Monday, March 26, 2012

I'm Baaaack....

Well, hi there it's been a while!  See, there was this little incident a couple of weeks ago.  Our computer totally crashed before my eyes one night while I was quietly browsing the blog world looking for project ideas.  There was no saving it so we ordered a new computer and waited patiently for it to arrive.  Everything is a total mess since we couldn't easily transfer our data from our old computer onto this one but luckily we have an external hard drive that we last updated in January so it wasn't a total disaster.

Anyway in these last couple of weeks one of the biggest surprises for me was how much I missed writing and sharing here.  I've known that it's become a big part of my life over the last year, but I've had this love/hate relationship with my blog and it was nice to realize that I would really miss doing it if I quit writing so here I am!

To avoid turning this post into a chapter, I'm just going to share the pictures I took since our computer died so you can see what we've been up to--since the weather has been consistently BEAUTIFUL, it's been a busy couple of weeks.

Caring for Smiley the giraffe...first painting him and then later bathing him with friends...notice the little shorts Owen has on--I knit them!  Here is the pattern.
Art Group/Young Scientists...this is the monthly activity my friend Jessica and I run as part of our Resident Manager job for Family Housing.  This was our biggest turnout yet and was so much fun.  We made homemade lava lamps and then just let the kids go crazy with paint.  Some of the artwork took my breath away as we were cleaning up...
Painting noodles for necklaces.  We used the same method we used to make our rainbow rice last year except that I ended up laying them out to dry like this on wax paper.  Such an easy, fun project..not messy at all and very satisfying.  We were able to talk about color mixing and although we were short on paint and couldn't make as many colors as we wanted, we were both more than satisfied with the outcome.  She's made a bunch of friends necklaces since then, and since I gave her a darning needle to help thread the noodles on, she learned how to thread it and everything.  I ended up tying the embroidery floss onto the needle for her...otherwise she would have quit in frustration, but that's okay!  I tied a bunch of safety pins to the other end so the noodles won't fall off as she strings them on.
So proud of this one!  I made the red head first for Zoe and then the brown haired one for a friend who is about to have a baby.  There is nothing like giving a homemade gift and I think this is the most proud I've been of anything I've made so far...especially since I've never considered myself a seamstress!  Here is the tutorial for the body and you can easily find the tutorials for the hair, face and clothes on the same blog (Quaint and Quirky)
 Just a fun picture of Owen eating a chocolate chip cookie on a hot day...he ate the whole thing and then said in a daze, "More!"
An afternoon with Zoe's favorite teacher, Jen...while falling asleep last week, Zoe told me that she "felt in her heart" that she wanted to invite Jen over so she could show her our playground.  I warned her that although she would most definitely want to come, she may not be able to and Zoe said "It's okay..I mean, I  would be disappointed and might cry, but then that would be over...I just want to ask...please Mommy, can you just ask?"  How could I not just ask.  So, I did and Jen accepted the invitation!  She brought along her daughter, Edie ("Mommy, did you know that Jen has a daughter in high school?") and the two of them graciously spent an afternoon with us watching Zoe quietly zip around as fast as she could in an effort to show them all of her skilz as fast as humanly possible.  Jen even topped off the visit by doing one of Zoe's yoga videos along with her.  Jen is awesome, and so is Children's House Preschool.  We are so, so grateful.
With the warm weather comes....water play!  The sprinkler system turned back on the other day (or they were testing it or something) and Zoe ran around Smiley Court, sprinkler hoppin'.
 ...we also got a new water table for our patio and I think it's going to be a hit this summer...
...last but not least...for 20 minutes at lunchtime today, Zoe didn't allow me to enter the kitchen.  She didn't want to tell me what she was up to, but at one point came into the living room and said "Mommy, will you come open the peanut butter and jelly jars, but DON'T LOOK AT THE PLATES."  She called me in when she was done and this is what I found:
The last time I'd seen it, a half hour earlier, the table was covered in junk.  I looked around the kitchen in amazement as I realized that not only had she made all three of us perfect little lunches, but there was not a spot of peanut butter or jelly on the counters...there were no crumbs anywhere and everything was put away in it's rightful place.  She amazes me more and more every day...

Phew!  There you go, now I'm all caught up!

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