This has been a long, fun, aggravating, and somewhat stressful week, even though it's not over yet, I can't wait until it is. 
      The fun part of this week was Easter (of course!)  I made a few things for the kids baskets this year.

Wooden magnates, since we are always in need of magnates to help display art work.

Wooden tops that were REALLY easy to make, yet work really well!  They spin forever.  All they are is a 1/4 inch dowel stuck into a craft wheel.  I had to drill the hole in the wheel a little bigger in order to fit the dowel, cut the dowel into 3 inch lengths, sharpen it in a pencil sharpener, and stick the dowel in the wheel, and that was it.  I probably could have sanded them, but they work good regardless.
     I also gave the kids some more hand dyed play silks, because you can never have too many.

Their Easter baskets; ready and waiting for morning.

All ready for church!

     After church, my family came over for Easter dinner.  My oldest brother and sister and their families could not be here, but even so it was a crowd.  I don't realize how small my house is til there are twenty people in it.  (Six of those being toddlers!)

     I had a treasure hunt for the older kids, with golden coins for the treasure. 

   

Chocolate coins, that is. I hid the clues inside real eggs that I had blown out, and poked a big enough hole to slip a rolled up piece of paper in. 

     The toddlers had an egg hunt, which a couple of them seemed to get the point of.  Abriel doesn't have the competitive edge necessary for egg hunts.

      It was great to see everyone, and to host a family event at my house, which although crazy, is a lot of fun. 

      Now the not so fun part.  On Easter I noticed our water pressure was... lacking.  Like barely a trickle coming out of the faucet.  This of course is while everyone is here, and needing to use the water.  Wonderful timing.  Here's the aggravating part.  We have a well, and everything (pump, etc.) seems to be working properly, but yet something is obviously NOT working.  We have had no water until today; when suddenly, for no apparent reason, it starts working again.  This is a mystery.  One that I have pondered today while washing mounds of dishes.

     Also going on this week:  I tested Anna.  Much more stressful for me than her.  I think my tongue is bleeding from all the times I've had to bite it to keep from saying, "Are you sure about that answer?"

      It turned really cold and even frosted some of my plants, which makes me very sad, sniff sniff. 

I have managed through all this, to make some placemats and napkins.  Stress makes me want to make things.

  When I am finished there will be five placemats and napkins.  Currently there are five napkins and two placemats.  I could really use more, but I had limited materials, since I repurposed a old set of curtains that I no longer needed to make them.

    For the appliqued strawberry, I copied a design I saw on a vintage table cloth.  I love strawberry designs, especially vintage ones.  This was my first time doing a ric rac trim.  Not super easy, but hopefully by the time I am finished with these, I'll know what I'm doing.  Maybe it's a good thing there are only five, since that makes them a "for family use only" set. 

     I also whipped up some beeswax skin salve tonight.  Anna's skin gets easily chapped, but it's so sensitive that most salves hurt her.  This is just beeswax and a combination of olive and grape seed oils.  It works really well at protecting her skin, and it doesn't have anything acidic in it to hurt her.  I use approx. one part beeswax to three parts oil to make this.  It can also be used as a wood rub for unfinished woods.

    And
             now
                                                                                        to
                                                                                                                bed....zzzzzzzzzz

Personality and Artistic Differences

     An unexpected thunderstorm today made me think it was a good time for a little inside creativity, and to let the kids try out their new painting boards. 

     The boards are so smooth and pretty, it made painting time more special.  I made them from 1/4 inch plywood that was really smooth, but one side had green printing all over it, that could not be sanded out.  So I decided to stain them green using my homemade colored stain.  I just mix artist oil paint with butcher block oil, and I can get a rub on stain any color I want.

     I loved watching the twins paint today.  It really showed their personality differences.  Abriel very carefully painted in the blue, and then without mixing at all, she carefully added the red.  You can see her tongue stuck out in concentration.  She didn't talk at all while she was painting, but when she had filled in the last little bit of paper, she said, "I'm all done. It's very lovely." 

     Samuel's painting method is very different.  He slaps it all on, and the more mixing the better.  He also loves to chat while painting.  He said he was painting "A big, giant thunder rain cloud. " and it was "really loud!" While Abriel was carefully dabbing on her paint, he was painting, "as fast as a tornado!" with paint flying everywhere.  The paint must have been an inch thick by the time he was finished. 

     Anna painted her usual theme.  I really need to get her some watercolor paper, since painting on card stock just isn't the same.  When I made the painting boards, I also made Anna a paint pot holder.  I stained it turquoise- her favorite color.  I am going to make some for the twins as well, but I'm  out of scrap wood just now.

Zoo Field Trip

     Here's  a few pictures from our latest field trip. This is the Greenville Zoo; not too long of a drive for us.  None of the kids had ever been to a zoo before, and Dave and I hadn't been in years and years, so we all had a great time.  Anna is the right age to fully enjoy seeing new and novel things, whereas the twins are still in the stage where everything is new, so seeing an elephant was about the same wow factor as seeing an airplane pass overhead. 

