7 Layer Studio

Springtime Sweeties

  

I am just LOVING the springtime here!  Aside from the incredibly heavy pollen issue that leaves thick yellow dust on everything outside (I can't imagine how uncomfortable it must be for people with allergies!), the spring here in Virginia has been glorious.

 

These are pink dogwood blossoms on a tree in my neighbor's yard - aren't they beautiful?  Dogwoods are one of my most favorite trees ever, and lots of people have them planted in their yards here.  What a happy thing.

 

Almost everyone has lushly colored azaleas too, and they are in full bloom right now.  The amount of blossoms on some of the bushes is astounding - one can hardly see any green leaves because there is such an explosion of color.

 

 

This is Eliza's favorite part of our yard - dandelions don't really grow in Hawaii, so these pesky weeds are a delightful novelty for her.  I must admit I loved blowing the seeds all over the place too when I was her age, but now I really don't care for them.  Our yard, being a rental and all, has an embarrassing amount of dandelions in it - now that it's warm outside I've got to tackle them before they multiply any more! 

 

Here is a fun idea that my mom gave me - several years ago she sent me some plastic eggs with word endings and beginning sounds on them when Eliza was learning how to read.  You twist the egg halves around to create different words with the same ending sound.  I had lots of Easter eggs left over this year, so I did some more for Hyrum.  I brought some to his preschool, and they thought it was a terrific idea so I thought I'd share it with you too!  Thanks, mom, for the concept!

Here's a fun little endtable that I recently painted for our front room.  It was part of a big bedroom set that I bought for an amazingly low price on Craigslist.  The seller didn't want to split up the set, but all I really wanted was the bed and a few smaller pieces for Hazel's room since I already had her dressers.  I'm going to re-sell the dressers, but I kept this endtable because it was too cute to give up!

 It used to be yellow, which was pretty, but not what I wanted to have in my house.  The top, again, was white formica so I had to do the scuff sanding and priming on it like I have done with so many of the other pieces.  I've been working on the other parts of the bedroom set, but I don't have any finished photos of them yet.

 

This is one of two chairs that was on the curb ready to be thrown out a few houses down, so I rescued them and repainted them black.  They're not in perfect shape, but they're sturdy and look much smarter now that they are refinished.

Here's a sneak peek at another big project I've been working on lately.  These have been tucked away in our garage for months now, but Steve cleaned out the garage last week and begged me to finish them.  Poor guy - all he wants is to be able to park the car in the garage, and I've been very slow at finishing all the deals I found on CL.  I've sworn off looking for things on CL now - except for a patio set for our deck in the back yard.  We unthinkingly sold ours before we left Hawaii.  Anyway, I'm down to these dining room chairs, Hazel's twin bed, and two highboy dressers, plus the finishing touches on the other pieces for Hazel's room.  Then it's high time to get busy on some sewing projects that I've been neglecting for so long!

 

Here's our darling little Hazel, who isn't so little anymore - she's climbing the playset and sliding down it all by herself these days.

She loves climbing those stairs by herself.  Don't worry, I stay right by her in case she needs it, but she is a very independent and stubborn little soul!  When she first learned how to go up and down the stairs in the house, she would practice going up and down and up again over and over until she could do it quick-as-a-wink.

Here she is at the top of the slide, ready for another fun trip down.

"Let's try the tummy trick this time, Mommy!"

"Weee, so much fun!"  I wish you could hear her squeals of laughter as she went down.

And there she goes, off in a flash to another adventure.  Go, Hazel, go!

GIVEAWAY WINNER + Kid's Gallery

Drumroll, please....the lucky winner of the assortment of hand-painted watercolor springtime images is...

 

Grace!!  If you will please just send me your snailmail address, I'll get these

 

sent off to you.

