Wordless Wednesday: Soccer Saturdays

I have been slacking on posts- or rather publishing posts. I have 8 posts waiting for pictures! It's hard when you're the photographer in the family and no one wants to photograph you. :)
This is what we have been doing with our Saturdays for the last 2 weekends:

(Tate #4)

Mayer is a BEAST! He loves it; but is super serious and all business on the field. He scores, blocks and has even had a few assists (that may or may not have been accidental).

Tate loves it too; however, face is exactly the opposite! The joy he has while playing is obvious and has been since the first time he ever played. He may not look like a serious competitor, but don't let that smile fool you!

I never expected to be a soccer mom, but I really enjoy our Saturday mornings (with the exception of the chilly Kansas weather)! :)

Because Size 2T Slim Pants Don't Exist

One thing I miss about cloth diapers is that they held my skinny boys' pants up! Mayer needs pants with a 12-18 month waist, but 24-36 month length. He has an 18 gallon tote over flowing with size 18-24 month/ 2T hand-me-down pants... just pants! Since size 2T pants fall off and I got rid of most of the size 12 month pants, I had to add length to the 18-24 month sizes.They are still a little big around the waist, but I'm not about to go out and buy more clothes when he has so many!

I had seen a pin on Pinterest to add a contrasting panel to kids' jeans to lengthen them. I thought it was a good idea and liked the look, so pinned it to help me remember. I forgot about it until it started getting cooler outside. (In case you can't see the time-lapse between pictures, I intended to write this a long time ago!) Fortunately, it worked like a charm (except for once when I tried to get fancy with a zig-zag at the bottom). This pair even got an extra pocket.

They still look a little short with his boots, but work well with his tennis shoes and crocs. It has even worked with some of his sweatpants. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any jeans that fit him that don't added the panel. I also don't have enough khaki scraps or figured out a way to lengthen a nicer pair of pants. Thankfully, he doesn't have to dress up much.

 

I need to do this to two pairs of my own sweatpants that are too short to be pants and too long to be capris. While Tate struggles with the same problem, but I hesitate to add length to them since Mayer, my little shorty, will be inheriting them next. (I will probably be adding lengthening panels to these same jeans for several years for Mayer!)
Tate's pants have a different problem, the classic boy problem- holey knees! While he is lucky enough to receive hand-me-downs from his cousins, most of the jeans need repaired. He wears the holey pairs daily and we save the non-holey for special occasions, so they don't end up in the same shape. His favorite pair:

A Hoodie For My Jayhawk Big

Last year my sister gave me a hooded sweatshirt. I refashioned it into a skirt for myself and a pair of pants for Mayer (post). Since I'm a hoarder, I kept the hood just in case I needed it. I have quite a bit of fleece and microfleece fabric leftover from the Christmas and birthday pajama pants I made. Tate is hot-blooded and is usually okay in the winter with a hoodie and a down vest. But I feel like a bad mom and I wanted to make him something a little warmer. I decided to use up some of the fleece scraps to make him a fleece jacket. It also provided the perfect opportunity to use the hood!
Inspiration:

When I took it home for him to try on to measure the sleeve length, I wish I would have had my camera ready! His face lit up and he was so excited to have a new jacket. Reactions like that make the hard work of something handmade worth the while. (I used one of his t-shirts for the pattern, which is why I needed to measure the length of the sleeves.)

Finished product:

The body of the sweatshirt is fleece and the sleeves and trim pieces are microfleece. The hood is a little big, but it works, especially since he usually wears a stocking cap too. By the way, he's practicing his blocking out skills for the picture... although this move would probably be considered a flagrant foul. We'll have to work on that if he wants to play as for KU. He's always been tall for his age, so maybe he'll end up 7 ft tall like two of his favorite Jayhawk bigs: Jeff Withey and Joel Embiid. Hey, a mama can dream BIG for her babies, can she?! Rock Chalk Jayhawk! :)

Wordless Wednesday: Books In Bed

We have a strict "no toys in bed" rule. They have their "babies" (stuffed animals), but I just can't say no to my boys reading in bed! Probably because I was guilty of reading after bedtime when I was growing up.

