Kindergarten!

 Our little Drew started kindergarten this morning!  Although the first day of kindergarten is a milestone that reminds us of how quickly Drew is growing up, we feel very blessed that he is healthy and that he is growing into such a sweet, smart young man.  He was very excited for today, and he was definitely ready.
Here are a few shots from our rushed pre-departure-for-school photo shoot.

 This is Drew with his teacher.  We have known her for several years, and we are excited for Drew to be in her class.

Jim and Maddie, waiting for the children to be dismissed to their classrooms.

 Drew at his table.  He is seated at a table with three girls.  I think that seating arrangement was very wise of his teacher!

Drew's class - there are 12 students enrolled in his class so far this year.

When I arrived to pick Drew up from school, he seemed very serious.  He had a runny nose and the  hiccups when he got in the van.  I was a little concerned because he is normally pretty cheerful and upbeat.  He was quiet the whole way home, even when I tried to find out about his day.  As we pulled into our garage, he started to cry, and he told me that he didn't want to go back to kindergarten.  When I asked him why, he said it was because he had gotten the hiccups!  He wanted to go right in his bed as soon as we got home, and he slept for about an hour and a half.  He seemed better when he woke up, but he told me that he had a headache and that his head was hurting at school.  We are hoping that he feels better and that he will be able to be at school for Day 2 of kindergarten tomorrow!

 I made Drew's teacher a little beginning of the year gift.  She loves coffee, so I made her a pencil mug sleeve, using this pattern.

I also made her a loaf of zucchini bread, one of Drew's favorites!  I wrapped the bread in plastic wrap, and wrapped a strip of school-themed scrapbook paper around it and taped it underneath.  I tied the mug sleeve to the top of the bread and added a tag with a little note.  I thought it all turned out pretty well, and I hope she likes it too!

We are praying for a good year of school, and we are excited for all that Drew will learn this year!

Maddie's Room

I promised to post some pictures of Maddie's room this week.  Here's a little tour of her room:

This is the view as you enter the room.  The rocking chair is right inside the door.

 This chair is a hand-me-down from my parents.  It moved to Michigan with me, and it was the reading chair in my classroom until Drew was born.  Then it came home with me, and we used it in Drew's room for five years.  Now we've moved it to Maddie's room, where it will probably stay until it becomes a classroom reading chair again some day.
My mom made the quilt on the back of the chair, and my friend Kristen made the quilt on the arm of the chair.  I found the little lined basket garbage can at the thrift store.

 While I was pregnant with Maddie, I kept seeing lots of decorating ideas using groupings of embroidery hoops with fabric.  I loved that idea, and I decided to do a group of hoops in Maddie's room.  I made the little house hoop with felt, and I bought all the fabric except the green fabric in the little hoop on the top left.  It is some leftover fabric from one of my childhood dresses.  I bought most of the hoops from thrift stores.  I have several extra hoops, so if I ever find some great fabric, I might add another hoop or two.  I love the oval hoop!

 Maddie's bedding is called, "Molly," and it is an older Pottery Barn set.  I found this set brand new on Ebay.  It was the first thing we bought for Maddie's room, and we based all our other choices on the colors and theme of the bedding.
The crib was Drew's crib.  It has drop sides, which are now considered unsafe, so we had to order the repair kit from the manufacturer.  Jim fixed the sides pretty easily, and the crib was ready for Maddie.

 I made Maddie's mobile, and I am really happy with the way it turned out.  I started out planning for the birds to sit on some embroidery hoops (like this one), but after several attempts to assemble it, Jim and I gave up, and I decided to go the branch route instead.  I truly love the branch, and I love that it spans the length of the crib.

 The framed piece at the head of the crib is a vintage embroidered verse of "All Things Bright and Beautiful."  I found it earlier this summer at a thrift store in South Carolina.  I love the little animals and the bright yellow frame.

 The drapes are Pottery Barn blackout drapes that I bought on Ebay.  I have dark denim drapes in Drew's room that make his room so dark.  He has always been a great napper, and I knew that blackout drapes would be worth the investment in Maddie's room.  I usually keep them pulled closed, and they really make her room nice and dark for daytime naps.
This little dresser is a hand-me-down from Jim's mom, and it was in pretty rough shape.  Jim did some repairs and then painted it and replaced the handles with these cute, colorful knobs from Hobby Lobby.
I added some trim to a plain white lampshade for Maddie's lamp.  The cupcake bank (from Target) was a gift from Jim's mom, and my parents bought Maddie the pink CD player (from Amazon).

 One of the things I really wanted for Maddie's room was a dollhouse bookcase.  I started checking around, and I found that most of them were around $100.  I decided to check Craigslist, where I found this one for $25, and the lady selling it lived around the corner from Jim's work.  The backing had a stain, so we removed it and replaced it with some beadboard.  Not only did the beadboard look better, but it was also sturdier than the old backing.  We painted the roof pink (it was originally green) for a better contrast against the walls.  The polka dot bins are from Babies-R-Us.

 My friend, Kristen, made Maddie this little basket with a vintage metal frame and some cute fabric.  I love it, and it is perfect for holding her stuffed animals.

 One of my favorite things in the room is the big tree that my sister, Nora, painted.  We added shelves to a few of the branches, and I love how it turned out!

 The changing table is on the fourth wall, between the closet and the door.  It is Drew's old changing table.

 Some of the baskets on the changing table and bookcase were gifts, and some were thrifted.

Jim and I made Maddie's bow holder using this tutorial.  I spray painted a frame from the thrift store, and then Jim helped me add some cup hooks along the bottom and staple the ribbon strips to the back.  It really works well.

I love Maddie's little room, and I love that it is a collaboration of effort from so many people who love her - the walls that my dad and sister painted, the hand-me-down furniture from our parents, the quilts that my mom and Kristen made, and all the other handmade and thrifted items really make her room special.

A Little Random Post

We've been staying busy here the last few weeks at our house, but I haven't felt like I have had a lot to blog about!  One of the things I've been doing lately is getting back to scrapbooking!  I had been missing it, so I decided to try to make a layout a few weeks ago.  I enjoyed it so much that I've made one a week since then!  All of these layouts are from sketches from Let's Scrap.

This first layout is from our strawberry picking trip earlier this summer.  

 This layout is about Maddie's being measured and weighed in the recovery room after she was born.  I used the paper measuring tape that they used to measure her (they let me take it home), and I cut it to her length.

 This last layout is about our visit to Jim's uncle's house last Thanksgiving.  Uncle Paul has a Hudson Hornet, and Drew loved seeing it!

 I've also been busy making baby food for Maddie.  I always bought the little containers of baby food for Drew, and I guess that while I hated paying so much for it, I just never realized that I could actually make baby food myself.  I've been using my Ninja blender that I got for Mother's Day, and it has been working very well.  It is so much easier than I though it would be, and it is definitely cheaper than buying the jars of food.

 I'm freezing the baby food in these covered ice cube trays (Oxo brand, from Bed Bath and Beyond) that my parents got me last Christmas (in preparation for baby food making!), and they have been working well.

 I've made four kinds so far - Butternut Squash, Apple, Sweet Potato, and Green Beans.  Maddie has tried the sweet potatoes and the apples.  She wasn't very interested in the apples, so I mixed the sweet potatoes in some rice cereal, and she loved those!

 We think that Maddie is teething.  She hasn't had any teeth pop through yet, but she has been very fussy for the past couple of weeks, and she has been chewing on her hands a lot.  Here she is asleep in her exersaucer.  She was crying in it while I was in the shower the other morning, and when I came out, she had fallen asleep.

 We have gotten out some of Drew's old baby toys, and she seems very interested in them.  She is getting close to being able to sit up on her own, and I think that once she is able to do that, she will be able to play with the toys much better.

Drew is getting excited about starting kindergarten in a few weeks.  We have gotten all of his supplies, and now we are just waiting for the first day of school to come.  He starts the last week of August.  He has been watching the Olympics with us these past couple of weeks, and he recognizes many of the countries' flags from watching Cars 2.  He will talk about cheering for Max's team (Germany) or Shu's team (Japan).  He told me that he remembers which flags are which the "bestest" by thinking about the cars.
I am hoping to blog about Maddie's bedroom next week.  We have finally gotten the last big things hung on the walls, and I am just waiting for a sunny day so I can take some pictures.  I hope you have a great weekend!