Sunny Fun!

We are still enjoying the quite unseasonable warm weather!! Yesterday it was 80 degrees F. at it's peek, today we were out but when we cam home around 3:30pm it was 87!!!!! April in New England is not suppose to be like this, but I'll take it!!Yesterday was so warm we pulled out the picnic table and had lunch outside! Riley decided he is too big to sit at the little table!! After this picture Fern went inside to "change pants", she came out with out any and happily wore her bathing suit cover up the rest of the day! :)
Here are our starts for the garden this year, the growing season is a bit shorter her than in Calif. and last year we did not plan ahead, this year we are hoping and praying for higher yields! Clock wise starting at the top, the ones not yet sprouted are celery, then mammoth sunflowers, the little bits are cantaloupe, and the big leaves are pumpkin! We are hoping to grow our own jack-o-lanterns, and have a few to share too!
I splurged on myself yesterday and bought violas! Aren't they pretty, I have two pots of them! :)

Since yesterday we spent nearly the whole day outside working in the yard, and since today was pay day (aka:shopping day) we headed up to Hartford to Whole Foods and then over to the Children's Museum! It is nice that they are across the street from each other, it makes the 4o min. drive well worth it!! :)

Fern's favorite is the 3 & under room, they have a great little kitchen! She was making us dinner!
She loved the little pot holders, just right for her hand. I think I will have to make her some!

I have a few more pictures but they will have to wait, I hurt my shoulder yesterday and I am going to use a little bit of my quiet time to lie down! Cherio!

UUGGGGGGHHHH!!!

Well can you guess what kind of bug I am taking a picture of in a bag AGAIN!?!?!?!?!?! Yes, it is a tick! UGH!!! I found it in Jake's hair line on the back of his neck this afternoon. UGH!! And then I had to get it out! UGH!! It was HUGE, and GROSS!!!!!! UGH!! Anyway Jake was freaking out that it was sucking his blood and so I pulled it out but was not sure if I had gotten the head out. So we went to the Dr. and she checked and said I got everything except a little speck of an antenna or something. UGH!!!!
Jake wanted to take the tick home to show dad so the Dr. put it in a bottle of some sort of poison, then into a pee bottle, and then in a sealed bag. :) So here is Jake with his tick, yea he is smiling, he got a sponge bob sticker too. :) No worries though, it was ether a wood or a dog tick, not a deer tick who carries lyme disease.
Here is another look at it, it is really hard to photograph a tick (especially when it is double bottled)!!
And then there is Fern, this is what she was doing while I made dinner. She ran with me down the hill to the grocery store because I was out of carrots, on the way back she dosed off, I woke her up took her in the house set her on the stairs, took off her shoes and jacket and then I went up to the kitchen. When I came back she was curled up kneeling on one stair, her head on the next fast asleep!! Then when I went to tell the boys dinner was ready this is what I found, I do not know if she fell over or woke up bit and layed down. She was quite asleep and woke up quite grumpy, and is now at 9:30pm quite awake! I took matters into my own hands yesterday and gave her a haircut, too bad you can not see it well. Next time!

What a day!!!

SUN!!!

So we had the most beautiful weather today and thankfully we had planned a hike! So we headed over to Hop Brook and had some fun!! Here are our super excited hikers ready to go!!
Fern was so excited when I told her she could touch the water, she kept saying. "finger! water!" It was too cute!!
Two hands even!! I love her little hands!
Then Jake found us a path to go down, but Fern was hesitant...
...she needed her Daddy first!!

And that was our fun!
The End!!

Shinner!

So Fern had a bit of a spill yesterday when coming in from playing outside, I have already given her 3 doses of arnica and it still looks like this! Can you imagine what it might have looked like!!! Fern was not very interested in showing off her owie! :)
Here it is, I caught her by surprise, that is why she is looking a little weird. She fell right on the edge of the deck stair right onto her eye bone!! OWIE!!

Could it be???

Is Spring here? Well at least today it is, tomorrow, yea well maybe it will snow. Who knows! Here is Fern outside today, she found flowers! :) These are dried out bits left from the cone flowers last year, she also picked all of my crocuses coming up, yea! :)
Here is Fern poking our seedlings who were out sunning. Our Mammoth Sunflowers are already starting to show!! :)
Here is Fern smiling for the camera, do you see her toes? Yes she and Jake were out without shoes, it was a little chilly but they have no feelers so they were fine! :) This is Fern's new dress, we were down in Orange going to Trader Joe's and decided to check out the Goodwill. As I have said recently Fern is into dresses and we just did not have enough, so we scored a couple cute dresses, this one is from Lands End and looks like it was washed once! :)

So... Happy Spring... at least for today! :)

Conference Weekend!!

Well this is Conference weekend, that is when we enjoy watching General Conference where the prophet and other church leaders address us from Utah. It is enjoyable and I buy "oreos". MMMM!! We have also had Uncle Dave visiting this weekend (Dan's brother if you can not guess by the resemblance and the fact that I have no brothers). So here is a group shot from last night...
...and a "me too" shot too! The kids have really enjoyed having Dave here and there is often a tiff about who gets to sit next to Uncle Dave and who's bread he will butter first! :) Even Fern has gotten in on the action, this self proclaimed "mama's girl" refused to sit next to mama tonight at dinner but kept saying, "Dave, Me, sit!!". She is too cute even when she is overly demanding and barking orders! So Dave may have come here to have an enjoyable respit from life but all he got was, "Uncle Dave... Uncle Dave... Uncle Dave..." just insert any thing you can guess, read this book please, build this paper airplane please, watch me! Ya know the usual aboriginal crys heard though out this house hold!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Why am I posting at 11pm you ask?