This leopard was very curious about the kids, and kept licking the glass when Anna would put her face against it.  Maybe he wanted to see how she tasted!

     The gibbons were hilarious, and put on a big show with much hooping and whooping.  It was really amazing. This did impress Samuel.  Days later he still comes up to me and says, "Monkeys say WHOOOP!"

     The giant tortoises were very cool.  Anna was highly impressed.

     For the zoo trip, Samuel had to wear his crocodile shirt.  For months now, he'll tell me he's going to go to work to feed crocodiles.  He'll go outside for a few minutes, then come inside and tell me, "Mommy, I did go to work." I'll ask what he did at work, and he'll say, "I feed the crocodidels." 

      When we were at the zoo, if anyone asked him what his favorite animal was, he pointed at his shirt, and this was before we even saw the alligators.  One of the last animals we saw before heading home were the alligators, but Samuel didn't seem that impressed.  I thought it was because they didn't move at all.  However, the next day Samuel tells me he's going to work at the store.  I ask him if he's going to feed crocodiles, and he says, " No, I no feed crocodidels anymore. Crocodidels want to eat ME!"  So I guess they made a bigger impression on him than I thought.

History Chalkboard Drawings

     This is what I wanted the chalkboard for;  to illustrate history lessons and such.  We started reading about the War of the Roses today, and so I drew this on our chalkboard.  It was fun drawing it and finding the Shakespeare quote I wanted to have on it.  I'm not sure if this is more for Anna or myself.  I love history and drawing, and well... it's fun.  Maybe she'll get something out of it.












        On a completely different note...

     I love watching my little boy in his serious work-play.  He was loading up logs today in his dump truck, and then lining them up in the yard.  He was all business, and seemed to be doing it just for the pleasure of moving the logs.  So different from how my girls play, which is all imagination and fantasy. 

Outdoor Play Spaces

     This is my recently completed, (or at least nearly so; I'm always thinking of something else too add) play area for the kids. 

     This place has been slowly evolving over the years, from a completely unusable space under our deck, to what it is now.  It started with the one little swing that is past the tire swing.  We put that up for Anna shortly after we moved, and for one little girl who entertained herself easily, that was pretty good.  Then the twins got old enough to play out side, and I realized that all the unfinished outside projects that had come to a screeching halt when I became pregnant, not only had not miraculously completed itself, but that the mess had to be cleaned up in order to make it safe enough for two wobbly one year olds to be outside.  There was a lot of wood that had to be gotten rid of, so I used some of it to make a sand box.  It's nothing fancy, but it works.
     I wanted to get some more swings, so that everyone could swing at the same time, but apparently swings have gotten ridiculously expensive in the few years since I bought one for Anna.  Then Dave had to get tires for his truck, and I had a Eureka! moment.  A tire swing would be so much cheaper, and all the kids could ride on it together.  I asked Dave to save one of the truck tires, but instead of saving one of his old tires, he asked if he could have one of the tires laying around the garage.  The guy said, "Sure, as long as you don't bring it back!" He got the biggest one there.  The kids have loved it, and our whole family can fit on it!
        We added some logs and mulch this past week, and now it's really nice under there.  I read Robinhood to Anna while sitting on the logs yesterday.  Almost as good as sitting under the greenwood tree.

     It's amazing how necessary it is to have a place for kids to play, when you have a rather small boring yard.  Growing up, I had acres to play on!  There was always something to do, (even if I do remember saying "I'm bored" pretty frequently.) 
     The next thing I want to add is a pulley going from the top of the deck, down to the ground.  As long as they don't pulley each other up, I think they will have fun with it.  Although they would probably have fun pulling each other up until somebody falls, hits their head on a rock, and gets knocked out.  Ask me how I know.  ;)

Spring!

     It is full blown spring here, and we are LOVING it!  I haven't had much time to blog, as we are spending as much time as possible outside enjoying the beautiful weather.  The house has been getting neglected as well, but I spent some of today bringing some spring inside.  I finally got our spring nature table set up. 

     It looks so cheery; I love it.  It was getting quite ridiculous still having our winter table set up.  The "flowering" tree was made by ripping squares out of tissue paper, and then twisting them in the middle to make a blossom shape.  I then hot melt glued them onto a branch.  So easy, and yet so pretty.

I made some root children for the table.  I've been trying to make something new every season, as it makes it more fun. There is a little Grass, Buttercup, and Violet.  The kids love seeing the characters from their favorite books come to life on the table.

Anna got further into it by setting up a scene from "The Root Children", using a snail she made last year.  Shy little Violet is hiding behind the tree. 

      I don't keep out all the children's books we have since I got tired of wading through them, and no one really looking at them, since there were just too many.  Now, I keep most of them in my "library", aka, my closet.  I rotate the stock every so often to keep the books fresh.  Today I got out the spring books, and the twins got a thrill out of seeing all the "new" books.  They're not all expressly spring books, but they have that feel.  (Well, to me at least)

     I'm so glad spring is here!

