Big craft day at our house

Yesterday a bunch of friends came over and we dyed playsilks using kool-aid. There were quite a few of us here so it was a little crazy! But the kids and adults seemed to enjoy it. I was a lazy mommy and didn't take any pictures :(

For anyone interested it's a really fun, easy thing to do. I got the silks from Dharma Trading company , the 30 x 30 size makes a fun toy. You just add 3 cups of hot water, 1 cup of vinegar and 4 packs of kool-aid type drink mix into a bowl and add a pre-washed and still wet playsilk. Mix it around and stick the whole thing in the microwave for 30 sec. and stir/swish and repeat for another 30 sec, stir/swish....do that 3-4 times or until you can see the water getting more clear or cloudy white rather than colored. That means all the dye is being taken up into the silk. Rinse it really well in cold water and let it dry! They looked pretty cool all lined up on our clothes line drying!

Here is Alex playing with his today:

Alex's 3 year stats

We don't really do much in the way of doctor visits and "well checks" but they needed to change Alex's dose of flouride and didn't have a current weight on file for him. So we took him in yesterday.
Alex is officially 31 pounds and 38 inches tall. That puts him smack in the middle of all the growth charts for his age. According to the nurse practitioner his is "very verbal" (......um, you think?) He is on track when it comes to fine and gross motor skills according to their lists.

We are not sending Alex to any official 3 year old preschool this fall. We are doing a little informal "preschool" co-op type thing with a few other families. We are having the kids get together once a week and will take turns having it at each of our homes and being the leader. It's going to be very simple and NOT a curriculum based type approach at all, just learning together through play and songs and art projects.....that type of thing.
Alex and I will also most likely be participating in a once a week Waldorf children's program that is in the process of being organized right now.

SO...that's really all that's new now that Alex is 3 :)

Playing around

I decided to play around a bit with some of the diapers and diaper covers I got for the new baby. The diapers are unbleached cotton (so they were an off-white color), 3 of the covers are moisture resistant fabric on the inside and cotton on the outside and then one cover is wool. I did some reading and got some dye and experimented a bit............

These are some diapers and some of the cotton covers. I used Dylon dye and did them in the washing machine:
This is the wool cover. I used some left over Easter egg dye tablets and did this one on the stove top:

I'll have some more pictures later...I've finished another cotton cover that turned out interesting, some green diapers and some purple diapers.

Camping w/ Daddy

Take me out to the ballgame

More stuff

What a busy week!
Wednesday morning we met with the Waldorf playgroup, LOTS of kids this week. Then wednesday night I met Jessica to go out for dinner and was treated to a surprise baby shower! Thanks so much to all my TC friends, it was so much fun and meant a lot to me.
Thursday morning Alex and I met some friends and went exploring along the Boardman river downtown. The kids got to feed the ducks and scavenge around for some neat stones, sticks and plants.
Friday we ran a few errands and then had an appt friday afternoon to get our carseat installations checked out at one of the local fire stations. There were two car seat safety technicians there and then the fire chief who also checks seats. While the other two techs checked out our seats Chief Jim took Alex on his very own private tour! He was very excited. He got to sit in one of the trucks and help them wash their trucks.....he didn't want to leave when we were done!
Friday night Ben and Alex went to check out a Traverse City Beach Bums game. (I didn't think I could sit on stadium seats that long so I stayed home) Alex loved it! Ben said he made friends with everyone in their section. He liked watching the game but he LOVED their team mascots - SunBurn and SunTan (a red bear and a brown bear). Someone from their section caught a t-shirt during one of the between inning contests and gave it to Alex so now he has a t-shirt w/ SunTan on it.
I will upload some pictures from the game tomorrow. Ben has the camera with them right now.
This morning I ran some errands, hit the farm market and the yarn shop for some knitting assitance. Ben took Alex to the open house of a renovated tall ship . They got to tour the ship, play games and see pirates! And there were even more fireman and a truck there.
After lunch they decided to pack up and go camping for the night. There are some state forest campgrounds w/ in 15 minutes of our house that are right on the Boardman River.

So here I sit in a very quiet house!

Alex the artist

Stuff

The monday after his birthday Alex quit wearing diapers to bed too. He does a great job staying dry all night and even gets up in the night to use the potty sometimes.
We had a pretty full week......a children's program at the museum on tuesday, a trip to the farm market and a park playdate on wednesday morning, trip to the midwife wednesday afternoon, Alex and I spent the day in Petoskey on thursday helping with a babywearing workshop, and finally on friday we had a park playdate with Lily and family in the morning, ran errands and met a whole bunch of friends at Friday Night Live later that night.
I was pretty puffy at my appt this week so the goal for this week is to get rid of that extra fluid. Otherwise it was pretty uneventful, baby sounded good.
Friday I was on my feet and busy all day long and had braxton hicks contractions all day, some pretty painful ones. I was also feeling a ton of pelvic pressure that hadn't been there before.
Saturday and sunday things calmed down a lot and I felt better so I don't think she's coming anytime soon!
This week so far we have attended a birthday party yesterday morning and gone to the Children's museum this morning with a bunch of friends. Alex and I have plans everyday this week actually!
Weather depending, Ben is thinking of taking Alex camping this weekend for a little boys weekend.
We go back to the midwife friday afternoon.

Sunday 8/12....the beach

Sunday was hot and muggy so we headed off to meet Tessa and family at the beach in Elk Rapids. It was windy there and felt SO good. We all had a great time playing in the waves and watching the sailboats and kiteboarders.

Alex is 3

Wow, Alex is 3.

He started his birthday with a trip to the farm market and a ride on the "Spirit of Traverse City" train downtown.

In the afternoon he had a few friends over to play in the backyard, eat supper and of course have cake and ice cream.

He said it was a pretty great birthday.

He has matured so much in the past couple months. It's just amazing. And he got taller...again!

The fair

Last night we met Jessica, Brandon, Tessa and Harrison at the fair!
Alex and Tessa both decided right away that the porta-potties were "yucky potties" and neither of them would use them....but both apparently have bladders of steal because they just held it the whole time we were there instead.
After taking care of that business we headed to check out some animals. Alex was very happy to meet some goats that did not want to eat his shirt (unlike the goats at Jim Pecks).
The horses and bunnies were some other favorites and Alex was a little more comfortable about the size and loudness of the pigs this year.
The guys had to get themselves some carny food corn dogs. Jessica and I settled for the fresh lemonade instead thank you very much. Jessica bought Alex and Tessa each a cotton candy bigger than their heads! Alex licked his a few times and decided the texture was a bit weird for his liking.
We got asked several times if Alex and Tessa were siblings or cousins.
It was a gorgeous evening and a fun time was had by all!