Two things....

THIS (click on it mom and it will take you to the link) girl is wise beyond her years! 

and this is cool.

You are welcome.

Really Busy

We've been busy...

Meet Pete

This is Pete.

Created by Max and his cousin, with the help of the neighbor boy.

The neighbor named him.

He keeps away pesky birds that may try to eat our freshly planted seeds.

At least that is what he is supposed to do.

He is also really good at standing up in the wind, rain and snow.

Strong man Pete with industrial strength gloves.

Tutorial for Pete:

Tennis Racket

Old Clothes

Your best garden gloves

Painters tape and when that doesn't work: packing tape.

and a stick or pipe

Hammer in the pipe or stick and tape everything else on.

(I will work on a tutorial for Nylon Ned)

A fun site

I have a new little site I like.

If you like to sew you may want to check IT out.

Meet Nylon Ned

Nylon Ned followed Max home from scouts one day.

He was bald but had a cute little face, so we kept him.

He doesn't require any food, just a bit of water each day.

He must really like our water, because he is no longer bald.

(Max thinks that if he ever makes one of these again he will put seeds in the nose and ears....just to make it more realistic looking  :o)  )

Spring Break?

This is what we woke up to this morning.

What did you do for spring break?  

We dug out our snow-clothes and went outside to play.

And the pretty purple blossomed trees.  All over the city you could see them broken by the weight of the snow.

Easter

We had fun coloring eggs on Saturday while it was raining outside.

The kids went with a fruit theme.  Watermelons, peaches, raspberries etc.

On Sunday they woke up and found their Easter Baskets.  Then smashed confetti eggs on each other.

And ate some candy. (Sam was wishing he could have a peep in his mouth.

And played with their Easter toys.  

Once everyone was ready for church we headed out on the Easter egg hunt in the yard.

What gorgeous weather we had for Easter.

Then everyone struck a pose in front of the early blooming forsythia.

We had a delicious dinner at my parents in the evening and all the cousins got together for some great pictures.  We learned from last year to go on the east side of the house.  We had an Easter egg hunt there as well.  So much fun.

Stages

Sam is pulling himself up to things.  He's definately not on the walk before your a year schedule.  And that is A-okay with me.

He makes me a little nervous though.  

First he gets his hands up and pulls his upper body up.

Then he uses his toes to slowly push himself toward the object.  

In the last month he has cut a lot of teeth and now has all four on top and one on the bottom.

Have you read A Series of Unfortunate Events?

The little sister's main strength is her teeth.  

She hangs off of tables with only her teeth gripping them.

Sam has found his teeth to be a source of strength also.

He bites on AND pushes with his toes for greater strength.

You see why I'm nervous?

I don't see those teeth lasting long if things continue this way.

Especially with all the "love" (see foot to the tush) he gets from his sister.

But he does it.  He pulls himself up to his knees.

And from there it's a breeze.

Until he gets more "love" from his sis.

Mulan

Jadey has the most amazing teacher this year.  She had an amazing teacher in third grade and her first grade teacher was pretty good too.  Her teacher this year is the the play director for their school.  She did plays back in the day, and now she directs them.  Actually, back in the day would be like 5 years ago or something like that, she's pretty young.

The school play/musical for this year is Mulan.  Jadey decided to try out and was cast as a mom and hun.  It follows the disney movie, the music is the same.  So for a month or two now we have been (more like she, I should have been more so) engrossed in learning everything for the play.  I have played it down.  She didn't have a speaking part etc.  

Well those 2 hour, nearly daily, practices have paid off. Last night we got there 40 minutes early to a nearly already packed gymnasium. It was AMAZING.  She was amazing.  She looked beautiful and graceful and knew all the dances.

I felt a little slothful for having not done her mother costume better.  I had no idea what others were doing.  So this morning I sewed her a belt type thing for her dress and fixed her wig up higher.

I got a few pictures.  For where I was sitting my camera did an excellent job.  I've got it all figured out for Reed tonight.  I brought Max last night and he had a hard time seeing, so when Reed brings Emily tonight we have it all figured out where they should sit.

Jadey the mother.

Jadey the Hun (she's the tall one with the lighter shirt).

Cake Pops

The above photo was from the site Bakerella.  They look so easy.  Make a cake.  Mix it with frosting.  Dip it in Chocolate.  Add the embellishments.
This is what we ended up with.  Big bird.  I couldn't find writable markers (okay I only looked at one store, but it was the most likely store to have it around here.)  I couldn't find the little chips to make the beak.  We tried tic tacs.  Those ended up looking like muppet characters.  Moral of the story: if you want it to look like bakerellas you better do what she did.

Learning.

Iris Krasnow, “I used to think I could do everything, that my babies would be fine squeezed into the rest of my To Do list. Today I know that children must rise to the top of the list, and that list must dwindle considerably.”

I think I have might have learned this. FINALLY.

Taffy

When I was about 8 years old some of my parents friends brought a puppy over as a Christmas gift.  It was white and fluffy and so small.  I loved it.  We named it Taffy.

She was the friendliest dog.  We played and played with her.  My mom was a great sport and made wedding outfits for her and the dog down the street when we found out Taffy was going to have puppies.  She had her first batch of puppies on April first.  I remember well because my friend wouldn't believe me.  She was sure it was an April fools joke.

She would wander the next door field with us and protect us from imagined danger.  Once she jumped into the fast flowing canal and began to go down stream.  I screamed for her and ran after her until a passerby assured me that dogs were good swimmers and she would be fine.  She was.

One morning my mom backed over her.  Taffy ended up with stitches and was pregnant at the time and lost the puppies.  But soon she recovered and continued to be our favorite little puppy.

Taffy lived for years.  When she died it was the middle of winter.  At the time we had a cabin lot and my dad wanted to bury her up there.  But the land was frozen and not easily accessed.  So my parents did the logical thing.  They wrapped her up in a box and put her in the freezer.  I don't remember seeing her there.  I'm pretty certain it was my grandparents extra freezer.  There she stayed until the ground thawed and we were able to bury her up at the cabin lot.

And that is how we ended up keeping taffy in our freezer.