I quickly sewed this up last Friday afternoon for her birthday dress (the next day). I originally wanted the girls to draw animals and then hand embroider their drawings, but there just wasn’t time. I did an elastic collar and waist, it was originally supposed to have longer sleeves, but I got scissor happy and cut them off one side, so I had to do it to the other, but then one side happened to be shorter than the other, so oh well. It ended up cute anyway. The girls said the top looked like lemur tails, so I guess it was perfect for her birthday outing to the zoo.

This week, the girls have been off on vacation galavanting with my parents. We stayed in San Diego this past weekend, and my parents happened to plan a trip there for the week, so we dropped the girls off with them on Sunday night at their hotel. It’s been so quiet here and I’m getting lots done, but I miss the happy (and chaotic) noise here. We worked hard these past couple weeks to get ahead in school work to be able to allow them to go, so I’ve been using my time to catch up on projects and house stuff.

I’m learning everyday how to be a better parent. There’s always room for improvement, so I’m trying. While I do miss them, it is also a welcomed break, but I think some time off from the everyday does everyone some good from time to time. My parents still work, thus they don’t really get to spend time with the girls that often, so I’m sure they’re loving getting to shower them with love (and probably other things) for a whole week. I’m sure we will have to do a little bit of reseting when they get back, but I’m so glad they get to create memories with their grandparents. Ben had a much harder time letting them go off for a week, but he understood that I welcomed the break and that they get to enjoy their Grammy and Grumpy.

on me: dress, she inside (awhile back). shoes, steve madden (from about 5 years ago). on true: denim shirt dress & leopard sneakers, c/o old navy. on brave: dress, vintage. denim shirt & ballet slippers, c/o old navy. on soul: heart tee & striped mini, c/o old navy. shoes, salt-waters. on glow: play dress, c/o old navy. shoes, vintage.

This post is sponsored by Old Navy. I’m thankful for your continuous support of this space and the brands I partner with.

Their first day of school was to their enrichment classes (we homeschool, but they go to a school once a week), and they each picked what outfit they wanted to wear the night before. Brave picked her birthday dress and True picked out this dress that we made together for my book, Let’s Sew Together. I have don’t have a pattern to share for Brave’s, but if you want to make True’s dress, there are instructions and a pattern for it in my book. It’s actually reversible too! Their backpacks are also projects in the book, and their lunch bags were projects in the pre-order packets that came with the book if you pre-ordered it.

I also love how True wanted to channel Hello Kitty, so she took her cat headband and added a bow to it. When Brave saw these pictures, she said, “I love that picture of me. It looks like I’m flying to school!”

Oh these girls! I can hardly believe they are in second and third grade already.

Brave’s birthday was robot themed, so I made her this special “A Robot in a Pocket Dress.” Her original request was a Transformer party before that changed to a robot one, so since she loved Optimus Prime so much, we put a little one in her pocket. She loves that little guy. Since I’m always running out of time, I went for the simplest style for her dress. I used a lightweight denim (same as my dress here) and I think I cranked this out in 45 minutes (or maybe less).

She had a full birthday weekend, but we made sure to stop by the San Diego Zoo Safari Park before going home. Our passes are set to expire soon, so we’re trying to go as much as we can before the end of September. We got our passes for Glow’s birthday last year and we will probably go again for her birthday this year.

This is a dress I made earlier this summer to take along with me on our trip to Singapore (and to wear many more times after that). It’s inspired by this Ace & Jig dress I’ve always liked, but I’m not a fan of racerback tops, so I did my own tweaking and tinkering to come up with one that would work for me. I thrifted this linen fabric at the thrift store and knew it would be perfect for a summer dress. There are no darts since it’s just a loose dress, but I did do simple pleats all around the skirt. I really love being able to make my own clothes. To me, it’s like shopping, but without spending any money, especially when this fabric was only $5 for 5 yards of it!

wearing: necklace, shop miquez. bag, thrifted. clogs, c/o lotta from stockholm.

These girls are goofy and playful. If you met them, they would be absolutely silent and you wouldn’t get to see how silly they really are because they are super shy, but they are so funny (when they aren’t shy)! True is the shyest, and we think about putting her in traditional school to see if that would make a difference with her shyness, but we don’t think it would. I think if she were in traditional school, she would easily get overlooked in a classroom because she would stay on task, but she’s just so quiet, she would get lost. The other girls aren’t nearly as shy, but they follow her lead when we’re out and about. When they aren’t with her, they are much more outgoing. It’s so interesting how the oldest really influences the rest of them.

As parents of a very shy child, I find it difficult because she can come across rude and it may seem like we don’t teach them politeness. We are constantly reminding her that even if she feels shy, she can still be polite and greet people. We practice how to greet others (like here) and they meet other kids often, but sometimes that shyness just takes over. It can be so frustrating! She’s such a sweet girl, but it just takes some time for her to come out of her shell. We had a large group of friends over a couple weeks ago (with their kids), and I think it took about an hour to break out of the shyness, but once she did, oh man… all the kids were running around the house. We just need to remember to be patient with her, keep practicing, give her opportunities to practice, and praise her when she takes steps forward (and be encouraging when she needs it). One plus of them being shy is that when we are out in public, especially when dining out, they are pretty behaved. It makes us look like we have really great parenting!

But when they are with people they are comfortable with, they (even True) are squirrelly children. We are always laughing at the funny things they say and do. Soul’s always saying, “Stop laughing. Why are you laughing?!” It’s so cute.

Any of you have super shy children or were shy as a child? What are some things you did or your parents did to help you feel more comfortable engaging others? We understand their shyness is part of them and we love that, but we also want them to have a healthy balance of being able to engage others and not letting their shyness hinder them.

on me: dress, vintage from ms. tips. shoes, swedish hasbeens. necklace, handmade. on true: dress, handmade pattern in my book. leopard shoes, c/o old navy. on brave: dress, handmade by me. shoes, zara. on soul: top, misha lulu. denim skirt and jellies, c/o old navy. on glow: dress, from auntie reinna’s travels. shoes, vintage.