Beach Quiet Book: Life Jacket and Fish Pages

 Life Jacket and Fish 

Life Jacket

For the Life Jacket, I used the tutorial and pattern from Sewing Skills Quiet Book Page 18-19.  Supplies: I bought some orange nylon material, webbing, clip, and extra batting. I sewed a sail boat button in the corner and did a blanket stitch to secure the webbing and life jacket down in the page. Little brother learns how to clip and and take off the clip on the jacket. 

Match the Fish Snaps Off and Dolphin on String Can Hide in Rock

As for the Ocean Floor, I was inspired by a shark page on Pinterest by Wonders of Felt. The fish patterns are by Purlbee, treasure chest, ocean floor are from Imagine Our Life. Supplies: blue fleece 8x8 square, wool felt, sequins, snaps, parachute cord, dolphin bead, shell buttons, gold ribbon, fake jewels, pearls, tiny beads for octopus, eyes for shark and fish, and clear vinyl for shark tummy.  Little brother learns colors, how to fasten snaps, play hide and seek with the fish on the cord, feel the different textures, and match the fish.

Shark Eating the Fish

Beach Quiet Book: Monkey and Beach Bag Pages

Monkeys Teasing Alligator and Mom's Beach Bag

Supplies: sun button, shell button, wool blend felt, embroidery floss, eyes, white ribbon, white tulle, and 8x8 water like fleece material. I got the monkey pattern from Imagine Our Life,  alligator tutorial (I drew my own template for the alligator) but got inspiration from 365 Days of Crafts, snake, tree, and sun is from Bugs and Fishes. I came up with the patterns for the beach, water, rock, bananas, birds, and clouds.  Little brother learns how to snap on and off the monkeys and play peek a boo to find animals under objects. I have taught him the song"Two Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree" when he plays with this page.

Peek a Boo Bird

Peek a Boo Snake

I sing the song "Two Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree".

Mom's Beach Bag- Keys, iPhone, and Wallet 

Supplies: wool felt blend, the brown flower felt I found at a local craft store (it's thick), embroidery floss, ribbons, button, rubber band, vinyl plastic for license and card. For the beach bag, I used Imagine our Life's purse and iPhone and found keys patterns off Pinterest. Then I used the tutorial and pattern for the wallet from Lola Nova. The driver license and Chase card came from Smile Like You Mean It. Little brother learns how to fasten and unfasten a button on the wallet. He can pretend to use a phone and keys. He may become familiar with numbers 0-9 and learn my phone number.  

Inside of Wallet Mom's Fake Driver's License and Chase Card

Beach Quiet Book:Treasure Map Shapes and Sun Pages

Treasure Map Velcro Shapes and Weave the Sun

These are the first and last pages from the Beach Theme Quiet Book 

Blue Pocket and Velcro Shapes Treasure Map

As you can see, I sewed a blue pocket for the first page to put the shapes in. Little brother loves to match the shapes and place them in the pocket.  He also learns colors and shapes.

Velcro Off the Shapes
Supplies: Wool blend felt, Velcro squares, shapes pattern, embroidery floss, needle, and Fusible Interfacing (iron) between the felt shape pieces to help secure the Velcro in place. I hand stitched the shapes and map by doing the blanket stitch or basic stitch. The treasure map  and shapes pattern came from Imagine Our Life.

Weave the Sun

Supplies: Wool blend felt, embroidery floss, and ribbons. Again, I used the blanket stitch on the sun border and weaves pieces. I used the following patterns circle from Busy Bug Life and weave from Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows. Little brother learns how to weave.

Little Brother's Beach Theme Quiet Book

Little Brother's Beach Theme Quiet Book
When Little Brother turned two years old in May of 2015, he finally unwrapped his homemade Beach Theme Quiet Book for a birthday present. The quiet book has been great to take with us to doctor appointments and during church! He also likes playing with it during the daytime occasionally too. 

Front of Quiet Book
First, I made a Quite Book Board on Pinterest and collected many pins for inspiration and ideas. I read the pro and cons of the different types of Quite Books. I choose a simple book style instead of the rings. Next, I researched how to hand sew by watching the following You Tube Videos: the blanket stitch, back stitch, and French knots. Beware I am a beginner sewer with my Brother sewing machine. The stitches are not straight as you will see in the handle and on some of the pages! I spent hundreds of hours making his quiet book stitching by hand many tiny pieces.  It is a beautiful keepsake for years to come and I plan to make more quiet books for my grandchildren in the future.

