Summer Family Fun List

Summer is officially here in out house. The kids have, for the most part, finished school for the year. There's still a little bit of history and reading to be finished up, but for now we are in full summer mode.

Needless to say, the professor and I tend to try to cram as many projects into this time of year as we possibly can. In an attempt to not let the summer go by without the kids getting to choose some fun things to do, we sat down and made a list together as a family of all the fun things we would like to get to this summer. I wrote it all out on posterboard for us to cross off as we get to them.

In case you can't read what's on our list, here's what it says:

Bike ride

Fishing

S'mores

Discover a new park

Zoo

Picnic

Fly kites

Have a water balloon fight

Treats from the ice cream truck

Camping

Berry picking

Lemonade stand

Driveway chalk drawing

Sprinkler

Putt-putt

Geocaching

Swimming in the pool at The Professor's workplace

Gigantic bubbles

Go to the "beach" at one of the local parks

Have an ice cream sundae party

Make popsicles

Museum

Backyard obstacle course

Wash the car

This should keep us pretty busy having fun this summer. I hope your summer is just as fun filled as ours should be.

Random Pics of the Kids

Petie's 5th Birthday

A new guitar

Swinging buddies

(and no, I don't make my kids wear helmets to swing)

Trip to the zoo

The night I found all the beds empty and all the kids sleeping on the floor :)

Matching Dresses for the Girls

So here's the real reason my kids didn't have cute matching outfits for Easter. I've been working on these for a few weeks and finally got them finished yesterday. I picked up several yards of these coordinating fabrics on clearance a while back at Jo-Ann's and had just enough to make these three dresses. I think they turned out pretty cute. The girl's just love them and couldn't wait to wear them to church today.

For Penny's, I used McCall's M4427 pattern. I bought it about seven years ago, so I don't even know if it's still around. The pattern just has the plain bodice and the coordinating band at the bottom. I thought that was a little too plain, and I needed a way to bring in the blue fabric, so using some ideas from this blog, I added the ruffle to the top part of the dress. I love how this dress turned out!

For Peanut's dress, the pattern I used was Simplicity 5695. I love this pattern because it was so easy to use, and it's really basic, so with a few changes you could use it over and over again and have a completely different looking dress each time. I'll definitely be using this one again. I do think her's turned out a little big and for some reason it reminds me of a muumuu, but I like it anyway. I think the big bold print was definitely the right pick for Peanut's dress, and her personality.

And finally, for Patty's dress the pattern I used was Simplicity 2677. Her dress was slightly more challenging than Peanut's, but overall not bad. This was the first time I had ever used bias tape, and only the second time I've ever had to put in a zipper. Zipper's still aren't my favorite things to sew, but I'm always surprised at how much easier it is than I think it's going to be. I think with a little more practice I won't think twice about adding one to a garment. The only thing I had trouble with was the sleeves. I still don't know what I was doing wrong, but I eventually just decided to leave them off and do the sleeveless version of the dress. She loves it, and I think it turned out pretty cute.

Easter

I know this is a little late, but this is the first chance I've had to put up any pictures from Easter.

The kids made pictures for the Easter Bunny and left out a bunch of carrots for him to snack on when he left their baskets :)

Here they are all dressed up and ready to go to church. I did not have the energy or time to try to make them any Easter dresses this year. Everything they are wearing is store bought. I love that the dress Penny is wearing was worn by all three girls for Easter.

A Little Something From The Scraps

If you read my last post, you saw that I made Patty a quilt for her doll bed. I had quite a bit of scraps left over from the bedding, so I threw together this skirt for Patty.

I know enough about basic sewing that I did this without a pattern. I think it turned out O.K. I definitely learned some things I would do differently next time, but overall I'm happy with the way it turned out. I do need to figure out an easy way to put in a lining (after the fact) since I forgot to put one in the skirt when I made it.

I also obviously need to get her a shirt that matches, but since it refuses to warm up around here, I haven't gone shopping for summer t-shirts yet. I can't for the life of me get this girl to wear pants, so I figured I'd just make her a wardrobe of a bunch of skirts and sundresses for the summer and buy some colored t-shirts to mix and match.

Doll Bedding

I finally got around to making the bedding for the Farmhouse Bed the Professor made for Patty's American Girl doll. The Professor doesn't do a lot of woodworking, and he said the bed was really easy to make. You can find the instructions to make your own here.

Now, on to the bedding. I came across this great online tutorial for the bedding at From an Igloo. She has a tutorial for the fitted sheet, pillows and pillowcases, and the reversible quilt. I found the instructions to be very straightforward and easy to follow. Patty just loves how it turned out. I think the tiny little pillow cases are my favorite part :)

Biosphere

As Patty has been studying the Solar System in science, she's been completing an activity or experiment to better understand a particular aspect of each of the planets. Here she is showing off her biosphere she made to represent Earth. We've learned a lot about each of the planets together and she really has an enthusiasm for science. We look forward to wrapping up our study of Earth and Space in the next few months and moving on to Life science next year.