Busy Fun

OK, so I know I've been MIA for quite awhile on here. So sorry. I've been busy. I will be better....promise! It has been so cold and snowy and windy here....though not as snowy as some places or like it was here last year, so I guess I shouldn't complain. The sun is shining today and it's beautiful out...even though it's a balmy 6º out right now. But I am getting closer to being ready for Spring to be here. I've been receiving vegetable and flower seed catalogs in the mail lately and it's making me ready to plant my garden. Mmmmmm.....fresh veggies.... Anyway, I may have to get a few seeds ordered after I go through my stash and get some plants started. Mmmm....fresh veggies.... Did I say that already?!!

So here's what I've been up to lately:

•A friend of mine and I volunteered to run Clover Kids, which is 4H for kindergarden through 3rd grade, because no one else would do it. We have snacks, play games and make crafts. We had to come up with some cheap, cheap, cheap games and crafts to do. We accomplished that and the kids had so much fun. We did the K-1 kids one week and the 2-3 grade kids the next week and let me tell you, there is a huge difference in the way that K-1 kids and 2-3 kids act and the calmness factor. My oldest is in kindergarden so I'm used to chaos at all times!! 2nd and 3rd graders are much more calm and I was not expecting that!! Next meeting isn't until March so I think I have plenty of time to come up with some more craft ideas. If you have any cute ideas let me know!!!

•I also volunteered to be a Girl Scout Daisy leader because, again, no one else would and R wanted to be in it this year. We are starting kind of late in the year because everyone signed up back in November but no one contacted us to tell us anything so I finally emailed the lady about 2 months later and she had changed positions and they had gotten a new person in her position. Geesh....anyway, so we finally got things rolling and we were going to have our first meeting this past Tuesday, but it was crappy and snowy out and school let out early so we had to postpone. Bummer. R did sell a lot of cookies and those should be coming here in a couple of weeks....YUMMY!

•I had gotten the quilt tops done for R and E at Christmas so I've finally gotten them layered and I got R's tied yesterday so it's ready to have the binding sewed on. And I've gotten E's all laid out and have started to tie it this morning. My goal is to get it all tied today and I think that the backing on it is big enough to use as the binding so we'll see. I will post pictures when I get them all done. Next up is V's quilt top (it's half done) and getting batting for my brother's quilt, which, I am ashamed to say, I have had the top and the back done for a couple of years, it just needs quilted.

•I think I mentioned before that I am working on finishing up some projects that I have started and neglected. I am working on those now that we've gotten the first meeting of Clover Kids out of the way. I have started actually quilting by hand R's baby quilt....yes, I know, she is almost 6....no need to point that out!! It is a new venture for me and I am not really very good yet, but I'm getting better. I have got to get a whole bunch of needles because they bend easily.

•About 3 1/2 weeks ago, R was throwing a fit over a cup and was thrashing around on the floor and rolled, or sat, or something, on her pinky and bent it backwards.

It was all black and blue and swollen, so I took her to the doctor and she got to have x-rays taken. She thought that was pretty neat.

And she got to come home with this on. It is a wrap over a half cast type of thing. She had fractured her pinky. They said that if it had fractured any lower that she could have had more problems...like possibly surgery. So she got lucky and she didn't even have to wear a regular cast, which may have been better rather than having to re-wrap the thing all the time. It did not, however, slow her down one bit. I made a cover for her to wear over it at recess because she was not supposed to get it wet so she didn't have to wear a plastic bag over it all the time. She had to wear it for 3 weeks all the time. I took her back to the doctor on Monday and she got another x-ray and she is all healed. Good thing cuz that thing was smellllllyyyy by the time 3 weeks was up!! And you'd think she had learned her lesson about throwing those tantrums.....no such luck.

•My brother, David, and his girlfriend, Kimmie, were here visiting a couple of weeks ago. It was really good to meet Kimmie finally and to see David as we have not seen him in over 2 years. Us and the kids had a lot of fun with them here. My parents came up and stayed while they were here also so we had a house full. So much fun! Kimmie had never seen so much snow or gone sledding so we took her sledding. They picked the coldest week of the year to come home to see snow! Kimmie may never come back! We'd love to see you again Kimmie!!!

This is Kimmie and E playing with little animals on the floor.

David and Kimmie just before we were going sledding. I love her hat!!

Kimmie's first sled ride!! A little shocking and cold, but so much fun! I think she got a whole bunch of snow in her face that first run because David tried to stop them.

David has been learning to surf in Hawaii, so he thought he'd try it in the snow. This is the sort of thing we would do as kids.....we are no longer kids!! He made it about half way down the hill, then he hit a big bump that the kids use to ramp off of.

We all tried to go down together holding onto each other's sleds. Didn't work so well. The hubby went on down the hill past us and David and R and I all crashed!

The hubby headed back up the hill.

V headed down the hill. He likes to walk about half way up the hill and then jump on the sled. Or he lets the sled go down the hill and then he chases it. It's a pretty big hill to keep walking up, but I'm pretty sure they would frown on using a 4-wheeler to pull people back up as the hill is in the middle of town at the old hospital!

Grandpa and E trying to stay warm.

David and Kimmie after sledding. She is still smiling....that is a good sign! Hope to see you guys again soon!! We had a good time!

•You know those snowflakes that you make by folding up pieces of paper several times and then cutting little triangles and things out of them then you unfold them and you have made a snowflake? (Whew!!) Well, who knew a cat could do that too?!
Boots thinks it's great fun to play with the toilet paper, whether it's unrolled or not. So here is his snowflake debut!! Crazy cat! He has acquired several nicknames in his 4 months here...some are not really appropriate for this blog!!

So we've been busy and having fun. I hope you all have been having a good winter. The groundhog did not see his shadow so only 6 more weeks of winter!!! Woo-hoo! I really don't see that happening, but it is starting to warm up a little now and snow melts quick when it reaches freezing, so we'll see. And then comes the mud....oh, how my munchkins love mud!!

I've got some recipes to get on here and the kids and Daddy made some homemade fun last weekend so I will get that posted too!

Have a great day!

Jess