Mirror Image!

I had the sick for most of this week. One afternoon while i was laying on the couch, Avery our little mommy decided to make a project with Mitchell. She sat him down and got him set up with markers and paper and then started having a funny, very Avery conversation with him. I just listened and waited. I hear her ask him if he knew why it was Easter and why that was important, and proceeded to explain it to him as only a 5 year old can do. Well, she told him that she thought that he should draw a picture of Jesus. Well, this is Jesus. Mine is on the gray felt and his is on paper. Complete with long hair. I loved it, and it made me laugh. finally his drawings are starting to look like something. I wanted to keep it forever. It has been sitting on my sewing table for a few days now and i have wanted to do something but did not know what. I took out my free quilting foot for my machine and then "freehanded" his drawing on fabric with thread. It was not too hard, fortunately he is not a complicated artist. I think it turned out better than i thought it would. I think i will try this more with some of their other drawings. It works great for these kind of stick figures. Now am i going to frame it or make it part of a quilt or pillow for him....hmmm?

more easter

here are a few more pictures of the kids enjoying their easter baskets.

Easter

Happy Easter everyone....we had a nice day together as a family. I wish many of you were here with us. The kids did a easter egg hunt after church in our backyard. The easter bunny is good at hiding those eggs. I hope that everyone enjoyed their day also.

Rainbow's

I feel like I have not blogged any crafty stuff in awhile. However, i still feel like i am getting some things done. I have a bunch of new projects in my head that i am dying to get out, but i felt that i should make a point of clearing off my sewing table first. This quilt was inspired by my Mitchie. He really loves rainbows....he gets so excited when he sees one and always points them out to us. This started taking shape way back in October when i picked all the fabrics out with my mom. It only needed some finishing but that is the part that always takes me the longest even though it is not the hardest. It has been on my sewing pile just waiting. Well, this past week i finally dove back in and machine quilted it. This is my first machine quilting undertaking. It was tricky but i think i made it work. I did not use a pattern of any kind, just made it up. I wanted to represent the rainbow but show it in a different way. Chris and the kids thought they would have a little fun with the picture taking this morning...see all the legs sticking out! I was going to hang it on Mitchies wall where he could have a rainbow over him but now i don't know....i am just enjoying having it done

Introductions

I would like to introduce you all to our "pet", his name is Uncle Bob. Chosen by the kids. He lives very nicely and quietly on our kitchen windowsill where he can soak up as much sun as possible. He finally had grown enough this week to have his first haircut. Chris and the kids did a nice job, i think.

Moonlight Madness

Last night was the full moon....hard to get a good picture but Avery and i tried. The big trees in our yard were swaying back and forth from all the wind. It gets super windy here on the hill in Troy this time of year. And the clouds were moving fast....I am thankful for a little person that really appreciates natural beauty. She was quite taken with this moon last night.

Stealing the Show

On day two of our trip, after the aquarium we went to the Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall. After having dinner at the market, which i recommend as a stop if you are ever in Boston, we went out in the common area where there was this street musician. You can see him back there....playing percussion on buckets and other household things. it was great. We all loved it but Mitch was feeling it!!!! After a few minutes of listening he asked if he could dance. I said he could. He went out there and tapped his foot for a few minutes and then he started hopping around getting into it and before we knew it he had all sorts of fancy footwork and even moves he was doing with his hands. You just have to watch the video to see how funny it really was. Chris and i were hysterical. He is funny most of the time but when he gets a audience he really comes to life. While he was dancing a girl came out of one of the buildings...pretty, mid 20's and Mitch was loving her. She jumped right in and started dancing with him and the two of them were a riot. Pointing fingers and shaking booty's, and having mini dance off's. Yup my kid was out there getting his groove on!!!! I think if we had put a hat down the crowd would have started putting money in it for Mitch's performance.At one point he was running and dancing and he came past me and asked, "mom, am i putting on a show?". Boy was he ever. I love this kid!!! Now if you ask either of them what their absolute favorite part of this trip was, they both will tell you the subway that we rode for 2 of the days. It was great, but i confess we have no pictures. I just did not think of it as a attraction worthy of picture taking. Silly me, i should have tried thinking like a kid and then i might have remembered.

Science Museum

Doesn't Avery look thrilled? These were on our last day towards the end of the day and I think she had had it. Don't get me wrong, we did enjoy the science stuff but the kids were tired after three days of non stop fun. I think this was Chris' favorite stop on the whole trip. He loves that nerd stuff. By accident i dressed Mitch that day in his T-Rex shirt and that is the dinosaur leg he is sitting in front of in that last picture.

New England Aquarium

We also spent one of the days at the NE Aquarium. It was really fun. The kids loved all the exhibits. There were tons. Unfortunately it is really hard to take pictures with my camera in there because they keep it so dark. We did get some good ones at the giant tank. Right up the middle of the building is a giant 3 or 4 story tank. You can walk around it on a path that is like a corkscrew so you can see all the different levels. It seems like certain sea creatures stayed at certain levels. Like the turtles were way up high and the sharks seemed to stay toward the middle. The favorites were the giant sea turtle(me and Avery) and the shark(Mitchell). After we exhausted the aquarium we had some snacks with the pigeons and then went to a IMAX show about dolphins and whales. Many of you may or may not know this about Mitch, but he does not like anything very loud. So the IMAX being a combination of really loud and really big and literally right in your face did not go over well with him. He promptly crawled into my lap and told me to "take me out of here now!". He was appeased with his hat pulled down over his face and Chris holding his ears, and this is how he fell asleep during the show. Poor baby.

Franklin Park Zoo

We took a family trip to Boston this past week, just to get away from regular life for a little while. We had a great time. Our first stop was the zoo. It was a nice little zoo on the southside of Boston. I hear that that is not the side you want to be from. Anyway I digress...it was a sunny and warmish day. The kids loved it. The big kids did too! Avery's favorite she says was the prairie dogs and Mitchell really enjoyed the "duhrilla's"(gorilla). I think my favorite would have to have been the gorillas as well. Chris says his favorite were the gorilla and prairie dogs too. They are so fascinating to watch. One of the coolest things was hearing the lion roar...it started out like a little wuffing and then it got louder and louder. It was a little unnerving when we were standing on the playground and you could hear that above everything else. But, very cool. After the zoo, mommy got her wish and we stopped at the IKEA before heading to our hotel. Yipee! I miss the one in WA so this was a treat. I was able to get all the silly little kitchen things i was wanting and this particular one had fabric section. i got some really cute kids fabric with little hippo's all over it. I love it. Maybe we will see that here another time as a project of some kind or another. This is a pretty large selection of my favorite pictures from the zoo. I think my absolute favorite is the one of Avery and the baby gorilla sitting together. They both took the same pose at the same time. Perfect timing. And how mean does that big silver back gorilla look. He just glared right at us and then walked around that corner so that we could not see him anymore. Talk about grouchy.

Awana Games

Recently Avery participated in her first Awana Games. Awana is like a sunday school group in the evenings at our church. The kids memorize scripture, earn badges and jewels, sing songs, and play games together. That is her whole sparkies team at the games along with their mascot, Spark. She had a really great time. The team came in third. Man was it loud in the gymnasium. At the bottom you can see her in action during one of the relay races, and shrugging her shoulders in a very Avery pose.