DIY Place Mats

This is a super easy sewing project that is good practice for a beginning seamstress. By using fabric you already own, clearance fabric, or fabric from a thrift store piece (even something like a high quality sheet or curtain could be re-purposed) you can dress up your table for pennies. A nice set of place mats could make a lovely gift.

Homemade Place Mats

• Fabric
• Coordinating thread

1. Cut two pieces of fabric into a 13" by 18" rectangle, or use a place mat you already have that you like the size as a pattern, cutting an extra 1/2 inch around the whole piece for a seam allowance.
2. Place right sides of the fabric together. Pin to secure edges.
3. Using 1/2 inch seam allowance, sew almost all the whole way around the rectangle, leaving a few inch gap open for turning.
4. Turn right side out. Pin open edge shut.
5. Top-stitch gap shut and around the entire place mat to prevent the place mat from bunching or pulling.

Family Fridays: Preparing for Grandparents to Visit

It's less than one month until Grandma and Grandpa come to visit from America. We're all excited and starting to get ready for the visit. Andrew is excitedly practicing saying, "Hi Papa, hi a-Gramma-gram." And Aaron is already helping sprinkling on the cinnamon and sugar for the cinnamon rolls to go in the freezer. Can't wait to see you all.

We love all our family bunches! Thanks for keeping up with us.

DIY Scrap Garland

This is a great way to use up a ton of tiny scraps of fabric. If you do a lot of seasonal sewing, you might be able to make a garland for each season or holiday if you wanted to. This project is so easy; the only skill required is knot tying. My husband helped with this garland a little bit and Aaron, our three-year-old, really wanted to help. He tried to tie knots for a while, so it was good practice at least. An older child could easily do this project all by themselves.

Homemade Scrap Garland

• Fabric scraps cut into short strips (I think 1" by about 5" or 6" works best)
• A piece of rope, string, or fabric cut longer than you want your finished garland to be (I used a clean old pair of tights cut into a long strip, over 12 feet long, for this garland)
• Optional embelishments

Tie the rope or long fabric strip to two chairs or two hooks on the wall to make it easy to tie on the shorter pieces. Begin tying the shorter strips in a single or double knot along the length of the rope. I didn't use any particular pattern, but I did try to space out the colors and patterns fairly evenly along the length of the garland. Continue to fill in the short pieces until you feel like the garland looks full enough. Trim the ends of the rope if necessary and tie in a loop or knot to keep the shorter pieces from slipping off of the ends. Tie on any other embellishments you like (ornaments, ribbons, old spools, etc.). Hang up, or use as you would any garland.

DIY Potato Pancakes

This is a easy, hearty side dish to accompany anything from eggs to pork chops to meatloaf. You could even top with a little sour cream and cheese, and call it a light dinner all by itself. Just like with homemade hash browns, pre-baking the potatoes makes them cook up really fast.

Homemade Potato Pancake Recipe

• 4-6 baked potatoes grated
• 2 or more cloves of garlic chopped
• 1/4 or more of an onion chopped
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup flour
• 1/4 milk or water
• 2 Tbsp oil (plus oil for frying)

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Heat a small amount of oil in a non-stick or cast iron skillet.
3. When the skillet is hot, scoop about 2/3 cup potato batter into pan, and press to flatten about 1/2 inch thick.
4. Fry until bottom is golden brown, flip over, and fry until other side is golden brown.

These are great with homemade ranch, ketchup, or barbecue sauce!

Train Themed Preschool Craft: Shape Train

Similar to our shape dinosaurs, we made shape trains for our train unit last month. I used a Walmart ad instead of construction paper, to save paper. This time I also let Aaron cut out some of his own shapes free form with preschool scissors. He did surprisingly well, and it was additional fine motor skill practice.

Train Themed Preschool (or Tot School) Craft: Shape Train

• Paper or coloring sheets 
• Shapes cut out of construction paper (or already colored on paper or ads)
• Glue sticks or glue (homemade glue works great!)
• Preschool scissors for an older child to cut (optional)

You can choose how much freedom or direction your child has with this activity. A coloring page and shapes to match is the most directed way; whereas blank paper and a vast choice of shapes (or even letting them cut their own) is much more opened ended. Both have benefits. Whatever method of doing this activity, the goal is to help the child recognize the shapes and colors they see and how they fit together to form pictures.

You can do this shape craft with just about any theme. You can see more details of shape crafts and more ways to do them in this post about our Shape-a-saurus crafts.

Mandarin Mondays: 地理

Because of China's National Day (guó qìng jié, 国庆节), we're studying about China this month. Each Monday I'll be sharing a few of the facts we've learned about this fascinating country. This week we're learning facts about China's geography (dì lǐ, 地理). Since China is so big (hěn dà, 很大), it is not surprising that it had very diverse landscapes and climates.

