April 2014
April was a busy month for us and for my blog. I posted six times this month, see all my posts here: https://skiingmama.wordpress.com/2014/04/
Then the snow started to melt. Henry has learned about spring-time at school (and at home of course). He thinks spring should be here already:
He told me today (April 30th), when I told him it was time to go outside, “I am not going outside when all that grey stuff is in the sky. And that fog is yucky. It has to be light out there and then I will want to go outside.”
This month we celebrated Henry’s 5th birthday:
My brother and nephew called to sing “Happy Birthday” to Henry. He loved it.
The cake, this teenage mutant ninja turtle cake is pretty close to earning my “ugly cakes” award.
These things sure are the ugliest cupcakes I have ever decorated. I was pretty embarrassed sending them to school with Henry. And was reassured that four and five year olds don’t really care. At the end of the day I found out there were extras and he delivered one to Charlie’s 1st grade teacher, Charlie’s current teacher, and one to Robbie’s teacher. Now I am really embarrassed! On a positive note this was the first cake decorating project I have done in the last two years where Nola Mae wasn’t crying or needed to be worn.
Then the next day was Nola Mae’s 2nd birthday:
I turned her around to face forward in her car seat. She wasn’t unhappy facing backwards, now that she is two she is okay face forwards in her car seat. Often I noticed her cranking her neck around so she could look out the front window. Now she just tells me “go that way”.
We skied on snow:
When we were getting ready to go out to ski Nola Mae wanted to wear her baby. So I wrapped them both. I think this is one of my favorite baby wearing photos, minus my eyes being closed because the sun was so bright.
This was April 15th.
I had the best ski with my friend, Mary, on April 17th at the ski hill.
April 18th was our last ski.
And we skied on grass to find the snow:
Can you see her feet in my shadow?
This was the last piece of heaven for me this winter…four of my favorite boys on snow, laughing, getting exercise and
a fun little chunk of snow to ski back and forth on for a little while.
The boys headed back to the chalet without me, like usual, and when I came in I found them doing this…
All three boys had a friend’s birthday party to attend. Two birthday parties landed on the same day, the same weekend Jack’s canoeing trip was scheduled for, and the same day I needed to work at the ski hill for our big spring trail run. