happy thanksgiving!

fall leaves
{since i don't have a thanksgiving day picture to share!}

we had a nice day celebrating thanksgiving yesterday. my parents hosted, but my hubby's parents came too. and one of T's sisters and family too.

i have so much to be thankful for!

about a month ago at another family get-together, one of my nieces, jillian, who is age 8 saw me knitting a pair of socks and started asking me questions about knitting. she ultimately asked if i could teach her how and i told her i would try to sometime. therefore, knowing jillian would be there, i came prepared just in case she might still be interested. she was! {grin}

i had brought along a few sets of my chunkier needles and some of the yarn i dyed with kool-aid back in january that i still hadn't used. i found it easy enough to teach her to do the long-tail cast-on, and she could do the knit stitch, but was struggling keeping the stitches on the needles and various other issues which made it impossible to consider doing an actual project. then her younger sisters, bethany, age 6, and katrina, age 4, both wanted in on the knitting action too. bethie could also cast-on well, but i knew there was no way a 4-year-old could handle it. seeing how frustrated these girls were getting, i took a few minutes and surfed the internet for ideas on how to teach children to knit. here's what i learned. it's easier for kids if they start off with finger knitting! and so i learned how to finger knit HERE.

i then showed the girls how to do it and they were able to make themselves headbands and bracelets. of course, i had to help little katrina with the wrapping, but she lifted the loops over and off herself. it was so much more rewarding for them than the needle knitting we had tried at first.

i'm so thankful for the internet and the many good ideas people share with it!

finally, jillian and i decided to try and make a scarf in the same way, but using 3 strands of yarn together to make it thicker. i added fringe to each end and it turned out super cute! i wish i had taken a picture, but i didn't think to until after they had gone home. bethany wanted a scarf too, so using up the rest of the color she had picked, she made one with only one strand. and after i added fringe, it was super cute too!

i'm so thankful to have nieces who are learning to play with yarn too!

{and maybe someday they'll be as addicted to the stuff as their aunt is!}

autumn fun

it was another lovely day today...55 degrees and sunny, albeit a tad on the windy side, but basically nice. grandma was feeling left out since she had to work yesterday, so both grandparents came over and took us for lunch at DQ and then came back home with us so grandma could spend some quality time playing with the boys too. i got some more great shots of the boys playing in leaf piles. and grandma took a few of me playing with the boys too.

it's game day!

today has been our first official "game day" for our home school.
{the idea for doing this was in an email newsletter i received early this week, so hats off to the mom who first did this and shared her experience!}

game day rules:
1. any games played must be educational
2. the child(ren) must be able to tell me what they will be learning before i agree to let them play the game they've chosen
3. play with a good attitude {i.e. no crying because you didn't win!}

first we played Candyland {3 quick games}. cj was {hopefully} learning his colors!
after he got bored, bubba got out our Monopoly Deluxe Edition. lots of money math skills to play that one! and finally bubba and i played a game of Boggle. that's a good one for practicing one's spelling and writing!

i've always loved how games can be a great way to have a good time together, but really when you stop and think about it, there's so much you can learn with games too!

anyways, grandpa came to visit for a little bit today too. cj wanted to play outside and so grandpa took him out while bubba and i were playing Monopoly. after a little while i peeked out to see grandpa had found our leaf rake and was raking a pile of leaves at the bottom of the slide for cj to land in. he was having a glorious time! i just had to get a few photos of the fun, so i grabbed my camera and headed outside. it wasn't long before bubba was out and playing in the leafy piles of fun too!

one last thing we did today was watch some of the webcast of the first ever National Bible Bee. it's amazing to watch the finalists who made it thru to today's final competition. and the Bible memory verses these kids know is impressive! they're doing a tie-breaker round as i write this, but hopefully a clear winner for each of the 3 age groups will be determined by the time this round is done. congratulations to those who made it to the national competition! what an incredible opportunity to share what you've learned from God's Word!

sock knitting

i finished a pair of socks for my 3 year old. they turned out so cute!


Yarn: Zitron Trekking XXL {color #52} leftovers
Pattern: The Classic Sock by Melissa Morgan-Oakes from her book 2-at-a-time Socks
{adapted for toddler size}

the only problem i've discovered with making toddler socks is how slippery they tend to be on our kitchen floor. since i don't want my son to fall on his face every time he tries to walk thru the kitchen, i decided to add a little grip to the soles of his new sockies. i dug out my old puffy paints from my craft stash and made a pattern of tiny dots on a good portion of his sock soles. {i used the blue paint since it was the best match!} after letting it dry a couple days, we tried them on again and tested them on the kitchen floor once more. it worked! cj can safely walk in the kitchen wearing his new knit socks without slipping and falling! yay! and since the paint dots are so very small and not very puffy, it doesn't appear to make them uncomfortable like the grippy stuff i've seen used on some slipper-socks.


Yarn: Zitron Trekking XXL {color #52}
Pattern: Muscari by Suzi Anvin
{adjusted pattern slightly to knit 2-at-a-time on one 40" circular needle}

as you can see, i used up a bit of leftover yarn from this pair of socks i made for myself back in march. cj's aren't quite as fancy as mine, but ever so cute on him!

all in all, i'm very pleased with the results!