.

Made her a name tag tonight for her doctors outfit. I hope it prints and looks good.

Might have to make my own title instead of copying those words off a real hospital logo because right now the words look a little blurry. We will have to see.

So for awhile now i knew i wanted to get Abby a pretend doctors kit. She would try and put a rag over her mouth and come to me saying ‘I’m a doctor!’ and pretend her dolls were hurt.

Well like usual i kept forgetting i needed to order it for her for her birthday. So last night i remembered and got on Amazon (were i tend to do all my non grocery shopping since we have a prime account and the amazon credit card which earns us 3x the amounts of points if we use the credit card on amazon…. so earning free money is always a plus)

Well i found small cheap kits for like $15-18 and there was an ok one for $25. Then there was the Melissa and Doug Deluxe Kit that was normally $79 marked down to $39. Came with a doctors costume plus the doctors kit. We thought we were going to do that. I started reading reviews on the items because i try to read everything and look at everything before i make a choose. One comment mentioned they decided to buy a kit with a real stethoscope instead of one that made fake sounds. So i started looking for kits with real ones cause i thought that was a great idea. Didn’t find a pretend kit with one in it but i did find real stethoscopes for WAY cheaper then i would have imagined them to be.

So this got me thinking… could i find real doctor/nurse items and make my own kit for about the same price or cheaper? Oh the searching rolled on.

After three hours and it being almost 1am i had finally pieced together my own kit. I’m still lacking a doctors bag to carry it all in but i think i will stop in the thrift stores and see if i can find something that will work.

First here is a glimpse of the pretend kit i almost bought:

Here is what i pieced together:

First the outfit:

I bought a plain white button down shirt. I know it’s not as fancy but i’m hoping to use my skills and make it a little more like a doctors shirt. Like my husband mentioned, a doctors shirt would have a lower collar so i’m hoping to fix that. I bought it as a 4t, so it will be kinda big on her but i thought that was kinda the point and this way Anabel can use it and they still have some growing room in it.

Then i found this:

  It is a ‘Medical Organizer Kit’ which is suppose to slide onto a belt loop for nurses. Well since it is fabric i’m planning to sew it onto the bottom of the doctor shirt for extra pockets like the Melissa and Doug shirt kinda has. I think the girls will love the pockets and clips on it.

It also comes with: ‘Diagnostic Penlight, Pen, Scissor, Keys and Other Accessories’

I will take the scissors out of it because that is not a toy. But the Penlight i think they will LOVE

Then:

This is a ‘Nurse Pin Brooch Pocket Watch’ I’m guessing this is to count for blood pressure or something but i thought it would add some flare to the outfit.

I also plan on sewing a couple face masks, so both girls could play…. one the doctor and one the nurse maybe? Anyways they should be uber simple to make.

I also grabbed this:

I thought this book would be great to include… give them some ideas for play :)

 

Now on to the kit!

Real pediatric sized stethoscope and blood pressure band. Now i might have to poke a whole in the blood pressure band so they can’t get enough air in there to make it to tight on the arm… we will have to test that out. I’m so excited about these two pieces!

Real reflex hammer. Says it’s 7in big and rubber hammer head. Bob was a little worried about this but i’m sure if the girls can learn how to use a hot glue gun like they have been, then they can learn about this…. but we will see how hard it is before we give it to them.

And a real thermometer.

I was looking at baby health kits like this one:

But i remembered i have multiples of most all this stuff (except the thermometer) and could spare a set for the kit. I also have a ton of medicine syringes from child medicines that i will give her as play needles.

Then we have ACE bandages from Bob’s football days so i think i will cut a few down to child size and sew some velcro on the ends to make them be able to clasp and that way they will have plenty of bandages.

 

I’m hoping she will love this and it will turn out as cool as i’m picturing it. Real tools! And it costing just as much as these kits i was going to buy that were all plastic!

