Ice Skating Party

Family birthdays around here are always lots of fun! Granni chose for us all to go to a skating rink for hers-

Eric hasn't been in several years, but he picked it up again very easily.

Leah started out VERY timidly-she wouldn't let Dennis let go of her skating walker for a second. She eventually let mom do it with her, and before we knew it, she was flying around the rink in the security of her green walker.

Scowls turned to smiles

The rink was very crowded with kids (it was family skate), so when one of our little ones had to go to the bathroom, an adult was left in charge of guarding the walker. Dennis and Bay are having a race I think.

Uncle Andy started a game of ice rink tag...always fun to sneak up on the unsuspecting.

Afterward we gathered for a nice family dinner, presents, cake and all 3 kids (who are now all taking lessons) gave Granni her own private piano recital.

It's been a crazy winter!

Like most people in the eastern US, our winter has been quite unusual as far as temperatures are concerned.  The wood stove is roaring one day, and then we have to let it die the next, because we are chased out of our 80 degree house! Though I do not like warm temperatures in the winter, and prefer dreary, snowy, gray days, we have tried to make the most of the days as they are given to us.

 An especially warm weekday trip to play frisbee golf...

 Dennis taking advantage of a warm day off work!

 And then just to prove that it is winter, but really only to tease, a smattering of snow just a couple of times. This particular snow, the kids went out and played in it as if there were 2 feet on the ground! 

 I have been able to take advantage of the time indoors to organize parts of the home that have been neglected lately. This hallway in particular houses several small bookshelves. They were literally over-run with books and piles. I added a warm lamp and some linens and the end of the hallway looks so much more inviting now!

And on a completely different note...Bay and Leah participated in our local homeschool science fair in January. Leah did a display about her favorite subject, "Cats". She had a great time and did a fabulous job researching each of the wild cats, taking notes, and organizing/decorating her display poster. 

Bay did a display about the "Life Cycle of a Star". This also was his idea as anything involving space interests him. The concepts that he was trying to display were certainly at times quite complex, and he really only hit on the basics as far as the life of a star goes, but it was a great learning experience for him. I think the thing that he learned most was the importance of knowing your material and practicing beforehand....over and over and over! 

Eric turns 13

 Eric turned 13 in January...officially

but he's been acting like he turned 13 quite some time ago! We have enjoyed seeing the many ways he has matured emotionally, physically and spiritually and academically over the past year.

Since this was a special year/number, Dennis took Eric and a friend snowboarding for a day as his present.

 Eric commented that this was the best present he could ever ask for

 We still had a small family celebration on his actual day...with special dinner (lasagna and red velvet cake for dessert)

 Uncle Andy was here to celebrate too!

And to celebrate and remember how big  our #1 boy is really getting, a few pictures from his past...

One of Eric's earliest and fondest memories from his childhood was when he was 3 and after an extended period of rain, I let him go out and play in the giant mud puddle that was our back yard. 

When he turned 4 we had a really fun pirate party-games of walking the plank, treasure hunt-I had a lot of fun planning elaborate parties back then! 

He started out on skis...here he is at age 7. He switched to snowboard I think when he was 10.

Eric at age 8

Skip a few years to 2011- Eric the 12 year old. What a difference just a year has made-he grew 4 inches over the past year!

 Eric at 13...almost

Knitting and other projects

I have actually done a large amount of knitting...since before Christmas, and some projects have lingered afterwards. I am finally getting into knitting what I started learning to knit for in the first place...SOCKS! Although before Christmas, I made several gifts, but neglected to take pictures of any except one...yikes. There were 2 scarves, a ruffled cowl, and a hat. One of the scarves is pictured below. They were all pretty much very quick knits-1 or 2 skeins on large needles. 

I also practiced knitting my first pair of socks for myself, but have no picture to show. They turned out very well, and so I went on to making a pair for Leah. They are sized exactly so she doesn't have much room to grow, so next pair will have a little more wiggle room. I am using the book "Socks from the Toe Up" which I've read is the easiest way to knit socks-get the toe out of the way first. Anyways, there are many variations, and everyone in my family wants a pair, so I ordered lots of sock weight yarn from my favorite yarn store, Knit Picks.