And thank you all for your kind and complimentary words!  I'm sorry I'm not very good at responding individually to all of you, but please know that I love hearing from you and it really boosts my spirits to read what you have to say...so thank you very, very much!  And Edith, you're not a user (see comment from this post).  Dear friends (she was my steadfast roomie in college and put up with me for 3 years) are never, ever users.  I need to clarify that now before my family and I invade her house this summer after the big family reunion Steve's family is having in Utah.  :-)

So Hazel was her usual mischievous self today, climbing on everything and getting into lots of stuff, like this:

 

Hazel decided to get into the big stash of diapers upstairs and unfold each one, afterwhich she dragged them down the stairs and carried them around in armloads.

It was quite cute, actually, and no harm done.  Diapers are much easier to clean up than boxes of cereal dumped on the floor!  Yes, I speak from experience on that, as most mothers can relate to.

Here's Hyrum on the computer, one of his favorite things to do.  He wanted me to post this on my blog:

It's a dinosaur skeleton he assembled on the PBSkids website Caillou.  Hyrum told me the name of the dino, but I promptly forgot.  Sorry, kiddo, your mom's just not very current on her prehistoric animals.

 

This is a drawing Hyrum did awhile back that I just love and had to share.  It's a picture of himself playing with the foam rocket launcher toy Grandma and Grandpa Mendenhall gave him for Christmas, and the purple circles are "raindrop snowmen" because he was playing in the rain.  He dictated a whole big story about this picture which Steve wrote on the back of the page - I need to get this sent to G & G soon!  Hyrum is my aesthetic appreciator.  He's always coming up with spontaneous exclamations about how pretty and beautiful everything is, and he really notices and appreciates tiny details in things.  I just love it when he says things like, "Oh, mom, you made a really beautiful cake today.   Is that pretty, mom?  Thank you for making us a cake, it's so pretty."  Makes my heart just melt, especially when he bats those big blue eyes!  He's gonna be a heart breaker, that one. 

Hyrum has suddenly decided to read and write.  These sentences are some he wrote at preschool.  Not bad for a 4 year old!  It's so fun to see the "light" turn on when kids first grasp the concept of letters making words.  Now he sees words everywhere and tries sounding everything out.  We went to the library the other day and got a bunch of easy readers for him, and he was so proud that he was able to read a lot of the words himself.  It has given him a lot of confidence, which is nice to see.

And, not to leave Eliza out, here is a whole book about Goldilocks and the 3 Bears that she wrote and illustrated all by herself.  Eliza is turning into an avid reader and speeds through books with over a hundred pages in less than a day.  I love that she's starting to really enjoy the illustrating aspect of book reading/writing as well.  These pictures are adorable (but I'm not biased or anything, right?)

 

This is the page about the 3 chairs - I love the Mommy chair.  How come I don't have a chair like that?!

 

This is the porridge page.  At school (she's in the 1st grade) they do a lot of work with the children on retelling stories and teaching them about the beginning, middle, and end of a story.  I can really see a difference in Eliza's writing as a result.

 

Here's the bed page.  Again, the mommy bear has a very fancy bed...where's mine?  :-)

That's the end of my show-and-tell today.  My apologies to all my non-family readers, that may have been a bit boring for you.  Since I only have one blog (sorry, no time for a separate family blog) I have to interject these precious little numbers in now and then.  Have a good day, and congrats again to Grace!

Blossoms, Bookshelves, Wedding Bells, and One Amazing Voice

  

Aren't these blossoms breathtaking?  These gorgeous jewels of nature are currently gracing a huge tree near our house, and I couldn't resist (at Eliza's imploring request) plucking a little bundle.  I adore spring here - the birds are always twittering their happy songs, the bees have begun buzzing about, the air is fresh and new, and the FLOWERS! 

I'm in flower heaven with all the spring bulb flowers taking front stage.  Then there are the countless varieties of deciduous trees which have been showering the landscape with their delicate and glorious blossoms for several weeks now.

