Matthew's Magnificent Magnetic Creation...

I had some helpers...

Saturday was the first official day of spring and it still snowed but at least it was gone by the end of the day and we are seeing warmer temps. again. 

Right now we are loving...

The sandbox, touching the flag, walking, wagon rides, riding bikes and scooters and gardening.  Just look at my little helpers today.

I really love this time of year.

Apparantly...

We needed to wear our helmets to lunch yesterday...

Pasta night!

Ever made your own pasta noodles? Neither had we until we took a field trip to our friend's house! Not only did we have yummy pancakes at the Maple Syrup Festival, learn how maple syrup was made, and ooh and ahhh over worms making compost in the basement, we topped off the night with some homemade pasta noodles.

First, we had to assemble the machine.

Next, we put the dough through...

Then, we let it rest while Ella Jane sprinkled it with flour...

Finally, it was time to put it through one more time...

We handed them over to Donna who cooked them up real nice...

YUMMY!

Thanks Pasta Team!

Worms...

We love to visit the worms every time we visit Bill and Donna.  They are hunkering down in their basement where Donna takes such good care of them.  In turn, they provide her with super rich soil for her garden.

Oh how the kids love to feed the worms!

Here is Ella Jane grabbing a handfull of eggshells from Donna's hand.

These are worms hanging down from the first tier.

Look at those faces!  I told you it was like going on a field trip.

Next up?  Making pasta noodles.

We took a field trip...

When I knew Jim was going to be out of town for the weekend we chose to visit a nearby friend.  She has so many wonderful things to do at her house that it's almost like taking a field trip.  First off, have you ever been to a Maple Syrup Festival?  We hadn't either until a few weekends ago.  I love going to things like this! 

Learning how things are made and exploring local attractions is really fascinating to me.  So we donned our winter attire and off we went to stand in line, eat and eventually learn about all things maple syrup.

The kids even got to try their hand at hammering in the little metal lip that goes into the tree to draw out the syrup.  Here is an old used up tree with a lot of holes from kids' testing.

Next up? 

Worms.  But probably not the way you are thinking.  Wait and see.

Her cup runneth over...

Sometimes...

there is a long silence between my posts because I might post a favorite photo and I want to be able to see that for awhile when I pull up the blog. Sometimes it's because life at home with the kids is just tough and I don't feel much like posting anything, and sometimes it's because I can't decide which series of photos to share. There are so many that I love and never post! And then, sometimes (like this last time) it's because life has gotten a little busy.

I suppose all lives are busy really but we all have the same 24hrs. in a day right? And actually, really, we are usually not that busy. We stay home. A lot. And I love it. And lately, I've been loving it a lot because the weather has been soooo warm! We've made daily habits of these wagon rides; the girls love them. We've said hello to the scooters and Matthew relearned how to ride his bike. I wish I had a picture of him. He was wearing his winter hat, his red mittens, his blue sweatsuit and his snow boots. It was so fun to watch him ride. And if I had a working camera you'd see a few of those photos now. (More on that later)

Sara is eager to be outside to try to ride her tricycle so already this season of playing outside is that much easier than last season, and that alone is refreshing.

We've been playing a lot. Have you ever sat in your kids' room and just watched them play? It's fun isn't it? To see what they come up with? It wouldn't be uncommon for you to find me pajama clad with a cup of coffee sitting up in one of the girls' rooms watching them play. With each other or by themselves; both are entertaining. One of Ella Jane's newest lines is "Mom, I have good news!" and then she'll follow that up with something like, "I found Snow White's shoe", or "there is a tea party at 2:00pm." It's really quite fun to be a part of.

Another thing that has been taking up some of my time is serving the needs of young mom's. I'm really excited about how God is using the desires of my heart. When we lived in MD and Jim pastored a congregation, our kids were young and the needs were great. Much of that time I felt like a single mom because Jim was gone a lot either traveling or attending meetings for church. Our families lived in Seattle so the hopes of free childcare quickly went out the window. So did free time w/o the kids.

Certainly that is not to say that I didn't have wonderful friends who would care for our kids. I did. But I wouldn't use that resource very often b/c they all had kids of their own and who wanted two more young ones to watch? So it was usually when I had to run to the doctor or dentist that I would call upon one of my gals and have them care for my kids.

It was shortly before we moved that I had the brilliant idea for a ministry. I can still remember where I was (in the Subaru on the way to church at the intersection of 235 for you dear MD.ers) and I decided that when my kids were in school full time I would befriend a young mom in our church and watch her kids for her so she could have some time to herself. I certainly knew what it was like to struggle as a stay at home mom w/o the support of family. And I thought if there was a way I could help someone else get through some of those really tough days when the kids were still little, I'd do it.

Well, only one of my kids is in school full time but today I got to see part of that dream come to fruition. I have a friend who has 5 kids; the youngest of which is a newborn and today she needed help. A lot of help. So when Jim came home for lunch he graciously offered to linger while I ran out to help this young mom. And it was wonderful. I loved being able to be useful and I loved that God hadn't forgotten my desire to help young mom's in need.

So yes, it's been awhile since I posted. But our days have been full. And there are so many funny random things to say like, we've been skyping with my mom and my brother's family a lot, we still have a half gutted bathroom from when I flooded it back in OCTOBER. Ugh. Sara will yell "QUIET!" when she gets stressed out. She hit Ella Jane again tonight and for the first time Ella Jane really stood up for herself. I was so proud.  Of Ella Jane that is.  There are toys all over our bedroom floor b/c I had the brilliant idea that if the kids weren't going to pick up their rooms, they'd have to put it all in our room for a month (and not play with it, but be able to see it) and then return it to their rooms. I still think it's a brilliant idea but I'm starting to think a month is too long. I've been staring at purses, clothes, and Little People for weeks now. And if I had a working camera I'd show you!

Alas, my camera is not working. I haven't given up hope that it's just a battery issue. A new one has been ordered and I'll find out in a week or so if it's as simple as that. Wouldn't it be nice if it were? I'm a little bit sick about it. Not too yet, since I don't know for sure if I'll have to fork over a load of money to get it repaired and I'm quickly discovering repairs are not cheap. But still really bummed to be without a camera. I took the big kids snowshoeing this weekend and was just mentally snapping away at all the ones I would have taken. Oh so sweet to see a group of little kiddies in snow shoes!

Well if you're still here (this is my longest post yet and quite honestly when a blogger has posted a SUPER long post I just skim it) here are a few funny pictures of the girls last week.

This is what I love about this age. It's so random! I wanted them to sit in this chair because they were dressed the same which is rare. They don't really have matching clothes so I thought it'd be fun to catch them when they were "twins". But Ella Jane had to have Buzz Lightyear and Sara had to have that bracelet and those shoes. I love that Sara is this busy little girl and Ella Jane is just kickin' it with Buzz.