We are squeezing every last bit of fun and goodness out of the end of this month of August. The summer rushed by me, once again it seems. I pretty much forgot to do anything with it. We didn't really go anywhere or do anything especially summery it seems and the days so easily fly by filled with making breakfast and doing laundry and cleaning up lunch and planning dinner and all the daily stuff that must be done so that every one is clothed and fed and happy, and by the time you lift your head up to look around, lo and behold the summer is drawing to a close. And I missed it!
Luckily, some fun has come to us, in the form of various visiting cousins. Last week we had a trip to the zoo with one of our lovely BC cousins (penguins and polar bears and giraffes, oh my!), and this week, one of the Little Dude's favourite 'big' cousins came to stay at GranGran's house. And not only did his 'big' cousin come, but she brought a friend along too! I'm telling you, when these two thirteen-year-old girls come to visit, its like there are celebrities down the street. He gets SO excited to see "The Girls" as he calls them collectively. "Are The Girls going to come and play with me this morning?" he asks upon waking. "Can I go to GranGrans and see The Girls again after lunch?" I'm telling you, he's barely been home at all this week, as they (along with GranGran) have been picking him up at around mid-morning and most days have been keeping him out and about all day. He arrives home after dinner, just minutes before bedtime, full of energy and stories of the adventures they had (...and then we went to the Lizard store and saw a Water Monitor....) and sleeps like a stone when his head hits the pillow.
But today I had the pleasure of hosting The Girls at my house, and of course, we decided the best way to spend our time was to make a craft. (they're a little burnt out on playing Lego. L.D. would keep them at the Lego table 24-7 if he could) So we put The Baby down for his nap and then proceeded to craft it up.
Here are The Girls, hard at work.
Our plan was to make denim covered notebooks. So we picked up a cheap binder and notebook with nice hard covers, and then used my stack of worn-out jeans to cover them with. Above you can see the covered spiral bound notebook....
...and here is the covered binder.
We had limited time (nap time is two hours, max) so these are not full slip-on sewn covers, but simply a piece of denim that is cut carefully to cover the front of the binder or notebook, and then glued on with a heavy duty glue (we used Weldbond, my favourite). We did sew on the pockets, because I had the machine out anyways, and we really wanted them to stay on despite heavy use. Then we used a blend of machine embroidery, stamping with fabric paint, painting with fabric paint and glueing on buttons and other patches of denim to embellish them.
I'm so proud of the amazing job that The Girls did. They both made such great choices and ended up with final products that are so completely them. Its such a pleasure to watch them work.
Not to be left out, the Little Dude asked me to take a picture of what he made this afternoon:
A Lego spaceship, natch.
Oh how he LOVES these Girls, and what a gift they gave him this week by spending so much good time with him, playing trains and lego, introducing him to new foods (he had pizza with them yesterday, something he doesn't usually bother with. I know, am I the only parent in the world who's four year old is like "pizza? meh.") and coaxing him into the pond. It was like his own personal summer camp and they were his very own cool camp counsellors. What better way to spend the last week of summer.
Love the little dude's t-shirt!!
Posted by: Amber | 08/30/2012 at 08:47 AM