It's Wild Here

catch up

Gram was here in February. She and Ryan did these mosaic hearts - very crafty, those two. 

This is the big rock at a nearby park where the kids play soccer. Ryan always climbs and often asks me to take a picture.  Last time I only had my phone, which takes crummy pictures. 

Playing in the curtains.  Not allowed, and somehow I think he didn't get that message when we chose to admire his cuteness and photograph him doing it. 

making the best of it

Since December 19, at least one person in the house has been sick in some way. We've had respiratory, intestinal, throat issues, etc.  No one has been terribly sick, but we've all been sick enough to stay in most of the time.  We've all done a lot of this (well, the youngest four of us have)...

The cat is not the only one who appreciates a good nap in the sunny living room. 

The kitchen has been busy.  I saw an idea on a blog (tried to link but I can't find it now for the life of me) to cut foam or heavy paper into shapes and design a robot - very simple cutouts... Instead of attaching them, we put magnets on the backs of each piece (cut up that magnetic calendar the realtor sent us) and built the robot on the fridge. The pieces can be mixed and moved to customize the new robot each time. A great excuse to get out the pipe cleaners and button jar. After the robot, it was decided that a snowman would be fun as well. This kept my crafty 4.5yo busy for over an hour.  

We also got behind in consuming our precious local raw milk.  So I decided to make butter, and (oh, dear internet, how I love you) found some great photos of the process.  I'm sure some of you know - in the scheme of organic food buying, organic butter is so expensive.  This homemade butter-making was a joyfuldiscovery. 

Yes, KitchenAid, I love you too.

And some of the wackiest knitting I've ever done. These "pocketbook" maryjane slippers are so much fun to make, and very quick. I don't know where I found this hideous yarn, but it is actually so horrible I love it, on my feet, in the privacy of my house.  

My camera cord is missing.  I don't seem to be able to blog without photos. I've ordered a new one from ebay, so in a few days, get ready for a flood of updates.  Briefly, though...

Evan - writing christmas story, watching a lot of football (winning his work pool, no money at stake), enjoying Risk and "that's what she said" jokes with older boys

Jamie - still sculpting, beginning to offer lessons in Photoshop, reading, schooling, PC gaming, playing piano

Jeremiah - suddenly turned on to music, his taste is a unique combination of 80s (eye of the tiger, seriously) and 60s, Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc.  Just completed several large school projects related to their study of Egypt, played in his first school band concert, the object of no small amount of female attention, but don't even think about bringing that up.

Ryan - excited to be almost 5, excited about the holidays, coming out of a very long respiratory illness and seeming to respond well to daily allergy meds, which bums me out, but we had to do something.  Protective of Kellen, affectionate with all smaller children, enjoying 2x/week play time at Laurie's, can count to a million... not really, but can count high - somewhere between 40 and 80 I think.  Still very interested in writing and letters, hasn't expressed an interest in reading.  Still extremely, seemingly-uncontrollably curious and "grabby" - so many broken objects. So. many.

We also went to a local holiday shindig - pancakes and santa and crafts - ryan loved that.

Kelly - in a "pretending to be a  baby" stage, having little meltdowns daily - loud but not long - when I run out of milk (fairly quickly these days :-(  he says "this one's not working." lol.   

Amy - still busy with Threshold Choir, NVC group, trying to hang on to my connection with the dharma center but it's just not happening.  knitting - I finished that red sweater and the finishing and resulting object was so dreadful I can't even post it, can't even try to correct it.  I am knitting hats and toys all winter.  And also socks, definitely.  Enjoying old seasons of Six Feet Under.

busy little boys

 

 

Pancake Monsters

Found some pancake art in the blogosphere this morning. The whole blog is nice - adorable little girl, beautiful portraits, and check out the incredible toy kitchen made from cardboard.

Mother's Day craft and garden pictures

This is delayed, but here are the button bracelets we made for the mothers and grandmothers.

And here are some lovely hostas from the front.

aha

Know what's a lot easier to clean up than paint?  Glue with a bit of paint mixed in.

wah!

Kiddley stops blogging

Look at these buttons!

so cool

http://www.homeofthesampler.com/howtos/index.html

crafty ryan

As I mentioned in a recent post, Ryan likes the gluey crafts.