Teacher Gifts

Well it is that time of year again when all the children are out of school for the summer.  It seems like it flies by faster and faster each year.  Throughout the year I always try to give my girl's teachers little gifts for the 1st day of school, Christmas, Valentines, Birthdays, and the last day of school.  This year I thought instead of giving the teacher a gift for herself, I wanted to give her a gift for her classroom.  As we all know teachers pay for the majority of classroom materials out of their own pocket.  I decided to give each teacher a set of books for their own personal classroom libraries. 

The first set is for Celeste's teacher.  I picked out two Little Golden Books about God and barnyard animals.  I also chose two Berenstain Bears books about strangers and manners. 

For Delilah's teacher I chose three I Can Read books which included Amelia Bedelia, which was my favorite when I was a child, Biscuit Meets the Class Pet, and Fancy Nancy.  I also picked out  The Lost Dinosaur Bones by Mercer Mayer.   I really hope that the children in the classroom enjoy these books in the years to come!

Wordless Wednesday

Mother's Day

Today has been such a wonderful Mother's Day so far.  I need to be quick with this post because we are spending the rest of the day out in the bay on our boat.  It is so beautiful outside here in south Texas, and the outdoors are calling our names!  My girls have been wishing me a Happy Mother's Day all week.  I think because they have been working on Mother's Day gifts in school. My favorite surprises to get from my girls are the special things they make for me.  My girls gave me my Mother's Day gifts on Friday, and I have to say I was sooo surprised at what they made me this year.  When I picked Celeste up from Preschool I found these goodies and treasures waiting for me.

Celeste decorated all by herself this beautiful cake.  She picked out the roses and different colors on the cake.  She also made me a jewelry box and a card.  I was so excited when she gave it to me.  When I picked up Delilah from school she also gave me a wrapped up gift she made.  She told me I couldn't open it until today, but about 2 minutes later she couldn't stand it anymore, and wanted me to open it.

Lilah wrote a story for me, and made a picture frame with her picture in it.  I already hung it on my refrigerator.  This morning we finished up our Mother's Day gifts in children's church.  We traced the children's hands and glued them to popsicle sticks, and put them in painted flower pots.  I also made gerber daisy pins for the children's mothers and we pinned them to a piece of felt on a stick and placed it in between the children's hands in the flower pot.  It turned out so cute, but my flower pot got left at the church.  I will have to post a picture of it next week. 

I feel so blessed this morning to be a Mama to these three beautiful girls!  I also feel blessed to have such a loving Mother who has been absolutely wonderful to me my entire life!

I love you Mom!

and

Happy Mother's Day!

Girly Names

Today is Show Us Your Life over at Kelly's Korner. 

 Children's names are today, and I thought I would participate this Friday because I named all my daughters after one of their grandmothers, and I would love to share.

Our first born:

Delilah Faith

We knew that our first daughter would be named Delilah before she was even born.  My husband's mother had 4 boys, my husband being the baby.  She always wanted a little girl, and she was going to name her Delilah.  Her name is Delia.  She passed away when my husband was only 10 years old, so we wanted to name our daughter after her. As for her middle name, I have just always liked the name Faith.  We mostly call her Lilah or Lilah Faith. 

Our second daughter:

Celeste Cynthia

My sweet sweet Celeste.  She didn't have a name until she was 2 days old, and I had to sign the birth certificate.  We knew she was going to have the middle name Cynthia because that is my mother's name, but I had no idea for a first name.  We went back and forth between two different names, Mackenzie or Hazel.  We each loved one or the other, but couldn't decide.  Someone mentioned the name Celeste.  My mother then reminded me that my Grandmother always wanted one of her granddaughters to have the name Celeste. My Grandmother loved that name so much, and I knew it would be perfect for my daughter.  She passed away before Celeste was born, but I know one day she will finally meet her. 

Our baby girl:

Trinity Aurelia

I have always loved the name Trinity, and with her being baby girl #3 it just fit.  We knew she was going to be Trinity before she was born.  Aurelia is her middle name, and that is my grandmother's name.  It was so easy to name her, and it just fits her perfect!  Although her name is Trinity, she says it's not!  Her nickname is Nene, so when you ask her what her name is she says, "Nene".  If you ask her if her name is Trinity she always says, "NO"! 

Hopefully one day I the Lord will bless us with a baby boy or maybe 2!  If and when we have a boy we will not name him a JR, but rather use my husband's first name for a middle name.  As of now, I don't have any favorite boy names, but I'm sure I will when the time comes!

Spring Wreath

I went to Hobby Lobby last week to finished picking up the rest of the items I needed to finish some Mother's Day projects for the children at church.  In the floral section they had beautiful spring wreaths lined up on a wall.  The colors of the flowers and arrangement of them were just so beautiful.  I thought that one wreath would look so pretty on my front door at home, so I reached for the price tag to check how much it was.  I about fell over at how much they were selling them for.  I couldn't believe it.  I thought , "Hey I can make one".  Fortunately the wreaths were 1/2 off, so I picked up this one and paid $2.50 for it.

The flowers were not on sale last week when I was there, so I waited until this week and bought these...

I just loved all the different colors of these flowers.  The best part was they were all 1/2 off!  I also bought a few small feathers to put in at the wreath.  I am not a big fan of feathers, but I loved the ones I picked out because they were small and so pretty.  I first started off by hanging my wreath on a door in my house so I could start placing the flowers where I wanted them.

When I finally finished placing all the flowers where I wanted them I turned the wreath around and tied the flowers in place with wire.  I then placed the feathers in between the flowers in just a few places. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE birds.  Someone gave me two yellow glass birds about a year ago.  They used to belong to my grandmother, and she kept them in her curio, and growing up I loved looking at them.  They were sitting on my window seal above my kitchen sink, but they kept falling in the sink when I would clean the window, or when the girls would climb up on the counter.  I didn't want to put the birds away, so I thought they needed a home in a nest in my new wreath.  So I made this...

I placed the birds  in the nest, and put them in the middle of the wreath.  I tied a bow on top of the wreath with the same raffia I used to make the bird nest.

                                                  

This is what it looks like on my front door...

                                                 

I just love how my wreath turned out, and it was a fraction of the price of the pre-made wreaths.  I think one just like it would make a great Mother's Day gift for my mom!

A Dress For Trinity

Well, I made my first dress for my little girl!

I picked out what I thought was a simple pattern for a pillowcase dress, but it actually took longer and was more detailed than I thought. 

I have a great teacher who helped me put it together, and taught me some things I didn't know about sewing including making my own bias tape to match the dress.

I am going to make the same dress for Celeste, using the stripe fabricfor the main part of the dress, and the flower fabric for the trim pieces.

I have a super cute pattern for a skirt that I am going to make for Delilah.

The skirt is made up of 5 different fabrics, so I am going to use the two fabricsthat are in Trinity and Celeste's dress and add some to match.I will be sure to post a picture when I am finished!