 

Wordless Wednesday: Basketball and Birthday

 

Both boys are playing basketball this year, so Saturdays are busy, but so much fun! Mayer spends most of his time chasing the ball. Tate is starting to get things figured out- dribbling, shooting, rebounding, stealing.

 On Sunday, Mayer turned 3! He had an elephant themed party. My sister-in-law made his cake.

I can't believe he's so big old! He finally got a big boy bed and is so proud of it. He even invited everyone to sleep with him. "We can fit! It's BIG!!"

Wordless Wednesday: Sadly Mistaken

I have always argued that Mayer looks like me when I was a little girl (reference here and here). He has seen pictures and thought they were of him.

I hate to admit that I was wrong, but I may have been. When we were looking at old family pictures last weekend, I noticed that Mayer looks an awful lot like my brother-in-law as a toddler. I also noticed that Tate makes some of the same faces as Michael and they look a like too.

Can I be half right?! :)

Wordless Wednesday: Opening Weekend

Fall colors in Western Kansas

Pheasant hunting
 

The drought has hurt the pheasant population. We didn't see a single pheasant! At least the scenery was beautiful and a good time was spent with family and friends. 

"It's not the hunt. It's the hunt."

Wordless Wednesday: Big and Small

I had a totally different post in mind for today, but I changed my mind after Mayer got dressed. He's used to wearing hand-me-downs. So far he thinks it's cool to wear clothes that his older cousins and Tate wore. Every so often, when he wears something I am reminded how small Mayer is and how big Tate was/ is for their ages.

It's hard to tell the differences in their sizes by the pictures, especially since Tate is sitting in both of them.

Wordless Wednesday: Joy in the Game

Tate is playing soccer again this fall. While most of the time he still runs around and just smiles, he is getting more aggressive in the game. You can see it is pure joy when he is out there!

The won their first game. Tate blocked a goal and almost scored. He also has a little crush on the girl in the picture- even more reason to smile!

(* The photo on the top right came from the YMCA Facebook page.)

Wordless Wednesday: Mayer's 1st Day of School

 

This morning was Mayer's first day of school. He has been SO excited! He couldn't stop dancing and singing, "I going to school! I going to school!"

   
He let me take one good one outside the school. 

Mayer was too busy staring at a little girl in his class to get a picture with his teacher, Miss Bonnie! My boys are so different! It was much easier to leave him than it was on Tate's first day of preschool. Tate cried and cried; all I got from Mayer was a distracted, "Bye, Mom!"

Since Tate has an August birthday, he's considered kindergarten ready. I wasn't comfortable sending him yet for a number of reasons. Kindergarten is all day here and 3-4 days/ week he still takes an afternoon nap. Long-term-- he'd be starting high school at 13! The best pre-k options are too expensive for us, yet I didn't want him going back to preschool because academically he would be bored.
After much deliberation, we decided to home school him for a year. Even after a week of school, he's still pretty excited. My mom and I are working on pre-reading, writing, numbers and his favorite, art. He is going to take science classes through the local rec commission and play sports through the Y and/ or the rec to help socially.

Wizard of Oz Birthday Party

Being from Kansas, you can hardly escape the Wizard of Oz. When one of our customer's brought in his food van for my dad to work on, my boys became interested in all things Oz. It's no wonder they were curious because the paint job on this is seriously AMAZING- the ruby slippers are even glittery!!

One rainy afternoon I let them watch the Muchkinland sequence.They were mesmerized and the obsession began. Mayer started carrying around a Wizard of Oz book, which he even insisted on sleeping with! They love listening to the soundtrack, especially "If I Only Had A Heart" and "The Lollipop Guild."

Tate decided he wanted a Wizard of Oz birthday party. I started looking for ideas, but everything I found was for girls and centered around Dorothy and the ruby slippers. I wanted a more gender neutral theme. It was a family party, I also knew it had to appeal to multiple ages because the kids ranged in age from 2-9. I centered the games around Dorothy's three friends- Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion, and the Munchkins.
Since I didn't invitations made until the Monday before the party, they got sent via text to family members. (They had all been notified of the date ahead of time.)

