Thursday, October 28, 2010

Family Traditions #2: Birthdays

"Family traditions give identity and belonging to each member." - James Dobson

1. Pavers with their footprints: Over the years these will form the path from our gate to our front door. I like this one a lot because what's the point of a memory if it's packed away in a closet. This is out to be enjoyed each time we come home!
Silas' feet!
Paming up Jonah's feet.Jonah's imprint.
Jimmy added their name and year, but soon they will be able to write their own which will be even cuter!

2. Face smashed in cake: After you get sung to everyone cheers "Mordida!" which means that they want you so take a bite of your cake. As you lean down to bite your cake, someone behind you shoves your face in it. This is a fun Guatemalan tradition!

3. Individual Cakes: Jimmy's mom is a twin, so she is a good source for all things twins. She said that since you share so much stuff it is important to have some things that are just your own. A birthday cake is one of them. When they get older I'll make whatever is each of their favorites.

4. Family Birthday Banner: To go along with my rules for planning this birthday I didn't want to buy or make a banner that would be used one time and then thrown away. So I made one out of burlap that will hopefully survive for many years to come. I wanted something without much color so it would go with any birthday theme. We will hang this over our table for all of our birthdays.
The letters are painted on with freezer paper stencils.

5. Birthday Wreath: It's the same with the wreath. We will put this on our front door for each of our birthdays... that is if the balloons don't melt in this heat.
Our doors are huge and I could only find a small wreath form, so I added the burlap to help fill up some space. Jimmy said no girly bows, so this is our manly knot!

6. Handmade Gifts: My mom made so many things for me when I was little and I cherished them. Handmade things inspire creativity. The thought that there is not another one like it in the world and that it was designed specifically for me, always made me feel special!

My mom bubble mailed the boys these homemade place mats for their birthday. I love them! The boys always enjoy photos of their family.
Jonah just learned how to point.
For their first birthday I was just going to make them some felt finger puppets, but then decided that they needed a home. I love the idea of a quiet book for traveling or other times when the boys need to stay busy, so a quiet book it was!
I got a pattern for most of the animals from The Idea Room and a template for the barn from Homemade by Jill. The rest of the pages I sketched with Jimmy's help. It was fun!
Jungle/Pond Scenes
Farm/Arctic Scenes
Savannah/Forest Scenes
Pocket on the back for storing the animals.
Finger Puppets

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: Can anyone guess what was killed with this shoe?

10 comments:

  1. Love the footprints, Love the wreath, Love the banner, Love the placemats, LOVE the quiet book!!! LOVE it all. wish I had a fraction of your talent. you do such a great job!

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  2. Wow! You are crazy talented! I love all the birthday traditions - you have inspired me to start some for our family.

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  3. Ditto to all of the above. You are crazy talented! You could sell those books in the states for lots of money!
    Maureen
    Moerickson.blogspot.com

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  4. I came across this from seeing the finger puppets on the idea room. Your book for the puppets is amazing! I wish there was a pattern for it! Lovely!

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  5. i'm really impressed with your puppet book! i'd like one for my daughter but i havn't a clue how to sew, stitch, or anything of that sort. are you selling these by any chance? if not.. i really hope you consider lol because it is very cool! if you could drop me an e-mail at: miss_dean93@yahoo.com i'd be super excited.. thanks!

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    1. Thank you, you are very sweet! This would be a good beginning project for you! I bet you could do it, no problem. It just takes a little time. I used bits and pieces of coloring sheets as my templates and traced the shapes right onto the felt. If you didn't want to sew it you could just use fabric glue. I did by some real stiff sheets of white felt that I put it in between the pages I sewed back to back. I am sewing like a crazy woman for my little girl due in 6 weeks, and after that... well you know how that goes=)

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  7. Your quiet book looks AWESOME!!
    I'm currently making a quiet book for my little guy & I am also using the stiff felt as backing for his pages.
    I was curious as to how you made the holes on the side for the binder and also how you covered them.
    I would love to do the same for my quiet book.

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    1. They are just grommets. You can pick them up at a craft store and use a hammer to install them. You just need the little metal form that comes with them. You probably already figured that out by now since it took me so long to respond, sorry.

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