A Quilting We Will Go

 The start of a quilt......only a start.

 Not very happy.  She wanted the red piece by the blue piece.

Actually she wanted to get out and crawl around on the quilt.  That sounds like a bunch of fun for a little girl and a bunch of work for her mom.  She stayed in her chair and cried and cried and cried.

Point of View

Who took these pictures??  What exciting things did they capture??

 Trees.  A bird maybe??

 A really, really big ant (so I'm told).  Its crawling towards the top of the picture.

 A birdie having some lunch.

Ahhh, I know that smile anywhere - its Stephen George.  Stephen is suppose to be doing his school work at this point.  As a future reference George, you may want to delete the proof that you were NOT working on your school work like you hinted to your mommy.  (Who is standing with her hands on her hips with that "You are in trouble, Mister" look on her face.)

I was Hungry

3 year old boy - Hershey's chocolate syrup - hiding in bedroom =

One messy boy, one laughing dad, one "I can't believe this kid!" mom.

Slow Week

Its been a slow week around here.  We finished planting the garden this past weekend.  I will have to get some pictures of it before the weeds take over or the deer get hungry.  We also did some cleaning and organizing of the last room in the house that has not had any attention since we moved in.  Darren plans to paint that room soon and then Cormac and Rex can move downstairs.  We had someone come check our A/C only to find out we need a new one and a new furnace before winter comes.  Yah, its been a slow week.  The most exciting news is that....

 Cormac FINALLY lost his other front tooth.  This is his "Smile really big for the camera so everyone can see your missing teeth," smile.  I love the wrinkled nose and goofy eyes.  He fished $1.50 out of a cup of water from the tooth fairy.  The tooth fairy didn't come the first night.  There was a rumor (started by Mom) that she sent an email saying she couldn't make it because it was raining where she was.  Tooth fairies are a lot like insects - they can't fly when their wings are wet.  They actually believed the story.....

 Gianna enjoyed helping Mom cut out a quilt.

 Mom did not enjoy having Gianna help with the quilt.  She got bored though.

 She decided to move on to bigger and better adventures.  Messing with Mom's computer ranks fairly high in the bigger and better as well as adventure aspect.

 She was extremely proud of herself when she figured out how to start the movie.

Obviously it was a good movie.

Its been such a slow week.  Movies, quilts, tooth fairies - just your normal excitement.

Visiting Friends

On Saturday, Cormac, Brech, Gianna, and I visited some of our friends in Minnesota.  We had a great time and enjoyed our day off.  Cormac was the lucky winner of the day.  He came home with a pair of boots (which he has only taken off for bedtime and church since Saturday) AND he got to eat at McDonald's TWICE in one day.  He was super pleased with his two spy toys from McDonald's as well.  He kept saying that Blase and Stephen were just going to faint when they saw everything.  He has been very generous and let all his brothers play with his spy toys.  He also let Brech Earl wear his boots for a whole 5 minutes.

One of Cormac's "bestest friends".

 The lovely photographer who snapped all these pictures for me.

 The only picture of my friend (talking on the phone way in the corner of the picture) and her husband.  Gianna and I were obviously the intended target of this picture, but I'm glad the other two were "shot" too.

 The newest little one in their family.  He's too sweet.

This picture I took on the way home.  I thought it was a beautiful sunset.  A perfect ending to a great day.  Cormac is already begging to go back again.  I suppose we will have to plan another trip over in the summer.  He has already sent his friend a letter.  I'm glad they are becoming good friends.

Spring Babies

Look what we found on our deck.

Last Friday, May 11, we found one egg.  

(The purple corner is actually a mirror.  I couldn't get a good picture until I used my mirror.)

 It is just cozy as can be.

 On Monday, May 14th, we found 4 eggs.

 There must have been 5 eggs...sniff, sniff.

 Here is the mommy - a House Finch.  She's noisy when she wants to be.  She sits on a nearby branch and calls me all sorts of names.  I'm not sure I want to know what she's saying.  The tone says all I need to know.  She hasn't allowed me to get a picture of her on her nest.  She flies away before I'm even all the way out the door.  

 She blends well with our tree.

Garden Woes

 We started some seeds.  We watered them faithfully.  We whispered encouraging words.  

We smiled when a few popped through here and there.

 The planting of the garden was somewhat of a family affair this year.

 Everyone did their part.

 Rows were straight and seeds were placed in just the right way.

 The girls did more sitting than working - but Someone had to supervise.

 The boys and their dad worked hard.

Most of the boys that is.

It appeared like we were having a great start to our garden.  Sometimes appearances aren't what they seem.  The plants we started were looking fairly decent.  The tomatoes were a complete waste of time.  We have 3 tomato plants that look pathetic.  The sqaush, pumpkins, and watermelon did GREAT!  They were doing so great that I shared some with my friend.  She will probably laugh after she reads this.  I spent the day at her house on Saturday. While I was gone it got too hot in the greenhouse and baked the plants.  I have one little spaghetti squash plant alive and those 3 pathetic tomato plants look even more pathetic.  I didn't even think that was possible!!  Sigh...sigh...sigh.  Yah, even I am laughing a bit.  All Darren said was "I guess we will try again next year."  In the meantime we will be hitting the local stores for tomatoes, peppers, and possibly zucchini.  I hope we can get a few hills of watermelons and pumpkins started this week.  To add to the trouble - it hasn't rained near as much as anyone would like.  We will need to figure out how to get water to those seeds and SOON.  Always something.  Don't be surprised if I come visiting and take home a couple bushel of tomatoes from your garden this fall.

Happy Mother's Day

 Happy Mother's Day to the best mommy who...

 was great to snuggle with,

  was there for me when I took my first step,

 made holidays and birthdays fun,

 gave the best tea parties,

and took care of all my needs.

The best mommy who loved me then and loves me now.

I love you, Mom.

History Class

We finished our history for the year this past week.  We had a great time.  We were using the Homeschool in the Woods history program The Early 19th Century.  Take a look at some of the projects the boys worked on this week....

 Blase working on a corn husk doll.

 Stephen made a boy doll named Fred.

 "Fred" got a haircut...

 Blase learned how to braid the hair of his girl doll.

 "Kateri" and "Fred"

 We also did a little gold panning...

 This was our gold panning stash....shhhhh, don't tell anyone.

A fun cabin with paper windows just like the pioneers.