Other Fun & Crafts!

A "warm" spring day, but it was sunny at least!  This was one pretty day in the midst of many cold and snowy days, but our first glimpse of spring!

A short story in pictures:

I was reading a book set in Morocco, and when I went to pick up Billy's Grand Traverse Cherry Pie* I saw a Mediterranean cafe next door. I thought, why not make the experience even more enjoyable!  The food was so good, I enjoyed everything on my plate! = )

On our first 70 degree day, 3/4 of the girls wanted to go play in the sprinkler.  I said sure, but I wasn't going anywhere near the water.

Heleena invited the twins to her birthday party at the bowling alley. = ) Her birthday is the day before the twins!!

Someone figured out how to put pictures up on the bowling list! lol.

For their birthday, Grace and Juliet got some fancy chalk, so they went out on a slightly chilly day to create some sidewalk art.  Grace wanted to take some pictures, so I sent her out with my phone.  These are from that collection. = )

The empty blue bucket is my personal favorite.

Each time William finds a new army man at a thrift store or one of his sisters bring him home one, he gets out his whole collection to play with!

Another Grace selfie!

And another Grace selfie!

For her birthday, from Zoey, she also got an excavating kit, and I ensured that she went outside to do it.  I thought it would clean up easily, but there is still evidence of her gift on the porch. = (

There was a duck in our yard!!!

I found Billy a copy of a wildly obscure movie for $1**, after looking for years!

Avia and I picked out 'coordinating' dresses for the twins, and guessed who would want which dress. We were both wrong.  Grace picked the black and white and Juliet wanted the colorful one.  Though, I think I've seen Grace in both of them since then.

Warmer weather has me making all of my mozzarella salads!

Grace in one of her "solid" outfits.  Today's color: Blue!

Got a cute little marquee at an estate sale, glad they had fun with it!  They only played with it the once though, so It's out in the garage sale pile now.

Having a twin must be way cool.  They were taking turns dumping the boxes of balloons on one another.

My mom found a beautiful copy of a Hebrew edition of Genisis at an estate sale and bought it for her pastor.  I offered to make a bag for it, if she would find a material that she wanted.  She found a pair of velour type pants that I was able to cut up and make into a simple pouch.

We had a large toadstool growing in our carport!

My mom and I drove down to Jackson to go to a church sale.  It's a little bit of a drive, but church sales tend to be worth it.  While we were there, I checked to see if maybe there were some other sales to hit, and we found not one, but two more church rummage sales!!! It was so worth the trip, and we were able to make it back in time to spare to collect the children from school.

One of the few pictures I took during the day, a large legal case, complete with keys, that I ended up using to carry all of my treasures.

A picture outside of the downtown library.

Showing Grace what the 'portrait' function on my phone does.

We hosted Alice's friend Melony a couple of times this spring.  It's lovely to see Alice interact with her friends!

Emily and the Twins were having fun with Avia one Sunday, so we went to Texas Roadhouse for the first time in a long time!

We were also able to host Weston, William's friend, a few times on short Wednesdays!

Juliet made a fancy gift box for her friend Kennedy...

For a cheap plastic kazoo. lol.

At one of the neighborhood sales that we went to, Grace picked out a $2 "poop" game that had all of the kids giggling with disgust.  It looks like it will be going out in our sale in just a few weeks though, since the novelty has worn off.

I got some new containers for my pantry (and mud room!)

Billy cooked up so much tasty food, that we ended up with two entire links of kielbasa at the end of the week, so I made some fancy looking skewers with sausage and leftover hamburger buns, which did indeed entice my children to eat them. = )

Grace drew a rainbow of cats!

So cute!

Picking Avia up from the airport at 10 o'clock at night, means that everyone is in their nightgowns, because we had to get up for school (and summer camp) the next morning!  It was very chilly night!!

On the first morning of summer camp for the big girls, Grace and Juliet wanted to walk down and see the big girls off, but we had a friendly kitty visiting us.

The bus collects the big girls at the end of the next block over, so it's a little bit of a walk, but not too bad.

In anticipation of our 'start of summer' party, we set up the pool outside. Even though I would not have been able to even stand in the water, because it was so cold, my children changed into their suits and splashed around as the pool filled up!

The next day we had some rain in the morning, but it cleared out just in time for the twins' friends to come over and play in the slightly warmer water!  It was nice for me too, since I got to sit out and chat with Jennifer & Kristy!

Friday night was the Oldsmobile car show in 'downtown' Dimondale.  All the businesses were running specials and with the beautiful weather it was so incredibly busy!  We ate at the ice cream shop (which turned their parking lot into and outdoor patio, and every table was taken inside and out!  It was just the 5 of us, since Grace and Juliet spent the night with Avia, Aunt Rocky and Archie!

We saw an old-timey olds (1902) and I told Emily to pose with it, so that we could remember how much she enjoyed watching Murdoch Mysteries.  lol.

This morning, Alice and up to two guests were invited to watch a movie, courtesy of Alice's orthodontist*** and they had quite a nice set up:  balloon arch, and cardboard display, and members of the staff were walking around offering to take pictures of groups! = )

While the big girls watched the movie, Avia, Grace, Juliet, and I went yard sale-ing nearby at a neighborhood sale!  We didn't find as much as yesterday, but Juliet saw the typewriter and said "isn't that and old-time-y keyboard?" lol.  Avia said it made her feel old.

The big girls enjoyed the movie, and we drove straight to Abby's house for Emily to attend her slumber party birthday!

And at Abby's house I saw a pile of Converse sneakers from party goers, which added an element of understanding to Emily's $10 yard sale purchase the day before. Emily's new ones are the mostly buried red ones that are middle right. = )

It's just been a fun, busy, couple of months!

later days

 *his company has given us a coupon for a free pie every Thanksgiving since we moved up here, but it doesn't expire until April, so we usually use it for Easter. = )

**it was selling for $40 on ebay!!!

***I figure that if I'm spending beaucoup of money on her braces, might as well get all the perks!