 

The first game, "Pin The Heart On The Tinman," was the only idea I borrowed (though I can't remember where I saw it). I found a picture of the Tinman and enlarged it 200%. I cut out a bunch of hearts and had each participant write their name on it. Even some grown ups played!

The next game was, "Brain Game: Stuff A Scarecrow." I split the kids into 2 teams. We needed one more to make them even, so my dad volunteered. To find their supplies, they had to answer a riddle.
"The Wicked Witch of the West's Flying Monkeys have taken apart the Scarecrow! To put him back together again you need to find him."
Team #1's clue: "The Scarecrow hangs out in a cornfield. Look near where you'd find the Collins' crop yield." (Answer: The garden)
Team #2's clue: "The Scarecrow is afraid of fire. Look near where you'd find something to make your bonfire higher." (Answer: The Woodpile)

Team #2 had trouble opening the garden gate but still managed to win. I also gave them the harder clue because they had the oldest team member, though I don't think he helped them too much.
Team #1 had some trouble figuring out how to get the newspaper apart  to use as stuffing. I told them to pull it apart and crumple it up. They took me literally and started tearing the newspaper apart into small pieces. The grown ups sitting on the porch tried offering suggestions, but they still had trouble.
The third game I came up with was the "Cowardly Lion Courage Training." I set up an obstacle course in the backyard. I should have done it as stations as a group instead of sending the kids in waves. It became mass chaos and I couldn't get any good pictures! Even with adults directing them to the next station, it was still confusing. Lesson learned! Here's what they did:
#1- Spin around 3 times like a cyclone and say, "oh!" when finished
#2- Stand in the hula hoop, sing and dance like a Lollipop Guild Munchkin
#3- Slide down the Yellow Slide into a pool of corn
#4- Apple Toss
#5- Roar like the Lion
#6- Crawl under the Flying Monkeys
#7- Throw a water balloon at the Wicked Witch
#8- Steal her broom and ride it to the Wizard
#9- Run "home,"  click your heels 3 times and repeat, "There's No Place Like Home!"

I loved how the Flying Monkey turned out!

 

None of us got a picture of the slide and corn pool. :( You can sort of see it in the background of the monkey pictures. The kids really liked sliding into it. We borrowed a 50 lb bag of corn from my brother and sister-in-law's chickens, though I don't think they got all 50 lbs back and thankfully no one was allergic to corn! When they completed the course, they got a "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" mini cupcake. (If you know what all of the 9 stations signify, then you are a true Wizard of Oz fan and you should celebrate with your own Ding Dong!)
I didn't do very well on other decorations. I made a playlist from the Wizard of Oz soundtrack and it was playing on repeat in the background. We had the Wicked Witch of the East's legs sticking out from under the house.

My brother helped Tate draw the Yellow Brick Road to the driveway. (One niece wore her sweatband and the other wore her cleats because they knew there would be an obstacle course!)

And that was it on decorations. I forgot about the cake and gift tables because I was so concerned with the games! We had a rainbow cake.  The idea came from here. Of course didn't turn out as we planned- cakes have been a problem for me for the last 5 years- but it tasted good, which is all that really matters anyway.

We also had Melted Witch Punch:

It was SUPER sweet! The recipe I found called for Kool-aid, ginger ale, white grape juice, sugar and lime sherbert. I left out the grape juice and should have omitted the sugar too!
Happy 5th birthday, Tate!! I hope you had an Over the Rainbow good time!

Wordless Wednesday: Mud

We have been getting much needed rain in Kansas!

 Tate had a blast playing in the mud at Mamaw's and Papaw's house last weekend. Papaw made a sign to prevent anyone from parking in the giant mud hole and sinking.

Mayer was less interested. He had fun until he got mud under his toenail-- after that, he did not want any part of the mud hole. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Biker

On Friday evening, Tate decided he wanted to ride his bike without training wheels. So Michael took them off and here's his first attempt:

The only problem he had was getting started. I remember it being a LOT harder for me to learn to ride without training wheels!

