a night with the fire!

yesterday night all of us ate outside by a fire.
we had hamburgers, (and of course french fries).
after dinner we all had some fun,
here are some pictures we took...



Bethany was a little scared at first, but she got used to it.



Emma had a good idea about wearing goggles to keep the smoke out of her eyes!



Caitlyn was blowing bubbles.



mom took some pictures of the bubbles.





Bethany was being cute!



we have flowers like this all over our yard!



A by accident picture!

I was so glad it was warm.
we have played outside all day every day!
dad put up a rope swing and we have been playing on it alot!

Happy Easter

This Easter was not very "eventful". No new dresses or ties (I was hoping to make one but didn't get around to it and realized that I had a cute white vest for Ben that looked great). But - we had a great time with friends and ate delicious polish fare. David wrote an Easter hymn for the choir and it was sunny and warm!

We only took a few pictures of the egg coloring. We did a whopping three dozen this year! I thought I had some leftover PAAS but found out there were only 3 pellets of color left. So... we got out the old food coloring. It was great! Do you know that there is even a picture of easter eggs on the front of the box. Why did I never think of using it before?





Bethany got into it....



REALLY into it.

She is ok... it washed off right away and all was well with her....



Especially after she got to eat one!

Hope your Easter was blessed.

April Showers

... Snow showers that is! Not just two weeks ago we were so excited to be out in the above average weather. Now we are in the below average stage. Hopefully there will be some sun for Easter.





These are from Emma. She took them this morning while I ran around trying to get the little ones ready for church. The sun came out this afternoon and it is all gone now. Beautiful while it lasted. I have a friend who says it's like waking up in Narnia.

Me Do.....!

It turned back to winter here and our time has been mostly spent indoors again. The big girls have been playing War (the card game) so Ben wanted in on some gaming too.



Fist we played Candy Land. He liked it. Then we played the "Things in my House" game. He seemed to really catch on then. We were given the game by Nana (David's mom) when Abigail was a toddler. I have played it with all the children so far and was amazed I hadn't tried it with Ben yet. He seems to be just the right age.



What amazed me the most is that when someone picked a card that belonged in his house and they would say "Who has the......?" Ben would answer, "Me Do!!!" Just like all the other girls did before him at his age. I know it's probably developmental but it is so dang cute!

Spring

I finally fully understand all the sayings about the months of spring: March DOES come in like a lion (0 degrees and heavy snow) and out like a lamb (low 50's and light showers)! Don't get me wrong - I know it can still snow here in Minnesota... it did last year.

Early spring here is still very brown. From the leftover leaves and the dead grass to the piles of dirty snow on the side of the road (ewww....) there isn't much new life yet. We are still waiting for the buds to even form let alone bloom. But the change is VERY welcome, welcome indeed!



Now I'm waiting for the April showers to bring May flowers!

Charming Handbag

I made this purse from the book Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol. I actually looks pretty similar to her example copy in the book. It is very small but its good because it keeps the unnecessary things out of it. I'm on a purse kick. I'm going to make this one next. This time it will be for spring... just waiting for the right fabric. I love that there are so many free tutorials!

Crinkleroot is Here!

Crinkleroot graced our door on Thursday. He is very cute and very well made.



He is made from this shop: Mama Kopp Shop

Also, here is the wonderful book.



I cant wait to make the birdhouses. I really hope the squirrels wont destroy them!



We used the Jan edition of the Book of Days to inspire us to watch the birds. We went to a local nature center and got to see some new ones like the redpoll. It was so hard to get any pictures with 7 kids milling about. (We went with the Smerillos)

Here are the pictures of their drawings: