Socks, Socks, Beautiful Socks!

 

I love you, socks.  I love that you are so much easier to knit than I thought.  I love that you are useful all year round, not just in the winter like toques and scarves.  I love that you are so pretty.  I love that there are so many patterns I can choose from.  I love you so much, I almost don't want to give you to Megan, whom I made you for, but I will, since you were her Christmas present.  But be assured, I will make some more to enjoy myself.  Socks, I truly love you!

Easter Basket

Today my friend Sarah came over with her two boys to make Easter Baskets.  We thought it would be a great craft for our older boys to do, but it turned out way too messy, so it became a Mommy craft day while the boys played with the costumes.  We had fun, regardless, and the Easter Baskets turned out great. 

 First we heated 2 1/2 cups of sugar with 1 cup of water over the stove.

We even got a little help from Buzz Lightyear and a Dragon.

 Then we soaked crochet cotton in the sugar water and wrapped it around balloons.

 This is about halfway done.  We used about 300 yards of thread between the two balls, and probably could have used more.  We will wait for them to dry, pop the balloons, cut out a hole, and put them out for the Easter Bunny to fill on Easter morning.  Tons of fun!

Pinch Proof

These two boys are going to be blessed with the luck of the Irish today!

 We've had a great morning.  Eli made sure Daddy didn't go out the door without his lucky green shirt on, then he picked out clothes for himself and Silas.  His favourite thing to wear these days are baby leg warmers on his arms. Luckily I had a pair of green ones for today.  After breakfast we broke open a bag of balloons, blew up all the green ones, and spent half an hour trying to keep them from touching the floor.  Then, with Eli holding the camera, we went on a Green Scavenger Hunt.  His job was to take pictures of everything he could find that was green.  He had so much fun, and by the end of it I think actually knew what green was! Here are his shots.  I just love the perspective of a two-year-old!  I can't get enough of the shots with his cute toes sticking out at the bottom. Notice the sweet purple flowers in the grass in the last shot.  He took all the pictures himself, with no help from me.

Let the crafting begin!!!

I got a wonderful package in the mail today, and I'm so excited to get started with the contents:

What is that, you might ask.  It is 78 different colours of gorgeous wool felt.  Perhaps I am a little too excited about this, but I have some projects in mind, and I can't wait to get started with this.  I am going to make a quiet book, for Sunday use, like this, but with more scriptural reference (Joseph's multi-colored coat, Jonah and the Whale, Ammon and the sheep kidnappers, etc).  And, I'm also going to do something like this, but more natural looking - I don't know how to describe the pictures in my brain, so you are just going to have to wait to see what I mean.  I'm obviously going to have to buy some more felt for the play house, but all these colours will make some beautiful veggies for the garden, and leaves for the trees.  I can't wait!

Family Photo Shoot

So, we are our own photographers.  Today, after church, we went to the park and took some family photos. The boys just looked so sweet in the outfits from Chloe's wedding, so we thought we'd take advantage of the sun and go for it.  Here's the best we got.  Enjoy!

Pine Cone Theif!

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Someone, or something, has stolen our pine cones!  Eli is horrified, and can't figure out who would do such a heinous thing.  All his hard work, gone, taken from us, right under our noses!  We went outside, just two days after we put out our treats for the birds, and this is all we found.  All three peanut butter-birdseed glories were ripped from the strings and vanished.  Eli wants to call the police, knowing that they help find stolen things.  I have a sneaky suspicion though: there are some mischievous squirrels around, and I think they have pillaged our backyard!  Perhaps they heard me say how scrawny they were, compared to the monstrous squirrels of Michigan.  Maybe they have a thing against Winston, and wanted to punish us for the acts of our dog.  Possibly they are stricken by the recession, like everyone else, and just can't feed their families, so have resorted to lives of crime. In any case, I guess Eli and I have a project for tomorrow: we are making pine cone squirrel feeders!

Feeding the Birds

My first indication that we had a problem was when Eli started climbing up the stairs chanting, "Who's the cat? Who's the cat? Who's the cat?"*  I knew our troubles had escalated when I went around the corner in front of him at the grocery store and he cried out "Ca-Caw!"*  I decided I needed to take action when he was playing with Silas, who started to cry, and Eli said, "He's broken, I don't want to play with him any more."*

Then, my friend posted a link to a documentary on marketing to children, Consuming Kids.  It was all over.  I knew it was time to turn the television off and find something else to do with our days. 

So, out came the artillery.  I needed ideas, and I needed inspiration. I pulled out this book, called my mom for ideas, and made a list of things I want to do with Eli.  So it began: we put the DVDs in the closet, pulled out the double stroller, and went out to gather materials for our first morning of our new regime: we are going to fill our days with creative learning experiences, not movies!  And this is what we came up with:

There is a house down our street with an enormous pine tree in front of it.  From that pine tree hundreds of big, beautiful pine cones have fallen.  So, off we set down the road to collect some of the pine tree's offerings.  Eli went through several for every pine cone he picked.  Some were too small, some were too poky, some were smashed on one side, some were too big.  Finally he had picked five ravishing cones, and we were off to the grocery store for more supplies.  We needed peanut butter and bird seed.

We got home with everything we needed to make our little bird friends in our yard a snack. 

I wanted Eli to feel like he could do it himself, so I changed his shirt, gave him the spoon, and told him to dig in!

Silas watched from his Bumbo.

Eli enjoyed the peanut butter as much as the birds will, I'm sure. 

After we covered the pine cones in peanut butter, we rolled it in the bird seed, tied some wool yarn around it, and took it outside to hang for the birds.

We dropped the rest of the seed on the ground for the birds to eat, and went in to clean up. 

All in all, it was an incredibly successful day!  Eli didn't even ask once if we could watch a movie, and after it was all done he napped, without question, for two hours. Now, if I can just keep it up, our house will be littered with beautiful artwork and crafts made by Eli, and the ceaseless movie quoting will end!  Please feel free to comment with any brilliant ideas you may have for me! 


*Madagascar
*Robots
*Toy Story