Thank you Aunt Sue and Uncle Mark!

Mark and Sue got the kids some new fishing poles for Christmas. Alex was due for a "big kid" size one this year so it worked out perfectly for him. Maya had been using an old Spiderman one of Alex's and she was thrilled to get her own princess one. They've been dying to open them.

For those who have never looked at kid's fishing poles before, they all come with a rubber practice "lure" to tie on the end so kids can learn to cast on land.

Alex and Maya spent probably close to an hour casting in the front yard yesterday! Alex has quite an arm on him and caught several trees. Maya is getting the hang of it and will be all set for water soon.

Thank you Grandma Nancy!

Several weeks ago Ben's mom sent us a box full of birdhouse gourds! She dried them, hollowed them out and drilled the holes for us and everything. They've been sitting in the kitchen waiting for us to have the right time to make a big mess and decorate them! (and for it to be warm/decent enough outside for me to be able to take them out and spray them with a clear coat so the paint won't wash off after we hang them outside.)

Yesterday was perfect. We sat right down in the driveway and painted them, they dried super fast. We strung them up between some saw horses and I sprayed them before supper and were dry before bedtime!

If our thunderstorms clear up this afternoon we can go find some trees to hang them in!

Finally!

The bikes have finally taken up permanent residence in the garage and have gotten quite a bit of use over the past few days!

Maya's feet barely touch the ground these days on her little balancing bike. She pushed off just enough to get going and then glides as much as she can. We took the training wheels off Alex's old small bike and she is working on learning to pedal now.

Alex got a new "grown up" style helmet this year and is feeling optimistic about getting rid of his training wheels this year.

Spring nature table

Last year I think I was much better at posting our seasonal changes on the nature table. This year we were a little behind on spring. Right after the Equinox we had a lot of busyness and sickness and quite frankly the weather was so wintery we weren't very motivated! But this weekend the weather screamed spring and we had the time!

We will add treasures from outside as we find them!

BEHOLD......socks

I finally finished my socks! I started them in January....then frogged the first sock when I was just past the heel. I put them aside for a while and finished that sundress for Maya before starting over. This time it went much smoother. I used the "Super Simple Sock pattern" from Ravelry.

They are comfortable and they appear to wash up well.

I really enjoyed knitting them and already have a new kid size pair on the needles using a different pattern and some funky rainbow striped yarn!

If I can do it.....

....anyone can.

When it comes to sewing clothing I am a true beginner. Before last week I had only sewed one thing from a pattern ever and that was with quite a bit of help.

A friend of mine wrote a book - Little Girls, Big Style - with patterns and instructions for sewing boutique style clothing for little girls that is suppose to be simple enough for beginners. I finally got brave enough to pick it up and give it a try. Getting started while I was at my parent's house gave me a safety net of having my mom nearby to help if I got stuck.

Well - I did it! The beginning of the book has a great section that gives beginners some tips for understanding the patterns and for finishing techniques that were very helpful for me. The skirt pattern was fantastic, very easy and I was able to do it on my own for the most part. The shirt was a little more challenging. Having never sewed clothing from a pattern before I had trouble picturing how the pieces fit together ("this is suppose to make a sleeve??) so I did call in my back up to help figure out how it all fit together at first.

Maya loves it, especially loves the pocket on the skirt and loves all the ruffles!

I love the confidence it gave me to dive in and try more things and understand directions and techniques better.

NEW Zoo

Spring time we find is a great time to visit the NEW Zoo in Green Bay. Maya liked the idea of feeding the animals but quickly agreed with Alex that she didn't like it when they licked her. Alex got his very own camera and had been happily snapping pictures since the moment he opened the box. At the zoo he found plenty of things to shoot!

Our spring break trip

We left last Wednesday after I got done with work and picked up both kids. We hit the Mackinac Bridge right at sunset. No traffic, we were the only ones on the bridge and it was just beautiful. I slowed way down, rolled down my window and snapped a few quick pictures. Then we stopped briefly north of the bridge along that natural area with the small dunes and beaches.

Supermoon

We can't see the Eastern horizon well from anywhere near our house so I missed how giant it looked when it rose. But once it got over the treeline I could take these from my driveway. Man, it was bright!

The Vikings are coming!

Alex had a book talk last week and he chose the Magic Treehouse Book "Viking Ships at Sunrise". His favorite part is when the Vikings arrive in their ships and he at first wanted to make a wooden model of a Viking ship. Since that was more than our time and available materials allowed we did some internet searching and came up with a suitable alternative.

Ben helped him with some of the harder cutting and taping but Alex did most of it himself, including putting the body of the ship together and drawing the outline of the dragon head for the bow!

It is made from all recycled/repurposed materials that we already had in the house.

Signs of spring

which are apparently soon to be buried under a bunch of snow :(