some things. They had to tell me if it was salty, sweet, or sour.

Last but not least for hearing, they listened to beans, rice, pellets, and oat meal in containers by shaking it. They had to tell me if it was loud or soft.

Later on Daddy did an experiment with them using pop corn. They had to listen to it, smell it, feel it, see it, and taste it.

This is Sweetie feeling the two headed cow! :)

There were some interesting things that Bean said that I want to share with you. When we were studying electricity, I showed them our power lines, took them to our meter box, showed that it connected to our breaker box. Showed them that there were wires in the breaker box, that connected to the lights and outlets.

For one of our projects I asked the girls to name some things that give light. Bean says, "Electricity!" I said, "Yes it does!" I then asked, "What about a light bulb?" Bean matter of factly shakes her head and says, "Nope, the electricity makes the light bulb work."

So I guess, not *too* much of this stuff is way over their heads. They do get alot of what is going on.

This week we are Rowing The Glorious Flight. Have a good afternoon!

Kim Anderson~ Peekaboo I Love You!

Today I would like to show you what my husband gave me for my birthday during our courtship. It is a Kim Anderson figure that says on the bottom, "Peekaboo I Love You!" Sorry for the picture being so blurry. I need new batteries in the camera, and so I get what I can before my camera shuts down.

There is a little story to this figure that means more to me, than probably my sweet husband remembers, LOL!

Hubby and I met in college. During my first semester, he made hints that he was "interested" in my "friendship" but took it really slow. Many people teased me about him being my boyfriend, but we were not really. Finally he asked me to go the Christmas banquet.

During Christmas break, my "friend" came and visited my parents and asked my father for permission to court me with the intention of marriage. There was a long talk with my future husband, and my parents gave him their approval of such a relationship.

The second semester was spent getting to know each other on a deeper level. What our goals in life were, what we valued the most etc. The relationship was moving along pretty fast.

By Summer time, my future husband started hinting about marriage. What I thought about that, and so on. The thing was, he never declared his love to me. He just told me that he liked me "a lot".

Well, that wasn't enough commitment in my mind for him to be talking about marriage! I went to visit his family to meet them for the first time. Many of his Aunts were asking what our intentions were, and I had no clue what to tell them. I was very aloof, and I am sure many of them thought I was snobby. But I really didn't know what to tell them!

It became a huge delima to me. Here he was talking about marriage, but I wasn't sure if he even loved me. Someone finally told him, what turmoil I was in (ha!) and he told me that he loved me when I went back to my home state.

Dummy me, I later found out I ruined everything for him. He was going to tell me he loved me when he proposed. Because he really hadn't proposed; he just was talking about the idea of marriage with me. But in a girls mind, when I guy does that, she needs to know that he really is meaning what he is talking about! LOL!

Anyway, a wise older man told him how important for a girl to know these sort of things, when he begins to talk about something as serious as marriage.

So off I went to home 1000 miles home, with my head in the clouds! Two months later I received a package from him. It was for my birthday. Inside the box were a number of items, but this was the main one. And it was the Kim Anderson figure that said, "Peekaboo, I Love You!"

Oh, how my heart did a million flutters when I saw it. To this day it is very special to me.
By the way, he proposed to me five months later. :) He worked hard all summer to save up for my beautiful diamond. (Of course I didn't know that until later on) I also picked out my wedding gown before he proposed! :) I guess I was pretty confident that he loved me. :)

For more Show and Tell stories click on the show and tell button at the beginning of my post. Thanks for reading!

Wordless Wednesday~ Team Work

For more great pictures of other Wordless Wednesdays please vist here.

Ping Learning Folders

In order for the girls to retain all the information that they learned about Ping, we made up special folders called Learning folders. Sometimes called lap books. Sweetie and Bean both made one, and I wanted to share with you. This may be a long post, but I know family like grandma's (wink, wink) will like to read about it. The is the front of Sweeties Folder. She colored the duck, and it was her idea to add the grass and the water and sun in the back ground.

Open up the folder and this is what you see next. In the middle is a duckie craft that both girls did. It a bunch of different shapes, and they had to color and cut the shapes out. Then they glued it properly onto a piece of construction paper.

