Our creative juices were definitely flowing in March, perhaps inspired by the smell of spring in the air, the sound of birds chirping in the trees and the sun shining a little bit longer. Also inspiring was the Maple Syrup class we took this past month. The flowing sap is a sure sign that spring is on it's way in Michigan!
Next winter we are hoping to try our hand at tapping some of our own trees. In the meantime we have been inspired by the class as well as friends of ours who are tapping their own backyard trees. More creative inspiration was to be had at two different theater performances we attended. At the beginning of the month we went to a play in downtown Detroit based off of the popular children's book Going on a Bear Hunt. We read it so many times in the weeks leading up to the play that Lucy and Emma can recite the entire book by memory. The play was really well done, however Emma was not happy about the life-size bear at the end!
I found some really great journal sketch books for kids at our local craft store this past month and have been inspired to make journals with the girls. Every time we do something the girls deem out of the ordinary, we write about it and color pictures of it in our journal. It provided the perfect place for our play tickets and we are all super excited about this ongoing project. I keep the journals in a safe place between entries so that they are viewed as something special and I ensure a more structured approach to them. Here they are below proudly displaying their journal entries from the performance we went to at our local community theater called Playing By Air. Another great show, with nothing scary this time. Emma would have preferred the lights to have been on in the theater for the show, but was still entertained by the juggling, dancing and music.
This past month was full of library fun, and the girls attended their regular weekly Science Story Time, as well as a Fancy Nancy party that they got dressed up for and a special workshop called "For the Birds" where they made various things for the birds from popcorn, grape and apple strings to bagels, grease and seeds as well as cheerios on pipe cleaner bent into hearts. A more appropriate name for the workshop would have been "For the Squirrels" as that is who benefited from the treats once they were hung up in our yard.
The girls costumes arrived for their dance class this past month as well. They are super excited that the outfits came with matching bear ballerinas. One of the many reasons I love the studio they are taking their dance class at, is that their end of year performance will be just for the parents in their regular classroom, instead of on a stage with an audience full of strangers. At this age, I think this will make for a much more comfortable experience.
We stayed healthy almost the entire month of March, and were able to spend time with family and friends. In the top left picture Lucy and Emma are making an Aunt Jane sandwich. In the bottom left picture, the girls are having a tea party with their cousin Ellen and another friend.
Last month we bought a birthday present for a friend that Lucy wanted so badly for herself. She spent the next month saving up her money and finally was able to buy it. Emma also saved up some money and the two of them bought the much coveted Barbie Hair Dye Kit as well as a Barbie outfit, respectively. They were very proud to bring their little purses to the store and pay the cashier for their hard earned toys. They had even more fun dying their Barbies hair when we got home.
At the beginning of March I started getting antsy about taking down all of the winter art projects and paper snowflakes we had hanging around the house. I bided my time, and we added some green St. Patrick's day crafts to the winter mix. On St. Patrick's Day we made and decorated cupcakes.
On March 21, we celebrated the first day of spring by removing all traces of winter crafts and making a beautiful spring collage to decorate our now bare walls and windows.
We also made a family spring craft project that took several evenings but was well worth the multiple steps. I had found an egg carton flower wreath on Pinterest that looked like something the entire family could participate in with our various skill levels. First we cut up the egg cartons into flower and leaf shapes.
Then we took several evenings to paint the flowers and leaves in various colors. One night was reds, purples and pinks, another night reds and oranges, and another night green.
The wreath turned out great, and it was such a nice experience to show the girls the various steps that need to go into a more elaborate project, especially since all ages of the family were able to add their own talents to it.
After reviewing all of the pictures from this past month, it is amazing to me that we had the time and energy to do anything else! I think I viewed March as my last hurrah before I become too pregnant to do anything but put my swollen feet up and count down the days until Violet is here. By the end of March I definitely started slowing down. Below are pictures of the girls making their own fun while I rested on the couch - one is of Emma who thought it was hilarious when she made a "Balloon Butt" on Lucy. Will also tackled various home improvement projects around the house, including the task of unclogging our shower drain with what Will thinks was a build up of his body lint. As much as I find this explanation of the clog hilarious, once the clog was out, it did look like that was what was clogging it! Lucy was fascinated by the treasure that came up from the drain but I think Emma was a bit disgusted, based on her expression in the below bottom right hand picture. The left inset picture is of a recipe for Valentine's Day that I finally made in March with the sole motivation of getting the random and strange ingredients off of my counter and for Will to stop teasing me for buying the strange and random ingredients in the first place.
For as much time and money as I spent on the "healthy" Valentine's Gummi Hearts, they really weren't that good and I had a lot of extra white filling which was made from grass fed gelatin and coconut milk. I poured the left over white stuff into silicone gingerbread molds from Christmas and the entertainment value it provided when I fed them to the chickens almost made the trouble worth it. Pinterest - sometimes the projects are a success, and sometimes they are an utter fail. Thankfully my chickens joints should be feeling good after they ingested all those tiny gelatin gingerbread men. Run, run as fast as you can little gingerbread men!
I only have two pictures of Charlie this month, to prove to Will that my kids rank higher than our outdoor cat. The below left hand inset picture I texted to my cousin who made me the Blessed Mother Statue that Charlie loves to hide behind. My cousin texted back that Charlie is attending his own version of "Catechism." The bigger picture below is of Lucy calling for Charlie from an open window, and him appearing from nowhere. It is very helpful that he comes when he is called, as we prefer to have him locked safe in our garage each night.
Oops, looks like there are actually three Charlie pictures. But it shouldn't count against me if Lucy is holding him, right? Right. In the below picture the girls are enjoying Spring time in Michigan. In the top left picture the girls are "patching pot holes" in our driveway. In the top right hand picture Lucy is showing me a patch of grass that she found by our asparagus bed that we haven't seen since early December. By her levels of excitement, you would have thought she had found buried treasure. In the below right hand picture Emma is splashing in a puddle next to a snowbank that is taller than her. Ahh, now that is Pure Michigan.
We are still adjusting to proper social decorum when outside. It has been months since we were able to play outside in durations long enough to get on each other's nerves. In the months that have been spent mostly inside, the girls have taken their sisterly fighting to new and more heightened levels of screams and retaliation. This is an adjustment now that we are outside and the neighbors can hear us. After an afternoon of fighting and screaming I had enough and went inside and locked the door. Here they are below, crying at the top of their lungs to come in. Don't worry, I let them in - eventually. Once they publicly hugged each other and stopped screaming. God bless our neighbors and the coming warm months.
The white hairs have definitely come at a price, however my girls make it up to me in snuggles, hugs, kisses and laughter.
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1 comment:
Great spring projects and love the journal idea. You are a great mom! Will of course is also a great dad. Love u all so much!....aunt Denise
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