Eagle Spotting

You all know how i love a bird!!! Today i was determined to find some eagles. My aunt was here yesterday and we spotted them from high above the river. The weather was so nice today so as soon as we finished school we packed up our outdoor birding gear and headed down to the river.

Granted it is not always easy to spot birds with a 4 year old in tow. He does not understand the meaning of,"shhh, don't scare that bird!"

We spotted a eagles nest across the river in the tip top of a tree. It is not easy to direct them to things that they have to see through the binoculars. Somehow they both spotted it. We had seen several other birds(cardinal, woodpecker, mockingbird) but no eagles. We packed up and headed down the road and on the way out i pulled over and spotted these two.

I was excited!! They were floating upriver on some ice eating a fish. I wish the picture did them justice, but i don't have a great camera and they were pretty far away. So mission accomplished. We got outdoors, did a little nature walking and got to see these pretty birds to boot!

Quilt-a Long, part 2

the second part of the quilt-a-long was embellishment and making the quilt "sandwich". It went fast. I chose to embellish with applique because it is something i have never done before and am pretty leary of. See my little stars? Next is the quilting part. I have been practicing free motion quilting so hopefully that will go as easy and smooth as all the other steps have.

By Request

the other night Mitchell begged me to get the camera. He ordered me to put him on the blog shaving in the bath. "Put this on the blog!!", he shouted down the hall. No, not for real...a pretend kids shaving set. He is very serious about it and begs to get in the tub just so he can play with it.

Quilt-a-Long

i decided to participate in a doll sized quilt-a-long at this great sewing blog. I have so many projects in various states of work but this one was tiny and cute and irresistible. Every week of the quilt-a-long tackles a different part of quilt making...cutting and assembly, embellishment, quilting and finishing. I could use some help with my actual quilting skills so i jumped right in. I got out some vintage reproduction squares that i already had cut from a old project and had this made up in half an hour. If you have not tried quilting before this is a great place to start.

More Eggy Fun

I was going through some of my recent pictures and found this video that i meant to post with the egg experiment the other day. I love listening to Mitch. He has more enthusiasm than nearly ten other children put together!!! Watch and listen and ignore the dirty dishes!

The Multiple Personalities of Mitchell

Dress up and imaginary play is the name of the game around here these days.I don't think a single toy has been touched unless it is a accessory to his current get up. Mitchell has one or more personalities a day. here is a list of all the things he has been in the last few days.
1. Cobbler
2. Bull Rider
3. TV Repairman, "Joe"
4. Spaceman, that fixes planets
5. Plummer
6. ID check man...made even more real when the real ID guy let Mitchell use the "ID gun" when we came through the gate on post the other night. He was beyond excited!
7. Handy Manny, complete with all the tools
8. Prince Philip, from Sleeping Beauty...he was "waking me up" with kisses
9. Skunk...this one got worn all last night to the ski lodge where Avery has lessons. He caused quite a stir and was unbearably cute
10. Army Guy, for obvious reasons
11. Monkey
12. RPI Hockey Player

and i am sure that this list will go on and on and on!

Catchin' Up on January

The January Book of Days has been so much fun for us. One of the best things so far was the "eggsperiment". We put our egg in the vinegar and just watched and waited... Can you see what happened? By the time we took it out it was all wiggly and jiggly. Avery thought it was disgusting so she refused to even touch it. Mitch thought it was awesome! Figures!

We also made January's recipe,Peanut Butter Snowballs. I think we thought that they would be cookies but in the end they turned out to be candy. Very rich and very tasty. Mitchell rolled and Avery helped me dip them all in chocolate. She said that dipping was much more fun than rolling and that she was enjoying this much more.

They turned out pretty didn't they?

Book of Days

I know that i have mentioned the book of days a few posts ago...we have really been enjoying it. We have not done all of January's activities yet but we have a few more days, right? One of the activities was bird watching and recording what you see in your yard. We had a sick day from school today so things were pretty laid back. It has been a quiet school week anyway. Right after lunch Avery initiated this project. What you can not see is the binoculars on the table with them. They both were watching the Juncos in our yard and began drawing....using almost every bird book we had as a reference. It was a nice time together, and they were both so proud of their drawings. It is fun to see Avery getting better and more detailed at what she draws, and Mitchie's are just plain cute! Everything is big round circles.

Starting Young

Tonight Avery sewed up her first quilt top. She plans on giving it to a friend. She picked the fabric out a few weeks ago all on her own. The kid has a good eye!

Happy New Year!

It is Chinese new year today. It seems funny to celebrate, but really, why not? It gives the kids a chance to learn about another culture, and it is fun. Fun crafts and fun food and silly kids. It is a great. **While we were eating our yummy take out I asked Mitchie how was his dinner..."Mmmm, Chinaliscious!" he says.**

Let me rewind a little....last year Mitch went to a very multicultural preschool where several children spoke little to no english. We had a few special friends from China who made a great celebration for all of us for last years Chinese New Year...the fun stuck so when they knew this one was coming they wanted to celebrate. We started this day with some coloring and a craft.

We made paper lanterns to decorate with. The kids loved it. Avery was very proud of her lantern. To make it a little more special and meaningful to us we wrote on the bottom what we wished for our family this year(ie, love and happiness)Now those lanterns decorate our kitchen....they make it a little cozier i think!

1 Year!!

Today is my one year 'Blogaversary'!(and just a few over 300 posts) I feel like i should do something cool but i don't know what. So i guess i will just say thanks for reading all you faithful readers and followers....and you lurkers too! It has been fun to record all our activities and adventures. In some ways blogging was therapeutic. It made us more aware, and even on occasion inspired activities. It has been fun sharing what we do and what we make and how we school with all of you. I hope that you will all keep reading and maybe we will make a few new reader friends along the way. Check out our first post here. I can't believe a whole year has passed.

Mitchie's Lesson

Who knows what were thinking, but at the end of the day we decided to take the kids up to the ski hill so Avery could get a little practice and Mitch could have his first Daddy lesson.
It was cold and windy and mommy was the only one that was not all geared up. It was cold like i could not feel my fingers cold and i can not feel my legs cold. But they were excited and ready. can't let a little cold stop us!
Mitchie was excited. He was yelling and whooping all the way out there. He clicked on that first ski and was ready to follow daddy like a little snow chick.

Avery made one or two short "glides" down the hill before she had enough for the night. SHe was more interested in sledding. More on that in a minute!

Daddy and Mitch practiced a few new skills

They used a kiddie ski harness to help out...in the end i am not sure if it helped or hindered.

Chris took Mitch half way up the small hill on the tow rope. I was inside with Avery warming up so i missed out on how much fun that must have been. :o) As for the sledding. Avery headed up the hill with sled in hand, i tried getting her to stop part way up but either she did not hear me or did not want to stop. She rocketed down the hill....she lost her boots half way down...i tried to grab her but she was going to fast(i think i hit her in the back of the head instead)....i was running and shouting to her to bail, but she could not hear me over her own screams of terror. I was just hoping she would not shoot under the safety fence and end up in the creek. All this to say that on ski lesson day two, Mommy was the only one that got hurt. I was trying to save Avery from impending doom and wrenched my arm in the attempted grab. Irony, since i am the only one that does not ski.