hankie bonnet...

Everyone is back to being healthy at our house. Gavin gets bragging rights for being the only one who did not catch the bug. Yes, that is right, poor Baby Teagan was sick last Tuesday. Her bout was fast though and she made a quick recovery.

I have a lot to share about what the Bowers have been up to, but I have been wanting to share this gift idea...

...forever and decided today is the day. The best thing about this gift is it is simple, inexpensive, but oh so special.

During my pregnancy my mom and dad were so good in getting us a cleaning lady to come while I was on bed rest. Best gift ever!! Joyce was her name, and she so sweetly gave the kids gifts after Teagan was born. One of the gifts was a hankie bonnet.

 I thought it was the sweetest thing! A bonnet for the baby to wear now, and then a hankie to use on their wedding day. You include this poem with the gift.

 If I were to give this gift I would probably print the poem on a nice piece of paper and tuck it and the bonnet inside an envelope for keeping.

It looks pretty simple to make, just a little folding and handstiching in the front and back.

 Hopefully you can see the simple hand-stitches in this photo.

Here are complete directions from this website on how to make one. You can even buy a hankie on their site!

I have cut and pasted the directions here for your use too:

Materials Needed Any handkerchief White Needle and Thread 1/4in Wide Ribbon Embellishments (Optional)
Directions How To Make A Hankie Bonnet Iron the handkerchief flat Fold one edge approximately one inch (this will be the back on the hankie). Depending the size of the hankie or the way you would like the bonnet to look, you may want to adjust this fold anywhere from 1 to 2 inches. Fold the opposite edge toward the first fold approximately 3 inches. Again, this length of this fold may depend on the size of your hankie. Make sure to leave some space between the two rows of lace. Press both folded edges with an iron. (Figure 2) Open the hankie and hand stitch running stitches along the first fold. Do not knot or finish this stitch off. Refold the hankie along the pressed line. Now with the first fold, pull on the thread to gather the hanky into a bonnet. (Figure 3) When the desired size is reached, secure the thread and finish the bonnet off by adding ribbon at the back of the bonnet. (Figure 4) Now with the second fold, take each corner and fold a small edge into the hankie (this will form a small triangle inside the bonnet) (Figure 5) Add a length of ribbon for tying onto each corner of the front of the bonnet. If desired, add small embellishments to add a decorative touch. (Figure 6) Congratulations you have made a wonderful hankie bonnet Hankie Bonnet Poem I am just a little hankie, as square as can be; But with a stitch or two, they've made a bonnet out of me. I'll be worn home from the hospital, and on special days, And then I'll be carefully pressed and neatly packed away. Then on the wedding, I have been told, Every well dressed Bride must have something old. So what would be more fitting than to find Little Old Me, A few stitches snipped and a wedding handkerchief I will be! And if per chance, it is a boy, someday he still will wed. So to his Bride he can present the handkerchief once worn upon his head.

Figure 1	Figure 2	Figure 3	Figure 4	Figure 5
Figure 6

father's day? ...rain check

On Sunday Mark was... a father. He cared for our children while I... puked. That is right everybody, I was sick as a dog sick. Mark joked at the end of the day that the collection of stuff on my nightstand looked liked extreme measures were being taken to keep me alive. I had planned a wonderful day for the most well deserving father, but we are going to take a rain check on those plans. And just as I was beginning to do better Sunday afternoon... Mark got sick. Blah!! Poor dad.

Have you ever watched Jimmy Fallon do his thank you note segment on the Late Show? It is hilarious! He writes ridiculous thank you notes with the cheesiest, dramatic music playing in the background. The segment makes me laugh hard, like bust out Bahhah laugh! Well here is my thank you note from Sunday.:

Thank you ice, Gatorade and Vernor's for helping my belly and re-hydrating my weak body
Thank you Joan... AKA Grandma for taking your grandson away from us. I know he would have been yelling for me to play airplane cars while I hung over the toilet.
Thank you good natured and good sleeping Baby Teagan for taking marathon naps that day.
Thank you sweet dogs Polly and Fisher for sitting patiently in your crate so you were not instead jumping and bouncing on the bed.
Thank you Ramen Noodles, even though you are so nasty, you were the only food that I could tolerte until today.
And finally, thank you to my husband for laughing with me about our agony and anguish.

:)

headed west...

I am being bad. The kids are sleeping, Mark is paddleboarding and instead of picking up the house I am blogging. Is it just me, or do your weekends do a dozy on your house? We had a relaxing Saturday morning and there are still dishes to do and c*&@# every where to pick up! I had to take a moment for myself and write this because I am so excited to share...

In less than a month our family is headed west to Colorado. If you have just started reading this blog we started a business in the mountains of Colorado just a little over 2 years ago. It is very seasonal so we have decided to spend most of our time in Florida where most of our businesses are, but head to the mountains in the summer to work... and play! Here is where we are headed...

Summit County Colorado!!

I am sad to leave our families and friends in Florida, but we are only leaving for two months... just in time to see the aspen trees change. And we have friends and family I am anxious and super excited to see out there! I also can't wait to hike, go to festivals and enjoy nights out on the deck roasting marshmellows. No joke, this is our backyard!

I am very excited!

