Whirlwind Weekend

We are finally all healthy again. We went through a two week period of sickness. Something gastro related- yucky. Thankfully we are all better and were able to enjoy this past weekend. All of my siblings and their families gathered at my parents house for the weekend. It is the first time in almost a year and a half that we have all been together.

Our weekend consisted of two birthday parties, lunch out for all the moms, brunch on Sunday, a family talent show, a Take 6 concert (phenomenal), delicious dinners, walks around the golf course, playing outside, playing with cousins, movies, and more playing. Sunday night there were 22 of us at dinner. We did manage to get a family picture taken.

Here is a photo of all the cousins.

I hope your weekend was fun too.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Today Hannah turns 4 years old. We celebrated her birthday with family over the weekend. Today she brought chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting and party bags to day care. Hannah picked out all the party bag contents with a little help from me.

She had a strawberry cake with pink frosting on Sunday. It was the closest I could get to a blueberry cake. She kept changing her mind about what color of frosting to have. She settled on pink after about 10 minutes.

Hannah got a lot of creative presents for her birthday, legos, markers with construction paper, scissors and glue, an art set with paint, stickers, markers, clay and chalk, and she got a princess coloring book/painting book with paints and crayons. In addition she got a little barbie girl riding a pink sparkly pony and a purse filled with purse things. I look forward to many days of creativity in our house. Thank you everyone for the great gifts.

Facebook

I am finally on facebook. I opened an account last year some time but never did anything with it. Today I finally updated it and started adding friends. So far I like it. Now I just have to remember to go there.
In other news: I really am buying the book from the post below as well as a couple of other books illustrated by Kadir Nelson. I am told that they were shipped yesterday. One is for Maya entitled Coretta Scott. It is about the Civil Rights Movement and Coretta Scott King's involvement. Maya really likes learning about the Civil Rights Movement. She is especially in love with the stories of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks.
The other book is for Elias and is titled Henry's Freedom Box. It is based on a true story of a slave boy who mails himself in a box to freedom. You can find other books illustrated by Kadir Nelson on his website. Did I tell you that all three books are signed by Kadir? Yay!
I first found out about Kadir Nelson's illustrations when my sister, Jess, gave a book to Maya titled Waiting in the Wings, about a tall girl who is ballet dancer but can never dance in recitals because she is too tall for any partners and she just so happens to be brown skinned like Maya. I love his illustrations, I love that he draws brown skinned people and children in books that I am willing to give to and read to my children. Hopefully my children appreciate the books as much as I do. I wish I had enough money to collect all of his books.

I'm buying this book

Ski Lessons

It warmed up this weekend. Yesterday we enjoyed sledding with my, brother, brother-in-law, his brother and briefly his sister-in-law and niece. There was a bitterly cold wind at the top of the sledding hill. Luckily we didn't spend too much time there. The sledding was great. We all had a number of wipe-outs.

Today Maya and Elias had cross country ski lessons again. It was a balmy 30 degrees with a soft snowfall. Hannah and I went sledding, again, while the other two skied. Hannah found a tree to climb (wish I had my camera with me then). Maya and Elias gushed, again, about how much they both like skiing. Both boasted that they only fell twice. Way to go guys.

The skis Maya is using this winter used to be mine and Elias is using skis that several of my siblings used long ago. Thanks Mom and Dad for keeping them around. Another generation is certainly enjoying using them.

Project Finale

Here is my Mental Health Day project outcome. Little shoes for my new niece, Alice. They are double layer flannel. I love the brown cat print. My sister is not much of a pink lover so I tried to stay away from pink. The coral polka dot print just went so well, technically it is more of an orange color than pink.

I found the tutorial on line at Stardust Shoes. I tweaked it a little using the tutorial at Maked Crafts so I could enclose the inside seams between the sole and sole lining. I also used a medium weight interfacing on only one layer of each piece (the pattern called for interfacing on every piece).

Mental Health Projects

We are taking a mental health day today from school, daycare, the cold.... I have been working on something fun today here is a preview. I can't tell you what it is yet.

Winter Fun

Last weekend, before the cold snap, we headed outdoors for some fun. Saturday we stopped at Target and picked-up some new sleds then drove to a nearby school that has an awesome sledding hill. We spent about 2 hours sledding. Hannah is fearless, she'll take a running leap and slide down head first. Maya took joy in making sled trains and Elias kept looking for steeper and steeper areas to go down the hill.

On Sunday Maya and Elias had their first cross country ski lessons. After an hour and a half Maya returned to the chalet and declared that she loved skiing and wanted to keep going. Elias hasn't found a sport yet that he doesn't like. I saw him fall numerous times but he kept getting back up and trying again.

While the other two were skiing, Hannah and I had some time together inside the chalet. Hannah worked on learning to write her name then we discussed what kind of cake she wants for her upcoming birthday. She wants a blueberry cake with pink strawberry frosting in the shape of a princess castle. Umm...I'll see what I can do.

This weekend it is supposed to warm up and drop some more snow on us. I'm going to pack a couple of sleds in the trunk so Hannah and I can go sledding during the ski lessons. I bought a thermos this week so we can have hot chocolate or cider after skiing/sledding.

Stay Warm!