A Little Monkey for A Little Monkey!.....and Catch Up!

Happy 4th Birthday Owen!!

My grandson Owen is so cute and expressive in his facial gestures.

Mallory picked out a crocheted monkey for me to make for his birthday.

 

I haven't posted for awhile so you won't know this,

I don't really believe in New Years Resolutions,

but I went on and made one this year.

I would make and have them done on time,

homemade gifts for each of my 14 grandkids birthdays this year.

 

I've got 4 down and 10 more to go for the year. 

 

 

Here's what I made for Owen

A Monkey for A Little Monkey!

I bought the pattern on Etsy from Luvly-Gurumi's shop.

The pattern was easy to make and great instructions. 

 



 

I also made Owen a little car case.

I updated this version with 2 roads.

I learned a few things from making the first one and so this one was a little easier to make.

 

 

and now here's Owen 

 Happy Birthday Owen!

 

 

 

....and Catch Up!

 

In January we had 3 grandkids with birthdays.

The second set of  twins, Leigha and Liam turned 5.

I had fun with Liam's toy.  Making it and playing with it in the process.

 

So first is Leigha's cupcakes.  I crocheted her a set of 6 yummy cupcakes.

I just went with the flow and designed my own cupcakes.

I think they turned out pretty darn cute! 

 

 

and a cupcake purse for Leigha's goodies. 

 

 

and the Birthday girl. 

 

 

 

and now for Liam's alligator. 

 

My grandma had made my older kids some animals when they were little

and I found the pamphlet on Etsy.  It is an Aunt Lydia's pamphlet.

The alligator is pretty much completely made of granny squares

....which I altered a little bit to my liking.

 

 

and here's Liam with his brother Austin playing with his alligator.

Hee!  Hee! 

 

 

 

Next we had Chad, Jr.s birthday.

Chad also turned 6 this year.

I made Chad a Minion and a little evil minion. 

 

I bought the pattern from Aradiya Toys on Etsy.

The evil minion I used part of her pattern and my own thing for part of it.

 

 

and here's Chad, Jr.

 

Enjoy Chad!!

 

 

Finally, I can't leave out my Jace who also had a birthday in January.

Jace turned 9 and he is a Pokémon Trainer now.

So I crocheted him so Pokémon Balls by just playing around

and looking at pictures of the balls online. 

and Jace opening a gift. 



 

 

I hope all the grandkids enjoy their gifts from Nana

and Jace from his Mama.



The Crochet Bucket and the Other Things I Made for a Friends Easter Basket

I crocheted this cute Minnie purse and lined it with fabric . 

It also has a button closure on the back.

 

I also crocheted these cute cupcakes for playtime fun.

 



Next I made this Travel Car Case.

I had never sewn on vinyl before and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

Tissue Paper, Tissue Paper, Tissue Paper is a most on sewing on vinyl!

I machine quilted 2 pieces of flannel to the front and 2 onto the back so the mat is nice and thick to play cars on. (6 layers of fabric altogether)

I also added little garage door holders so the cars won't keep sliding out on their own.

I just used some little strips of fabric and Velcro.

Finally I added a piece of black ribbon for the road and a strap for closing the garage.

A machine quilted basketball bookmark for the reader.

 



I crocheted this Goosey Goose for the baby of the family.

 



 

Next I made this neat Card Holder for a boy that has several decks of cards.

I decided to use vinyl so he could see which decks are stored in each pocket.

The traffic sign fabric goes with his bedroom and again I machine quilted the fabric so it would be a little sturdier to hold the cards.

I just drew around a hanger for the shape and then added the length I wanted.

I just added some binding around the edges and I think it made a cute hanging holder.

 



 

 

 

and now for the entire Easter surprise for my friends kids.

 

 

I'm glad I got to help make the kids Easter fun!

The best part is that everything is machine washable,

even the bucket! 



Yay! We Have Our Own Little Playground Now!!

Over the weekend the daycare next door was selling some of their old equipment so they could buy some new equipment. So for $50.00 we got this stuff for the kids.

The kids got a play house, rocket ship and a spin toy.

We got this one for the older kids. It has the monkey bars and slide.

It's so nice to have some toys for our kids to play on. During the day when I'm babysitting our kids watch the daycare kids play on their equipment while they just had little riding toys to play on. In the evenings Jace can play on the daycare equipment, but it's hard for the kids during the day when we're not allowed over there. Now everyone can play and hopefully be happy!!

I've Been Really Busy, but I'm Back Now!

