A Springy Winter 2015

We basically had no winter.  The only winter storm to hit the Treasure Valley was in November before we came down and that storm didn't hit Valley County, which is really unusual.   The kids and I went up for the Winter Carnival and were lucky we made it before all the sculptures melted.  We were only in Eagle for a few months before heading back up to Norwood where there was already no snow in March.  We even turned some water on that early!  We did some homeschool activities with Common Ground Homeschoolers including hosting a wooden spoon doll crafting day and going to a soccer clinic.  It was fun to get together with other homeschoolers but it was hard to get into school in the short time we had down in Eagle and all the moving back and forth.  It was an easy calving year with the nice weather.  We were lucky to catch a natural calf birth out in the field after a hike one day.  The children had their first piano recital and did very well.  I have so appreciated Mrs. McKee's working with our unique nomadic situation.  When we got back to Donnelly there was finally some more snow which gave the kids an opportunity to build a snowman and have some fun in the snow.  

One day Alice said, "Mommy I want to make an owl."  So we did.  That's the good part of homeschooling - doing projects and following their interests.

We managed to make it to McCall Winter Carnival before all the sculptures melted.

Hiking at Spring Valley ranch.

BSU STEM Exploration Day - constructing a catapult and exploring chromatography.

Early spring day at the reservoir.

We got to watch the cow in the middle, who is dropping her calf, from start to finish giving birth.

Two cool kids.

All dressed up for homeschool Valentine's get together.

King of the mountain.

Ranch daycare.

Cousins!

First recital!  They both got superior ratings from the judges the next day too.

Fractions and art

Turning water on the Stringer place in March!

First and last snowman of the year

Kitty adapting to the late spring snow

Clyde's aspen grove painting

Wildlife sighting on the way to the grocery store

Alice didn't like this trade.  I think pink might be Harry's color!

Clyde's first Rocky Mountain Oyster cooked over the branding fire

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Easter Egg Hunt at the Wises

"New" tractor we bought from Mumsy.

Mrs. McKee said Alice's hibiscus clip looked cute.  Later, Alice told me, "I prefer not to be called cute."  I asked what she would prefer and she responded, "Tigerish."  Here's to my fierce, opinionated, stubborn, and delightful girl!

A Cowboy and a Stinker - Halloween 2013

Alice decided she wanted to be a skunk for Halloween.  We had a headband and tail, so I got to work on the rest.  I found a plain black t-shirt and pants and a black hoodie.  I appliqued some quilt batting on for the stripes.  They are a little more elaborate than real skunk stripes, but I think they turned out pretty well.  It's hard to fail with a kid this cute!

Clyde's costume didn't require anything.  He said he didn't want to dress up and I said if he wanted candy he'd better so he put on his cowboy gear.   The Donnelly Librarian made a crazy monster mouth they had to walk through.  The town does an awesome Halloween.

We also went to the school fair which I have to say felt odd since we aren't at the school anymore.

1st Homemade Costume

In my first real attempt at making a costume (although now that I think about it, Clyde's kung fu panda and Sherlock Holmes were both partly homemade), I made the costume Alice requested...... Alice in Wonderland!  I am really happy with how it turned out.  Of course it helps that Alice has the blond hair and blue eyes.  She makes a great Alice, in Wonderland or anywhere. 

Babies, Babies, and Baby Showers

We've been getting a lot of these new babies at the ranch:

And two of my dear friends are expecting their own babies, so I've been doing a lot of showering, which means a lot of baking, cooking and crafting. 

I made two of these "fabric beachballs" - one with stars and a multicolor animal print, the other with brown and green animal prints.   They were pretty easy and a good toy/decoration combo.  We decorated my mother's front entry with some vintage baby clothes:

 I made a diaper cake for the first time... there are about 100 diapers in there!

Here's the other beachball and the lion cake.  I "invented" a new mode of cake decorating, cute and less labor intensive.  I make a fondant cake topper that I simply place on top of a buttercream frosted cake.  I painted a lot of the pieces with gel food color thinned with vodka.  It worked really well.  You could even reuse the topper.

For the other shower, I also added marshmallows for texture and then even used them instead of a piped border to "caulk" the line between cake and plate.  

So excited to meet the new babies and I hope they aren't too much like this:

Spoonflower Pillows

I discovered a really fun fabric place.... spoonflower.com.  You can design your own fabrics or choose from fabrics others have designed.  They then custom print your order and ship it off to you.  I found a couple of preprinted pillow prints that I thought would make fun pillows for the playhouse couch.  The first try with the America pillow it didn't work really well so I added a gusset panel around it to give Florida, Maine and Texas a better chance to get stuffed.  The owl was super simple and I'm pretty happy with how both of them turned out.  We haven't worked much on the playhouse this week, but I'm thinking maybe I can get some done this weekend.

Projects...

We've been working on some projects.  The most fun one is our new playhouse.  Uncle Josh put windows and a door on one of our sheds.  Then he sided the bottom half.  Now we're painting the interior.  The kids helped me paint one wall the other day.  Other than a bad paint incident involving Alice's hair, it went smoothly.  It's actually light blue, but looks white in the photo.  We're planning on painting a tree and some grass/hills also.  We'll see.



Today's project was a new dress (actually a pinafore) for Alice.  I had 2 or three of these when I was in preschool and I wore them all the time.  It's great because there are no fasteners, it slips on and you get two different looks since it's reversible.  Alice loves the heart pockets which seemed like a fun thing to do since it's almost Valentine's Day.  One side is brown with white and pink daisies and the other side is actually a pink dictionary print.  I made it without a pattern and it actually fits pretty well and only took one afternoon to make.