Call It What You Want...

As the package containing this has been received, I can now reveal what the fabulous batik was for...

This is a friendship star quilt for my friend Angela, a college acquaintance who has grown to be a dear friend since. Her favorite colors are green and purple, and after a second surprise box of goodies from her (she has now learned that I get giddy -- and a little teary -- over presents), I wanted to do something...

I've been reading a series of books about quilters and I do like to make a little quilt now and then, though I'm far from talented at it. I had a little bundle of fat quarters I've been hanging on to for a while (read: hoarding) and decided that this was a way to use some!

(By the way, it really isn't as hourglass-shaped as the picture. I had it hanging from the cabinet doors and it ended up draping over the edge of the counter top.)

The quilt was inspired by one in a book by another quilter, but the book it was in has the tiniest little quilts and I didn't want to go that small, so I made my own pattern based on hers. I ended up hand-quilting it because I don't have a walking foot, which would make both the top and bottom of the piece go through the machine at the same rate (Christmas list), and I even got some fancy thread for the binding and some of the quilting. It was a fun project, and I called it "Surprise! Friendship".

This is a passage that was most likely inadvertently left out of the Gospel of Luke, 15th chapter:

"What three-year-old boy among you, if he has a hundred toys, including all of Bob the Builder's friends of which three are Scoop, does not leave the ninety-nine out on the floor of his room and go after the one which is lost,

"Enlisting his mother, small brother, even smaller friend Julia and her parents in looking for it, searching the entire house, from toybox to diapers to desk drawers to couch cushions until it is found?

"And when he has found it, he clutches it in his hand, rejoicing.

"And when he comes home, he calls together all of Bob's friends and all of his other toys, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the Scoop which was lost!'"

We are having our own little rejoicing going on here after the lost was found.

Last night I promised Mark he could do something special with Grandma this morning. The first thing he said when he ran into Grandma's room this morning was "We get to do something special today!"

Grandma had bought a "cookie house" at Kmart (on Easter clearance, of course) and thought that might be a fun thing to do with a boy or two. I wasn't sure, except that anything with Grandma is fun...

Mark even agreed to hold the hand mixer -- the sound wasn't too loud for him -- to mix up the icing. Unfortunately all of the pictures I tried to take of Grandma grimacing at the hassle of loading icing into bags and such didn't turn out so well, and ended up looking like she was smiling.

Mark liked helping squeeze the bag to put icing on the house. Then he got to apply candy!

 (Can you see the tongue out in concentration?)

Mark generously allowed Adam to share the beaters from making the icing. Adam was having a rough morning, so this was a very nice thing for him to do.

There were lots of details to add to the house.

  and

When he was finished, he had a delightful little bunny house. I think he had a nice time with Grandma. And I didn't have to clean up!

Amid drizzle and snow and a nasty wind that kicked up while we were out there, the boys attended our neighborhood's annual Easter Egg hunt with a generous handful of other children whose parents were just as nuts as we were. We wore coats and hats and still mostly froze our "bippies", as Grandma Sarah would say.

As you can see, the "field" was open, and there were plenty of eggs for the "Three and under" crowd to find, in a safe and less-muddy place than the rest of the park (I think a parent came up with this some years back). Mark, an old hand at the Easter Egg hunt, took off with Daddy, while Mommy stuck with Adam to help him learn how the whole thing worked.

Adam finds his first egg. He finally did pick it up and put it in his basket -- then immediately took it out and put it back on the ground.

He got the hang of it, gathering up two at once!

In the meantime, Mark branched out for some "harder" to find eggs. This photo explains why at least one egg had wet leaf and a dead worm on it.

That blurry black thing? That was the rock that Adam collected, along with his eggs.

Mom, it's cold and I'm ready to be done. Is this enough?

There were many more eggs that children, and in the three-and-under section, organizers were begging people to take more than the "10 per child". Mark obliged.

Frozen thoroughly, we got back in the car and went home to check our loot.

I believe that someday, some year, it will be warm for this thing.

There's not a lot of interest around here in crafty projects, unless it involves a needle and a piece of fabulous fabric.

But, in honor of Easter, we tried coloring eggs. With Adam, it was not a success.

But Mark had a nice time and made some pretty, if normal-looking, eggs.

In other news, Adam would like to share with you the following information:

If you grab the end of the toilet paper and run -- but not too fast -- you make a really neat stream behind you! And if the phone rings at the precise moment that Mom discovers that you've done this, you don't really get into that much trouble.

Yeah, everyone, drool over this:

This is a beautiful piece of batik fabric I got recently for a project that will not be revealed here, at least not yet. It was exactly what I was looking for to use in the project I had in mind, and I found it at our new needlework store, Always in Stitches (which carries fabrics, yarns, and accessories for quilting, knitting, felting, etc.).

Did I mention it was just what I was after? The colors were in perfect harmony with what I already had.

I think I need some fancy thread now.

Mark has taken to asking "What does it mean to...?" when we use a word or phrase that he's not sure of.

Yesterday he was doing something silly and I told him he was a rapscallion, though definitely not meant in the truest sense of the word. Mark asked what that meant. I told him it meant he was full of mischief. He giggled about both funny words and then asked what it meant to be full of mischief. I told him, "It's when you're a silly boy and do silly things."

"Kind of like being a goof," he said.

Yes.

That's it exactly.

Last week he told the man at Menard's that he was shy. I asked him what that  meant, and he said, "Because I don't like other people's dads. I only like my dad."

Okay.

(And enough with the shy thing. You're not shy, you're just PICKY!)

I was in the kitchen working on something when I heard the words of our new favorite library book, The Mighty Street Sweeper.  Mark was reading it to Adam.

(That's Adam saying "Cheese" when the video first starts.)

"The BULLDOZER pushes things out of its way" (image shows the bulldozer moving a big bunch of rocks)
"The street sweeper goes around things that get in its way" (shows the street sweeper going around a skunk)

"The MOST POWERFUL TRUCK" (supposed to be "electromagnetic crane") can pick up a two-ton automobile!"
"The street sweeper can pick up a gum wrapper."

P.S. Tim asks that you include in your comment whether the video looked ok and worked for you.

It was a little busy this afternoon as Adam took a break to have his mullet trimmed:

It was hard to sit still, but he did it, aided by the cookie in his left hand. There is not a good "after" picture because, well, I'm not so proud of it. It seems someone has a cowlick at the base of his skull. But at least there's not a whole ton of hair curling out under and around his ears.

Then, Mark and Daddy tightened the kitchen chairs (see the Noblesvillain later for pictures), and Adam "helped." Update: Tim has now posted the pictures and story; go see it there.

Then Adam got a turn with the tools. Later he would say "Cheese!" for the camera, but here's a candid while he enjoyed the tools.

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