Supplies: 
The book was made from many colorful wool blend felt sheets, which I bought from an Etsy Shop called Benzie Design. I also bought Velcro, interfacing, cream muslin material, navy fleece material, and a fleece under water ocean scene material for the book cover from Walmart. I followed the instructions on how to sew my book by using the following tutorials: Sewing Skills Quiet Book and Sewing with Nancy to assemble the Quiet book together. Each square was 9X9 (I made a template from card stock). I added a blue pocket inside the front page of the book and sewed on the Velcro as a closure. I also liked the idea of little brother carrying his Beach Quiet Book with handles.
Blue Pocket and Velcro Shapes Treasure Map

Monkeys Teasing Alligator and Mom's Beach Bag

Life Jacket and Fish 
Football Laces and Build a Sandcastle

 Octopus and Turtle
 Ice Cream Truck and Ice Cream

Weave The Sun

Stay tuned! I will post more photographs of each page. I will break down what supplies I used for each page, what skills little brother learns from each page, and where I found the patterns, inspiration, templates, etc in other blog posts.  

Masquerade Daddy Daughter Harvest Ball

Masquerade Daddy Daughter Harvest Ball

Last year I helped accomplish a magical Daddy Daughter Date. It was a formal dinner, which we all dressed up in our Sunday best. I loved wearing my jeweled black dress and green mask! Each girl made a mask during Activity Days week prior to the evening. They also helped us make invitations, name cards, and napkin rings. Our goal was for it to sparkle that night by using lots of glitter, white lights, shimmery ribbons, and gems! We decorated the place in restaurant style each girl got their own table with their Father. We had servers (Young Women and Men from our ward) take their orders and serve them their food. We had a photographer take photos at a backdrop and provided some fun props. We asked a couple Young Women and Young men who were on the Ballroom team perform a couple routines for some entertainment. We then did three rotations of activities such as writing a letter to our missionaries, minute to win it games, and learn a waltz from the ballroom dancers. At the end, we did a group waltz dance all together. It was a fun night, which I hope the girls will never forget! 
The Invitations
We used 12X12 glitter scrapbook papers and embellished the invite with feathers, gems, ribbons, and black mask dye cuts (from silhouette machine). 

Close Up on the Invites
Credits: The Frames and graphics are from The Graphic's Fairy, the dancing couple from here and black paper is by Zoe Pearn and grey paper is by Shabby Princess. I used the following fonts: Francine Hmk, Old English Text MT, and Bergamot Ornaments.

The Table Setting
We cut some burlap fabric in squares, made name cards, napkin rings, masks (template here), menu, pumpkin party favor (filled with candy), spray painted pine cones, black lacy paper over glass container for tea light, and candelabras (silhouette machine which we spray painted them).

Another Table Setting

The Menu
We asked six Young Women and Men in our ward to be servers. They were dressed in black and white. Credits: Graphics and frames are from The Graphics Fairy, papers are by Zoe Pearn and I used Imperator, Goudy Old Style, Bergamot Ornaments, Old English Text MT, and Francine Hmk for the fonts.

The Place Mat (Activities to do while eating) 
Credits: I found misc games from doing a Google search Tick Tac Toe, Pumpkin Maze, and Dot Game. I typed out some ice breakers questions for them to talk about during dinner. The silhouette dance couple is from here. The oval frames and silhouette of girl are by Allison Kimbell Designs. The other Graphics are by The Graphic's Fairy. I got the silhouette dancing couple from here and the man silhouette here.

Photo Booth and Props
We used white lights over a white curtain and layered it with gold and cream material, bought a few pumpkins (put gold and cream ribbons on the stem) and balloons. I found the Photo Booth Props templates from here -----> Keepsakes Photo Props 

Banners and Pumpkins
As you can see we went with the color theme of black, orange, purple, gold, cream, and silver. When I planted my garden last year, I made sure we did pumpkins! I painted the pumpkins black, purple, white, etc. I used some glitter, ribbons, and masks to embellish them.  I was happy to decorate my front door with the colorful pumpkins after the event! I used gold and silver spray paint to make the pine cones (great for Christmas decorations, ha). As for the banner, I used the Goose Bumps kit from Shabby Princess, orange paper and alphas was from Zoe Pearn's Something Wicked Kit, and then I tied colorful ribbons on the banner.

More Pumpkins

Entertainment and Games 
We divided the guests into three groups and did three rotations. I made a map to show them where to go. We did Minute to Win it games, Learn a Waltz, and Missionary Letters to our current missionaries serving from our ward. Credits: Papers are by Zoe Pearn and Shabby Princess, graphics and frames are by The Graphics Fairy, compass is by Kate Hatfield from The Lily Pad, and the waltz dance couple silhouette is from here.

The Overview of Lights, Table, Chair Setting, and Disco Ball 
What a wonderful privilege to be apart of this magical night! I have the best church calling ever! 

