home life

 I've been nagging Melanie to keep going on her latch hooking. She is making progress if I nag. Maybe she'll be done by April.

 Decor in the girls' bedroom. (Melanie's style)

 Double trouble.

 Finally, the first curtain I made for this house. It's four Mission Thrift Store curtain panels ($3 each) sewn together and/or trimmed to make two panels. The flowers were hard to resist. :)

 Evelyn loves adding letters to her pictures. Sometimes there is a story written down (ask her to tell it to you though, 'cause they aren't phonetic so you can't sound them out!).

 Daniel hasn't been enjoying his math. Odd. Everyone else loves it. ;)

 Jennifer is nice and patient waiting for me to be free to do work with her.

 Evelyn comes up to me. "I am a bakery." Okay. Baker, maybe. ;)

 Keeping at it...only 1/8 to go!

 Nathan is bonding with me during his school. Or picking up a pencil. Or fiddling.

 Jennifer and her homemade backpack.

Go fly a kite

 Usually Matthew needs a lot of nudges to finish a big project if he is working on it and having trouble. This time I thought the project was forgotten again and never to be finished.  But then on Saturday Matthew pulled it out again and finished it!

 Melanie helped Matthew get it off the ground.

 Once up it sure took off! If only I'd known homemade kites worked that well when I was a kid! (We owe Janet thanks for passing on a great kite making book)

The tallest tree in the center row of background trees is where the kite landed. Near the very top. Fortunately we managed to rescue it...would have been a shame to loose all that hard work in such a short time!

Golfing on the frozen and brown green.

 Not being professional golfers, my children aren't aware that February is not the season for golfing. If you dress appropriately the cold doesn't need to be a hindrance!

We only found one club (less a plastic handle) on our walks on the golf course next door...so the kids have to share. Having a putter would certainly be an added bonus. 

 The golfing ramp, we found, could be improved with some edges and carpet over it...to make getting the ball in that hole a little less challenging once you are almost there!

Lots of fun...the extra challenges just require some alterations or extra effort to overcome.

Matthew is 10!!

 Hard to believe that Matthew is 10 years old already.

 Matthew wanted a treasure hunt...so I made sure it kept him busy for a while. He wasn't happy that the clues led him outside...despite that, he survived the elements.

 Melanie stepped in to help. It was too long and difficult to keep Matthew interested on his own. Oops.

 I am pleased that he made his own cake. I mixed up the icing and spread the base, and Matthew added the final touches.

 Matthew wanted to go minigolfing again. It was fun again.

 And the cake was tasty!

 A handmade bookmark

 And a handmade outdoor putting "range" with some used golf balls to go with it.

 Using a handmade knife as a letter opener. ;)

 Card reading.

What a joy it is to have Matthew in our family. He is a bit more artistic in style and thought and more outgoing than the other children.  And just as wonderful. :)

Playing

 We have been working hard. The heavy load of school ought to be done, if things go smoothly, by the middle of May. Math and other important things will carry over through spring and summer. In the mean time, although we are working hard we still have time to relax too.

 Nathan and Melanie finally got into the Mysterious Benedict Society books. They patiently waited on the shelves after Oma gave them, they knew their value and that they would be appreciated eventually.

 Matthew made a fort, photocopying the blueprint from a school book. He firsts asks permission to do something extra in free time from his school book...of course you can do bonus work! My picture did not do justice to it.

 Evelyn made her own mask. From scratch. And taped the purple teeth on for extra effect. I think we should get her boxes and boxes of scotch tape for her birthday. :p

 Weather was so warm the kids got out their flip flops and went out in bare feet.

 Look at all those bare feet!

 Jennifer is going to loose a tooth soon!

 (I am so glad it is finally out!)

 Evelyn supervised Matthew baking.

 While a Qwirkle game went on.

And Nathan started a new Technic project. I think this one was a quad.

The mighty Amazon river

For February the weather got very warm! And it rained. And was foggy.

So, as happens most springs, but only for a day or two, we had flowing water! Check out the depth!

 When telling others about the stream I was surprised to hear just how wide and deep they were measuring this vast river.

 They kids go see how it is. Shovels are brought, for adjusting the stream.

 Boats are taken upstream.

 Then the boats are followed back downstream. It was warm enough that shorts were preferred. At least your pants do not get wet!

 Daniel has a boat as well...keeping track of the progress.

I convinced Evelyn to come out too. She has much shorter boots and has a hard time walking through...and maybe she does not like to get her feet wet. Since she did not have a boat I found her some puffy seed pods that floated fairly well and we threw whole bunch in and followed them. If a pesky vine pops up everywhere along the banks of the stream bed we will know why!