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Been meaning to post some of Ivy’s artwork of late. Art is one of our favorite things to do, especially during her quiet time in the afternoon.
This is a drawing of Cinderella and the Prince.
Here’s another one.
Here’s a little “card” she made for Charlotte one day.
And here is a bouquet of flowers.
For Easter, I ventured a cooking project that the girls could help with. It took forever, was messy, and turned out not so great, but they had fun all the same.
The final product was a chocolate nest with “eggs” inside. We’ll try again next year, maybe for better results!
In other crafty news, I made something for Caitlyn. If your name is Judi A. Merrill, you are forbidden to click here. I have also been finishing up two more quilts, of which I will post pictures of very soon. I’ve also been wanting to sew something for myself, maybe trying to whip up a shirt or something, and I found this pattern. I’ll try the short sleeved shirt. I like it very much, and got a dark brown linen blend fabric to try it.
Here’s some sweeties for Easter. Little wee fairies we found in the yard.
Asher has been doing some pretty funny things lately.
He seems to have developed a bit of a sense of humor,
and he really gets us rolling with laughter sometimes.
He still loves his mommy though, and even when he’s busy playing at the park he still takes time out to run over to Mommy and give me a hug.
Now that he’s older, things have been wonderfully easy around here lately. Of course that could change at any time, but we are enjoying the time with the children. This is the longest between children I’ve gone without expecting another baby, and I am trying to enjoy every minute!
I have more pictures. This might end up being a long post.
The reading lessons are going really well! We made it through the vowel sounds. Apart from reviewing those, I think we are moving on to consonants. They know most of their consonant sounds, and we are already memorizing and learning whole words. Next week we move on to a new section. For those who are interested, we are using this book for reading lessons. It came highly recommended from at least 3 friends and so far it’s been just fine. Very straightforward and simple.
Spring has arrived (for the most part. Today is shockingly cold and rainy, but we are staying warm inside.), and that means all the spring clothes come out. I have found the most remarkable deals at the thrift store, praise the Lord for His provision, and the girls have been trying out their new spring clothes lately.
I just love these tiered skirts. They have just the right amount of twirly-ness, which is a must for a new spring skirt. Maybe one for Mommy?
We had a park day on Friday (the 80-degree temperatures gave us no choice) with some friends.
Here’s sweet baby Olivia Pearl. Yes, she does always smile, and she is the happiest baby and a delight to be near.
Her big sister, Natalie, concentrated hard for this picture. Right after I took the picture, she came over and gave me a big hug.
Here’s a fresh baby, Alice, with her Mommy.
And her big sister, sweet and quiet Ava.
Here’s Anna Banana.
The buddies, Luke and Joshua, ran around so much while we were there (2 boys full of energy!) that later Sara and I caught them resting.
Asher has been saying more and more words, and he’s gotten into the very funny habit of adding a “gun-gun” sound to the end of each word. We don’t have any idea where he got this from, but it is very sweet and he really gets us laughing with it. You can hear it a lot in this little movie we took of him practicing his words.
Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
Busy, busy, busy, busy
Busy little squirrel.
Running, running, jumping
In a dizzy whirl.
Stopping now and then to eat
A tasty little acorn treat.
Busy, busy, busy, busy
Busy little squirrel.
-Phyllis Halloran
The girls and I often learn a little poem together, just to practice memorization. This one is the latest one.
I made an Easter dress for Ivy last week, and I am pleased with how it turned out. She modeled for us, so I’ll post the pictures.
I lined it with muslin to help it hang better. It is a perfect length for her, which is great because I thought it might end up a little short for my long-legged beauty. The sleeves I was not looking forward to, having never done a dress with sleeves before, but it turned out just fine and was easier than I thought.
The back was a simple, button-and-elastic-loop closure. She’ll be wearing this to a wedding too next weekend, so it’ll be getting double duty!
Charlotte was walking with me yesterday:
“Mommy, yesterday I saw a worm on the sidewalk.”
Mommy: “Yeah?”
Charlotte: “Yes. And he was very lonely, and nobody was take caring of him. So me and Ivy took care of him. We were good Mommies to him.”
There’s a house at the edge of our neighborhood, conveniently located right across the street from a farm, that has the most fantastic yard. The house is empty right now (still owned by the builder I think), so we like to take walks to “see the cows and run in the grass”. We made a trip to do just this a couple nights ago.
I got a cute movie of Asher…he has recently mastered the art of running (!) and it was too hard to get a still picture of him, so I tried a movie to see how it worked.
Charlotte has some beautiful music for our enjoyment.
Asher has been talking more and more lately. A sample vocabulary includes Ma-ma, Da! (daddy), splish splash, la-la-la-da (peek-a-boo), bah-bah! (bye bye), haaa! (hi!), bah-bmmmm (obey), shisss (shoes), and many others that I can’t remember right now. All three children sleep in the same room, but Ash gets up earlier than the girls do. Often when I sneak in and get him in the morning, the girls are still asleep and I am trying to move as quietly as possible. However, many mornings Asher and I will have just made it to the door when he’ll holler “BAH-BAH SHISHTER! SHHHHHH!!!”, reminding me that I need to speak quietly.
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Spring is on the way!
Man, that was bad. The flu is no fun, and Ivy ended up getting it too. The other two just had bad colds, but it was bad enough. That was a long two weeks.
But, it’s done now and yesterday was a new spring day. March, I am glad you are here.
Although you are windy so far, we can take it. Just as long as you deliver on the warm days, we’ll be fine.
There is much flower picking going on around the yard, and the girls love to bring little bouquets inside to put in “vases” (usually paper dixie cups).
We got a seed catalog a few days ago, and the girls went to work busily cutting out favorite flower pictures and pasting them onto a big piece of paper. We taped the paper onto the window to make spring come quicker…we’ve been talking a lot lately about planting seeds and flowers in the spring. A few more weeks, I think, and we’ll be ready to go!
Asher has started activity time at the table, and amazingly he colors! And doesn’t eat the crayons! He chatters to me the whole time he sits there. Mommy’s little buddy.
It’s so much fun to see him doing big boy things…learning about puzzles, coloring, and talking. He’s saying many more words now, and it seems like it’s happened all of a sudden, in the past few days. His new vocab list includes “thank you!”, “please”, “cheese”, “Uh-oh!” (a favorite) and “sister!”. We are also learning body parts, and he discovered that when Mommy says “Where is your eye?” it is a little fun to poke himself in the eye.
Today was the girls’ first reading lesson. We learned that “A” is a vowel. Long road ahead, it seems, until reading begins but we are excited. I think they understand what it means to be able to read, and I am excited to help them learn. They love to sit and “read” (look at books), and the three of them will often sit together quietly and look at books together.
The girls got two dollars each from Grampa and Gramma (thanks Mom and Dad!) to spend as they pleased at the dollar store. Ivy chose two dolls, and Charlotte chose a package of small dolls and a little tea set. As soon as we got home from our shopping spree, they set right to work serving tea to their dolls.
Several sewing projects are in the works right now, and the current on I’m working on is an Easter dress for Ivy. Charlotte has one from what Ivy wore last year, but I realized last week (!) that Ivy had nothing to wear. We also have a wedding to attend the day before Easter, so that makes two occasions to wear pretty dresses. Even better!
So I decided on this pattern. In a white linen fabric that is embroidered with small pink flowers. We’ll see how it turns out…the pattern said “very easy” so I am taking their word for it.
Asher has the most delicious curls. This is a poor picture of them, but you get the idea.
Sleepy boy with his favorite elephant. Thanks for his new big boy pillowcase Aunt Gail! The girls think it’s fabulous they all have farm pillowcases.
