Pinterest Projects

Oh, I have so many blog posts waiting in the wings for the house remodel and Baboo's visit, but I don't have all the photos yet.  In the meantime, we are loving all the ideas we find on Pinterest these days.  Finn loves making different concoctions and mixing colors so these have been a lot of fun.

First, baking soda and colored vinegar.  A plate of baking soda and several bowls of colored vinegar and a dropper yields little bubbles of colored art in the baking soda.  Finn had a really good time with this.

Next, a little water in a pan, then drop colored oil around on the water.  Settle a paper ontop to soak up the colored oil for some beautiful swirls.  The oil never really dries, but it made a lovely suncatcher in the window for awhile.  Unfortunately, this one didn't last very long.  We tried to do more paper, but it all just blended together after awhile.

This one is "magic milk."  You put a bowl of milk with several drops of different colors of food coloring around in it.  Then, you dip a q-tip (the magic wand) into dish soap and place it in and the colors start swirling. 

And here, is elephant toothpaste.  A big hit for sure.  Just search elephant toothpaste for the recipe.  Finn thought it was a lot of fun.

The Joy of Puddles

We got some much needed rain on Sunday and Monday.  Finn and I decided to introduce Josette to the joy of puddles.  As always, she was thrilled by the antics of her brother stomping and splashing and she experimented with it herself.  Both she and Finn had a grand time. 

We Miss Baboo!

I haven't posted in a while because we have been very busy around here.  Baboo came to visit us and we had so much fun, but we also did a lot of projects.  The big one was taking out a wall in the house.  Lots of pics to come of the remodel.  For now, here is a smallish project that Baboo and Finn did.  Painting the door with chalkboard paint:

 It takes 3 days for the paint to be ready for chalk, so we just put it to use today.  Finn and I were coloring and I asked him if he wanted me to write his name.  He said, "No, write Baboo"  Then, we talked about how much we miss Baboo.

 Josette woke up from her nap in time to join in the fun:

Yard Work

It is spring time and that means yard projects.  Sean has taken on the project of removing the stump of the tree that fell down the first winter we moved in.  The site will be our strawberry patch.  Of course. such a project requires lots of help from two little ones and a reminder of how fun dirt can be!

 Now that we are past snow boot season, Finn chooses bare feet.

 Josette is not going to miss out on this action:

 Finn doesn't hesitate to dig right in, too:

Easter Sunday

We had a fun-filled Easter weekend.  On Saturday, we enjoyed the 2nd Annual Stimmell Egg Hunt and Chinese Food Festivities.  It was a wonderful time with cousins running non-stop for hours.  I forgot my camera to document any of that, sadly.  On Sunday, we ventured out to church and enjoyed the service and egg hunt in front of the State House afterwards.

Dying Eggs

Finn was very serious about dying eggs this year.  He quite excitedly picked out an egg dying kit and was intent to do it all on his own.  And, he was really disappointed when we ran out of eggs to dye after the first dozen.

In the days before Easter, I had all these plans to research natural ways of dying eggs and letting Josette give it a go, too.  But, the best intentions just never came to fruition and Josette had to find her own entertainment while Finn decorated the eggs.  She chose one of her favorite activities these days - petting Lily under the table.  Oh, our sweet Lily can be such a naughty dog, but she is a saint when it comes to our kiddos!  Josette is still very much learning "gentle hands" with Lily.  She has a fascination with Lily's eyes and ears and often tried to suck on her nose.  She has a habit of trying to climb all over Lily and even use her to pull up.  Through it all, Lily is so patient.

And, a sad, but funny story regarding Finn's carefully dyed Easter eggs.  After church on Easter Sunday, we came home and, most naturally in my mind, I went to make some egg salad sandwiches for lunch.  I pulled a few of the eggs out and went about cracking one.  Finn looked at me aghast and asked with pure horror, "Why are you breaking my special eggs?"  I should also preface that this was one very tired little boy after a series of Easter celebrations through the weekend.  Oh, it broke my heart as I tried to explain that we would eat the eggs this week and his lower lip started to quiver.  Since then, he has happily gone into the fridge, extracted an egg for himself, cracked it and eaten it.  However, just today I went to move the eggs to another shelf and he quickly asked me what I was doing with his "special" eggs.  Alas, apparently, I am just not to be trusted.

11 Months Old

My, oh my, Josette is 11 months old!  It really just snuck up on me.  We are barrelling right to the big 1 year!  Wow!  Truly, the first year of life is amazing.  Josette is embrassing life as a toddler and exploring everything with gusto.  She is already trying to add speed to her walking, and I am afraid she will be running soon at this rate.  She has mastered drinking from a straw and a sippy cup and she does darn well just with a regular cup too.  She loves almost all food (except avocado, or all things), but she still loves nursing too.    She has learned to give kisses, but mostly reserves those for her Daddy.  She continues to work on all sorts of consonant sounds, and I swear I hear a lot of "Mama"!  She loves to play peekaboo and she likes to play a bit of chase, where she crawls away and you have to go after her.  She keeps looking back and giggling.  In fact, there are a lot of giggles from us all when playing with sweet Josette.

Toddler

Josette is on the move on just two feet these days.  She is happily toddling across rooms and chooses to walk versus crawl most of the time now.  She is still a little slow, but if you give her a hand to hold on to, she really gets some speed going.  What a busy, busy time.

Football Man

Finn has really taken to playing football in the backyard in the afternoons when Sean gets home from work.  Thankfully, he is fully outfitted with another fabulous gift from Uncle Jonny - the vintage football helmet and ball.  So, here is our Football Man and a big Happy Birthday shout out to Uncle Jonny!

Snuggles with Dad

Sometimes, you fall asleep reading books...

Charmingfare Egg-travaganza

Some friends of ours treated us to an Easter celebration at Charmingfare Farm, a local CSA and zoo down the road from us.  It was a lot of fun.

First, there was an egg hunt:

 Each kiddo got to bring an egg carton to fill.  Finn was very proud to decorate his before we went:

 Then, there were the animals.  Finn's joy at holding a bunny made me want to go out and get one.  He was so happy:

 Feeding the animals:

 They tickle:

 Our favorites, the goats:

 Josette enjoyed them too:

 A tractor train ride took us to a magic chicken in the woods:

 And back to rock climbing with the goats: