Sew Special: Sven the Reindeer Costume, Part 1 making the antler frame

I spent a lot of time thinking/procrastinating about this costume.  I didn't see any examples online that were similar to what I was picturing.  I had an old felted sweater that I wanted to reuse.  Mainly, I wanted the antlers to be big.  The engineering problem was how to make them big, but not floppy.  

I was literally praying for inspiration on this one because I knew that I could use cardboard and a coat hanger, but I did not know how to make it so that it would not flop forward.  My inspiration was to bend the wire coat hanger into a zig zag shape, like a "W" and then duck tape it to the cardboard headband. Simple, but very effective. 

Big sister A suggested that I poke the ends of the coat hanger right up through the hood. Also a simple, very helpful idea:

We did a lot of "product testing" as it progressed:

I decided that it need to be finished on the inside with a few pieces of cushion foam and covered with a layer of the felted sweater on the inside:

To be continued...  

Recommended Reading: Good reads for 5-6 year olds

This week we listened to some great kids books as we were driving around. Big sister A was very excited to hear what happened next in each case.  I think that is a good indication of the story being at the right level for her.

I also read A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. It is yet another dystopian novel.  Such a depressing kind of literature, but so many of them are modern "classics".  This one was well written and yet I really had to make myself plow through it in a lot of places because it was sickening.  I don't feel like it was enlightening about the future possibilities or anything, as other reviewers commented on Amazon and GoodReads.  I don't recommend it.

Family Schooling Summary

Big sister A learned about atoms and molecules in her "Art as Science" class this week at co-op school.  She made this gum drop molecule and a lego atom. 

Remember that Earth model from a couple weeks ago?  They decided that it was time to recycle it and made rainbow sculptures with the cousins.

 This week at the nature center we had a class about trees and fall. The kiddos liked looking at the wildlife best of all. They had this neat display of monarch butterflies:

 
The leader read a story called Red Leaf Yellow Leaf:

 Then we went out and played in the leaves and collected leaves for their leaf journals.

 We finished off the day by taking a wander through the grass/meadow maze that they had set up.

We had all the other usual classes this week too -- dance, soccer, and swimming. Big sister A is doing the Pizza Hut reading contest and will try to read 10 books this month (goal) so that she can get a free pizza.  We played a lot with the cousins this week as they were closing and getting ready, and then moving in to their new house this weekend.

Recommended Reading: A Town Like Alice

I loved this book.  Nevil Shute is a perfect storyteller, deftly incorporating past and present events. I was entranced. Most of the events center on or around the time of WWII and the Japanese occupation of Malaya.  The heroine lives abroad and does a lot of peace corps type projects [which would be right up my alley!!!]  Some of the story is based on a true account of a British woman in Sumatra (Malaya is substituted for Sumatra in the story).  Highly recommended for ages 14 and up. There are some violent scenes of the war and a couple romance scenes which would not be suitable for younger readers.

Family Schooling Summary

Ice cream date for our FHE treat. 

Some more cool projects from Co-op School this week:

I think the highlight of this week though was going to "Pontoon Storytime" on the lake at one of our local nature centers. Daddy took a few hours off one morning to go with "the big kids".  You have to be at least 3 years old to go on the boat.  They were also supposed to have a fishing adventure at the nature center 2 weeks ago, but it was cancelled because of the rain. Boo.

Sew Special: Cargo Pants for M and Beret for A

Brother M seems to always be outgrowing his pants.  Since I made a more dressy pattern last time, I decided to use the Sandbox Pants Pattern this time. For materials I wanted to just recycle some pants from the Salvation Army pile.  I used two pairs of daddy's old pants, one shirt, 1 piece of fleece and bits of leftover knit fabric from the pants that I made for A last week.  I made them on the long side, so hopefully he wont grow out of them for at least a year.

Brother M specially requested that I use some of the same rainbow fabric that I used big sis A's pants. There was not much left. Here is the rainbow & fleece pair:

 

Some directional print issues resulted from trying to fit the pattern pieces on the tiny bits of the fabric that were leftover:

Pair #2- was cut from an old button up shirt of daddy's and some contrasting trim from another old dress shirt: 

 

 I used the pockets from the original shirt front-

Pair #3 -Old work pants of daddy's and some contrasting bits from an old dress shirt:

 Still need to put the buttons on the pockets -- these pockets are per pattern.

Pair #4 -from another old pair of daddy's pants - casing and lining from an old dress shirt.

 These back pockets are huge since they are originally from daddy's pants, but M loves big pockets!

I also finished off this beret for big sis A. The yarn is amazingly soft, a combination of cashmere and cotton that I got on ebay from China. 

Family Schooling Summary

We had our Joy School Field trip to the harvest festival. Lots of fun stuff for all the kiddos to enjoy. 

 Trains and Tractors

Slides and Tunnels

 The "Corn" box - where big sister A lost her shoe in the kernels.  Luckily one of the other moms found it under another kid.

 The Witch Tunnel

Spiderweb climbing

Potato Sack Slides

And of course, the hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick out their own special pumpkin

I almost forgot, the hayloft. It smelled so good.

The Bedtime Math Club lesson this week was on catapults.  The kids made them with spoons and popsicle sticks and then measured how far they could shoot their cotton balls. 

 Meanwhile baby S enjoyed putting puzzles together.

The kiddos started painting the pumpkins that we got from the orchard. They are still letting them dry and adding features. I will post the finished ones later.