Oh i hope it’s cool! I got such a headache trying to figure it all out…. hope i made good choices!

Making progress!!!!

Since i last posted about the charts we have done quite a bit. With a young baby and a total of three kids now, i’m finding it harder to find the time to sit down and post about things. My coupon blog especially is suffering from neglect.

Anyways Hubby built the frames for the charts and cut the metal to size. Then we had the girls mix their own colors (with my help of course) and we painted the frames.

All the frames in the house are black and we wanted them to match but also be unique, so we spray painted them black and then are using sand paper to age the frames and sand the black off till the color pops through.

Then Bob used a paint pen and drew the rid onto the metal.

 

today i worked on getting the magnet stripes onto the backs of the magnets we made. I started out using gorilla glue but the one we bought said it needed to sit for 24 hours for it to be done, so instead i switched to super glue and it made the job MUCH faster. I used up all the magnet stripes this afternoon and almost got magnet onto all the backs. Good thing i have already ordered more magnet strips and they will be here by Tuesday. Woot!

The very last row on the right still does not have magnets on them but everything to the left of it does. I’m so excited!

Here is a glimpse of Matthew’s finished board after being sanded and a few of the magnets on there. I wanted more of a pop of color and i might have been able to achieve that if we would have bought spray paint colors but we were trying to save money and use the stuff we had.

Also along with the magnet stripes i ordered i ordered the reward tickets the girls will earn.

The yellow (neutral) tickets will be worth the lowest and the pink will be worth more. I have blue tickets saved on amazon for when Matthew gets old enough to do it i will order the blue ones and they will be the worth more for him. I knew the girls would love the pink so i needed to have a boy color too.

I have saved some small espresso cans and i plan on taking them and helping the girls custom design the out side of them and those will be their personal ticket jars to keep their earned tickets in.

And just today the girls earned their first reward tickets. Me and Bob spent time trimming the vines on our back fence and it left a big mess of limbs on the ground. So we asked the girls if they wanted to earn some tickets by picking up the limbs for us and putting it in the big trash can. They both were uber excited to earn tickets and said yes. They picked up all the limbs with out much coxing to finish. It was a big job so i think they will get at least 2 tickets which normal chores will only earn 1.

We still have to sit down and figure out how many tickets for which prizes and figure out a points system.

 

Then along with that order i got these:

I was reading a site about chores and this lady made up cleaning totes for each of her kids. So i looked on amazon and found this small cleaning totes in bright colors. I got Anabel pink to match her chore chart and Abby purple to match hers.

I’ve already bought small hand brooms and dust pans for them, dusters and small spray bottles which i will make up a mild homemade cleaning solution up for them. Some other things i’m thinking about getting for their cleaning kits are some disinfecting wipes, lint roller and a rag. The rag i’m hoping to get a pink and purple one… then i think i am going to fold it over and sew the edge so it becomes almost a glove to it’s easier to wipe things.

I’m hoping this will make cleaning chores more fun for them.

 

On a side note i posted about making year memory books for the girls.

They are binders that you keep their art and such in them. Well i also bought some 4x6 picture protectors that go in a binder and i got super excited. Now i’m able to slide pictures from the year in there as well. With this same amazon order i was able to get 200 more page protectors (since i’ve already ran out of the ones i had because Anabel colors so much). Page protectors are not cheap but i was able to get the 200 for the same price as about 100 of them at wal-mart so i was super happy!

Cucumbers growing nicely

 

Raised bed #1

 

Raised Bed #2

 

Raised Bed #3

 

Raised bed #2 & #3

Today Bob got the rest of the wood pieces cut for me. There is over a couple hundred there. It’s going to take quite awhile to get all these mod podged let alone all the magnets glued on!