On the left flap is an envelope that says, "How Many Are In Pings Family?" Sweetie had to remember the answer which was 68. Inside the envelope are 68 tiny ducks in a plastic baggie.

On the right flap is the little mini book that they had to color scenes from the The Story About Ping and put them in order.

Underneath the book is a little pocket that says "Things I Remembered about Ping" Then there is a little book in that pocket which Sweetie in her own words wrote what she remembered.

Here is what she remembered:

Ping crossed the bridge on the wise eyed boat

Ping was very careful not to be the last to cross the bridge

If He was last he would get a spank on his back

He hid from the boat

He couldn't find the wise eyed boat anywhere

He got a spank on his back

He found his family

He saw birds with rings around their necks

Ping ate little fish and snails

The Boy had a rice cake in his hand

Ping lived on the Yangtze River in China

There was a barrel on the boys back

The Yangtze river was yellow

Open up the folder even more. Sweetie colored a map and flag of China. Underneath the map is a booklet that says, "Facts About China"

This is Sweeties Remembrance of what we learned about China:

It has a Big City with a Restaurant

They have a flag

Chinese people like to eat rice

In the country, Chinese people don't have pottys

They have big dragon drawings

They ride bicycles to work

Chinese people like to eat ducks

They have a river called the Yangtze River

In the middle is a Sink Float Chart for when we learned about buoyancy. Above the chart is a picture of a little Chinese girl. Next to her, is a picture of the ring necked bird from the story about Ping.

On the right side is a booklet that says, "Facts About Ducks"

Sweeties remembrance of Ducks:

They float on water

Ducks can go Quack Quack Quack

They lay eggs

Ducks can eat little fish

They can drink water.

Fold the right flap over, and there is a folded piece of paper that says Facts About Ships.

Sweeties Remembrance Of Ships:

1. Why do Boats Float? Because they have air in them

2. What is the person in charge of the ship called? The Captain

3. What do Boat's Carry? People, Cruise ships, Cars, Wood, Food, Animals

4. There are many different kinds of boats. What are some of them called? Submarines, Sailboats, Moter Boat, Rowboat, Warships.

Fold the right flap over again, and there is a little yellow book that says, "Fun Things We Did". This hold pictures of some of the extra special things we did which were:

1. Feed live Ducks

2. Our Chinese Meal

3. The Girls Origami boats

4. Floating the Origami boats

Sweetie told me in her own words about the pictures.

For the ducks: We were feeding the ducks bread. Sarah our friend came too. The Ducks knew we had bread and came right up to us. One Duck caught bread. It was rainy that Day. We had a fun time!

For the Chinese meal:

The Chinese meal was very good. We had broccoli, rice, chicken and egg rolls. We ate on the coffee table. We made Chinese Lanterns, and put a candle of fire in them to make them glow. We ate with chop sticks!

For the Origami boats:

We colored the paper. Mine was purple. Mommy made my paper into a boat. Mommy folded the paper, which is called origami.

For Floating the boats:

We did the boats, we even put them in water, and Tiny Boy put a cup in the water and we took it out. The boats floated!

Fold the right flap again, and it showed the cover of the folder

This is the front of Bean's Folder. Hers is very much like Sweeties but a bit different. I will post the pictures that show the differences, but I won't post the ones that are the same as Sweeties.

Bean's Duckie Craft. I had to cut for her, since her moter skills aren't developed enough to cut they way this craft needed to be cut.

Bean's coloring of the map of China.

Now I will write her answers to the little booklets that are in the folder. First we shall start with "Facts About Ducks"

Bean's Remembrance:

They Swim

They waddle

They Fly

They say, "Quack Quack"

They have web feet

They have a beak

What Bean Remembered About Ping:

The Yangtze River

When the master called the ducks he said, "La, La, La, La, Li"

Ping liked to eat fish and snails

Ping eats the rice cake

Ping tried to be first on the boat so he wouldn't get spanked

Ping was snatched up, and the man wanted to eat him

The Boy put ping back in the river

The Boy was wearing a barrel on his back

I did not like the wise eyed boat

Ping hid so he wouldn't get spanked

In the end Ping got spanked!

