A Leaf Transformer

I can pretty much never get Kellen to do a craft with me :( Lanelle had brought in her "treasures" and I was getting her to glue the leaves on a page. As usual, Kellen had no interest until I suggested he should make a leaf transformer. I think if I can somehow put the word "transformer" into requests that I make, I'll have lots of luck getting cooperation from him!

Waiting

The wait was just too long for cousin Arwen to come! I tried explaining that an hour and a half was a VERY long time to wait in chairs at the window, but with no luck! Ian and kellen made a trip to go get her instead of waiting for her to get dropped off. It was just going to be too unbearable (for me to listen to the whining and the question: how much longer?)

The other morning Kellen was having impatience problems again. I took him to the wall clock. "See how this hand is pointing straight up? It has to point straight down. 30 minutes and then we'll get our jackets on to go to Kenzie's house." I think I got 30 reports over the time period. "Yes, its moving!" "Yes, its almost there!" "MOM, IT"S GETTING CLOSE!!"

Sometimes in my life, I have found it hard to wait, to be patient. Always thinking of the next stage or wondering how things will turn out. I am so thankful that lately I have not had any of those thoughts or feelings. I'm enjoying the peacefulness and the way it makes it be so easy to be in the moment. I take back any and all of the thoughts I had of "oh, what I'll be able to do when my kids are older." I wish they would stay this age forever.

Recipe: Cucumber Avocado Soup

1/2 avocado
1 cucumber, seeded
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 garlic clove
squeeze of fresh lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Blend together and serve chilled.

I'll be making this chilled soup lots this summer!

Early start at beach season.

I had the day off yesterday. We had such an early start the day, we were soon outside in the backyard, doing some of this:It was so beautiful, the decision was made to pack a snack (guacamole and crackers was the choice) and head down the trails to the monkey bar beach. Yea, first trip to the beach for the season! The kids loved the adventures and gathered treasures on the way...and stopped to tell stories at times. Lanelle is quite adamant lately that we need a boat, a green one. We don't know where on earth she got the idea from, but I'm quite delighted and think we should really get that canoe we've been talking about for years! She also likes to talk about ducks. Kellen mostly talks about transformers.Big brother was especially cute trying to convince Lanelle that the slide was not scary.There was lots of time playing in the sand (and I wished that I'd thought to take a book).

Snack time happened briefly a few times, but it was awfully hard to give snacks much attention. Swinging and monkey bars for all (including mom). Kellen was especially proud at how well he did monkey bars this year.

That was only the morning of our day together. We also managed to fit in a trip to the dentist (and heard that Kellen has beautiful teeth!), to the coffee shop, grocery shopping, and tackle storage room reorganization. None of which was so much fun to take pictures of, ha!

Easter Eggs

We tried natural dyes last weekend on our Easter eggs.

• pickled beet juice = bright pink
• red cabbage = beautiful bright blue
• beets = brown
• coffee = brown
• orange peels = not yellow (my research told me it would)
• grape juice = purple (but it was a slimy skin on the eggs that would rub off, weird)

Next year I'll be trying out more of these ideas. Maybe I'll have more luck getting a yellow egg. I trust these ideas, as they admit that beets + vinegar turns eggs brown, NOT pink as other people indicated.

I'd show you pictures if I had any (really disappointed I forgot my camera). But, this post will help me next year, so I don't lose this information :)

weekend at the cabin

I've got no pictures, as I forgot my camera. I will be able to get some from Mary though :) We had a super good time. A few (Kellen) stories:

Bill & Ian had gone to Hudson Bay. I was going to give Kellen a ride on the quad. He was a little unsure of my abilities to begin with, but he got on with me. When I was fumbling around trying to figure out reverse (oddly, I've never driven Ian's quad and I found out later you have to be holding the gear shift down to put it in reverse - different than the quads I've driven anyway), Kellen got very concerned. Told me I should not drive. He began to panic and cry, screaming for me to turn it off. It was too funny, so I didn't oblige too quickly. While he was calming down and walking away after I gave up - he informed me that you should not drive a quad if you don't know how to reverse. I also enjoyed watching Mary laugh at the situation from her view on the deck. A dramatic Kellen moment.

Kellen & Arwen came in after drawing on rocks on the deck. I notice Kellen had BIG red "K"s written on each leg of his pants!
M: What were you thinking Kellen?!?
K: Oh, I just didn't want anyone to steal my pants. - (Yeah, he was fumbling for a reason on that one!)
AHHH! He now has been informed writing on pants is not allowed. This "K" writing is a recently acquired new skill - I hope it doesn't turn up in other undesirable places. (And, no they were not kid friendly markers. The weekend laundry was done, and the red K's still remain on the 3 week old jeans!)