This vast country has almost every kind of terrain there is. Forests (sēnlín, 森林), coastline (hǎi'ànxiàn, 海岸线), deserts (shāmò, 沙漠), mountains (shān, 山), and even subtropical rainforests (yàrèdài yǔlín, 亚热带雨林) can all be found in different parts of China. From the cold north up by Harbin to the warm island weather of Hainan, China has just about every climate also.

China also has some of the world's highest mountains and longest rivers as well. The world’s highest mountain, Mt. Everest (Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng, 珠穆朗玛峰), at 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) is on the China-Nepal border, and second-highest point is 28,251 feet high (8,611 meters) and is on the China-Pakistan border. The Yangtze River (Chángjiāng, 长江) is the third longest river in the world, and the Yellow River (Huánghé, 黄河) is the sixth longest in the world

DIY Hearty Pancakes

We love pancakes around here and will often eat them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (just not all in the same day). This recipe is heartier than most and keeps us full longer. It is great with homemade butter and homemade pancake syrup.

Hearty Whole Grain Pancakes

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 2 Tbsp suger
• 1 tsp baking powder

1. Mix all ingredients well in a large mixing bowl.
2. On a hot greased skillet, griddle, or wok, pour 1/2 cup batter, and cook until the underside is gloden brown.
3. Flip over, and cook the other side until golden brown.

Andrew especially loves these cake-cakes!

Family Fridays: Playplace Fun

Today, a friend of ours needed help babysitting a little girl named Zoe. Our friend was unexpectedly asked to babysit and needed some help because she had to go to work. Our friend felt really bad asking for help although it was no big deal to us. However, I think we may have ended up getting the better deal because our friend insisted on treating all three kids to a playplace for the morning and pizza for lunch. Zoe was generally very easy going and all three kids had a really fun time. Here are some pictures from the cool playplace.

Cozy coupe

Giant bouncing balls and crawling tunnel

Andrew and Zoe riding cars

Aaron and Zoe playing in the plant sand

Andrew climbing

Aaron about to go down the car slide

Aaron swinging all by himself

Slide and ball pit

Zoe and Aaron on the teeter-totter

Andrew riding a green horse

Aaron jumping on the trampoline

Look at the giant Fly, Pooh, Bounce, Pig, and Your

The kids loved the tiny western potty,
having to flush it by scooping water from the bucket
seemed to just make it more fun for them

DIY Saltines

So, plain soda crackers aren't the most healthy recipe if you make them with all white flour, but at least with this homemade recipe there are no preservatives, and they taste way better than store bought saltines. Just like our homemade wheat thins, the only problem with them is they disappear way too fast around here.

Homemade Soda Cracker Recipe

• 3 cups flour (you can use part whole wheat if you want)
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 tsp baking soda
• Salt for sprinkling on top (sea salt is great)
• Additional herbs like oregano, basil, or thyme can also be sprinkled on top for a unique flavor (optional)

1. Mix all ingredients until well combined. If dough is too sticky you may need to add extra flour. 
2. Roll dough out on a lightly floured or lightly oiled surface until about 1/8 inch thick. You can either roll it out on a counter and transfer it in a large piece to an oiled cookie sheet, or you can roll it directly onto an oiled cookie sheet.
3. Once on the cookie sheet, sprinkle with salt (and any extra herbs) and roll lightly to press salt in.
4. Gently cut the crackers to size using a pizza cutter or knife.
5. Bake at 350 F for 10-20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool slightly, and then break them into individual pieces.

This is the recipe I used to make train crackers.

DIY Wheat Thins

We all love this recipe for these simple crackers. They taste really similar to wheat thins but better. This is the recipe I used when I made the dinosaur crackers. The only problem with this recipe is they disappear really fast around here.

Homemade Wheat Cracker Recipe

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups flour (you can use all whole wheat if you want)
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 tsp salt, plus salt for sprinkling on top (sea salt is great)
• Additional herbs like oregano, basil, or thyme can also be sprinkled on top for a unique flavor (optional)

1. Mix all ingredients until well combined. If dough is too sticky you may need to add extra flour. 
2. Roll dough out on a lightly floured or lightly oiled surface until about 1/8 inch thick. You can either roll it out on a counter and transfer it in a large piece to an oiled cookie sheet, or you can roll it directly onto an oiled cookie sheet.
3. Once on the cookie sheet, sprinkle with salt (and any extra herbs) and roll lightly to press salt in.
4. Gently cut the crackers to size using a pizza cutter or knife.
5. Bake at 350F for 10-20 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool slightly, and then break into individual pieces.

These crackers are great by themselves or paired up with almost any dip.