Projects

Matthew has been very crafty lately, this tent (complete with sleeping bags) was one of the first...and he has made two purses, cards, and countless other things.  Almost all of them are following instructions from "the jumbo books of crafts" a purchase from Value Village's bookshelf.

Nathan made a rig, and the logs are being loaded.  He made a loader later too, not sure if it worked with pencil crayons or not.

Beautiful spring day

Evelyn's birthday!

 "ber-day" "cake!" "mine!"

Evelyn had Peter over, and for a two and almost 2 year old, they played together for a bit
even, and pretty well at that.  Aside from having him over for a morning visit, and a cake (with the obligatory birthday song) that was the extent of the party.  She was happy with that!

 She found the song embarrassing even though she'd been practicing for months. ;) 

 But eating the cake was no trouble. ;)

Evelyn is spoiled by having five older siblings to make and give stuff to her.  But five to defend her gifts from too: "No, no mine! no touch my present!" was said at least once!

Waiting for present time in the evening was pretty manageable since she could understand the routine.  Lots of curious people hovered when the time came, to see if their suspicions are confirmed or not.  Nathan made a finger knitting snake (and had to put the head back on after it was unwrapper. ;).

Evelyn decided to go fishing with her double pompom Melanie made.

So

Sew...

finally I made Jennifer a skirt, she'd asked since I made Melanie's (on right) and I was too busy moving to be accommodating.  But at last she got one.  It was a lot easier to make than Melanie's, her only criteria was that it had to be long.  The fabric isn't strong though-or I'm just too careless-I tore a hole it it already (but it's so small and in a discreet spot that I'm pretending it's not there).

Sew...thanks Chris for your leftover fabric! :)

Our place pro and con

The south end of our property, looking south-you can see the golf course we are backing onto.  You can see a row of houses there too. 

Both of these pics are of one of our upstairs bathrooms.  Note the skylight and the past water problems from some roofing issue.  We have two "Jack and Jill" style bathrooms upstairs-you can see that the doors look short-they are!  Even the showers are shorter.   The kids are always running through the doors into each other's rooms (they only are accessible via a bedroom, not through the halls) and wreaking havoc on any sense of privacy that one can develop in a shared bedroom.  These bathrooms drive me bananas! :o   

But now we can all go pee at the same time when it's time to go to church.  :p
(Actually I plan to lock one up because the doors are getting busted. :o )

A Moment passes inside

 Nathan is making round 2 of a "Pigaroon" inspired shower system.  Daddy's liking for buttermilk comes in handy a lot lately!

 Jennifer likes to see how things are going, and have him explain what it is and how it works and what he'll do with it.

 Evelyn takes the time when everyone has left out their games and not put them away to see how well she can do them.

 And Melanie, Matthew and Daniel have formed a rowdy crowd up in Matthew's room.

 "Why are you here Mom?"

 "Oh, I see, she has come with her camera!"

 "Why are you taking pictures?"

And a bonus picture of a chatterbox!  She tells us long stories now, and we can usually understand them too!

Enjoying the good old outdoors

 "Mommy me doggie"

 We had really sticky snow during the thaw, and since it was much anticipated, it was put to use, soggy and melting quickly

 "It is SO nice and warm out today Mom!"

 "It's beautiful out!"

 "See I don't even need a coat!"

 "I helped Nathan make his fort!"

 (me too)

 "It melted a lot so we had to pack a lot of snow between the walls-it took like an hour to get it fixed."

 "It's slippery!"

 Nathan and Melanie tried to make a fort here by our old basketball court?? but as the wood was just propped up it fell over in the wind. 

 "Are you going to come see our fort?"

 "It's this way..."

 (Ha!  I can't believe Mom just threw a snowball at Melanie!)

 "You better watch out!"

 "This is the play set beside my fort, this is the door where you go in and play."

 "And Matthew and my fort is way out this way by the hill where you can sit and look and only see nature!"

 "Rarr!!!!!!!!"

Little "rarr"