Hats for Haiti (just slightly tardy)

I am the queen of planning, but not always the queen of carrying out those plans.  This is why an executive decision was made to cancel school today for a service project. (one that we have been planning on doing for quite a while!)  We took all of our old shirts and turned them into cute little baby hats for premature babies in Haiti.  39 hats later, we are out of shirts. If any of you have some t-shirts laying around, we would love to transform them.  They can have holes or stains, as we cut the pattern out around those.    This was a great project for kids of all ages that can be kept busy with cutting, trimming thread, knotting the hats, etc. (Except 2 year olds, who tend to take cutting t-shirts as an invite to cut up their own, non-stained t-shirts.  Just warning you.  We caught Elise before she cut up her cute panda shirt, but you might not be so lucky!)

Lessons learned instead of the typical school: 1. To serve others (most important) 2. Where Haiti is and a little bit more about it 3. How to cut out a pattern 4. How to operate Mom's serger 5. How to recycle something that looks like it is destine for the trash into something very sweet and adorable 6. Service projects are fun! 7. Sometimes, school isn't all that important

After explaining to the girls that although Haiti is pretty hot, they still need these knit hats for the premature babies to keep their body temperature up.  I continued to tell them that this increases their chance for survival.  This is when Autumn started counting.  Every hat that she cut out came with the announcement that she had now saved ___ babies.  Next are baby quilts made out of (cute) old sheets.  Sounds trashy, but I swear that they are stinking cute.  We only do cute.  Pinky promise.