Needed: One Craft Table

Sitting on the floor to play has been a part of our everyday here since Evan was born.  Games, puzzles, art stuff, toy set-ups.... whatever.  And now that the kids are getting older, I see them starting to hunch over to play and it doesn't look comfortable (or healthy for those spines). 
We need a craft table but there is nowhere to put one.  I'm hoping to figure out a way to make it happen in the current art corner of the living room right under the big window, but who knows.  Until then, we sit on the floor....

We've been playing "Herd Your Horses," our new game from Gramma who visited last week.

This game is wonderful!!  There are several games you can play on one board and all of them are fun.  Chloe is addicted to it and has already memorized most of the horses names.

There are solitaire versions of the game so those of us who don't prefer competition can still have fun ;-)

The art corner is forever a mess, but since the best light comes in these windows we all gravitate toward it, even if we aren't doing art stuff. 

A new stash of shiny party umbrellas was the highlight of several days in a row of playing.  They even took them outside to play, stuffed them in containers for car rides, and also brought them to church.

For the past month or so, Evan and Chloe have both been really interested in ocean life. Chloe has been interested in fish for years, but the movie "Finding Nemo" really set this thing in motion for both of them.  Chloe likes the colorful fish and the sharks while Evan gravitates toward unusual stuff like pufferfish and anglerfish.  They asked for some anglerfish pictures (among other things) for coloring and cutting out, and spent an entire morning doing this:

Details, details, details.  And Chloe's look as good as Evan's.  They love scissors :-)






The past few days have been so nice out that the art corner is only busy in the early morning while it's still 40 degrees out.  By late morning it's above 50 degrees and sunny!! 

So, maybe we don't really need a craft table.  Maybe we just need it to be spring.

Easter

Easter Morning!!

It seems I just don't pick up my camera very often any more, so the photos are sparse yet again.  After breakfast, we gave the kids their Easter presents:  a real Bible for Evan (his first) and a stack of CDs for Chloe with Bible verses set to music.  It's important to us that Jesus is the reason for this day and the kids were so grateful for their new treasures :-)

After that they were free to hunt for baskets which their dad hid this year.  Evan found his strung to a rope down the chimney hole in our unfinished attic, and Chloe's was under a box downstairs.  This might be Todd's job every year.  We opted for natural treats like fruit leathers and banana chips which are just as exciting to the kids as gummy worms since we rarely buy them.  They were thrilled.  We also like to put a little surprise in the basket too:  a pure white kitten for Evan and a husky dog for Chloe.  They both liked the little surprises the best out of everything. 

For a family that doesn't eat a lot of sugary food, Easter is a difficult holiday to navigate, but this year felt just right.  We went to church without any sugar-high to deal with and some really nice music to listen to as a family.  (Again with the lack of pictures... we don't dress up super fancy on Easter anyway, but still....)

Cooped Up

So, we thought spring was on its way.......
We were wrong. It started snowing last week (for the annual St. Patrick's Day storm in Erie) and it is still going today.  It's cold and wet and slushy and muddy, and we have only been out to play or to visit friends a few times.  Stir crazy does not even begin to describe the end of March.

Meanwhile, the "Cubee" craft projects have taken over.  A good portion of every day is spent creating and playing with these creatures.  Several are print-outs from the website, but they have also made a bunch of their own designs and piles of accessories.  They spend hours in the art corner surrounded by paper scraps.

Flynn and Rapunzel (from Tangled), as well as Mother Gothel and the captain of the guards, are some of their most favorites.  They made their own designs for these.

Many mornings they jump right back into playing before they've even eaten breakfast.

When Cubees are set aside momentarily, we read or look through the hundreds of books we checked out from the library (oh my, the amount of books right now...).  I've been reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret to Evan; Chloe is usually sitting nearby listening, but I'm not sure how much she understands.  When it's Chloe's choice, we work our way through the James Herriot collection that she never tires of.

Dreary days seem to call for card games too. 

(Seeing the glasses in the photo above reminded me -- Evan recently had an eye appointment that showed his lazy eye to be completely healed and the other eye strengthened to 20/20.  Praise God!)

And Chloe wouldn't be Chloe without a constant art project in the works (messy stuff like paint and clay being her favorites).  She has made several more window clings to brighten the view out the front window.

........ brrrrrr .......

Discovery

We found snowdrops growing while the weather was nice.  We have never seen them in person, so the kids were excited and Chloe felt like something of an explorer making a discovery for the whole world.  The very next day the crocuses, which were non-existent just one day earlier, were wild everywhere.  Chloe brought handfuls of them home to save, so even though it's snowing outside today, we have a bit of spring here in the house.

Weekend Outside

It was a gorgeous weekend with spring-like sunshine and temperatures, so we basked in it.  With RC trucks charged up and ready to go, we were all over the neighborhood on Saturday.

The snow piles that hang out on sunny days seem to grab the kids' attention every year.

Todd's super dusty truck was just begging to be scrubbed with snow.

And what's a day outside without scrambling up the tree....

........or the truck roof....

On Sunday we went to the park with the RC trucks once again.  Evan drove his all over while Chloe followed along (her battery was dead).  She was busy hiking trails and collecting sticks. 

Eventually Evan joined in the hiking fun too, and from that point on Todd and I just stood watching in awe of our two big kids running all over.  They are such explorers.

 

Hello March

Yesterday it looked like a snowglobe outside.  We were mesmerized, but not motivated enough to run out in it, surprisingly.  We did stick our heads out the window and look up though.  So pretty!

I haven't been in a life-documenting mood recently, but I did take these fun pictures of the kids before we went out one day.  I still have to bribe them to smile by playing the "don't make any faces" game in which they try to sneak in a goofy face just as I'm snapping the picture.  When they laugh, I get a good picture.  Win, win.

After capturing some pretty good smiles, I let them go crazy.  These are the best of the silliness.