Kids Summer Swap

The kids and I participated in the Kids Summer Swap hosted by Lori . All three of the little kids signed up for it. Ezie's swap partner was Miranda. Miranda and her mom Deb sent Ezie some really cool toys! He got a Barrel of Monkeys Game, a Zoom O, a bubble wand and an Old Navy Football. He LOVES everything!! He took off with everything so fast I didn't get pictures so I had to "borrow" them from the Internet.





Mallory and Jace swapped with Beth's daughters, Lucy and Lola. This is part of Jace's package that Lola sent. He took off with stuff so fast I didn't get a picture of everything. There is a bug catcher, coloring books, 4 little Golden Books, trucks, foam visor, some super cool fabric memory cards with a little bag to hold them. Jace also got the coolest crayon holder and Hot Wheels Car Holder. Oh, and sidewalk.

Memory Cards

Crayon Holders and Hot Wheels Holder

The holders rolled up. So cool!!

Mallory's Stuff

Lucy sent Mallory some fabric so she can sew something, a couple packages of foamies, ladybug cards, stickers, coloring book, a puzzle mania book, a teddy bear magnet, sidewalk chalk, a pretty necklace with sea glass in it, some seashells "that came from the real ocean!", a crayon holder like Jace's (she has taken it to summer school everyday this week) and the nicest apron and I'm sure I've some stuff. Mallory was so thrilled with everything, but especially the sea shells and apron. She made muffins already so she could wear the apron.

I'm sure I forgot to mention some of the stuff. Sorry, but the kids were so excited I could hardly keep track of everything. It was like Christmas at our house!! My kids had a great time picking stuff out for the swap partners. I'll show pictures of what we sent tomorrow.

Thank You so much Lori for hosting this fun swap! Thank you Deb, Miranda, Beth, Lucy and Lola for being so generous and making this a wonderful swap for the kids!!

It's May Day and I Have a Play Date--Check Out My Toys

Go to Scrappy Jessi's Blog and see the list of all the Bloggers who are playing show-n-tell with their Favorite Childhood Toys. Check them out and see what kind of memories they bring back!My most memorable childhood toys are the Pebbles Doll I got when I was 3. My Papa made her a bed out of a whiskey barrel and then my Mom lined the inside of it with a Tiger print fabric. My brother and his wife redid the Pebbles bed and sent it to my daughter a couple of years ago. I also really remember playing with these plastic wigs and wearing high heals when I was about 3. Then of course I had my Barbie's and Skippers. Coloring and paper dolls were always a favorite, especially when we went to visit my grandparents. Speaking of crayons, who doesn't love the smell of a brand new box of crayons? I love that smell! My Nana had an Etch-a-Sketch that we would play with at her house along with I Spy. We would hide a thimble and look for it. My Papa would buy us Mexican Jumping Beans on occasion and I remember thinking they were so neat! I did a lot of jump roping at home and at school and we would play hopscotch too along with freeze tag, t.v. tag, hide-n-seek and other outside games like that.

I had a green banana seat bike until I got to be a little older and then I got a 10 speed. I used to ride my bike all the time by myself and with my friends. My parents also bought a tandem bike that my older brother and I used to ride quite a bit. I played baseball and kickball with my brothers and kickball was the school's favorite game for us to play, on the gravel playground. Ouch!! The nurses office was always full of people with skinned knee's. My mom and grandmothers taught me to embroidery, sew and crochet which I loved to do, especially when we didn't have a t.v. . We all got quite crafty during this couple of years. We played some Chinese Jump Rope and those hand clapping games to silly little songs. My Grandma made Clackers for us. She had the stuff to make Clackers and those grapes that people sat on there coffee tables and other stuff like that. I liked Silly Putty and Spirograph's, until it would slip when you were almost done with the most prettiest perfect design, and then oops! slippage!
My brothers and our friends used to play Crazy Eight, Go Fish, Monopoly and Life. We used to put on little plays in our basement and play church in the living room. I would put a towel on my head and pretend to be a nun and then we had this piece of white glassware that looked like a Chalice (It was from Avon) and we put crackers in it and pretend to be passing out Holy Communion. When I got to be 12 or so I loved Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy. I had their posters and records that I would listen to. I read a lot as a kid too. I would sneak my little reading light on and stay up late reading. Why else did they give me the reading light, right??

Thanks Scrappy Jessi for bringing back some wonderful childhood memories! It's fun to go back and remember things like that. I wish my siblings lived closed by me so we could get together and talk about the "good old days" like we used too!