Bean's facts about China:

Chinese people eat noodles

They eat vegetables

They eat chicken

They go to school

In the country they have no potty

It has the Yangtze River, which has yellow water

They Drink Tea

They use chopsticks

Bean's Facts About Ships:

The man who drives the boat is called what? A Captain of The Master of the Boat (she remembered this from The Story About Ping)

Why does the boat float? Because it is full of air

What Kind of boats are there? Submarines, Rowboat, Sail boat, Chinese Junk, Moter boat

Bean's own words about the pictures we took:

The Ducks: We feed the ducks. We fed them bread and cheerios to them. They came to us, I liked the ducks; They were saying "quack, quack, quack." My friend Sarah fed them bread too.

The Chinese Meal: I like to eat Chinese. But I want to eat a duck. We made Chinese lanterns and put fire under it. We ate rice, chicken and broccoli, and egg rolls. We sat at the coffee table, and we get pillows to sit on. And we sit up. I ate with chop sticks.

The Origami Boats: I colored a square piece of paper. I drew a sun, water, and sky and a boat. Three boats. Mommy folded into a boat. The Chinese call it Origami

Floating the boats: We floated our origami boats. I liked it, because mommy taught us to float the boats.

So there you have it. Their first learning folders. I plan on doing something like this with each Five In A Row Book that we complete.

Fall Decorations

Since everyone seems to be showing their fall decorations, I decided to show mine as well.
To begin with I would like to show the bulletin board that I decorated for the children for school. It has a poem on it by Robert Lewis Stevenson about Autumn. This is the front of my house which has a tin pumpkin on the front door that says, "Give Thanks". On the floor next to the door are some yellow mums planted in pots that the girls painted. There is a little scarecrow planter stuck in the mums. In front of the mums is a Terra cotta bowel with a little pumpkin and squash in it.

A close up of the door A close up of the mums, pumpkins and scarecrow
On my Piano I have some resin pumpkins that say have a thanksgiving Bible verse on it, and a phrase to the song, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow". There are also real dried leaves spread across the top of the piano.
A close up of my resin pumpkins, and real dried leaves.

My coffee table with a tiny pumpkin, and squash in a crystal bowel. A dark resin sign that says, "Be Thankful." I then spread fake leaves all across the table. I spread the leaves across my end tables as well.

Some leaves on a shelf.
My kitchen table, with a plastic table cloth (Hey I have tiny children in the house!:) with a leaf print on it. A cornucopia filled with pumpkins squash, fake grapes and a fake apple. Pumpkin colored candles in crystal candle holders. Then to finish it off, laminated place mates with turkeys on them.

So there you have it. My fall decorations. Just a few simple things, but hopefully it puts people in the mood for fall weather. :) Thanks for stopping by and looking.


For more show and Tell items please click on the Show and Tell button on top of my post.

Out of the Mouth's of Babes

The kids have been saying such funny and profound things lately, that I wanted to share it with you.

First off, we will start with Sweetie.

Sweetie: Mommy, I wish I could fly.

Mommy: Well, if you are saved, one day when you die you will fly up to heaven.

Sweetie: You mean I will fly when I am dead?

Mommy: No, your skin will die, but you will still live, and you will fly and go to heaven if you are saved.

Sweetie seems satisfied and starts to walk away, then she suddenly turns around and says,

Sweetie: Oh, you mean my body won't escape, but my mind will?

Mommy: Yea something like that! :)

Then Bean's profoundness came though. We were learning about electricity in The Storm in the Night. I explained a little bit of the process of how it works. Then I took the girls outside, showed them the power lines, how they connected to our house. I pointed out the meter box, and took inside our garage to show them the breaker box. I explained that there were wires in the walls that connected to the outlets. So when we plug things in, electricity makes our things work.

Later on, I was asking Bean and Sweetie what some sources of light were. Bean (who is 3 years old) says electricity. I said, "That is right, but what about a light bulb, does that make light?" Bean replies matter of factly "no" Electricity makes the light bulb light up!

