Afghan Blocks

For the last few months I have been working on a knitting project. Surprise, surprise. I was inspired by an episode of DIY's Knitty Gritty. (Some of the stuff on there is rather weird but since I'm a visual learner I've learned a lot watching that show.) The show that inspired me was about Aran Knitting, which means cables!! I have wanted to do cables for a long time but was intimidated by them. After watching that show I felt I could do it. After searching for the right yarn to use (not wool, which is typically used) I began my project. The afghan is 20 12" squares. I have them all knitted and washed. Now I have to block all the squares and then I have the daunting task of sewing them all together in a pleasing way. (Which means I will stress over the arrangement for a while until someone talks me into doing it a certain way. Hopefully Jessica and Sue will help out with this.) I would love to pay someone to sew it together for me but I've already spent enough on the yarn. Here are pictures of the different stitches I used. (Please excuse the differing colors. It's the lighting and flash. They are all the same color, which is the color of the first one.)

 

 

 

 

I'll be sure to post a picture of the finished project...maybe in the fall. Now that I have cabling experience I'm working on a new project. A cable jacket.

Spring Break 2008

Since the girls continued to talk so much about last year's Spring Break trip to Cincinnati, we decided that we better have something in store for them for this year. We decided on a trip to Sandusky, Ohio and the Great Wolf Lodge, an indoor water park with an outdoor theme.The drive wasn't too bad, it only took us a little over three hours to get there. We got there a little before check in time but our room was ready for us. We felt really lucky to have the very first room on the second floor, so we had quick access to the elevators which led down to the water park. First thing on the agenda, swimming!

Then it was down to the water park.

This place was amazing! They had a bunch of different areas and it was nice and warm inside. They said it was always 84 degrees, but I think some areas were not quite that warm. The kids played in the kiddy area for a little while.

Then it was on to what turned out to be Mattey's favorite area, the lazy river. She enjoyed the fact that she could walk around or float on tubes and after the first day, she had enough confidence to do this without her swimming vest. Her and Kelly spent a lot of time in this area. Kade also enjoyed bouncing around in this area. There were a couple of smaller slides that the kids tried out, and then it was on to the big ones. Megan went down the big slides on her own tube by herself and Mattey went down on a double tube with Kelly. Megan loved it and this was the first of about fifteen trips for her, she tried to keep track. This would be the only trip for Mattey, she was not thrilled with the speed. The last day of our trip I was able to talk Kelly into going down again with Kade because there were two different slides and I convinced her that the first one she went on was the fastest and that the other was not as fast. Oh yeah, speaking of Kade. He ABSOLUTELY loved the big slides. I think he and I could have walked up those stairs all day and he would have been in heaven. He also preferred the faster of the two slides. It was fun and really fun to listen to him hooting and hollering as we slid down the slide.

Later we had dinner at one of the restaurants in the lodge.

After dinner we enjoyed a small show that was put on in the foyer of the lodge. This show was fun the first time, unfortunately they replayed this show in the next hour and then we weren't so sure we enjoyed our close proximity room.

The next day was filled with more swimming and some arcade fun. The kids enjoyed some games and of course loved those games that give away those wonderful tickets which can then be used to buy the high class prizes that end up littering the floor.

The last day was some more swimming and some crafty work. Mattey colored her own pillow case and Kade and Meg colored knapsacks.

A trip home with some tired kids who were all focused on the movie, with Kade taking a break or two to look at a new super hero book and eat some Oreos.

We had a lot of fun and hopefully, next year at this time, the kids will remind us how important it is to take these small trips together.

March

Now that it's the middle of April I think I had better write something about the month of March.  There were a few things that happened like St. Patrick's Day, Easter, and Kade's 3rd Birthday.  I don't know why I'm having an aversion to blogging but I am.  I would rather do something else.