 

I almost can't get over how sweet and lacy these flowers are.  And so small that, unless one really stops to look closely at them, one would never begin to notice the intricate details of the buds and blossoms.  Studying nature always has a reassuring, calming effect on me - the world at large can be upside down with corruption, violence, and complexities, but when I stop and really begin looking at the incredible design and variety of the natural world, it reminds me that there is still much to be thankful for, and much to appreciate. 

 

If God can take the time and effort to create perfectly planned natural beauties such as these flowers for us to appreciate and enjoy, then we can be assured that there is a higher plan for us as well.  I'm reminded of the scripture in the Bible about the lilies in the field (Matthew 6:28-30).  I've always loved that scripture.

 

So anyway, I thought I'd share some more things that I've been working on lately, or rather things that I actually finished a quite some time ago and never got around to posting...

Isn't this a fun red chest?  I love it now, but it didn't look so pretty when I first bought it on Craigslist last month.

This photo actually doesn't look too bad, but it was taken after I fixed the drawers...they were all crooked and wobbly.  You can't tell, but only the drawer fronts are real wood, the rest of the piece was fake wood grain over MDF, so all you antiques enthusiasts out there, rest assured that I'm not ruining a quality piece of furniture, and this is definitely not an antique! 

It just needed a little bit of a facelift with many coats of spray paint (including the hardware) and then I went back and "distressed" the edges of the wood with sandpaper to make it look more authentic.

 

Since there were all sorts of dings, scratches, and chips in the wood anyway, I just went with it and made it look "comfy" instead of an ill attempt at making it look perfect.  The distressing suits the type of piece that it is.

Here's another "before" shot, this one of a large bookshelf.  The back of it was that nasty, plastic-y fake panelling which was so popular in the 70's, and the rest was pine that had lots and lots of varnish on it.  I had to scuff sand the whole piece very well, then it took 3 coats of black paint (the Krylon Color Creations brand that sticks so well to everything) to get it really looking nice.

 

Now it's in my studio, waiting for me to finish getting things organized down there....do you like those blue buckets?  Those will be great for all my pens/pencils/brushes/scissors/etc.  I bought them at Walmart after Easter for 50c apiece, took the handles off and bent the little handle holders down so they're not sticking up.  Very inexpensive organization solution!

 

I hesitate to show you this next piece, because it's far from my pride and joy, but it will do just fine at the foot of our bed.  It was originally a coffee table (go CL go), and the original color was black that had been through some rough times.  I thought that I'd save myself some time and just do a crackle coat over it with red paint, but I learned that trying to paint things with a lot of detail when you're dealing with crackle finish and a brush is not the best idea in the world.

You can probably see what I mean by looking a the detail of it.  This is actually after I painted over the red crackle finish (it looked terrible) with a black glaze to soften the contrast a bit.  I'm planning on making an upholstered cushion to sit atop this piece to give it more of a bench look, and to hide the top of it.  There needs to be some contrast between the bench and the footboard of our bed, so putting a cushion on top will do just the trick. 

 

Before I do that, though, I need to work on the decorations for my niece's wedding reception!  She chose Amy Butler's August Fields home dec collection (shown above) as inspiration for her colors, so stay tuned to see what I do with these lovely fabrics!  It's going to be a busy couple of months for me as I work on the decorations, the food, and the cake for her wedding.  It's going to be a simple affair, but very lovely too - I can't wait to see it all put together.  The trickiest part is that I'm in DC and she's getting married in Utah...so we've been doing lots and lots of emails trying to get things planned out!

 

Here's the fabric gracing the table underneath the carrot cake with cream cheese frosting that I made for a get-together at a friend's house tonight.  Our husbands are all at a Boy Scouts camp-out this weekend, so she hosted a fun dinner for the wives and kids.  It was really fun, and the cake was yummy too!  The kids weren't too excited about it, what with it being "healthy" and non-chocolate and all, but I was tired of chocolate cake and it's good for them to taste new things, right?

