Spring and spring break

When the weather gets warmer, baseball becomes interesting.  First it is catch with Dad, in the cooler first days, and then it is time for Scrub. Improvised baseball for smaller numbers. 

Melanie managed to organize several afternoons worth of games. I even joined in twice. 

It is no small feat to get your siblings to play the game long enough to make it exciting. Especially when they don't like loosing, and want to be at bat, not in the outfield!

Melanie also convinced her younger siblings to help her in the strawberry garden.  She is hoping to have a fence this year, to outwit the squirrels. 

Matthew tried out his tie dye kit. I suggested he use the colours he dislike the most to see how it went.  Sure worked great!! He donated the shirt to Jennifer, and let Melanie finish off the colours before they dried up.

Sandbox weather! 

Evelyn pulled water over to make the sandbox more interesting. 

Matthew has been enlisted by me for help around the house this spring and summer.  Nathan is old enough for a job, but Matthew and Melanie, poor kids, will be employed by me (no paychecks :( ) with jobs. Don't worry, I feed them well, and even hope to entertain them with outings (with their younger siblings who also shall help, but not as much) when we can find things that are not locked down plus are interesting. We are finished our Science History Literature etc, and only have the 3Rs to worry about. And lots of gardening! And maybe some construction projects.

A late spring break started in Ontario.  Matthew was signed up for a week of Air Cadet activities.  It all had to be virtual, so he was pretty busy that week, setting goals for himself of getting a certain amount of "points" per day.

Daniel used his extra time to finish up his robot costume. 

Melanie designed a small quilt to match her big one. So she could practice free motion quilting on a smaller piece before tackling the bigger one.

Evelyn did her piano practice every day. 

Matthew getting lots of screen time in because it is "Cadets work".

The robot just got scarier. 

Matthew rotolilled a section of the garden for me.

And Melanie did some too! Turns out she can even start it all on her own....she did that today so that Matthew could till my "potato garden " too.

Daniel helped Evelyn make a robot costume too.

Melanie got brave and started the big quilt!!

Jennifer has been working on a rug. Lots of fleece fabric to sew in tubes and turn inside out. Melanie is not letting her start another project until this one is done. She is plugging away at it.

Binding bonding. Both girls are hand stitching the bindings of their quilts. 

The free motion quilting turned out! It was pretty intimidating, but Melanie is happy with how it turned out. She watched a lot of how to videos online first and practiced on smaller quilts...maybe this is why she helped Jennifer with a quilt? Another one to practice on! :p

Matthew and Daniel bought a big Lego set together, and built it together too. They were a great team! We shall see how sharing it over the long term works, but Matthew was very generous, and gentlemanlike!

I think Melanie is addicted to quilting...she is designing another one as soon as she is mostly done her biggest quilt. So much free fabric is sooo much fun!!

The rest of March and all the way to today April 5!!!!!

Nathan spent many hours on Kijiji trolling for a "new to you" organ. He was disappointed a week before from missing a good deal. But then this was an even better deal! More money but more value. Surprisingly Nathan had met the guy who was selling the organ for his friend, and they cut him an even better deal.

Jennifer tried some calligraphy, but roped me into doing it for her.

Dried leaves and flowers from last year had been collected, and the girls made some decorations with them.

Evelyn made herself an apron.  Probably Jennifer helped. She and Jennifer just go off and do things.  Usually they ask first about what fabric they can use if they aren't sure. They also made "moccasins". Evelyn decorated hers later, with fabric paint.

Jennifer's final work or art.

Jennifer made herself an apron, a dress, and moccasins.  The dress, she said is expandable for when she gets taller. Which hopefully isn't too soon. 

While I was off for an afternoon Melanie orchestrated the building of another fort. Their father's cordless drill came in handy! I was told that a railing was not necessary as they are all such good climbers.  Nobody had better get seriously hurt because the hospital was not fun before, now it is seems worse than a jail from what I hear! Please be careful!

A communal project  -- a map of the property. 

Spring is officially here!!

Believe it or not, my orchid survived a year AND is flowering again!

Jennifer and Evelyn were having a drawing contest. If I overheard them correctly they were going for the ugliest person, and were only allowed five colours.

My walk in closet is being redesigned.

"Lockdown" number three begins. Fortunately we could be in church in the morning, but the rest of the day was at home. Evelyn suggested an outdoor fire. And marshmallows. 

Great idea!

It was a lovely evening!

Evelyn is 8!!

Evelyn was busy on her birthday, starting with making party hats before breakfast!

Blueberry pancakes were a great way to start the day!

She looked lovely all dressed up!

We tried a board game but it was too confusing, so we quit.

Melanie made a cake and Evelyn helped decorate it.  She chose blueberries,  which was delicious!

It looked amazing too!

Hard to believe that she is 8 years old already. Growing up so fast! Fun, creative, sensitive, sweet. That's our Evelyn!

She got a game from her siblings--looks like fun! They are running out of ideas of what to make for her, since she has so much already!

Cards from family. 

Evelyn got right into building Lego.  And handled the big set no problem. 

Because the weather was not good, we went for a short bike ride, but planned to go to a park in a week or two when we were not busy and the weather was good.

That was today! And we found a really amazing looking park. Not too far away,  thankfully. 

The slides were really long, so the kids built up a lot of static by the time they got to the bottom. 

It was pretty busy, even in "emergency brake" covid circumstances. Evelyn wants to go back again, so I guess that means it was a good choice! (Maybe she'd say that about any park ;) )