I really tried to get into St. Patrick's Day this year.  To help the kids be green I bought them a Logan nose from Burger King.  At least one got lost, of course.  I didn't get any pictures of the kids with their noses on or of them in their green clothes.  I'm a bad mom.  But I did make a green dinner for us to enjoy.  I don't know how to die ham so that was the only thing not really green.  We had green salad, green grapes, green rice, broccoli, green lemonade, and green rice krispie treats.

 The next big event was Kade getting his first haircut with the clippers.  He said he wanted his hair cut like Dad's.  I gave in only because Mickey promised to use the biggest guard possible so it wouldn't be too short.  It grows so fast anyway that I don't think there is a too short.  Kade looked cute with his new long buzz.  I think he thinks he's more grown up now.  Here he is.  (Notice how his hair on the side grows forward.  That might be a problem later in his life.)

 

In preparation for Easter I boiled about 20 eggs to get dyed.  The kids had a great time and they all could have done more but I didn't want to be eating boiled eggs for a month.  Here are the rest of the pictures from this event.

We didn't get any good pictures from Easter day.  We ended up having not too bad weather.  That was nice.  The kids really gobbled up their candy.  I would love to come up with some other way to celebrate Easter (meaning no bunny and chocolate, at least not on Easter itself) so if anyone has any ideas let me know.

On the 28th of March Mickey took a picture of the kids like this:

I don't think I've ever seen all of them watching TV like this before.  Funny.

Then we get to the 29th, Kade's birthday.  He is finally 3!  He had been looking forward to his birthday for a while.  I think he had a good one.  His birthday was actually a busy day for the family but we made time for Kade.  He got to open presents, which he loved.  What kid or adult doesn't?   From us Kade got some trucks, no-mess painting supplies, an outfit, and his favorite thing, a bike.

 

I made a big brownie for his "cake".  Being a chocoholic, he loved it.  He did have trouble blowing out his candles.  Here are the rest of his birthday pictures.  The next day we had a little family party for him.  He got some movies, a lawn chair, a "dolf" club with balls, gardening tools, and other outdoor things.  He'll be busy this summer.  Here are more pictures from the party.

Kade loved his new bike so much that he was constantly riding it in the house since it wasn't really warm enough outside.  I got tired of wiping the tire marks off the walls so the first nice day I took him out.  He is already a good little bike rider.  I can't believe he's only three.  (Here's the other biking pictures.)

I think this pretty much wraps up March.  Now I'll have to blog about Spring Break (if you want to look at the pictures from Spring Break you can look at them from the flickr page link to the right)  and then Mickey will have to tell about his trip west.  Check back later.

A Good Laugh...

...at least for me.  (I know that I'm way behind on other events but I had to share this.)  Today has been one of those notorious gray days we have here in the winter.  You know the ones where you don't feel like doing anything, ever.  I don't know what got into me, maybe it was the sun finally peeking through, but I had the best laugh tonight and I'm still giggling about it.  Mickey was helping Mattey with her spelling words because tomorrow is her pre-test.  I was dishing up some ice cream and not really paying attention.  And then I heard him say "wash".  (I know you're thinking "that's not funny".)  As soon as I heard that word I started laughing.  If you don't know my husband that well you don't know that he pronounces the word wash as "warsh".  It's something that has always bugged me but I've learned to live with it.  Anyway, I know that he REALLY, REALLY had to think about how he was going to say it so that Mat would spell it correctly.  I laughed hysterically for a few minutes.  I'll admit that I'm laughing as I'm typing and I keep having to correct typos.  Sorry if you don't find this funny but even Mickey giggled about it.  Maybe that was because my laugh was contagious.  Thanks, Sweetie.



Another thing that has been funny lately is Kade's sense of humor.  It's really coming out.  He's trying all kinds of things and saying all kinds of things in order to make us laugh.  Sometimes he really is funny.  Like today he would make a raspberry sound with his mouth and say "I just tooted....on purpose."  What's that about?  Everything has been "on purpose" today.



Something that's not funny is that we have to replace our septic system. Uhg.  I don't even want to think about it.  I'm sure we'll document the entire thing so check back.  As of right now we don't know much.  We're waiting on soil tests and what not.