Then, tonight we were riding in the car, when Bean says, "Mommy, I am afraid of the dark." I tried to comfort her by saying she has a night light in her room. Sweetie pipes up, in a sweet, and understanding voice and says, "You know what Bean? I am kind of afraid of the dark also. But do you know what I do? I just sit there and think that the dark really isn't *that* scary and it helps. You should try that next time."

These kids are getting to be such a hoot and a lot of fun to listen to their dialog!

Wordless Wednesday~ Future Ambitions?

For more Wordless Wednesday pictures click here.

Rowing The Story About Ping

I had a lot of reservations about beginning homeschooling. But I must say that Five In A Row has made it a sheer pleasure! ;)
We began our homeschooling adventure by reading The Story about Ping.
With Five In A Row, you take a story book, and take elements out of the story that are related to History, Geography , Math, Science, Art, Music, etc, and teach them to your child. Our first lesson was about Buoyancy, in which the girls gathered all sorts of items to see if they would float or sink. In The Story about Ping, there is a little boy that uses a barrel on his back to help him float in the water. I explained why he floated with the barrel, and based on that information, the girls had to guess which of these items would sink or float.
Sweetie was pretty close on most things, but there were a few things that stumped her! ;)

For Math, Ping has a very large family. I took our Math-U-See blocks, and we counted his mother, father, seven brothers, three sisters, so many aunts, so many uncles, and so many cousins. In all Ping had 68 relatives, including him. I then printed out 68 ducks and had the girls color them all. This was a bit tough on Sweetie, as she must learn about perseverance. Bean, had no problem with this at all. She could color for hours on end! :)
For Sweetie we ended up leaving some of the ducks white, as some of ping's grown up relatives were white. :)

We then cut out the ducks and pasted them on a folder to give the girls a visual of how many ducks there were in Ping's family.

The girls showing all of their hard work!

I read them a book about real ducks, and for a field trip, we visited a near by park that has a duck pond to feed them bread. The ducks were so hilarious! We were the only ones at the park that time. They were all laying down on the ground, just enjoying the day. As soon as I parked the car, all of them got up, and started towards us. Apparently they enjoy lots of company.

I gave Tiny Boy a bucket with the bread already torn up, but he ate it himself. :) Ping lives in China, so we learned a few things about China. I read a child's book about the country of China to them. One thing that was fascinating to them, was that Chinese people who live in the country do not have inside bathrooms. :)

Sweetie was pretty impressed that alot of Chinese business people ride bicycles to work instead of drive in cars.

For an added effect, I made a Chinese meal for them. Which was Rice A Roni fried rice ;), Chicken and broccoli sir fry, and frozen egg rolls.
I found cheater chop sticks at Target, which was great. The girls thought that this was the best part of the meal. Bean took forever to finish her supper; it was great fun watching them use the things.

I also set up the coffee table in Japanese style and we sat on pillows. The girls made Chinese lanterns and I put tea lights underneath them, to give it an added effect and set the mood.

We had lots of fun with this one. :)

Through the Five In A Row Website, I found a great resource for extra Five In A Row "stuff". The girls are coloring scenes from The Story about Ping, then they have to cut them out, and put them in order. After they did that, I stapled it into a little book, which went into their learning folders. I am going to make a post about that later on too. The resource is http://www.homeschoolshare.com/
Ping lives on a "Wise Eyed Boat, on the Yangtze River", and so we learned a little bit about boats and ships. I happened to have a kids video on ships that I had them watch.
I also checked a few books about ships out at the library. As a fun project, and to incorporate China into ships, we made Origami boats. The girls colored the paper, but mommy had to do the folding. I found instructions on how to do this on youtube. Here, you can watch how to make one yourself:




We then tested our Origami boats to see if they would float. They did! :)

Here are all three of them watching the boats in the bath tube. Tiny Boy was having a great time as you can see!

The girls also colored maps of China, and made a duckie craft. The Duckie craft involved them coloring different shapes, cutting them out and then pasting them onto another piece of paper. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of those. However, when I post about their lap books, I will show tons of pictures, and you will be able to see their duckie craft, and map of China. They also colored a Duck picture that is used as the cover of their lap book.

All in all The Story about Ping was sooo much fun! This week we are Rowing The Storm In the Night. Of course I will blog about that one too! :)