Treasure

In packing stuff up, I've uncovered some treasures.

This guy had been played with and I had to reattach the foot.  This was handstitched by my youngest brother.  He was maybe 11 or 12 at the time.  He made all of his siblings stuffed creatures.  He knew I loved cows, especially dairy cows.  Still love them.  I bet he doesn't know that I still have this, and it's moving with us!

This sculpture is missing an arm and foot and the head was detached.  It was made by one of my siblings.  I wonder if any of them remember because I'm drawing a blank...old age.  It's missing limbs so the practical me says 'toss it', but the emotional pack rat inside says 'aw, keep it'...agggh the internal battle that rages during moving is driving me crazy!

Boots

So adorable and cute, isn't she?  That must be why other children including her sisters (one sister in particular) like to pick her up and hug/squeeze her so much.

Right now she has a shoe thing and loves to put on other people's shoes.  She got these on all on her own.

Garden Goodness

Well, we won't miss the entire harvest of all the good stuff in our garden.  We've waited three years for a true harvest of our asparagus and this year we've been blessed with a bountiful 4 week harvest...and of course the girls turn their noses up at it since it's green.  Ok with me, since that means more for the adults!

Horns?

Funny girl is pretending she has horns or ears like a cat.  

Her vocabulary is growing everyday, unfortunately it seems she is growing more stubborn everyday too.

As we are getting closer to our move, I'm trying to picture where all of the stuff in our current house is going to go in our new house.  Like the fantastic shoe storage thing hanging on the door that holds all our children's art supplies.  I love it because they can get their own stuff, it's right by the table so it's quick to clean up, and if I close the door you can't see it.

Well, we won't have a door close to the table in the new house, so I'm going to have to come up with a new system...any suggestions?

Birthday Girl

Hannah turned 7.  Since her actual birthday was on Sunday we had a day filled with Church and then returned home to have her dinner of choice...pizza and cherry pie.

At first she didn't think she was getting a gift, but look at that classy bike helmet!  It came with the promise of a new bike when we get to Texas.

The girls are getting excited about our move.  A new bike, walking distance to a pool and playground, what more could a child want?  Of course they have no idea how hot it's really going to be, and neither do we but we're preparing for the heat.

Roar

This is another project made for Earth week, which I should have posted weeks ago!

Hannah's monster made from recyclable stuff for Earth week.  Every time Sarah sees it she says 'Roar!'.

Spring

 Spring has always been my favorite time of year.  The temperature is perfect, the flowers bloom, and the earth reawakens after a long winter's rest.  Of course that means that the bees come out to work, and for a few weeks there is lots of screaming and crying.  But I think by now everyone has now figured out how to get along with them.

These pictures are for Grandma and Grandpa who sent all the lovely Easter dresses for the girls.

Thank you for the pretty dresses!

Dress Up

Sarah has entered the dress up stage, which she quickly learned from her sisters.

And there is lots and lots of dancing.

Meatballs

Do you make and freeze food?  I learned to make these really great meatballs using Stove Top stuffing mix. I used a mixture of pork, beef, and turkey and the Stove Top with herbs for extra flavor.  After they have cooled they can be frozen on the same pan used to cook them on and then throw them into a freezer bag.  They are so much better than the kind you buy from the store and it makes meal time a cinch.

Sarah ate maybe 4 after they cooled a little.

And Emily ate so many the first time that she now requests spaghetti without meatballs, but we just limit the number she eats.

Attempt to Catch Up

Ok, I'm trying to make an attempt to get caught up!  Our lives have been a bit crazy since December.  Marshall has accepted a new job in a different state, which starts at the end of the summer, and so we are preparing for another big move.  In-spite of the craziness of it all, we recognize the Lord's hand in our lives, and we know that we have been extremely blessed.

Another Recycle Project

I don't know about you, but when I see cardboard I do not see trash.  The last time we moved, I made sure that our empty cardboard boxes were moved and not thrown out...and I got lots of crazy looks from the people helping us move.  We're getting ready to move again and not only will it be an exciting change in our lives, but that means new cardboard to work with!  Yes, I'm excited.

We had a little friend with a birthday and we came up with this dollhouse made from most of the extra cardboard from the recycle game project.  The girls helped with the wall art.

And we designed the furniture pieces together.  Yes, there is a toilet.  It's awesome, sorry there isn't a close up.

