Dad's Heart Attack!

The squirrels & I spent a couple of weeks preparing a "Heart Attack" for their dad to welcome him home from his 2 month trip in Japan.  We had a lot of fun!

(Kaneecheewah!)  This is "hello" in Japanese.

We put hearts all over the room!  Some of them were made into animals or flowers.  We tried to be a bit creative without being too girly.

This was one of my favorite love notes.  From the mouth of babes!

We're soooooo glad dad's home!   

Happy Spring!

Oh boy! We sure look forward to the first day of spring here in Washington! Our family does Spring Baskets instead of Easter Baskets. We celebrate Easter without the nuisance of a stupid rabbit. We spend a lot of time & do activities centered around Christ and the resurrection. After all, He is the reason we celebrate Easter! This change in the way we celebrate is a fairly new tradition, about 3 or 4 years now.

On the eve of the first day of spring, we boil & decorate four dozen eggs. Then that night, Terry & I hide them, just like the Easter Bunny does. The squirrels know this and asked that we hide them good! The squirrels get so excited! That night, they all had a difficult time getting to sleep. Livvy said her tummy kept doing things like when she knew her dad was coming home from Japan. (Butterflies!) Instead of doing Easter Baskets, Terry & I put together their Spring Baskets and hide them as well. The girls love it! They are always the first ones to get "Easter Candy" and instead of an Easter dress, they get a Spring dress (or skirt). But since we have all been sick since the Tuesday before the first day of Spring, we don't have pictures of the skirts yet. That will have to wait another week or so. Stupid virus.

So I put together a slide show of the fun the squirrels had to welcome in the first day of spring!

My 2nd Afghan

I am thoroughly enjoying my new hobby!  Though I miss playing the piano, it's just too much noise for me to handle right now. With home schooling, I always have kids home, so I have used crocheting as my escape from reality.  It's something that's quiet and once the pattern is established, it doesn't take much brain power to accomplish.  (usually)

Unlike the last afghan I made, this one is made by crocheting separate squares and then connecting them together.  I thought it would be even easier than the first one I made.   Wrong!
The squares WERE easy; it was the white boarder around each square that was much harder than I'd anticipated.  This pattern called for just 6 squares.  By the time I finished the boarder on the last square, I swore I would never make this afghan pattern again!   Then I put all 6 squares together & saw how short my tight crocheting had made it.  Grrrrrr! So I ate my words and crocheted another 3 squares.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that by the end of the 7th square, it FINALLY all made sense! 
I did my own boarder around the entire afghan.  Nothing fancy.  Just double, single, & slip stitches.  But it is much more colorful than what the pattern called for.  I love the purple strip!

No problem with the length & width THIS time!

Even the 5 ft. 6 inch squirrel can keep warm!