Wordless Wednesday: First and Last Days

Today is Tate's last day of school at Early Ed.

This year "Tater-tot" (her nickname for him) really blossomed with Miss Shanna as his teacher! I wish we had an end of school picture with her too, but circumstances prevented it. Last Friday, Tate had to miss his school recognition for Great Grandpa's funeral. :( Then Miss Shanna had her baby on Sunday, two weeks early! :)
Our family is really going to miss her! She is going to stay home with her boys. Poor Mayer won't get to have her as a teacher.

Cloth Trainers #5

Unfortunately for Tate, I think he inherited my family's bed-wetting gene. I know it is common for kids to wet the bed until age 5, but he has always been a heavy wetter and nighttime is the worst. We have always struggled to find nighttime cloth solutions for him. Now he is a big 4 1/2 year old and he doesn't want to wear cloth diapers (not that we have any that fit). 
It has been months since Tate has had a dry morning, so regular underwear isn't an option. In our experience, most commercial cloth trainers we have tried aren't absorbent or large enough to accommodate extra absorbency. The key word is "trainer" and we need a super absorbent pull-up. I'm sure there are others that struggle with this, so I thought I would share what finally found that works for us... most of the time.

All of the free patterns I found online were for smaller kids (size 2-3T). I tried drafting my own, but I couldn't ever get the dimensions just right. I made one for Mayer using my own pattern and the fit was weird, so I abandoned the idea of using it to make Tate one. I really like this pattern, but I needed to modify it to make it work.

The pattern piece on top is the original size, a 3T. I printed the pattern, then used my printer to enlarge it to the size I wanted. I think I enlarged it 110% to get approximately a size 5T/ child's small.
To get enough absorbency for Tate, we have to add a toddler prefold inside the pull-up. I added 1" to the rise of the pattern to accommodate the extra length and bulk.

I never followed the tutorial, I just used the pattern. I have made three different versions. All are made from t-shirt scraps, Babyville Boutique PUL and a bamboo 2 layer soaker in the front. The pattern/ tutorial says to put the absorbent layer in the middle, but since I have boys, I decided to put it in front.

 

The first version is made from two layers t-shirt scraps and Babyville Boutique PUL with two layers of bamboo in front. The pull up on the left has FOE (Fold over elastic) on top, but the one on the right just has a knit waistband. Since the side panels are just 2 layers of t-shirt material, they will leak if you have a heavy wetter. When Mayer does potty at night, it isn't enough to get the sides wet. We usually stick a hemp or cotton insert in to help with absorbency. Tate is a heavy wetter and even stuffed with a toddler prefold, he still has to wear his under fleece pants or shorties or the bed gets wet.

This pair is my favorite because he can wear this pair without an extra fleece cover. I made it the same as the other pair, except I covered the side panels with microfleece scraps I had. It is super stretchy and goes on easy.

This pair was requested by Tate. He wanted a solid orange pair. I covered the side panels with the same Babyville Boutique PUL as I use in the center. Since the PUL doesn't stretch as much as the microfleece, it is a little harder to pull this version up.

Baby Leg Warmers Upcycle

Tate is playing soccer again this year... OK, he's really just running around the soccer field with a huge grin on his face.

Last spring, we struggled to find a pair of toddler sized shin guards. We ended up with a pair that fits me and I have big feet (women's size 10)! I wasn't sure how to make them fit, so I just left them. This year, I came up with a better plan- to make my own.

Baby leg warmers conversion:
We had a pair of Dittany Baby Skid Pants (now Little Big Fan leg warmers) that lost their elasticity around the top and bottom. I tried to fix them using the same method used to shirr clothing. It didn't work, but I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of them. (I know, I know, I'm a hoarder!) I measured the panel on the inside of the original socks and made a pattern. I used t-shirt scraps to make my own panel. I attached it on the inside of the leg warmer using the stretch stich.

 

They work great and Tate loves them. He liked them so much the night I brought them home, he woke up in the middle of the night and asked me to put them on his bedside table! :)