Quiet Book DONE!

Hurray! I finished a project! I made a quiet book for the kids to play with at church. My sister made the cutest page for her book and it inspired me to make my own. I think it was the most fun project I have ever done- I really enjoyed making the pages and thinking of fun activities. I always go overboard, though. Derek kept telling me: "just make a book that the boys will enjoy playing with and stop obsessing over it". I thought about taking his advice, but then I would revert to my craziness and pretty soon I was hand sewing Swarovski crystals onto my rainbow. Anyway, it's done and I like how it turned out, and I thought I would document it in its pristine condition before it gets dirty and all the pieces get lost. Maybe I can be somewhat zen like about its destruction if I have plenty of pictures of it.

Here's the cover. It closes with velcro.

I put a pocket in the back to hold the toy car, extra felt pieces and whatever else we might want at church.

I started out with a classic- the apple page. Most quiet books have this one. The apples just snap off and go in the basket.

Like that.

Treasure chest page- This one was tricky to make, but I think it is fun to play with. It has a tiny lock, and the key is hidden behind the starfish. You open the chest and there are beautiful jewels inside! The jewels can be color sorted into the colored pouches on the other page.

Jason still needs help opening the lock, but he's getting it.

See? Beautiful jewels. I glued and sewed felt onto the backs of the jewels so they stay in the chest better.

Clock and Flower pages.

You practice buttoning the flowers on and off. It can also be a color matching game, but I think the flowers look prettier with the colors mixed up. I found a free template on the web- I didn't make this pattern up myself. I think it is really cute, though.

Cuckoo Clock page. The hands of the clock move and hopefully it helps teach the kids how to tell time and their numbers.

My favorite pages! The car pages. I made a map with all of our favorite places to go. The traffic signs are velcro so they can be moved around. Jason loves this one!

Our house, the park, whole foods.

Target, the Jungle (a jungle gym/arcade), jamba juice and the gas station. Seriously, these two pages compromise 85% of our lives. I need to do another one with Cost-co, the church and the library and we will be up to 98%. I cut out all of those teeny tiny letters. I have no life and am obsessive. And crazy.

Mirror and Shoe pages.

This one is just kind of silly. It's a mirror with a funny mustache and beard and eyeglass. They are stickers, so you can change them out if you want to. It actually kind of works if you close one eye while you're looking at it.

The tie your shoe page- another classic.

Noah's ark and the animals.

These were some of the first pages I made- I had so much fun making these guys. They all snap on and off. I only made one elephant, tiger and lion (and Noah). I guess only one of the pair got to get out and play after the rain. That's ok. After 40 days and nights I would probably need a little alone time away from my partner also. (Just kidding, sweetie.)

They can all be zipped into the ark.

They're in there.

Vegetable Garden and Basket. I saw this on someone else's quiet book and thought it was a really cute idea. You pull the veggies up from the garden and put them in the basket.

The bunny comes off, too. This page was pretty easy to make but I had to re-do the beets twice. I wanted them to be a little hard to pull out, and I just didn't make the stems strong enough. The first time Jason played with them, he just ripped the stems off. He kept saying "Uh oh.... broke again. That's ok, that's ok, we'll fix it." I didn't really think it was ok, but I did finally fix it. Lately he just fills in whatever he hopes I will say for me. For instance, he will say in one long sentence: "Can I play in the mud? Okay, okay you can do that. Thank you". Or if he's about to get in trouble (like he just spilled his milk for the 8th time) he says "That's ok, don't worry, don't cry mom, we'll fix it." It's kind of hard to get mad at him these days- he is so funny.

So... the veggies come out.

And you put them in the basket! Not too exciting, but probably more entertaining than church.

Paper Doll Guy. Derek had some concerns when I told him I was making a doll- he thought it was too girly- so I let him decide what to dress him up as.

The little dude. I was going to leave him naked, but I thought it might offend some delicate sensibilities at church so I put some shorts on him.

This was the other option. Ha ha, just kidding. I thought about just giving him a fig leaf and calling him Adam, but that would most definitely offend somebody. He looks much more scandalous with the fig leaf on than he does without it.

Okay, Derek's first pick- a Jazz Man!

Derek's second pick- a Ninja. He had a sword, but I already lost it. I think I will give him a pet dragon, though, pretty soon.

I picked this one- a Pirate!

And there you have it- my quiet book. I loved making it. And Derek was so wonderful- he put up with the dining room table being a big mess for the past two months, and he noticed and complimented every little thing on my book. He didn't bat an eye at the 32 Joann's fabric store trips I made. He also frequently added- "If I were Jason, that would be the first thing I would pull off." He's probably right. Let's hope Jason got a couple non-destructive genes from me to temper all of Derek's. Anyway- what I'm saying is: I love that guy- he's the greatest :). Thanks for looking at my quiet book- I already kind of miss making it- maybe Brett needs his own? (Shh... don't tell Derek- he thinks I am done).