Have you all seen/heard the youtube clip with Susan Boyle, the 47-year-old woman who bowled everyone over with her very unexpected and spectacular vocal performance?  What a lesson on not judging a book by its cover.  I've been listening to it over and over while I type this, it's so inspirational.  If you haven't heard her sing, you should.  I hope she is able to get a record deal from this, I'd sure buy her CD!  I love how spunky she is, and her voice is simply amazing.

Well, tomorrow starts early with soccer photos and game for Eliza, so it's off to bed with me now.  Have a great weekend!

Easter Wrap Up + Giveaway

 

We had a belated Easter party yesterday in our backyard.  I was going to do something fun for the kids and their friends last week, but with Hyrum, then Hazel, then finally Eliza getting pink eye, it put a damper on our plans to do so.  On Monday I just did a really low-key, spur-of-the-moment event with cupcakes to decorate and an egg hunt.  This is Hyrum's creation...can you see the frosting at all?  It's somewhere underneath all those sprinkles.  He was, as you can tell, tickled pink about having free reign of the sprinkle supply.

Ah, such sweet indulgence...and Hyrum was relishing every morsel of it.

 

This was Hazel's interaction with sprinkles just before the party began...fascinating, isn't it, to see what happens when one dumps out an entire container of sprinkles on the floor?  It looks like she's thinking, "Now how in the world did those get down there?  Hhmmmm...where should I start eating first?"

I had turned away just for a second to look for a funnel to pour the large container (the contents of which you now see on our floor) of sprinkles into separate smaller containers with shaker lids on them.  That's all the time it took for Hazel to reach up (not even counter height is safe with her anymore!) and test the effects of gravity on an open container of sprinkles.

 

After both of us stared in awe at the mess (remember this is just before the party started) Hazel immediately embarked on a feeding frenzy while I got the broom and the vaccuum cleaner.  I'm glad I had my camera right there to document it.  I must admit it's pretty funny...and I'm just glad it wasn't something liquid and sugary spilling all over my pretty kitchen rug!  In the end, there was no harm done and we still had plenty of sprinkles to go around (I always keep a hefty stash of sprinkles in my house, the kids love to use them).

Eliza loves to smear food on her face to create the mustache/beard effect.  Charming, isn't it?  I'm sure it makes the cupcake taste better.

 

Here's a beardless version of Eliza...I can't believe how grown-up she's getting.  I still think of her as a toddler sometimes.

 

Through the years I've started on countless (admittedly half-baked) projects with the intent of generating a little income while being a stay-at-home-mom, only to be stymied by the marketing aspect of the deal.  Here is one such project I started a few years ago, but never went anywhere with it.

Back when I was doing a fair amount of scrapbooking, I decided I'd paint these holiday-related images with watercolor on nice, thick watercolor paper, cut them out like these are, and sell them as cute little original images on ebay for people searching for hand-made accessories for their pages. 

I thought that, as long as I kept the images fairly simple, it shouldn't take me that long to make them so I could turn a little bit of a profit on the side when my kids were in school/napping.

Well, it didn't take long for me to realize that if I broke down the number of hours it took me to paint these, cut them out, photograph them, list them on ebay or etsy, and pay the commission, I'd be making somewhere in the realm of $1 or $2 an hour for my efforts = NOT worth it!

 

So then I thought, well, maybe I can just color photocopy them on heavy-duty paper and sell collections of them for just a few dollars apiece, and then the buyer could just cut them out her/himself.  No go, because the copies looked lousy.

THEN I thought that I could just find a company that does licensing work and have them do all the un-fun marketing/producing stuff, and I could retain a percentage of the sales.

 

That, obviously, didn't pan out either.  The quality isn't really good enough to reproduce (remember, I was trying to do simple, quick little images to sell the originals of?) so these little watercolor ditties have been sitting in a box for quite some time now. 

I'm not exceptionally proud of them, but it would be nice to do something with them instead of putting them in a box until the unknown day I find the time to start doing scrapbooking again.

 

 

So here's what I'm going to do: 

I'm going to host a little giveaway of all the little ditties you see pictured below so that one of YOU can start making use of them!

