Sweet memories

Long time ago I made these series of photo books for M. Now L, who got 10, was really longing for a book with her pictures as well. So this was one of her birthday gifts. Such a joy to make! And in no time this time. I'm becoming an expert ;).
Because the book is about her being a baby, I thought a little rose for the inside of the cover would suit.

Being a mill

Remember this post about my eldest being the Erasmus bridge? Look at my youngest daughter now, being a mill during carnival at school and the way back home by metro! One of the themes was Holland. She wanted to be this herself and she worked so hard to finish the mill in time. Lucky with a father like F, who made the vanes being able to turn around. Using a bicycle hub. Made it all together a great week!
(Btw, funny that I suddenly discovered this behind the stage. Apparently still laying around in the school's attic.)

Let's drink together

Last week I invited my colleagues in the local bar to have a drink on my goodbye. Not a voluntary goodbye, so cutting my visiting cards into drink vouchers was sort of therapeutically.
It was a great being together.

10!

Since L is going to be 10 next week, invitations had to be made for her party. L has planned to go jumping with her friends. So she made small matching drawings, that I made even smaller.

Only hope that the weather will be ok...

Like a goose and giveaway

Almost a month ago L turned 9. Our house is perfect suitable for a Ganzenbord (or the Game of Goose or Goose board) birthday party, we thought. We have so many stairs and surprising nooks and crannies. The idea is that all around the house are numbers, from basement till the upper room. We made 63 yellow envelopes, some of which are yellow bags. L helped a lot and loved to write the numbers. Inside the envelopes the kids found an instruction to do or make or guess or play or collect something. Apart from the instruction they found some supplies as well inside the bags, like a tapeline or some goodies. For this birthday party L had to invite eight friends, to be able to make three groups of three kids. With one dice for each group off they went to be occupied for many hours. The kids loved it, it was a big hit! And of course especially our basement filled with clutter was the most popular place to be.

For the Dutch readers among you: nu liggen de tasjes en enveloppen hier en, omdat de voorbereidingen best veel werk kostten, vroeg ik me opeens af of ik misschien iemand met dit feestje blij kan maken. Laat maar even weten in de reacties. Bij meerdere reacties zal ik iemand trekken.

Wanna throw a dice?

Is 'Ganzenbord', or the Game of Goose or Goose board, known all over the world? This game we played with eight friends of L, that she invited on her birthday party. How I will tell you next time (and if you, Dutch speaking blog readers, are interested: I will giveaway this birthday party, so please come back later!).
Together with L we made these invitations, with all we had already around. We even made the yellow dots ourselves. Just because it was raining outside.

One day of a fox's life

What to tell? This day was just great! See the preparations in the former post.

Being a?

This weekend preparations for Carnival are in full swing. Is it clear what L is going to be?

After this we closed the back of the head as well.

Now we only have to paint it today. L, I think we are a super team! Please come back to see the final result.

Into science

Our youngest is having her 8th birthday in a few days. This week she mentioned nonchalant: 'oh, in two years I will be ten.' Ten! We were quite shocked. Our little one!
Together we made invitations for her kids party next week, based on the invented theme of this year: doing cool science tricks. We were inspired by this beautiful and great booklet, one of her Sinterklaas presents.

The drawings and the crafting she did herself. And F's heart already blossoms. Together with L he's choosing and preparing the tricks.
(Don't worry, she won't invite 10 kids. She always makes invitations for us as well.)

Pour ma fille

Just great to work on, such a photo book! Already finished and written in french, I'm glad. Pour toi M, ma chère fille. Here are some of the pages to get a peek:

Slumbering

M isn't quite a fan of slumber parties. She normally simply quits these events because she knows what next day will bring for her: not bode well.
Some time ago we started to brainstorm about her birthday party, that will be in two weeks. M totally surprised me by suggesting a slumber party! Ok, I said, and the next moment her idea turned out into a slumber party completely our way: we'll leave the city and pitch our (great!) tent next to a natural swimming pool in the Biesbosch, a lovely nature reserve south of Rotterdam. Six girls will cozily fit in the large tent, while F, L and I will pitch our small trekking tent a little bit further away.

Last weekend I was making the initial plan for the invitations. Of course I had in mind that M had to do the job, but sometimes things are just coming out of one's hands in the evening... Btw till too late, so next day didn't bode well for me!

M agreed with the design, as she did doing an InDesign course with me to make it herself. She finished the paperwork and is delivering them right now!

Making girls happy

If you want to know some tricks to make nice sparkling boxes as a party favor, go ahead reading. These 'L 7' boxes we made as a treat for L's birthday and are a mix of this and this. Here and here you can read more on my blog about these boxes. In my case the pattern paper was made using these books. I did some photoshopping to achieve the desired colors, printed the paper and cut it into squares of 17 and 18 cm. But of course you could use any paper you want or even buy these kind of little boxes.

Because I wanted L (of 7) to be able to make her own treat, the tutorial can be used as a kids craft as well. We first made the bottoms of the boxes following this tutorial, using the 17 cm paper squares.

Home bakery

This year we really had no idea for L's birthday party. Maybe it's because she's kind of more allround compared to M. But M had a proposal: why not baking cookies with her friends? So that's what happened last Wednesday afternoon. The very same morning (!) I hardly managed to sew these baker hats, and quickly taped them to the wall as a decoration before the girls arrived. I'm talking about the usual time-management that I seem to learn never...

The fabrics I had laying around and finally I was happy with the adjustability, see the velcro detail. And yes, there was a big mess so we can say it was a big success. And a good idea indeed, M! The girls so loved to knead!

The girls baked colorful cookies and took them home in a self-folded cookie box, explained by little teacher L.

More and more

We made up this 'L 7' treat for school because L loves origami even more than M. She made quite a few of these boxes without any complain but wanted to play outside as well after a while ;) She was allowed. She joined again for the glitter topping. We made some photo's during the process, so I'll show you soon a how to.

The pattern paper I made with a Sinterklaas present. This and this book and two cd's full of nice patterns. Oh, there will be more pattern paper crafts!

We added a nut mix for her classmates and cookies after this afterlasting recipe (with the half of the sugar), found via Kristel, for the visitors at home. Inside I added a box of baking paper, which appeared to be a challenge to fold. Yes, I'm crazy, making about 50 boxes... But it worked like therapy for me, so it's fine.