Some Things I've Been Working On

These are just a few random things I've been working on lately.  My biggest project I've got going, is a play mat for the kid's Christmas.  Yes, I know it's March, but I figure the way this is going, I very well could be still working on it in December.  I was inspired by The Knitted Farmyard  ,and as I was looking for more images of it on the web, I ran across several blogs that talked of starting this project.  Nobody seems to have finished it.  It is time consuming, but I will finish it. It will be too wonderful not to finish.

It actually looks more complete now than when I took this picture, so I'm making progress.



For a while now I've been wanting a marker/chalk board for our school area, but didn't like the price of anything half way decent.  I thought it was going to have to be put on the back burner for awhile, until the other day I was in the playroom, and realized I already had what I wanted.  Last spring I bought a kids art easel from Ikea, mostly because it was really cheap and I had such a nice cleared out playroom to put it in, more than I thought the kids needed it; and there it has sat, neglected and taking up too much room, since.  Sooo... I took it down to my shop, cut off the legs, and glued on a piece of trim for the eraser tray, and now I have a new marker/chalkboard.  I love when I can use something superfluous that I have, and turn it into something I need.

This was definitely a spur of the moment project.  Anna is going to her cousins Birthday party in the morning, and I suddenly realized tonight, after it was too late to drag the kids out to the store, that I forgot to get her a Birthday present.  I didn't want to make a quick dash to Walmart in the morning, and just get something. (Probably plastic, breakable, and something I wouldn't want for my kids, so why would I want it for my niece?) I started thinking about what I could make with what I have on hand, and I came up with this.  I think it is perfect for her, since she loves to dress up, and it suits her fiery personality.

The last thing is a little doll for my little niece, who I have yet to meet.  I hope that a little of my love goes to her through this doll, and that she wont be too much bigger before I finally see her.

Happy Gardening!

A beautiful earth worm found today.  This thing was huge!

Multiplication Cookies (and other ways to learn the tables)

     Anna is a very right brained, visual- kinesthetic learner, so when it came time to start learning the times tables, I knew she would need more than just going through the tables a few times.  One of the ways she learned that multiplication is the same thing as adding equal groups, is through making cookies. 

    First we made some Icebox Sugar Cookies last night.  These are great cookies for this activity, since you can slice off however many cookies you need right then. 
     This is how it works.  The cookie represents the "groups of", and the chocolate chips are how many that are in the group.  So, 2 x 3 would be two cookies with three chocolate chips on each one.

On the left half of the cookie sheet there are four groups of five chips. On the right, there are five groups of four chips.  I had her do it this way to demonstrate how if you reverse the numbers in the problem, the product is the same. Twenty chips.  She did a few more problems, until I decided that we had enough cookies for one day.

                                                      Multiplication never tasted so good!

     Some other things we've been doing is tossing bean bags back and fourth, while skip counting the tables. Once I feel that she's got the counting down pretty well, I'll say, "3x4 is..." and toss.  Then she says "12" and tosses back to me.  She loves doing this, and seeing how fast we can go.

     This is my favorite multiplication tool.  I saw someone do this on a chalk board, and though it would be fun to make one out of wood and string.  A couple of hours in my shop and, Ta da! My multiplication circle.  The point of it is to make different shapes by going through the tables.  This is the one times. As you can see it's not that interesting, since you're just counting. But it gets better.

This is the two times. A pentagon!  The string is wrapped around twice, since every time you pass the 0, the invisible tens place goes up one. So 0 becomes 10, 2 becomes 12, etc.

Here's the three times.  This is when it really gets neat.  At first it seems like you are just doing some random lines, and then a ten pointed star appears!

This is the last one. After this the shapes repeat, and the five times is just a line.  The four times is a five pointed star.  I love it.  Isn't math beautiful?

Pagoo

     This has to be my favorite Holling C. Holling book.  I love the lively way it's written, and the pictures are simply beautiful.
     Of course with a book this engaging, figuring out activities to go along with it is easy.  Anna has started illustrating the animals it talks about in the book.  I just bought some beeswax crayons, and so she's been using those.  Block crayons seem to be made for drawing underwater scenes, and I can see her spark and enthusiasm for drawing coming back.  Here are the ones she has done thus far.

This is Pagoo as he first appears in the book.

Here are some of the little creatures he shares the waters with.

A mussel bed.



      She's starting to find her footing in learning to use the block crayons.  They layer so well, that it makes it easy to create a beautiful glowing picture.  After we finish the book, I am going to put all her pictures in a binder, so that she can have her own illustrated book. 

      I admit I was hesitant about buying such expensive crayons, but I am glad I did.  They really are a pleasure to use; I am having a lot of fun with them myself!  The twins desperately want to use them, but I haven't let them, which makes me seem kind of mean, but it wont be long until they are in school, and I want to keep some things special and new for them then.