 

I may end up giving away more of these later, but for now I think I'll start with these.  It's a smorgasbord collection, with a little bit o'everything!

Sooo, if you're interested in winning these to do a little springtime scrapbooking with, then please just leave a comment at the end of this post.  I'll have one of my kiddos randomly draw a name in one week, say, next Tuesday April 21st.  Until then, happy blogging!

Easter Pretties

 

"I think the Easter Bunny went that way, Mom!"

We had a very nice, fairly low-key Easter this year.  No company over, just going to church and then a yummy meal of salmon and asparagus, and a semi-successful photo session of the kids in their new Easter clothes.

As you can tell, although it was sunny, the wind was chilly and the poor kids tried valiantly to pose nicely but it was obviously very cold outside!

I tried distracting them with those fun fake flowers, which worked for a little bit but not long enough!

By the way, I want to apologize for the fuzzy, untouched photos.  I've been using my husband's laptop to blog on for the past 4 months, because our (very) old desktop is maxed out and we haven't been able to get a new computer quite yet.  The photo software on this laptop is extremely basic, and for a reason seemingly beyond my control, when I plug in the photos to my blog, they immediately get "dumbed down" and all grainy.  I can't figure out what's going on, because the version from the camera is crisp and gorgeous.  I wish I knew enough about these things to do something about it, but hopefully I'll be able to start using a real photo editing program soon.  It's frustrating to take decent shots only to have the translation make them look crummy.

 

Anyway, here's a close-up of the doo-da on Eliza's front.  I took a bit (I think about 10 inches) of extra lace, the same kind I used at the bottom of the dress, and gathered it together into a circle, slipstitching the ends together for a seamless look.  Then I just made a simple bow, sewed it all together and then stitched it to the dress by hand.  It's one of my favorite parts of this dress.

Here's a view of the back.  I made this dress using a pattern for the top part (it was for a pull-over top) and I just added the skirt part to it.  The top part is obviously too big - I hadn't used the pattern before and guessed wrong on the size to use.  You know how sometimes it's hard to tell what size to cut out because every pattern maker is different and the sizes seem to vary wildly?  I don't actually use patterns that often for my girl's clothes, so I'm still learning what works.  I think I'll be able to fix it by gathering the top parts of the sleeves more - it just gapes open too much at the neckline.

Sweet Eliza was a dearie during this photo shoot, and tried very hard to pose nicely even though she was very chilly.  She's getting to be quite a good little model, don't you think?  Not that I aspire, in any shape or form, for her to be a model in real life...it's just nice that at least one of my children can be fairly consistent in her expressions and will hold still for more than 1 second straight!

Hazel, on the other hand, makes a break for it at every opportunity she gets!  Isn't that look of sheer joy on her face fun to see?  She's escaping to the back yard where the swingset is.

I love this shot of Eliza and Hyrum.  So sweet and innocent.

 

Hazel loves to look at airplanes up in the sky.  She notices them even when they're a tiny speck way up in the air.  Kids can be delightfully observant.  The other day I was taking Hazel into a store, and I was letting her walk until we got to the front entrance.  The side of the building was made of rough cement blocks, and she just stopped dead in her tracks when she got close to them.  Hazel did her "Ohhhh!" expression and walked up to the rough wall with hands outstretched, and she then proceeded to study and "pet" the side of the wall for a good 5 minutes.  It was hilarious.  There was a lady in her vehicle that was just about to leave the parking lot when Hazel started her wall study, and the lady got such a kick out of watching Hazel that she stayed in her parking spot just to watch what my curious little kiddo would do next.  It's so delightful to see little kids find so much wonder in the things we consider completely ordinary.

Here's Hazel again, frozen to the spot until the airplane made its way clear across the sky and out of sight.  Maybe she inherited some of her daddy's pilot genes...

Then she was off to go explore another part of the yard.