Recycle Art

Since it's Earth week, did you know that PETE-6 plastic containers can be used like shrinky dink paper?  I made these magnets by tracing over resized printable art (about 1/4 of a page) with sharpies and then put them in a 250F oven until they were flat (maybe 5 min.).

After they've cooled you can paint or mod podge paper to the back and glue on a sturdy magnet.  I love how they turned out.  I hope that now I'm not the only one who checks all my clear containers!

Here are the art references that I used: 

Love you printable

Be Kind printable

I Love Everything about YOU printable

Recycle Game

I took on the responsibility for choosing and making the new game made from recycled materials for each class for Earth week at Hannah's school. The game is based on a colonial game (Troll My Dame) and instead of marbles we used caps. Today they are playing this and games made in past years as part of their Earth week celebration. Tomorrow we are digging in the dirt and beautifying the school!



Pigeon Hole Cap Game

Set Up:

• To assemble the gameboard, attach the back by sliding the back slots into the side slots. 
• Place the gameboard on a flat, smooth surface, like a table or non-carpeted floor. 
• Mark a starting point about 2 feet or more from the game board using tape or a sticker. 

Scoring:

• Keep score by using tally marks or adding points based on the hole the cap goes in.
• Optional: the large orange cap gets double points if it goes into a hole.

How to play:

• This game can be played with any number of players. 
• A player places a cap on the starting point and tries to slide or flick the cap into a hole. 
• The player continues until all caps have been used.

The Sweater

This knitting project took 3 years to complete, but now I can say I've finally knit a sweater!

And look, the sleeves turned out to be the same length!

Christmas Nativity

At our Church Christmas party the Primary children had the opportunity to reenact the Christmas nativity. This year we happened to obtain just the right pieces of cardboard to construct the backdrop. It's pretty much all held together with zip-ties. There were lots of skeptics but it held up for several days without any problems!

The cardboard was painted to give it a faux wood look, which under the right light looks ok and better than just cardboard. This is the painting tutorial I used. I chose to not spray paint the black and just used a marker to make the black lines and then went over with watered down white and then brown and then painted black knot holes and streaks. I just used tempura paints and they worked out just fine.

I didn't get a close up of the manger but we used this website as the inspiration. With the all important mitre saw table all set up it didn't take long for Marshall to cut and construct it out of old pallet boards. I love how it turned out and how simple it was.

The great part is that it can all be taken apart and stored for another year!

Halloween

It was cold and windy but we did manage to find our warmest costumes and head out for some good old fashioned trick-or-treating. Now our food storage feels more complete :)

I pinned the hat and made it that night...yes, I am that crazy and a serious procrastinator since it was the night before Halloween. I was thinking it would be for Sarah, but it turned out to fit Hannah. And it was a good thing since she needed something on her head to keep warm. Sarah ended up using a sheep costume I made with Aunt Jaime last year for our Church Christmas Nativity.

If I hadn't been such a procrastinator we should have come up with a costume around missing teeth. There's a serious hole in the front of her mouth now and I think another front tooth is loose.

Artist

Emily created this piece a little while ago.

Princess Hannah and Princess Emily.

Shoes

It is insane how quickly children go through a pair of gym shoes!

We tried to keep Hannah in these as long as possible. I guess when you can see feet it's probably time for them to visit the trash. Truthfully I did not know that they were this bad until I took this picture...yeah worst parent award for me. Don't worry, I found her some nice sparkly sketchers to replace them. I hope they last a whole lot longer than the last pair too!

Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here's another recipe I just have to share. They turned out just like ones you would get from a bakery.

Good thing most of these went to a school event (same as the cupcakes) otherwise I would have spent this week looking for bigger pants. I substituted some of the chocolate chips with m&ms...yum.

Click here for the recipe. Make sure you melt the butter or margarine, cool the batter, and let them cool on the pan.

Cupcakes

I am happy to announce that after many failed attempts, I have found my go to recipe and method for frosting cupcakes! (thanks pinterest)

Isn't it lovely? It isn't nearly as perfect as the ones done by the original source (Created by Diane) but it's stunning enough for me. The buttercream was the perfect consistency, the frosting to cupcake ratio was perfect for me, and using the 2D tip was easier than I thought it was going to be...easy peasy as Emily would say.

Next up...learn to do the two toned frosting application.