bah-berries

We finally made it to the U-Pick strawberry field. Only took us a few months to get around to it! So excited for Emmett. Usually we go olallieberry picking, but thorns = me worrying the entire time. Solution, strawberries. And he loves his strawberries or bah-berries as we call them around here.

Pom Pom Slide

I have been trying to save, when I remember, empty papertowel/toilet paper rolls in order to make a ball slide for Emmett with the hopes of him better learning his colors in the process.

So I came up with this: cardboard tube slide using pom poms that empty into an oatmeal container. At first I was going to use those rubber bouncy balls but after more thought they seemed problematic - i.e. they bounce. But I had some pom poms on hand and decided that they would do the trick much better.

Here are the supplies I used (only thing not pictured is painter's tape and the large poms got stuck a lot, so stick with medium/small):

I set it up and The Bubb was super interested in what I was doing. (as a side note, Evan thinks that if Emmett and I get along in our weirdo personalities - which it looks like is going to happen - he is sorta afraid (read very amused) at what he is going to find us doing when he comes home from work.) The Bubb and I tested it out and he loved it!

We tried a couple of different positions and because he loved to see them fall, I would ask him to find an orange one, a blue one, a red one, etc. to put down the chute and he would have to properly identify in order to have 'more fun'.

This lasted for a bit but then his attention spam stopped and he started hoarding all of them in order to stuff them down. Silly boy.

So I gave up and just let him play. After a while he became more interested in pouring the pom poms from one bucket (his Easter basket) into the oatmeal can. And back and forth. And let me tell you, that if some spilled out, it was not okay! Which actually turned out great as I want him to be able to pour things properly!

We have also upgraded our toothpick/shaker activity to be pipecleaners and an empty oatmeal can with holes in the top. He loves this new development because the pipecleaners don't quite fit in the can, so when he opens it up they spring out at him and he thinks it is the best thing ever!

Union Jack Pillow

We love the Olympics around here. Very very much. And thank goodness we now have a Tivo like the rest of the world and can record (yes I still say 'tape' instead of record - I am working on it. Mostly due to my husband's sarcastic comments). I had great plans to make a large blanket for Emmett that said London 2012 and had london themed prints picked out. And it didn't work. Couldn't get a pattern that I liked. So I decided to make a pillow instead.

Using the Union Jack flag as inspiration I came up with this:

I guess it is really my first true quilt block. While I've made 'quilts' I haven't made blocks that require multiple pieces and then put together, aside from some simple rectangles. It is pretty satifsying seeing the finished results.

On the back I just used Pewter Metro Rings to match the front with an envelope closure. Easy. Simple.

Emmett likes it, which is good. Mostly to point out the buses and clocks. Silly boy.

And synchronized swimming is happening right now. So excited! Love how they walk out onto the deck, so funny! Although NBC likes to cut that part off, thank goodness that the BBC is doing live streaming without any editing. And I am loving the underwater cam they use so that we see what they're doing at the same time as seeing what is going on on top of the water. But I digress.