Dinner last night...

hamburgers on the grill, combined with eating outside....this winter has been nothing short of weird (in a good way) little to no snow
mild temps, have spoiled us this winter. But a 63 degree day on march 6th is nothing to take for granted and so we embraced it as though we had, had a normal wintery, blustery, snowy season, knowing that even for this mild winter this, this was a true gift. To excited cheers as I pulled the grill out to the eager anticiaption of eating hamburgers cooked outdoors (they do taste so much better that way) to the natural request to eat dinner outside stacked up to a full, complete day spent outside. Oh how we have missed our time spent in just this way.

ahhhh this was a happy mail day

my new Cricut arrived...unpacked and ready to go. Now the daunting task of reading that instruction book. Oh my there are a lot more buttons on this one.

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess

Last Friday we celebrated Dr. Suess' birthday. We read his classic stories, including my all time favorite Gree Eggs and Ham.
Naturally we had green eggs and ham for lunch, love watching the kids hesitant approach to this meal and then their excited delight when they realize that they do indeed like green eggs and ham. For snack a cat in the hat hat. Dr Suess's stories are timeless, appealing to both young and old alike what a gift he was to little kids and their families all over the world.

63 degrees

A sunny warm day here in what should be the frozen north.  Love it!!
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A day spent shopping

With a great group of ladies. Our plan scrapbook shopping our destination St. Cloud and the biggest craft store I have visited.  A stop for breakfast in Hutchison and a stop at a scrapbook store was the first activity for our day. Then in to Crafts Direct.  What a place, what selection and fun finds.  It seemed we were done until a decision to go look at one more going by some. And so round two seemed to become the theme of the day.  Out for Lunch and then a return to Hutchison for a stop at Target. Where chocolate was purchased and consumed on the ride home. A decision to stop in new ulm at yes another Target was made. (Yes the chocolate  was "that" good and its Target another visit is always good).  Home 12 hours after I left. A fun day spent with amazing people. Now my head is filled with scrapping and crafting ideas....I just need to find the time.  Can't wait to do it again
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the view out my window this morning

not an unusual site in late April or May but in February it is unheard of. rain yesterday, joined by thunder and lightening last night and more rain has created a lake in the back yard. This morning that rain switched over to snow and the kids currently have chairs lined up and are watching the snowfall. something they haven't been able to do to often this winter.

some things I've beenworking on...

creating with some new scrapbook products and some not so new products (just had them forever and never truly used them)
I even recruited kevin to help out with one project... feels good to be back in the scrapping/crafting mode...

last tournament of the season

an all day affair.
where they took 5th place.
what a season it has been. loved watching as his skills imporved with each passing week, loved seeing his excitement
with each game played. A bit relieved to be done with this season tho...a tiny pause before the next sport season begins.

Science Fair

Athony brought home the instructions for his science fair project a few weeks ago. He was quite enthusiastic about it. I cringed wondering how it would go. He starts out excited but usually he loses steam quickly and this was not going to be a done in a hour type project. We did some searching online and found a idea that he felt would be fun to explore. This past weekend he researched and studied, and tested, and tested some more, and then did the testing again (little sisters helping does not make for a scientific controlled test area) We assembled his display board and sighed with relief when it was complete. I'm sure he was quite releived to just be done with his mom's constant reminders and such. Keeping him on task is indeed a challenge at times. His topic? Does the shape and size of an ice cube affect the time it takes to melt. He spent much of his weekend watching ice melt (it takes forever by the way) The project is at school awaiting the Science Fair to be held tomorrow.

a scrapbook

The sweet lady who was working on an album like the one above gave no indication the pure torture this album was going to be.
She kindly gave each of us who ooooooed and aaaaaaahhhhed over her beautiful album the instruction sheets. I looked at it and thought
oh I could do this, and then decided why not do two? (gee why not, I hate that over achiever in me some days) I scanned the directions, cut out the paper for two albums and when the next crop rolled around I was ready to finish these two albums.
Then...reality set in.
I read the directions once, and then again, and once more...
Looked at Donna sitting across the table from me and doing the same project and said "did these directions make sense to you?"
"Nope" was her response.
Okay so maybe this wasn't going to be so simple.
next I started to remove the cute little grade cutouts, and after one shredded attempt and a lot of muttering. I took comfort in the fact that Donna was muttering too. I tried the next grade cutout and after that dismal failure I moved onto plan B...stickers. Apparently the deisgn of this cricut cartridge left little tabs on the letters that required snipping and cutting each darn letter...some must find that fun. I find that absolutely torturous.
and so it went, eventually the directions found their way to the floor where I gave them no glance at all, and after two days of working on the album I still had not completed the first album let alone even looked at the second. The material for the second album made it's way to the give away table, one was all this girl was going to make. It truly would be one of a kind.
It was weeks after that crop that I finally pulled the album out and finished it. It had been my intent to give it to one of my daycare moms who was quite thrilled with the completed album.
I am still having nightmares about it.
sigh, I may have to slap that sweet little old lady the next time I see her.