Vacation

We've had a vacation! Hurrah for us! Ed hasn't taken much time off of work since Buzz was born and so we thought it was about time he took a couple of weeks off to spend with us doing all sorts of fun things. We went to the zoo, ate ice cream for lunch, took a look at the hockey hall of fame, and generally had a good time. 

We ended the time off with a trip up the trans-canada highway to see my sister. I have two sisters, one living right here in the city with me, and another living an 8 hour road trip away. We were lucky enough that my Toronto sister was also heading up to see our road trip sister and so for the very first time we had all 5 of our children together. They all seemed to get along very well, and the chaos was kept to a minimum which was a bonus. 

Half way through our road trip we stopped at Science North in Sudbury. With our memberships to the Ontario Science Centre we are able to get into other science centres and museums for free, Science North is one of these places. We had a wonderful time and we will definitely be stopping there again, everything is very hands on and I think that is always a mark of a good museum.There were moments when Ed and I were enjoying the exhibits as much, if not more, then Buzz. Everyone was very approachable and the entire set up of the centre made it very easy to go from one floor to the next, best of all there was so much to look at. Here is a pic of Buzz and Ed playing in the sand and making waterways.

 

To enter Science North exhibits you go down a long rock tunnel, Ed lifted Buzz up so that he could touch the top of it.

After our stop we drove the rest of the way to my road trip sister's house and spent the next few days with herself, her husband, and their three kids. 

I made cookies with cookies inside. They were pretty tasty and the kids loved the novelty of it all. Find the recipe here.

We visited a park near my road trip sister's house, they boys were very fond of the pebble beach and the waterfall. They're both wearing hats that I've made for them, I thought they looked like Yoda and an Ewok while walking in the forest. These two got along famously, at 4 and 2 and a half they seem to be a good age match. Buzz is happy to follow his cousin around, and his cousin is happy to let him do so.

Now that we're back in town we seem to be in need of a vacation from our vacation. Buzz is now getting over his first ever ear infection, while I managed to get tonsillitis. We're all feeling much better than we were a couple of days ago, but I think we'll be laying low for the next couple of days so that we will be feeling better for thanksgiving. 

Buzz is having a nap today and while he was sleeping I made a holder for his cars and small toys. I would love to provide a full tutorial, but I didn't take quite enough photos, no worries though, I'm hoping to give you enough of a run down that you can make your own.

I used a sturdy red fabric for the back piece of the holder, this was a scrap piece that I happened to have and was already just over 10" wide. I cut it so that it was 40" in length and then folded it in half so that it measured 10"x 20" . This piece could be any size depending on the size of the holder that you want to make and the amount of fabric that you have available.

I cut three pieces of grosgrain ribbon (with polka dots). I trimmed the ends so that they wouldn't frey, folded them over and sandwiched these three pieces between the ends of the top of the large red piece. These pieces are going to become the ties on the top of the holder,  you may want to use more ties if the holder you are making is very wide. I sewed the edges of the red piece being careful to leave a space open to turn the piece right side out.

I cut three pieces of rainbow fabric measuring about 8"x14". I folded them lengthwise and then sewed the long edge and one short edge. I then turned these three pieces right side out and top-stitched a long side on each of them. I attached these pieces to the large red piece by cutting pinning  and then sewing the short ends to the red piece, be sure to get them even, measure them if you have trouble eyeballing them. These pieces are going to look too large but they are supposed to be that way. Find the middle of the rainbow piece and sew it down along the centre line of the red piece. I created the pockets by folding the excess over on either end to create pleats and then sewing across the bottom of the pockets.

Once I sewed the all of these pieces together I attached pieces of elastic in between. I used wide elastic to better hold the cars, be sure to use a long enough piece of elastic, probably 13 or 14 inches, so that there is plenty of room for the cars. If your elastic is super stretchy then use a little less in length, if the elastic is not terribly stretchy, use a little more.

I hung up this car holder in our living room on a rail that we purchased from Ikea. We have a couple containers hanging on the rail as well and Buzz's toy box sits underneath. This car pouch would also work well on the back of a seat in a car.

I surprised myself with the ease in which I finished everything. I usually mess something up along the way, but the hanging car holder turned out wonderfully. I will definitely be taking this on future road trips, I love that I can simply untie it while its full of toys and tie it to the back of a seat in the car.