I know some people wonder why the heck we would want to pack up and go to Colorado for 2 months, especially with a 2 year old AND a 3 month old. Well, this is what our pursuit is about. Mark and I agreed when we got married that we wanted to have a life full of experiences. I will admit that we are very much enjoying living back in Florida, but I believe change is good. The words of one of my favorite songs by the Indigo Girls goes like this, "I sailed my ship of safety until I sank it." and I believe that is true. I think in order to learn more about life people, the world and most importantly yourself sometimes you have to leave your comfort zone. It makes you grow more. So that is what we are doing. Life will be more crazy these next few weeks getting ready, but it will be worth it. A summer in the mountains? I'll take it. You wanna join us?
Wanna come visit??!!

summertime...

Our family's favorite summer time activity is swimming in the pool

Look who joined us for the first time yesterday...

We were all pretty excited!


And this is my favorite summer meal lately...

Antipasti platter. No cooking over a hot stove and heating the house up with an oven. I pretty much just buy everything, assemble and we are ready to munch. I did make bruschetta for this platter, but all this entails is throwing the ingredients in a food processor. No heat involved with that!

I used the last of the tomatoes my friend has been picking for me.

I am going to miss these!

What is your favorite summer meal?

can't get enough of this...

I can not get enough of this lately...

...and yes that is my Swiffer broom in the background! Gavin and I were cleaning and had, no joke, both stopped to hang out with her. We couldn't help ourselves!

Obviously Teagan was pretty happy that we did!

to the potty we go...

I have been wanting to update you all week on how our little man is doing learning to be a big boy! I will not go into to many details. If you don't care about this topic, please flip ahead!! I won't be offended!!! The people I have heard from that want to know how have plenty of time and I will tell you ALL about it when you are ready! I will give you the highlights now though!

I actually tried potty training when Gavin was only 19 months old. A friend, who read all the Baby Whisperer books told me that is what the author recommended, she was sold and after reading the book I was too. Bad idea, for us at least. It didn't work for Gavin or my friend. The kids were too young, but I do think it was good to introduce the potty early and after a family meeting, yes with Gavin included, we returned to diapers. I also didn't used Pull-ups as a transition to underwear. I have read this prolongs the process, but I know people who swear by these, so who is to say! After the 19 month try Mark and I continued to have Gavin use the potty every so often. The past few months we have had him go more regular and scheduled times throughout the day. Then, last Saturday, after he woke up for the day I dressed him in underwear and told him we were done with diapers! Starting Saturday, Mark and I together, kinda followed the method by Nathan H. Azrin and Richard M. Foxx. This method is for potty training in a day. I researched it on the internet and read about it and the other forms of potty training and signs of readiness in Toddler Wise. I am NO expert, but from what I have learned here is my best advice:

-- Only start when you see signs of readiness. If it doesn't work, try again in a few weeks or months. Don't push the child into readiness. We actually had a problem with Gavin starting to hit us when we tried at 19 months. Even at times away from the toilet. I think he was upset, frustrated and didn't have the words to express who he was feeling.
-- But do introduce the potty early so you don't have to work on the whole idea that going in the potty is    good!
-- The author of Baby Whisperer recommends a potty seat that fits directly over the potty. I used this at first, but Gavin seems to like the smaller potty. Maybe he feels more secure and independent.
-- If possible, have you child run around bottomless sometimes. We allowed this around our pool. It made Gavin more aware of his bodily functions and he started to learn to go in the garden. (Hope this isn't too much info!)
-- If you are not going to use Pull-ups get true cotton training underwear. I had to find these online, but have seen them in Baby's R' Us recently. I also got plastic covers for when we are going to be out. I am using Pull-ups if we are going to be some place wear a wardrobe change would be difficult, but I DON'T tell Gavin that these are ok to go in. He thinks there another kind of underwear.
-- Praise staying dry and clean. This is, I think the most important. Most people only praise going in the potty, but staying dry in clean is your goal. I check Gavin throughout the day and if he is dry and clean he gets a big BIG chip!
-- Praise, reward, sing, dance, call family... make the child super excited about his achievement.

...i love these pictures. :)


It has been a week since Gavin switched to underwear and we have only had one true accident and 3 half accidents. I say half because he will start to go and then realize what he is doing, stop, and ask to use the potty. Great-Grandma Bradich says these are NOT accidents if he stops and corrects himself so... we will go with that thought to up his score!

what a smile...

I had wanted to take time tonight to post more on Gavin's big accomplishments this week, but I have run out of blogging time. I spent tonight getting a splinter out of my finger. Mark helped me. I am the biggest baby. He kept on yelling at me that I gave birth with no drugs or epidural and here I was screaming about a little splinter! Thank goodness he is patient with m and we got it out.

I can't help sharing this photo tonight. I caught Teagan smiling on camera for the first time tonight. She has been smiling for a while, but her big inquisitve eyes get distracting by the big camera lens.

... i am so in love.

our big weekend...

Check out what we had scheduled for this weekend...

That is right! We potty trained this weekend!!

We spent a lot of time here...

and used these...

to celebrate him...

No accidents all weekend! We were all very excited.

To my readers-- if you would like to know how I went about potty training this little tike let me know. If not, I won't bore you with the details! Hope you all had a much more worldly, adventurous weekend!

what i wore wednesday...

I don't know, faithful readers, if I can keep up with this weekly post. I am not as good as Lisa Leonard. I hate to say, but life is too crazy to always have to post on a specific day and I told you not to expect much from my fashion. This past week I actually dressed up... more than once, but I didn't get a picutre of anything. The only thing I did get a pic of was this outfit I wore to take Gavin to the park.

 Tank and shorts-- Old Navy, Flip Flops-- The Compound, Gold Hoops-- Dillard's

I like the back interest!


Is it refreshing to see outfits from a real person or totally boring? We will see how this weekly post goes.