Mission Possible

For our 2015 Activity Day theme, we decided to do a Mission Possible theme.  We were inspired by Pinterest with a lot of our ideas.  The mission we desired for the girls to accomplish this year is having them memorize the Articles of Faith.

Scripture Theme: 

Invitation:  I had the opportunity of designing and putting these cute invites together.  Supplies: manila folders, labels, paper clips, card stock for the cipher card, paper cutter, regular paper for the documents, scissors, glue,  Credits: The mission labels are from Inkablinka. I got the cool cipher alphabet card from Take the Side Street Blog, United States Seal, and office manila folder template is from Mirk Wood Designs.

Decorations:  We made a few signs:  A Mission Possible poster, Restricted Access Agents Only, Agents Report Here, 13 Footprints,  Welcome Top Recruits Level 8-11, Scan to Enter, and the United States Seal on podium. We set up a desk for check in and had each girl finger printed by the entrance. 

   Finger Print Decoding: We had the girls use their magnify glasses to read the tiny finger print which contained the 13 Articles of Faith, which was made by Linda. We also printed out the keywords worksheet using this Articles of Faith Puzzle.  Linda made a transparency of Jesus Christ for a visual aid while talking about having the light of Christ in our lives.

Secret Package: We gave each girl a bag filled with Special Training Devices such as: a tiny magnify glass, Articles of Faith music CD (Credits: paper is by Shabby Princess, Nancy Drew Silhouette but Linda put a hat on her, footprints Stock Illustrations , magnify glass, thought bubble, and reprise title font) an activity day schedule for the year, a calendar of each Article of Faith, Articles of Faith Memorization Cards are from Sugar Doodle. Badges: I made these badges for the leaders and activity day girls. The leaders wore lanyards around their necks while the girls had stick on badges. Credits: We Believe in Obeying the Law badges Mormon Mommy Blogs,  Spy clip art is from Can Stock Photo, and the fingerprints are from My Paper Crane .
Refreshments: Cupcake and water (made by Shannan and Amy). The cute cupcake toppers were designed by Linda. Article of Faith Match Up Game:  The girls had to match up the numbers to the right Article of Faith, which was printed under the footprints.

Developing Talents

Big sister has been working on developing her talents. Last fall, my husband found a great voice teacher who lives nearby to help big sis learn how to read music and sing better. Each Thursday night she meets with her voice teacher.  She had her first recital in December.  She did an awesome job! She is also developing photography as another talent. Big sis got some advice about how to take better pictures from our photographer friend since she is taking yearbook desktop publishing class.  

Capturing Life Behind A Lense

Last fall, Little sis signed up for a Vikings Cheer Clinic with her friend.  She learned a bunch of cheers from some local cheerleaders and then cheered at six flag football games. What she learned from taking Cheer clinic is she definitely isn't interested in becoming a Viking cheer leader in the future, but she still had fun doing it with her friend.  Additionally, we signed her up for ballroom dance lessons, which is before or after school program. Twice a week she goes to school an hour early to learn several ballroom routines. She will be competing in a few weeks. I'm thrilled with her enthusiasm of learning something new and gaining some confidence. 

Our Ballroom Beauty!

 As for little bro's talents, I love how curious and eager he is about learning new things. I believe he has an engineer mind like his Grandpa Free and Uncle Joe! For example, he takes things apart and puts them back together again.  He also likes to see how things works (clips, snaps buckles, etc).  His other talents include looking at books, giving hugs, and melting our hearts with his smiles.  Also, he was very well behaved while getting his first haircut because I distracted him by reading Go Away Big Green Monster over and over again! 
 
Big Boy Haircut

Silly Selfies: Little Bro is Eighteen Months Old

Little bro is finally 18 months old. He is 20 pounds 2 oz (4%) and 32 inches long (33%). He continues to struggle with gaining weight even while calorie packing and g-tubing him several times a week.  To our surprise he still has to sit rear facing in his car seat.  As for feeding him lately, Sadly, he throws up a couple times a week from either burping, coughing, crying too much, feeling full, playing, laughing, or other unknown reasons. It's also frustrating that he refuses to eat sometimes. I think with all the throwing up he has developed another oral aversion. There are days when I just dread feeding him because of the daily battle of him either refusing to eat or drink or throws up. As you can imagine, his eating behaviors causes me a lot of grief. There are days when we both are in tears during meal time.  I've found that it calms us down when we listen to classical music or distract him with toys during meal time. Thankfully, he has a g-tube, which we have been relying on lately. I'm grateful for the support from is dietitian and feeding therapist. They are exploring all kinds of ways to help him such as having him tested him for celiac, which came back negative. Next, we are using some antibiotic medication to help him empty his stomach quicker. We will know in a few weeks if that medication will make a difference. As for other developmental milestones, he is delayed socially and not speaking yet.  Little brother has extreme separation anxiety from his family members and rarely will interact with anybody outside our intermediate family. I'm hopeful that when little bro attends nursery at church on a regular basis he will be able to develop some healthy social interactions.  Additionally, in January he will be doing a music playgroup at Kids on the Move. As far as communication goes, he started signing "more" and grunts while pointing at objects.  I am confident that he is understands us and is very intelligent. For example, he will retrieve an item when we ask him to get something for us and seems to understand us even though he cannot communicate to us. We will be following up with a genetics specialist in March to see if he can determine if Zach has any other syndromes. 