Naturally, now I need a place to store my ever-growing stash of yarn. I though some fabric bins were in order. I found a great tutorial from Like Mother Like Daughter's blog, measured for size where I wanted the bins to fit, found some leftover matching material from my ottoman slipcover, and they were a breeze to stitch up. The hardest part was making the pattern (which really wasn't that hard).

 I did learn a few things for future reference. When making large bins (mine are 11x 11 x 7) I need to use a stiff interfacing. The first one I made did not-only the batting as per the instructions, and it flopped completely down. So I machine quilted the sides vertically, which added SOME stiffness, but really it needed more as you can see. Still too floppy for me.

 In the second one I sewed some super stiff interfacing to the lining before sewing together and it improved the stiffness quite a bit. 

 Either way, they hold my yarn quite well, and coordinate with my living room! I may make some in smaller sizes, which I expect will stand up a little better on their own. 

Flying

Recently, a family friend who has a private plane took us up for a ride. It was a fabulous hour flight! I have always loved flying-especially in little planes-you really appreciate the sensation of flying. Of course, it is important to be with a pilot whom you trust, and Terry is a most reliable and conscientious pilot! Bay and Leah had never been up in a small plane before, so they were understandably a little tenuous. Eric, however, had done this before, so he was prepared.

A little recap...

Bay: "Mr. A, what happens if something goes wrong?"

 Mr. A: "Bay, in my many years of flying, nothing has ever gone wrong. But, that is a good question. If something does go wrong, you just pull that little handle and the door will open for you to get out."

Bay: "Why would I want to open the door? Wouldn't I just fall to my death from up in the air?"

 Mr. A: "Okay, Eric, Let's go dive bomb that beach over there."

Meanwhile, we banked a big turn and felt a few G forces. I turned around and saw Leah with arms and legs outspread, holding on for dear life! She did not expect anything like that! She recovered well.

 A couple of views of our house, creek and the family compound as we like to call it! You can see our shared garden, my parents tear drop driveway , house and big barn in the field as well.  Ours is the brown house.

 Our gracious and accomplished pilot!

Christmas Post

I know this is a little out of order, however I am just now getting Christmas pictures organized. We had a fabulous Christmas break...the kids really enjoyed their time off from schoolwork, Dennis relaxed as much as he could (actually a couple of days he stayed in his pj's most of the day!), and I got LOTS of knitting done!

Leah makes little signs for herself and others all of the time-this one she made for herself to wear each morning. It says "Do not have sereal (cereal), Leah" For some reason she has decided she doesn't like cereal for breakfast, and so to make sure she doesn't forget her tastes have changed, she made a reminder to wear. Funny.

At first, the crew was a little tentative about changing up the morning routine to go to church on Christmas morning, but it worked out just fine and I think it really was a blessing to put the focus even more on Christ by going to worship him on Christmas Day. Usually we have our own time of worship as a family on Christmas morning anyways, but taking the bigger break to go worship with our church body was refreshing! The kids came out Christmas morning to a few presents under the tree. 

I must comment on Bay's gift-the Build-a-Bear car. He and Leah are passionate about their Build-a-Bear animals. Bay has asked for this car for 2 years now. I found it on ebay for a fraction of the price in the store, and felt much better about getting it. He and Leah were so excited to have Pups and Spots (their dogs) get to ride around in the car. They also both asked for pajamas for their animals, and so I used scrap fabric to make the coordinating pj's...I guess I'd better get a picture of those up here too, eventually! This was the most exciting present for both of them. Fun to be able to get them what they want and make half of it at the same time!

Everyone got Christmas pajama pants of course....

Having Uncle Andy around the whole break was a special treat-he got lots of time in with everyone-working on a go-kart with Eric, playing nerf with the boys, target shooting at Dennis' brother's house, lots of help working on painting one of his boats.

Granni & Gramps (Gramps has on his knit hat from me)

Granni hoping her farmer's almanac is predicting snow here this winter!

Out with the Old...

...in With the New!

It's a new year, and so time for a new mailbox of course!

 Dennis really tried hard to relax over the Christmas break, and he did a wonderful job of doing just that. However, he couldn't let the time off go by without  a little project in the wood shop. I think it's fabulous, and certainly was time to replace the other one which is old as our house! The old one is going to be re-purposed into a nice bird house!