Wonder

There is nothing more fulfilling to me than experiencing the wonder of my children. The other day one of the kids spotted a hot air balloon at the park and we all took off running to catch it taking off. I think the look on Cole's face says it all.

Our week... in pictures (and a few words)

Made a shirt...

Seriously, I think this kid is going to be a model. I don't know how he learned to strike a pose but he is a pro.

Cute, sweet, wonderful brothers bonding over video games.
Strawberry picking and jam making. (Forgot my camera for the actual picking)


Playing in the basement with mom. Cole learned how to use stencils and insisted on wearing his favorite piece of mom's fabric wrapped around him. Sagan discovered the record player and mom's extensive collection of Beatles, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan albums.

What I do when I don't have tv

We got rid of cable last week. This may now seem a big deal for some but for me its monumental. Since birth I have been a tv on at all times kinda girl. So its been quite an adjustment but in the end, I know its for everyone's good. Anyway, to answer the question of how I've been filling my time, I make things. Right now, I've been making dolls! The first picture is a set I made for a trade. I'm getting some yummy yarn and I made her some little (4 inch) boyish dolls: a knight, a jedi, and Robin Hood.
Then, I crafted myself into a frenzy making things for my soon-to-be born niece. Not only did I make her a diaper bag and booties but I just had to make her a doll. I bought these dolls already partially made. The heads and bodies were made I just had to put them together and make their faces and hair.
I think she turned out so cute! I love her! I later decided I must also make her a hat and since it was getting a bit crazy I think I will save the doll for her first birthday. I had to box her up because Cole couldn't keep his hands off of her even though he has 3 mama-made dolls of his own.

My next project is scrappy placemats. Stay tuned...

What can bring out the little girl in my teenager

Tadpoles!


Jason took the kids on a wood gathering expedition on the little patch of woods next to our neighborhood. 15 minutes later my 13 year old daughter came bouncing through the door saying, "mom! guess what we found? tadpoles!" She was just oozing youthful exuberance. Its been a long time since I've seen that kind of excitement in her. I loved to see it again. I walked back there with her and sure enough 100's of freshly hatched tadpoles in puddle in the road. I'm guessing leopard frog but we'll see when the ones we brought home grow up.


Of course, I didn't actually get any pictures of her and the tadpoles. Such a bummer.

Cole and I decided to study frogs this week. So far we've done a lot of frog crafts and we were lucky enough to get a pretty cool learning kit from the library on metamorphosis. This worked out perfectly because we just got done learning about butterflies and we watched them grow from an egg to a butterfly. So there is lots of metamorphosing in our household lately. Seems like the kids grow as fast as the butterflies did. Today a neighbor told me Cole looks like a little boy and not a baby anymore. sigh.

What's been keeping Cole busy lately

He has spent almost the entire day today at his little desk coloring and stickering. Stickering is not a word but is should be.





My mom bought this really cool Brio building set about 800 years ago from a garage sale and we finally brought it out for Cole. He really enjoyed hammering. My mom finds much better stuff at garage sales than I do.

And I can't forget his favorite activity which is harassing our little cat.

This weeks theme-Space

Sagan went to "space camp" this week. Not the super cool one where you get to ride in rocket simulators but one put on by the local school district where they shoot off rockets and watch videos about space. Lots cheaper. Anyway, I figured space was a good theme for everyone. We are a little behind however and I'll have to post more pictures of the activities when we have actually done some.

Canning time!

So a few weeks ago Cole got ahold of some of my jelly jars. Surprisingly, this post doesn't end in disaster! No, he actually did the cutest thing with them. He stuffed all his play food and had a canning session of his very own. How cute is that? And what a brilliant way to store his play food. I canned pickles. Three different kinds of pickles at the same time which was rather confusing actually. I'm surprised they seem to have turned out ok.