It's never too late!

Emma's been working on becoming proficient on her bike for some time now.  The problem is that she's tall but doesn't weigh much...her bike is too small for her height and the next size of bike is too heavy for her.  We kept Ryan's bike (which is one size up from hers), and she's finally able to muscle her way down the road on it!  Bob took the kids to the school last week to practice and, by golly, she's got it!
(All photos by Ryan)

Last Day of School

Last Friday was the last day of fourth grade for Ryan and Kindergarten for Emmalee.
It came so quickly!  It seems like they just started school.  Go here to see a photo of them last August on the first day of school.

Look at how tall they both are!
I'm blessed with two children who LOVE school.  Yes, recess is one of the main reasons, but they also love to learn.  They'd had great teachers so far, so that has influenced it a bit I'm sure.  So now we look forward to a couple of trips and then long summer days at home.  We'll see how they go...Emma cried like her heart was breaking two nights ago because she missed school and her teacher.  :(  We've got lots of friends close by...and lots of chores!  HeeHee.  We won't be bored!

I pulled out my Cuttlebug yesterday and spent a bit of time dry embossing.

I love this little thing.  It's, well, little.  It's fast, easy and uses most other die cut dies

and embossing folder.  Plus, the kids love to help!

 Look at all that texture!

 I also made some more of these cards.  They are so simple, but they look so nice!  I ran out of the dark green I was using (below), but I happened to find some textured light brown (above) in my stash.  I love how it looks...the texture and color work together to mimic tree bark.

Speaking of owls, we seem to have our own little indoor owl.  While Trevor was here yesterday, I noticed that Emma was sitting inside a circle of puppets.  I asked what she was doing, and she informed me that this was her nest and...

 ...here is her egg.

 Trevor had to come over and sit next to Emma wit his own puppet.  Silly kids.  :)

I took a little trip to JoAnn's and came home with these beautiful flannels.

All are going to become baby burp clothes sets with a little mini-taggie.

I haven't worked out the cost yet, but I plan in doing that this next week.

If you need a baby gift, let me know!

My laptop sits in front of a window that looks out on the backyard.  These past few days, I've seen beautiful sunny days and dark dreary days (it's trying to be one of those today).  What I see everyday, though, is the coming of Spring.  The lilacs are getting their leaves (can't wait for that sweet scent), the tulips are growing taller, the grass needs mowed (again), and everything is just so green.

We've spent a bit of time outside working, when the weather allows, and lots of time inside.

~~~

Emma got several sets of "Magic Tree House" tapes at the library.  She's listened to them continuously   quite often over the past week.  While she listens, she plays or draws.

Jack and Annie, their tree house, and the little bit of leaves over their heads that protected them from the rain.

Strangely enough, I made a little 18" x 18" quilt for a stuffed monkey.

Watch for more on that later after me and Em deliver it to him.

We've missed having this little guy around over the past couple of weeks.

He's spending the afternoon with us today (right now he's napping). 

Emma just loves to play with him!

They bonked heads; Emma's kissing his owie.

Yeah, it's a bit blurry, but they were dancing to energetically to "The Wiggles."

I painted my kitchen yesterday...twice.  Here's the story.  I found the perfect yellow called "Bountiful Rye."  I took it to Fred Meyer and asked if they could match it.  She put it to the machine, got the formula and mixed it up.  When she was done, she told me that she couldn't match it perfectly, so I went ahead and took it home.  That's what I used in the pantry closet.  The color was o.k., but not what I wanted.  So, yesterday morning I started on the kitchen, hoping I'd like the color once it was on the walls.  I'm painting two walls...the other two will likely be white.  I got one done with two coats and got one coat on the other.  At that point, I discovered I needed more paint.  So I headed back to Freddies with my can and the formula and had them mix up another can.  Guess what?!  It matched perfectly to the color I had really wanted originally.  This meant, however, that now I had to repaint both walls.  I talked to the manager and explained the situation.  Since it wasn't that I didn't like the color, but that they had messed up the mixture the first time, I got my new gallon of paint....FREE! 
I applied a coat of the Bountiful Rye...and I  love it!  (My family is getting tired me declaring how much I love it every time  I walk in the room!).    It also goes really well with the green on the living room wall. 

Snapshot 4 ~ Justa Dreamin'

Maybe Someday

Last week, Emma and I spent a few days in our

pajamas as I was recuperating.

She spent one morning painting.

Emmalee loves to mix colors.

We put the four colors she wanted to use, and

then we mixed them up. It looked so neat!

The artist at work.

My dear friend, Cassie , stole my thoughts this morning.
My to-do list is sooo long for Christmas.
Last year, I made most of the Christmas presents for our families,
and I want to do it again this year.
But, I haven't started yet!
With all that's happened, I haven't had the energy or desire to work
on crafts lately.
But, yesterday, I got reaquainted with my old friend.
It was so nice to sew again.

Beautiful fabric waiting for me...
to become Christmas presents.

Magazines waiting to thumb through...

so excited for the holidays.

Mom found this Care Bear set from a consignment shop.

She was so excited to wear it today!

Friends, I hope that you have a wonderful weekend!

We plan on spending time with family, working on crafts,

and starting our Sunday letter writing hour.