Today i managed to finish mod podging the rest of the ‘Month’ pieces, got one group done, now on to the next! I can’t wait till i get onto the colorful ones and it’s a little more interesting LOL

 

Other related posts: 

• Chore Chart (2)
• Kids Chore Chart

So if you are my facebook friend you might have seen one of my status’ about how my father and sister in-law came down around mother’s day and brought plants and planted me a garden. I wasn’t getting to it because of having Matthew and things being crazy with a newborn.
It was such a blessing for them to do it!
Yesterday i spent the morning weeding because grass was growing all over from Bob putting the yard clippings in the beds as fertilizer all fall and spring.
I usually hate weeding but yesterday morning it was kinda fun. The morning was cooler then it had been and it was the perfect time to do it.
So this evening i went out and checked on the garden. I knew it didn’t need watering from all the watering i did yesterday and then last night it rained as well.
I took this time to put our tomato surrounds on the tomatoes since everything is growing like crazy.

Bed #1

This bed contains: (i think anyways, since i didn’t plant it and most this aren’t tagged I'm sorta guessing)

• Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Cucumber (the climbing thing in the back)
• Rosemary
• And i believe bell peppers

Bob noticed that bed #1 actually already had a few tomatoes on there. Wootness!

Tiny peppers. Dad said these are very hot…. don’t remember what they are called but the red ones look ready so i picked them. Dad said red or purple could be picked.

Bed #2

This bed contains:

• Peppers
• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Basil
• Parsley
• Oregano
• Thyme
• Squash

The one tomato plant in the tomato surround in the front left was started late from seed, from a little ‘Taco Garden’ started mom and dad had bought the girls. Dad didn’t think the tomatoes would go good from seed and planted from a tiny tinny sprout but looks like it is going great! Maybe i will try to plant tomatoes next year from seed?

Bed #3

This bed contains:

• Peppers
• Bush Beans
• Tomatoes
• Squash

Things are going good! Last year was so easy and fun, i hope this year is the same and things go well.
While i was also out there i sprayed all the plants down with my natural bug repellent, hope that helps.

The morning went rather smoothly since i got up at 6:30am. Had time to do my daily bible reading, play with Matthew while he was having some belly time before i went down stairs and got myself ready for church and before anyone else was awake.

After Anabel woke up I sent  her up to wake Bob with a picture she had made him and to announce breakfast was ready. Me and Anabel (since Abby was still asleep) had made pancakes and sausage.

At church it was my sunday to do the nursery. I had eight kiddos. It was a tad crazy but it went quickly.

Then after church i asked Bob what he wanted to do, if he wanted to go out for lunch then where… or if he wanted to go home. He decided that we go to Wal-Mart and pick up some stuff for a special dinner instead and that would be cheaper then going out to lunch. So we headed to the store.

Bob wanted to grill some hamburgers and brats. Then i got stuff to make my homemade buns because Bob wanted to use them as buns. We got some salad stuff and also a pizza for a quick lunch.

After lunch (the pizza was surprisingly good, it was a wal-mart brand pizza) the girls went for quiet time and me and bob sat down to watch the Pianist on Netflix.

Now i’m about to head into the kitchen to thaw the hamburger meat and start the bread.

it’s been a nice relaxing day. Hope our evening is just as good. Also hope Bob has enjoyed it.

Making of the ‘Month’ magnets for the charts.

Supplies:

• Scissors
• Mod Podge
• Brush
• Xacto Knife
• Sand Paper
• Lamination Paper
• Wood Cut To Size
• Months Printed on Paper

So i tried just mod podging the paper onto the wood but the ink on the paper started to smudge with the mod podge. So instead i laminated just the front on the paper and mod podged that onto the wood. I hope it holds up good. It looks nice laminated.

We still need to by super glue of some sort to glue the magnets on the back.

 

I think i have done 7 so far and there is a total of 36 of just the months. Not to mention 93 of the dates of the month and 21 of the days of the week…. and that is just the beginning. TONS of little pieces. It’s going to take forever LOL especially since i only get my hands free (with no house work) very often. It will be nice once it’s all done though!