We drove over to DuPage county for a little hike on Saturday. It was so warm – almost hot and there were little bits of spring popping up in the woods.
We saw about six snakes. Yikes.
It’s handy to have a Daddy to help you wash your hands in the stream. Too bad she forgot to wash her face.
And today we have snow. Grrrrrr!
FOE for sure. My attempt at a clever title for this post has nothing to do with what I’m talking about.
I used FOE for the first time – that’s Fold Over Elastic. I made a Summer nightie for Claire. The fold over elastic was great and easy to use – no casing and no threading elastic through – you just fold it over your raw edge and zig zag. I used one of the old sheets that I picked up at a rummage sale last Fall. I think I’ll refine my pattern a bit and make some more out of the other sheets I have.
Doesn’t she look big in this picture?
We finally put up our swing. It’s the swing that I bought before I even knew if we had a tree to hang it in. Jenna was kind enough to help us break it in.
I don’t have any great pictures to show for it, but we had a very exciting day on Friday. Here’s what Jennifer and Jenna, my girls and I did:
– listened to a talking donkey
– watched a train travel from Chicago to Seattle
– learned to draw Donald Duck
– stood in a vortex
– watched a chick hatch from an egg
– launched a hot air balloon
– looked at Mary Poppins’s real outfit
– created a tsunami
– bought ice cream from a robot
– touched a submarine
– watched the largest flipper machine in the world*
– drove a combine harvester
– played on a 727
Can you guess where we were?
We visited the Science and Industry Museum here in Chicago.
* We were pretty pleased to discover a copy of this Swiss flipper machine that we love so much. There are only two of these machines and we’ve proudly seen both of them – one in Lucerne and one in Chicago. We feel it so deeply in our hearts when we find something that reminds us of our Swiss days.
Jennifer and Jenna have been visiting and we made bunnies. Oh how fun!
First we made our balled up newspaper forms and then we covered them with plaster gauze. Messy but pretty easy. Claire and I learned the process in the art class that we take together. We made a snowman a couple months ago. A craft that’s easy enough for a mom and a 3 year old to do.
After they dried we painted them.
And (drumroll please) here they are. I love how they develop their own personalities as you go along.
Here’s Jenna’s smiley polka dot bunny:
Here’s the bunny that Bea made, a color blocked happy hare:
Here’s the one Claire and I made – he’s sleepy:
And Jennifer’s bunny – so sweet and yet he looks like he might jump right over and bite your finger:
I had so much fun making these with all the girls. I’m already thinking about what we can make next time we get together.
We were in Midland over the weekend and one of the highlights was visiting Dow Gardens with Grandma C. They had butterflies in the conservatory and the sun was out. Nice.
We went for a walk in the woods over the weekend. We were a little disappointed in the nature to people ratio. I guess we shouldn’t expected huge swaths of nature considering we were within Chicago. Oh well. We did see this neat building on the grounds of an old tuberculosis sanatorium. Look at the great brick details.
And then we saw these cuties growing in a treee:
We went for a little walk at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Isn’t it funny how a little bit of life poking through like in the picture below can bring us such hope at this time of year.
The girls were chasing some frisky chipmunks. They asked Brian to catch one – as if that were an easy matter. I told Bea if she could catch a chipmunk she could keep it as a pet. Then that’s all they talked and schemed about until we got home.
We found this flower inside – ahhh color – I miss you.
Our floors are done – yeah. I’m so pleased with how they turned out. I’m happy with how they fit with the traditional elements of our house. I feel like they’re too nice for all our stuff and I’m afraid to get then dirty. Look how pretty!
Too bad we had to move our funiture back into the room and put an end to the dancing.
Today, after I dropped Claire at preschool, I went out into my yard and it felt so good. I did a little cleaning up and looked around for some signs of Spring. Everything is so grey and brown and muddy right now but I’ll keep looking and I know I will see some green popping up soon. I planted some daffodils last Fall – I will be overjoyed to see them and to start our first growing season with our new yard!
Laowai 