May snow storm revisited...

This post is all about May 6, 2010. It started snowing in the late afternoon of May 5, and stopped sometime May 6. It blew a good portion of that time too. Maybe I ought to mention again, WE HAD A PATHETIC WINTER LAST YEAR. We got our first snowstorm here in October 2009. October 5, to be exact. It dumped a pile of wet, heavy snow. Trees all through town were cracking and branches falling. Our plum trees hung to the ground, until Jonathan went out and knocked the snow off of them...good boy! Anyhoo! We have discovered this year that April Showers Bring May...Icicles?!

The icicles, which were blown in under the eaves because of a wicked north wind all day.

This appears to be the end of what I am calling our Parentheses Winter ( ) October~May...with nothing in between worth mentioning. So, here are some pics to show off a little actual moisture we are receiving. Now we may not need to just light ourselves on fire and get it over with, to quote my bro-in-law!

My poor south facing flower bed. Under all that snow lies lots of columbine, some tulips, day lilies, fire lilies, asters...They are all hearty plants, so I think they'll be fine.

The kids enjoyed playing outside for awhile...almost an hour. The picture of Annisia up to her waist in the snow?? Not really. She was having fun falling down. You can see in the last photo that the snow is up to Jonathan's knees. They were soaking wet when they came in. Lots of fun!!

Hoods!!

Our friend, PJ, sewed hoods onto the kids' robes. I could NOT figure it out. I got the material, gave it some thought, got the kids snacks, stopped a fight, gave it some more thought, tried to lay it out, couldn't ignore the little voices long enough to actually form a thought, threw it all back into a bag, successfully ignored it for several more months, then brought it to PJ just in time for the robes to have hoods in the summer, when the kids don't need them. Ta Da!



My kids, modeling. They were SO excited! They also got another hooded towel from some towels and washrags I got at Costco. With about 2 hours of one-on-one training and an entire manual devoted to instruction and step-by-step photos, I may actually manage to make one of these! (well, ok, maybe I'd manage on just 1 hour of assistance...)

Now I have made a blogging friend, Neisha, who is shaking her head at me wondering how in the world I am EVER going to be able to sew some of the things she shows on her blog. How in the world does she do some of that stuff, I say? With kids in the house? But she has some of the cutest creations! And she makes them sound so easy...{sigh} Can I have a smidgen of your sewing talent, please? You won't miss just a smidgen, Neisha. Please?!

April Show & Share and making Playdough

Jonathan brought his rented skis and boots, and his helmet to school to show all his school mates. He described the ski areas we skied last winter, his favorite runs, told them about Daddy taking him down some black diamond runs, "but not the top of Hustler!", how much he likes the Lazy M...you get the picture.

All geared up! That afternoon, we returned his skis for the season.

My parents were visiting, so we did a new special breakfast...Eggs in the Hole! We all got to choose our shapes for cutouts.

Another afternoon, we made Koolaid playdough. My son is so smart. It was his idea to use the Kitchenaid. It does make the process quicker.

Jonathan asked for his batch to be "deep purple". We did our best...

Kool-Aid Playdough

2 ½ to 3 Cups flour 3 Tbsp vegetable or corn oil

½ cup salt 1 Tbsp alum (cream of tartar can be substituted)

2 Cups boiling water with 1 pkg Kool-Aid (any flavor)*

* I did ½ of two Kool-Aid pkgs, each in 1 cup of boiling water.

Mix ingredients and knead with flour (may take up to 1-2 extra cups). This makes a huge batch of playdough. Make 2 colors that, when mixed, will make another color, actually giving you 3 colors! Keeps well, has a nice fragrance and is very colorful and pliable!

Funny things the kids have said...

I need to post some things the kids have said before I lose the little pieces of paper they are written on...

February 3, 2010
We got home from gospel meeting in Sheridan. Annisia was laying in her carseat with her eyes closed. Michael whispered, "You aren't asleep." and Annisia whispered, "yes, I am."

Feb. 4, 2010
At breakfast, Jonathan held up a piece of fried egg and said, "Mommy do you know what shape this is?" I looked at the seemingly blobbish shape and thought I saw a diamond. I said, "What do you think it is?" and he said, "It's a rhombus." WHAT?! My 5 year old knows what a rhombus is? I told him I thought Kindergarteners learned shapes like triangle, oval, diamond, and rectangle. I don't think I learned what a rhombus was until I was in Geometry! You should have seen him glow with pride!

Feb 6, 2010
Annisia said, "Mommy, do you know how to say banana in Spanish? "bananana"

One Wednesday evening when Daddy and Annisia stayed home from Bible study and Jonathan and I went, Jonathan said, "Mommy, I am a fire fighter. You are a fire fighter with dark skin. Girl fire fighters do very much work. Boy firefighters don't do much work. But Fred the Firefighter does a lot of work." I think he must have been looking at his Fred the Firefighter book (Usborne).