Chocolate pudding

Because every child needs to be fed lots of chocolate pudding.

Spring then Winter and back again

Weather this year has been crazy, cold, warm, cold, hot, cold, etc... so I have a bunch of pictures of the kids playing outside in spring coats and then snow, and back again. Crazy.

Spring coats.

Munchkin with the  battle scars of being 5.

Then snow, and another attempt at a group shot.

 This is early morning, the snow didn't last long and the kids wanted to play before it melted.

 Sunrise at low tide.

Twin Dog quilt

I am attempting to make my first large quilt.  I found a pattern I loved for Scout's bedroom.  His first word was dog and he is fascinated by dogs.
Here is the pattern, it can be made with sashing or without.  I haven't decided if I like it with or without yet.  I am leaning toward sashing.

I have a wonderful mother who let me raid her fabric stash and take as many blues, browns, wool felt and any other fabric I wanted.  That saved me a LOT of money.  I wanted a big variety of dogs. Here is my starter collection of fabric.  That is a lot of blues and browns.

This is the first 7 dogs, I have a lot more done now, but I haven't made time to take more pictures.  It was also a huge help when Grandma came and visit and made about a 9 more.  I think I have 21 so far and I need 30 to make the twin size quilt. 

 

 I think this white one is my favorite.

Though this one with the patch under one eye is pretty cool too.

 

Maybe it will be finished in a year, but I don't know.  I get frustrated and work on other projects and leave this one alone for a while. 

 

Hopefully someday soon this one will have a new quilt to sleep under.

 

Still Alive and quilting.

I am still alive and so is this blog, it has just been the normal stuff of life and not taking time to work on this to keep the family updated.  I will attempt to continue. (basically because my sister wants to know what projects I am working on and what the kids are doing) 

The next few posts are not necessarily in order, but in the order that I feel motivated to write them. 

1st up, my most current project for May.  I am hoping to attend a quilt guild here in MD and they all had some pretty cool nametags.  It is a very large guild, so nametags are a nice thing to have.

I had seen one on pinterest that I loved, see it here.  It had a cool paper piecing pattern with embroidered details.  I embroidered my name on it instead of using stamps.

 

I also wanted to be able to take it to quilt shows and put tickets, business cards and access cards in the back, so I added a little vinyl pocket on the back. Vinyl is slippery and I didn't really want to pin it and make holes,so that was a challenge.

Other than having a horrible time with the binding. I really like how it turned out.  It is not perfect, but it will work.  Now I need to make a lanyard out of scraps, because the boy scout one I found laying around the house just doesn't look right.

Not so warm homecoming.

We had a very long drive home after Christmas and pulled into the driveway at 8 PM to find out the house did not have electricity.  We were the only house around that didn't have power.  In this house that also means no water since we have a well, and no heat.  My thoughts of doing some laundry and running to the store for food ended quickly.

The house never got too cold, the coldest it got was 54 degrees, so we bundled up and called the power company.  The guy who showed up couldn't help and said a different crew would be by later.  Later happened to be the next day, when it was snowing.

 Apparently the people who installed the new fence right before we moved in put a footing on top of the buried electric line.  It just took a lot of rain, 7 months, and some freezing temperatures before it shorted out. 

We figured we were only without power for about 24 hours, (the ice cream in the freezer was still solid)  So it wasn't too bad, it was just not the way we planned on coming home.

Christmas 2012 part 2

We did spend Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa and the family in Mass, again this year there was not much snow, but we had lots of rain and lots of fun.

Hanging out with Grandpa and using snap-circuits.

 Ice skating with Aunt Ruth and the cousins- This is one of Aunt Ruths typical expressions.  It make me smile.

 Buddy loves the ice and has picked up a lot of speed.  He loves it.

 The girls however loved skating with Mrs. Claus, this was after she handed out candy canes.

 These 2 girls had to be together the whole day.  They are a year apart in age and almost exactly the same size.  They could be twins.

 We had all 3 kids sleeping in one room, we were never sure where they would be when we checked on them.  These 2 slept together more than once.

 We did go on a short and VERY COLD hike one sunny morning.  Boots would have been better than shoes.  We turned around pretty quick.

 The ice on the canal was pretty.

 Buddy got a chance to go play hockey with Uncle Scott.  He loved it and had to put on a lot of gear.

 In this picture #87 is his 9-yr old cousin. He has been playing hockey for years.

 He shoots, He SCORES!

Thank you Uncle Scott!

Christmas 2012

We celebrated family Christmas early this year again.  My kids kind of expect it and love it. I didn't take many pictures, partly because Princess got a Kindle Fire, and pictures of a kid staring at a pad are not exciting.   Buddy got a new bow, so stay tuned for pictures if him at the range.

 

  We got Scout a tent and a table and chairs.  His tent is a little bigger than I planned, but he loves it.   It is set up permanently in his room and he hides in there a lot.

 

Of course every toddlers favorite part... the wrapping paper.

He loves his little table and chairs.  They are set up in the dining room and he loves it.

 

 Plus there is room for a brother to eat breakfast.

 

 Munchkin got Lincoln logs so now with 2 sets they build lots. - Thanks Grandma and Grandpa.

Munchkin turns 5!!

How is it that Munchkin is 5?  She was just a little baby when I started this blog.  The day of her little family party she (and some siblings) were sick so we cancelled it, but she still had cupcakes and ice cream at home.

 This guy was making us laugh.  He didn't want to use his hands and ate his entire cupcake without them.

 Munchkin's creative side is coming through.  I know this picture is fuzzy, but she took it and it is of the signs she made for her store/restaurant.  It had pictures of the stuff she sold and she spent a few hours playing store.  It was fun.

 

Gingerbread houses

Sometimes we make gingerbread houses at home. This year one of the familys at school had a huge party and decorated houses.  There was lots of people and every kid got to decorate their own house.  Buddy had a scout event, but the girls and I had lots of fun and ate lots of sugar.

 

There were about 80 houses decorated that day.  Lots of fun for the kids and parents. The host family used it as a fundraiser for a charity that I completely can't remember the name of right now.  I thought it was a great idea.

Teacher Gifts 2012

This year the teacher (and neighbor)  gifts were bags filled with 6 different types of cookies.  I had fun making little bags.  The day spent making cookies was fun too, but not as much fun for me. The teachers loved them, I think partially because I gave them out a full week before the last day of school, so they were not overwhelmed with stuff on the last day of school before break.

 Each is different and they are fully lined, usually with the accent fabric. They can be folded over to stand up. 

 

This is the only Christmas themed bag, the print says NOEL.

Achery is for girls too

It is cold enough that we have moved to shooting at the indoor range.  It is heated and we can go anytime.  The girls like to shoot too. Princess needs to work on her form a little. 

 Buddy has better form and usually has better results. He uses the kids bow and my bow. (he got his own for Christmas)

 Munchkin is doing better, but is not quite strong enough to pull the bow by herself.  We try to spend time with her and let her shoot a little too.