Mid-April

April 10th...and it snowed again last night!  Woe!  WOE!!!

Friday looks to be in high 60's so I will look ahead in hope.  I can grin and bear it until then.  I think I can, I think I can.

  But I can't promise we won't play hooky from school to just.be.outside.all.day.long when Friday rolls around.  In fact, I CAN promise we will!

In the meantime a smorgasbord of pictures and a few crafty projects...

A pretty dress for a prettier girl...  I was inspired by this shirt/dress I saw on pinterest and tried to copy the design.  I have very little experience with applique so I was pleased with the birds.  The dress was a bit wonky- which seems even MORE wonky now that I linked to (and saw) the original shirt and dress again.  (Ah!  Shouldn't have done that...)

But baby Skylark wears it well. 

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On one of the mild days we had before it decided to turn winter again, I decided we would take our science outside and explore a state park.  I packed a picnic lunch and it was sure to be a fine day.

We got to the park and sat down to eat and discovered I had not taken into account the chill of cold waterfalls freezing the air around us.  It was cold.  And then, five minutes later- it started to rain.

We ate the rest of our lunch in the van and then did our errands/shopping.  I told the children that if the weather had cleared by the time we were done, we would go back to the park. 

It did.

So we went back to the park and started playing/skating/having fun. 

Apparently, for some of us all three can be done at once...

Unfortunately, only a few minutes of play and it began raining again!  No chance for science- kind of a bummer field trip.

Weirdly enough, it wasn't what we had hoped it would be- but it still felt good to have done it.  Everyone ran toward the van, dodging raindrops, smiling and happy and we all agreed it was still worth it to have come.

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Finishing up the stored winter apples by making applesauce.  28 quarts worth.

An angelic reader:

Winter baby in fur:

Proudly displaying their paintings:

(On a side note: what kind of lunatic makes fingerpaint for children that is not washable?!?!  Answer: The worst kind.)

 (this one is Corynn's)

Frozen summer makes snowy days more colorful:

Toddler models are far less accomodating than baby models. 

I made this hat for a father/son matching hat to go with this one.  It was supposed to fit a 7  year old.  

yep.  

major fail.

On the upside: another baby hat in the gift cupboard, ready to be gifted on a whim!

Not great pictures- (it was freezing outside!) but kept for the sole purpose of remembering Ineke in this precious hand-me-down dress:

Also to remember: that when I say "SMILE!" she thinks that means "RAISE YOUR ARMS!" 

And yes- she is wearing my heels. 

Again.

Currently:

Finished Killing the Rising Sun (so glad! That was really very hard.) and Jack and Jill and have moved on to good 'ole C.S.Lewis for a stint.  The Joyful Christian, on my nightstand. These are super short little readings.  Not devotionals, just excerpts on certain topics from his writings.  Really enjoying it.  Also- I just started The Problem of Pain, in audiobook form. 

linked up with crafting on, small things