Scattering Service Jars

Service Lesson: Scattering Kindness Jars

A lesson on service is a perfect December achievement day activity.   For my lesson and discussion, I made an interactive visual aid. I taped a Christmas tree similar to an advent calendar using a brown paper bag, white card stock, scrapbook numbers 1-12, and hand written quotes inside.  I basically folded a rectangle into a square, used a glue stick to attach the circle numbers and quotes.  I got the Advent numbers from Pinterest: DIY Advent Calendar I also made a star and glued gold glitter on it. 

First, I had the girls take turns picking a number and reading the quote. Then I asked each of them how they could serve others? After they shared their idea, each girl helped me decorate a small Christmas tree with paper ornaments while my co-leader wrote down the ideas on the chalk board.  I got the Advent Christmas ornaments from Pinterest: Christmas Advent Wreath, which I used a needle and thread to hang them on the tree. These are the following quotes I used for my lesson:

Service Quotes:

1. “Our Savior gave Himself in unselfish service.   He taught that each of us should follow Him by denying ourselves of selfish interests in order to serve others.”  -- Dallin H. Oaks

2. “As we lose ourselves in the service of others, we discover our own lives and our own happiness.” --Dieter Uchtdorf

3. “The happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others.”-- Gordon B. Hinckley

4. “The greatest service we can provide to others in this life, beginning with those of our own family, is to bring them to Christ.” --Todd Christofferson

5. “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.” --King Benjamin Mosiah 2:17

6. If we could look into each other’s hearts and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, and care.” – Marvin J. Ashton

7. “As we give, we find that sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven, and in the end, we learn that it was no sacrifice at all.” -- Spencer W. Kimball

8. “He who gives money gives much. He who gives time gives more. He who gives of himself gives all.”  – Thomas S. Monson

9. “No one has ever become poor from giving” -- Maya Angelou

10. “Fill your life with service to others! As you lose your life in the service of Father in Heaven’s children, Satan’s temptations lose power in your life.”-- Richard G. Scott 

11. Find someone who is having a hard time or is lonely, and do something for him or her.” -- Thomas S. Monson

12. We can give the Savior gifts, by serving others. Fill a jar with slips of papers with ideas. Each morning, close your eyes and pull out your service idea for the day.” – Dieter Uchtdorf

Credits: Designed by me using Shabby Princess' Christmas kits. As for the fonts, I used That's Font Folks and 2 Pea's Heart Delight.

U LOVE WHO U SERVE

I summarized the lesson by sharing some of my favorite memories of serving others and reading the following quote: “Often small acts of service are all that is required to lift and bless another: a question concerning a person’s family, quick words of encouragement, a sincere compliment, a small note of thanks, a brief telephone call. If we are observant and aware, and if we act on the promptings which come to us, we can accomplish much good.” – Thomas S. Monson  (see above image that I made for this).  Afterwards the girls, decorated their jars with a label my co-leader made "U Love Who U Serve and wrote down several service ideas on folded pieces of hearts from pretty scrapbook card stock paper. We used markers to color them and tied ribbons on the top of the jar. Here are some service examples that the girls and leaders came up with.

Acts of Kindness Slips in a Jar 

Pick up trash

Give flowers

Help make dinner

Say “thank you”

Do an extra chore

Donate toys or clothes 

Write a letter and mail it

Hold the door open

Send a care package

Write to a missionary

Smile at 10 people

Bake cookies for a neighbor

Teach Family Home Evening

Call a relative

Make a card

Give a Hug

Make a new friend

Share a treat

Rake some leaves

Collect food for a shelter

Share your testimony

Read a book to a small child

Babysit for free

Feed the birds

Give a compliment

Send a card to a solider

Leave a surprise on the doorstep

Make a dinner basket

Visit a nursing home

Paint your Mom’s nails

Help an elderly neighbor

Donate hygiene kits to a shelter

Give a treat to your mail carrier

Pray for the sick

Make somebody’s bed

Write a note to your teacher

Make a fleece blanket for a new baby

Make breakfast for Mom and Dad

Clean the windows

Say ”I love you” to all your family members