Because my cute little bug is uninterested in going to bed!!! I now have her settled enough to sit and watch a show, but here is what she was up to about an hour ago! :)She has been insisting on wearing dresses for the last three days! Too cute!

Here is her racing! She got this bug for her first birthday from Grandpa M. and has enjoyed it, but she has always left it in her room (and carpet). This week Jake brought it in the kitchen (hard floor) and now Fern is having a blast on it!!

Good night... I hope soon! :)

Sad Day.

Three sad kids asking why I was sending our movie away!

I ordered Funny Face on Netflix for ME, it is one of my favorite movies of all times and I had not seen it in a while. So one night for dinner I decided to subject everyone and make them watch it... they LOVED it! We have had it for a couple weeks now and every time I have let them watch a movie they have asked to watch this one! Who knew Audry Hepburn and Fred Astaire could capture the attention of these crazy kids of mine! I have even heard Riley humming some of the tunes from the movie and he even broke out with a few "Bonjour Parie"! At least it is something I like hearing them sing!! :)

Au revoir! :)

Crafty-ness!

Well the crafty (and frugal giving) bug has hit this house in the last few months. Here are a few of our accomplishments! Here are some dish scrubies I crocheted with cotton yarn. These were birthday gifts for Mary last month. (See my pretty new ironing board cover underneath, I had had the last one for over 9 years!!)
This is a pot holder (also for Mary's birthday) that Riley made. He also made a few for Christmas gifts!
Here is Riley's birthday gift from Dan and I, I made the quiver and Dan made the "arrows" and fixed the bow. It helps alot during the Davey Crockett & Indian games! :)
Here is what the boys got for Valentines, I cut and sewed the fabric, Grandpa M. drew the maps and Dan "aged" them.
Here is what we made for Novella for Valentines, so she won't forget us!! This is the outside...
...and here is the inside, there is another couple pages of pictures. I used iron on computer paper to get the pictures on!
And here is a kitty I made for Novella for Christmas.
Look at the cute ribbon I used for the tail!

Also if you remember our crafty Christmas gifts for the kids! I have been making dish towel bibs again, and of course baby blankets. I have some wonderful fabric waiting on another project, but I need to find the "right" bias tape first. So I wait! :)
What have you been working on???

I SEE YOU!!

Three babes with such different eyes!

Race Day...again!

Well today was the big day, the district Pinewood Derby race! Riley's car was chosen to go because his was the fastest Tiger Cub car of his pack. So up to Waterbury we went and we did not emerge for THREE HOURS, yea it was a long event!Here's our racer!

They had done up the hall great! Lots of "sponsor" banners and other car type banners you would expect to see at a real race.
Here are the 68 cars racing! Riley's is the second row from the bottom, second one from the right (mostly red).
Here is Riley's first race, the red one with the "R"! He won this heat.

This unfortunately was Riley's last race, he came in 12th (raced in 4 heats), but was a good sport. He left with a great certificate, a race car sucker, and his car. All in all we had a good day, lots of refreshments and even a couple cookies! Riley is now planning next years car design! :)

Additions!

This is a wall in my kitchen, when mom was here to help me unpack we put up the clock, the Knotts Berry Farm pie tin, and the framed Mary Engelbreit picture. Then I found my chicken fly swatter and added that, and then most recently found my "Hotel Roanoke" fork and added that. It has kind of turned into an American themed collection, 4th of July, apples, pie, (apple pie with a fork to eat it with), and then the chicken, well she looks cute at least!

Then for Easter my Mom sent us a whole collection of hers & my Grandma J.'s cookie cutters. There are lots of real treasures! :) Thanks Mom! In among the usual array of cookie cutters were silhouettes of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the United States. They were yelling to join the wall, so here they are! I almost added the Virginia one I have, but that could get out of control as I search for other states we have lived in! Maybe someday when I have a bigger kitchen! :)

So that is what we have been up to today!!

Happy Easter!

I know I am way disproportionate in pictures today, Fern was just so cute in her Easter frills, Oh well! :) We hope your day was full of rebirth and hope!All of us!

How sweet is that smile!!
And the whole ensemble!
Here is after church, her nursery teacher gave her a whole pack of bunny peeps. She was quite proud and did share a little with the boys (an ear each)! :) How cute is she!!
Peeps!
And then all three, are they not spiffy, the boys looked so nice in pale yellow! Hopefully they fit for a while! :)



AND...



HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARY & NOVELLA!!!

We wish we were there with you... ALOT!!!!

One year ago!

Fashionable Fern & Stuff!

Here is our fashionable Fern, this is a hat that Grandma & Grandpa H. bought in Russia when Fern was still in my tummy. Obviously we had found out she was a girl and she was the first granddaughter after a few year granddaughter dry spell. Fern wore it a few times as a babe, but for the most part just pulled it off, but now she is totally into it and wears it around the house or when we are out and about, what ever the spirit moves. Today though, she was hiding from my camera, so this is not the best photo, her hair sticks down and makes her look flapper-ish!

In other news, I added a couple new side bars. One is a list of blogs I enjoy perusing, family, friends, and others I thought you might enjoy the peruse too! And the second is little wish list of mine so you can drool, or laugh over them too. Just silly little stuff I "dream" about! :)

I have my fingers crossed that maybe we will get a good picture of our new Easter duds tomorrow to share, and that it will not snow.

Until then... good bye!

:)

Why do we buy toys?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

These are the shirts I bought last year when we were in Calif. waiting for Novella to come (hence they are short sleeved!), it is a very nice thing that my kids grow not too quickly and that I tend to buy big clothing! Fern will still be able to wear it next year!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!