I forgot to mention that the green and blue fabric is some that I've had on hand for a few years now - it's one of Amy Butler's early lines called Charm.  I have always loved this fabric - there is so much incredible detail in it when you can look at it closely - it fascinates me.  I originally bought it to make a fun skirt for myself, but that never happened and so it's good to see it made into something darling for my girls.  Hooray for Amy Butler!

 

Here's our crazy crew first thing on Sunday morning...notice Hazel already has a big chunk of chocolate in her hand.  She made a beeline for that foil-wrapped bunny and had that thing unwrapped and in her mouth before I could get the lens cap off and the exposure worked out.  That kid LOVES candy!

Here she is stuffing it into her mouth as quickly as she can, because she thinks that we'll probably be taking it away from her soon.  I actually let her eat away until I could finish taking some pictures - it was the only way to get her to hold still on that couch until picture time was over!

"What, you mean I get to eat the WHOLE THING?!"

 

And finally, we have Hyrum demonstrating his amazing face-making skills as the girls look on with rapt attention.  Watch out, Hyrum, or your face will be stuck like that forever!!  (How many times have we all heard that in our lives, right?  As if any kid actually believes it....)

I have more to post, but it will have to wait until tomorrow - it's getting very very late again.  Hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday and that you were able to reflect on the real meaning behind this blessed holiday, beyond the bunnies and the candy-filled eggs.

Oh - I keep on forgetting to thank all of you wonderful ladies out there for your incredibly kind comments and/or great advice about my breakfast table/chairs!  I love hearing what you have to say, and thanks so much for taking the time to comment!  It makes my day.  About the red chairs...I think I'll just sit on them for awhile (ha-ha, pun intended) until I have time to paint them black with some of the red peeking through.  They're fun as red chairs, but I think that they'll be better in black - especially considering that I'm planning on making roman blinds for the windows behind the table in the same red and white Amsterdam print that I used on the black accent chairs in my front room.  Many thanks for all your help with that, sometimes it's good just to have a sounding board. 

And Sarah, if you name your little Easter vignette "Ode to Shelley", I'll dedicate my efforts to get back into shape (so far just a plan in my head, unfortunately) "Ode to Sarah".  You are such an inspiration to me, what with having 5 children and still looking as trim as you did in college.  You have more fitness dedication in your pinky than I seem to have in my whole being these past few years.  So can you just periodically email me to nag me into taking the time to exercise?  I need a big, huge push out that front door these days.  I no longer have super freezing weather as my excuse - and I'd better hurry before the muggy, sluggish days of summer appear!  But right now I just need to get to bed.  G'night, all!

All Ribbons and Bows

 

I've been going a little bow-crazy lately, what with spring and all.  I get so excited to see all the fresh, tender colors of spring that I feel it necessary to mimic nature with my little textile creations.

 

Here's a little sneak preview of what my girls' Easter dresses will look like...a bit unconventional in the colors, but still within the spring spectrum, I think.  Tomorrow morning I'll try and get some good shots of them wearing their sweet little dresses.

 

Last week I made a bunch of hair bows, some for my own girls and some for my adorable little nieces.

 

I love these sweet and simple bows.  I hot-glued the appliques onto the ribbon.  Thanks, mom, for letting me go through your sewing collection when I was home this past winter!  Mom has had these appliques for years, it's good to see them put to use.  I've admired them for years, too, but just didn't know quite what to use them for.  Now I know.  :-)

That cute little heart button is from mom's stash too.

I adore the colors pink and red together.  When I was little, that combination was definitely NOT acceptable, but I sure am glad it is now!  I see pink and red together all the time now, and I love it.

I didn't want my darling little nephew to feel left out, so I made some dapper bow ties for him too.  I had made him some tiny ones when he was a baby, but he's growing so fast they're too small now.

I posted a tut on how to do these bowties awhile ago, for a quick reference click here.

For my tut on how to make the bows, click here.

