I’m super excited about our afternoon activities. I’m actually ridiculously tired and ready for bed at 7:30pm, but first, a blog post!

I have been thinking about teaching the kids to sew this summer. Ever since Eve separated the petals from an entire bouquet of flower, into her hat, telling me all the while about how she’s going to sew them into a flower petal quilt as soon as we get home. This was two months ago! I’ve been thinking about it, googling “how to sew with kids,” bugging my poor over worked friend Anna who sews her own kids’ clothes, and I’ve probably mentioned it once or twice to the kids. As it usually goes around here, I think about something until the kids push me into actually doing it. Anna showed me an adorable skirt project that I thought Eve would love to do with me. Eve, however, came down from quiet time with her own plan in mind – to sew a quilt for her doggy! I tried to talk her into the skirt, but no deal. I tried to get her to do an introductory project (sewing on a paper plate) but no way. She was focused on a quilt! So we dug out the fabric scraps I have and she went to work. I had to encourage her to draw it out first (a few scribbles on a scrap of paper) and then lay it out on the floor. Meanwhile I cut out the “pattern” (ie: large rectangle) for the skirt I want to make for her and Lex joined the party and happily started the paper plate project. He wrote his name in block letters and then we/he poked holes around it, then he stitched with the holes. Once I had him on a roll and gave up on trying to convince Eve to work with me on the skirt project, I agreed to let her start sewing. I did not agree to the sewing machine though! I thought hand stitching would be a better way to start. :) I held the fabric pieces together and she stitched. It went really, really well. She got three pieces together, he got one and a half letters done, and I felt really relaxed and happy.

Then we moved to the kitchen so I could get dinner ready. Of course by “get dinner ready” I mean cook a few bowls of oatmeal for them and reheat some soup for me. At that point they just lost it. They are super tired these days from Splash Camp. Eve started crying about everything, Lex went a little spastic, and I got a major headache. Oh well. The good afternoon was worth it. We skipped bath and they were both in bed my 7pm! I’m next! :)

PS. I was too lazy to put up all the individual pictures in full size, but it you click on the collage above it will get bigger and you can see more details.