Twelve and a Half Years Later

 I rediscovered this blog today. Reading through it reminded me of the days when my children were small and my whole world was wrapped up in being a stay at home mama of three. Those three are all young adults now, the oldest lives in another state, the middle one will be finishing up college by the end of spring, while our youngest just completed his first semester at the University where his oldest sister got her undergrad degree.

Reading those entries I made so long ago also reminded that I really enjoyed writing and sharing my life here. I am pleased to have a written record of that time. 

So I decided to start it back up again. For myself. So maybe in another 12 and 1/2 years I’ll read entires from 2021 or 2022 and think “Yea, I’m glad I wrote about that.”

I’ll leave with a photo of those beautiful children as the beautiful adults they are now. This was taken when L came home to visit this past summer. Taken in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where we have made so many happy memories as a family over the years. 

Mother's Day was very nice, we decided to go to Greenfield Village since we have the member pass and were reluctant to spend too much money. No fancy brunches this year for us.
The weather was perfect, sunny with a slight breeze. Of course, everyone else decided to go there too, but we got there rather early so we managed to avoid most of the crowds. We hit the carousel first just in case Mr. Gasbaggy takes 3 times as long as the other workers to tell the rules man was working (he wasn't), then we wandered around. It's nice now that the kids are older we can explore the interiors of the buildings and actually learn a few things. When they were smaller, we had to keep on the move at all costs. They seemed to have the most fun rolling down one of the big, grassy hills. Even the teen got in on the act and we managed to sneakily get a picture of her, don't tell!

We have been busy around here! Getting ready for Lydia's ice show this weekend means lots of driving to the ice rink as usual. Last month, I joined the Coraline Mystery Box Swap hosted by My Little Mochi and that has kept me busy and worried. Worried because I knew there would be swappers with tons of talent participating in this swap and I wanted to please my partner so I thought hard about what to do. My ideal project would have been to make a doll similar to the Coraline doll in the movie but I just couldn't make one that was good enough. Thank goodness I found a great pattern for the Cyclops squid thingie and he came out great. See him over there?
I also decided to make a shrink plastic bracelet which came out so detailed and cool and I made some fabric pins. I felt bad in a way for using so many downloaded images and not drawing any myself but my drawing skills are so bad, that I knew it would be horrid. So the box is on its way to California, hopefully it will get there today or tomorrow.

Wow, it has been way too long since my last entry. To the right is one of 7 ATCs Lydia made at my request. We have this metal Ikea tree-like thing and I wanted to hang Valentine ATCs from it so she made some for me. I liked this one the best. We found some cute free downloads of vintage Valentines and she went to work.

The kids loved the little amigurumi frogs, I also made two cute little birdies for the girls, a tiny turtle for the boy and for all 3, I made some adorable hearts from a free Roxycraft pattern. The lesson learned this Valentines Day was take pictures of the goodies you make for the kids before you give them away because they will be hard to find after that. Especially with Kai because he always wants to sleep with them and they get lost in and/or under his bed. When I find them, I'll try to post a pic, I really loved how the hearts came out.

Here they are after the recital, so proud.
Tess playing 'Ballade', as promised, I already posted this elsewhere but what the heck.

The recital went well, it was in a church this time because the community center the teacher usually uses was already booked. The church was huge and a had a gorgeous and well tuned (LOL) piano. Kai did so well at his very first recital and Tess played like the old pro that she is having done this since age 7. Actually, she always gets a touch of the nerves, in the videos you can see how she's kind of hunched over due to being nervous but she plugged away and played beautifully. She was annoyed at herself for the few mistakes she made, because you know it is always perfect at home.

Kai doing his song, 'Chinese Dreams'.



This is their improvisational song, keep in mind, it is improv so there is not much melody just "noodling" as their teacher says. :)



Blogger won't let me add anything else so you'll have to wait to see Tess play solo.

Sledding!

We have been getting so much snow this winter. Normally I complain about it but I have really been enjoying it this time, maybe because there has been so much that we haven't had the nasty brown ugly version because we keep getting new snow. Anyway, David has taken the kids sledding twice which is exactly two times more than last year. Like I said, there has hardly been any snow the last few years. My dear friend Nicki is a former Michigan resident now living in Texas and she asked me for some snow pictures so here they are. I don't have any oh so pretty ones, but I like these sledding shots very much.


This awesome toboggan was given to David by a older guy he talks to when he works out at the Y.


Tess getting splattered, look at the air she's getting.


Always together, these two.


When did my baby boy get so big?!


Lydia and friend looking cute.