 

I was getting very weary of sewing each one of these clips on to the back of my bows, so I gave hot glue a try and I'm very happy with the results!  Put a tiny dab of glue under the end with the large hole, and squish the clip down into the hot glue so that it oozes out the hole a bit.  This will prevent it from pulling away, as hot glue typically doesn't hold metal all that well.

Here's a closer shot of that ooze-glue effect.  On the other end, very carefully place a small dot of glue exactly where you want it and press down firmly, making sure the glue oozes up and over the edges a bit to hold the tip in place.  Just be sure that the glue doesn't accidentally ooze down toward the part of the clip that snaps open. 

This method is MUCH easier and faster than sewing those little doosies by hand!

 

The lighting is all wrong on this picture (can't wait to get a new computer that can handle the load of a real photo editing program!  Our computer is 7 years old, and the memory on it is completely FULL) but here is a hilarious picture of Hazel's bedhead.  This is why she needs those bows!

"Please, mama, PLEASE do something about my hair?!"

Actually what she's doing is begging for another treat.  Yes, I bribe my children into posing for the camera sometimes.  Whatever it takes, right?  This picture cracks me up.

I have more to share soon, so check back in a day or two!

The Best Breakfast and the Longest Hike

 

We've had spring break this week, and for much of the week I've been a single parent with all three kids at home because Steve had a business trip for 5 days.  I was a little (okay, a lot) unhappy about this arrangement, because with as active as baby Hazel is I was not about to hop on the metro with all three kids by myself and go do anything in the city, and at home Eliza and Hyrum tend to do more bickering and teasing than playing nicely together.  Long road trips were out because Hazel needs to be home for her nap every afternoon.  To top it off, the weather for the first several days was cold and windy, so going to the zoo or anything outdoors was out too, and then Hyrum and Hazel got pink eye.

We managed to survive with books, movies, the computer, and an indoor picnic downstairs complete with "sleepovers" where Eliza and Hyrum had an indoor campout in the basement 2 nights in a row.  I had been staying up really late at night to work on the girl's Easter dresses, so I would try to sleep in as long as the kids would let me in the morning (which was usually between 7 and 8). 

 

ANYWAY...one of those mornings I was very pleasantly surprised to be awakened by Eliza and Hyrum, grinning from ear to ear and bearing a cookie sheet laden with cereal, toast, and these lovely heart-shaped cards they made for me that morning!  They even carried up an entire jug of milk for the cereal and my glass, bless their little hearts.  I was so touched by their sweet thoughfulness - they had never done anything like this before, and to have them come up with it entirely on their own made it all the more special.  It totally made my day.  The card above is from Hyrum.  He started his poem and then Eliza finished it up for him.  I love it.

 

Later that day, we decided we'd go on a long hike around one of the local lakes here in Virginia (the weather had finally warmed up to a comfortable temperature).  I thought it was 3 miles around the lake, which was do-able because I had a double stroller for the kids to take a rest in.

So we started on our way, with Hazel studying every rock on the path and the older kids looking at all the wild birds (even a bald eagle!) along the way.  At what I thought was the halfway point, the kids were starting to get tired and hungry, as I had only brought a few snacks and drinks rather than a whole lunch.  I thought we'd be back by 1:00 at the latest and could eat lunch at home.  I decided to continue on around the lake instead of turning back (oops) and we proceeded with our adventure.

 

These pictures were taken at the beginning of the trail...

 

...as evidenced by their happy expressions.  I have no pictures of the end of the trail (5 miles and 3 very hungry/grumpy/tired kids later!) because we were in such a rush to get home...after all, it was 3:00 and Hazel had reached her limit because she had missed her nap.  It was by far the longest hike that the kids had done, and considering the circumstances they were quite the troopers.  Eliza walked almost the whole way, and Hyrum spent about half his time in the stroller, which was pretty good considering we hadn't had lunch and his energy reserves were low. 

I feel pretty silly not having done more research about the length of the trail, and not being better prepared with more food.  We all survived, however, and it made for a very memorable trip!  Next time we'll bring our bikes - and lunch! -  and make the trip on wheels.  :-)