The gymnast in me

Faith is showing off her gymnastics skills more and more each day. With her first fun meet coming up in three short weeks she has got her routines put together. Although some skills are still missing she is happy to know all the dance and skills needed to compete. She is quite the little gymnast. I'm sure that when I was little I wasn't nearly as mobile as she is. She is now being sent to her room to do gymnastics as a form of time out for doing gymnastics in the family room. I have to control her somehow. She goes crazy with her cartwheeling, jumping, twirling and handstanding. She when she is caught she has to go to her room and do 10 cartwheels. Mainly this is a way for her to go get her energy out in a way she is not going to her brother or herself. Competition season is exciting for her. She is most excited about earning a ribbon or medal. I continue to encourage her to just be happy she gets to compete and learn how to be a good sport. I hope she sticks with gymnastics through another year however she seems to want to do other things.

A stitch in time

Faith volunteered her time to make scarves for the homeless shelter a few days ago during a Daisy Scout activity. She learned to use the sewing machine. That got me thinking...she might be old enough to actually hand sew. I remember doing that and sewing little quilts when I was young. I told Faith she could pick out an art project to do from our favorite store, Michael's. She decided to sew together a Build a Bear Panda Bear. It had the holes already punched through the fabric.
Faith used a plastic needle to thread embroidery floss through. Although it was hard she did a super job keeping the holes lined up. She stuffed it, I sewed it shut, and lastly she dressed it. It turned out so cute. This was definitely an art project geared towards her level of creativity. Plus what makes it even better is now she can sleep with it.

The new library

I love children's books and decided I needed a way to organize all these books. So using some free wood pallets my dad made a hanging book shelf to display the books. He simply cut the pallet in half, sanded it down and rubbed it down with candle wax. The bookshelf was reused wood from another upright shelf. Dad turned it on it's side, cut off the bottom shelf and added some marilight to the top, bottom and back. After painting the ends yellow to match the curbside windows now used for displaying art, the area all came together. The last piece still to be added is a nice comfortable rug to sit on. I love this litte area and could spend many hours looking at books and sitting with my two children.

The Daisy

Faith loves being a Daisy Scout. She looks forward to the activities with an eagerness not seen in quite some time with her. She is willing to take another evening away from being at home to attend a special activity. This last week she learned to sew on the sewing machine and made two scarves for the homeless. It was an opportunity to teach and talk about how others can be less fortunate than us and we should help them, even if you are little. She loved the not so scarey hay ride at a local garden facility here on the island. When other girls were screaming on the hay ride she was smiling because she new it was all make believe. In this picture here the girls were raking leaves up into a pile with an evergreen branch. Despite their efforts to get a big enough pile, little Champ came running and jumping right in. The girls learned a lesson what it is like to be little and Champ learned that jumping in the leaves is fun when you don't know how to rake them up. Every other Monday is Daisy meeting and Faith looks forward to the snack, craft time, singing and friendship that comes with this great organization. So thankful for the Daisies.

Happy Halloween

Although it is about a week late, things are just crazy here. Halloween was so much fun for Faith. Although her original plans for a costume was a fuzzy lamb hat and fuzzy warm cream coat, I changed her mind when I brought home a peachy pirate dress, head scarf, and eye patch. When she geared it up with her tall black boots, she rocked that outfit. Faith had fun eating lots and lots of treats at her class halloween party and more importantly, having a mom who let her eat what she wanted. Halloween night she transformed into a blushing bride complete with my wedding vail and bouquet. We visited the neighbors and each one of them said it had been years since children visited on Halloween night. There are so many activities leading up to that night that Halloween night is deemed not necessary anymore. Our neighbors are nice here in on the island. We couldn't ask for a better place to live.