Themed Weeks for Summer Fun

I thought it would be fun to do themed weeks for each week this Summer. Each day of the week we will do something that has to do with the theme; a craft, visit some place, color something, or bake something. I figured out that we will have 13 weeks until school starts so these are the themes that I came up with and the ideas that I have so far to go with the themes.

Cousins Week; We will visit our cousins (the ones who live an hour away), learn about cousins that live in other states, collect things that they love and send mail to them.

Dinosaur Week; Go to the dinosaur park, go to a dinosaur museum, make dinosaur cakes, color in dinosaur coloring books, read dinosaur books from the library.

Vehicles Week; Go see giant trucks at a mine, ride on a train, go to a train museum, color a vehicles coloring book, read vehicle books from the library, drive mini race cars at the sports complex, watch Cars.

Fish Week; Go to the aquarium, go fishing, visit a store that sells fish, sew a fish craft, read books about fish from the library.

Animal Week; Visit friend's baby animals, go to a baby animal farm, go to the zoo, read animal books, watch animal movies on Netflix (National Geographic documentaries), ride a horse at a friend's house.

Park & Picnic Week; Play at a new park each day and take a picnic lunch or dinner.

Rock Week; Collect rocks from around our neighborhood, visit a museum that has special rocks, go hiking, learn about what the different rocks are made of, go to an indoor rock-climbing gym, paint rocks "pets".

Water Week; Visit different swimming pools or splash pads, go to a lake, learn about water conservation and water safety, freeze plastic animals in water and chip away at the ice (learn about ice).

Garden & Nature Week; Visit the local botanical garden, visit a children's garden, learn about the plants we have in our yard, go on an "I Spy" walk and take pictures.

Ball Week; Go bowling, play basketball at a park, play baseball, learn about different balls and how they are used, play foosball, play ping pong, sew our own stuffed balls out of fabric scraps.

Food Week; Go on factory tours (we have several free tours in our area), have the kids help prepare meals that they choose, tour a dairy, play with plastic food, learn about healthy foods.

Service Week; make and deliver a plate of cookies/treats to someone who needs a smile, walk around the neighborhood and pick up garbage we find, surprise a neighbor by weeding their flower bed, clean out our closets and toys and donate the things we don't need/use, design and sew a blanket for humanitarian aid.

Friend Week; Schedule to play with a different friend each day of the week, make friendship crafts for/with friends, send mail to friends who live far away.

What are your ideas for these themes?
Linking to Craft-O-Maniac

Embellished Toddler Tee & Capris

My niece is turning one today! In honor of her birthday, I embellished a ruffled tee shirt and capris that I purchased at Kohls. I like their Jumping Beans line of infant and toddler clothing because so far they have run true-to-size and they don't shrink after the initial wash. I started with some fabric scraps that my sister and I both love. I cut a 1 1/2 inch strip of fabric that was about 12 inches long. I folded over the edges and ironed it to form an enclosed strip for a ruffle. Then I sewed a straight stitch down the middle of it to keep the fabric together. Next I sewed down the middle of it again, on the thinnest part of the fabric, using the longest straight stitch. Then I gathered the fabric and, folding the ends under, sewed the new ruffle in the middle of original white ruffles.

Next I cut a heart shape out of scrap paper and used that as a pattern to cut the fabric and fusible webbing. After peeling the paper backing off of the heart, I ironed it onto the front of the tee shirt after first making sure that it was in the middle of the front of the shirt. Because the shirt is knit, I ironed a square of fabric stabilizer onto the inside of the front of the shirt. Then I used a decorative stitch to sew the heart onto the shirt.

I had some heart buttons so I sewed them onto each end of the new ruffle and I replaced the original non-functioning button on the front of the pants. I also sewed the hearts onto the front pockets and the outside of the legs of the capris.  I like how it turned out ~ a sweet heart outfit for a loved little girl.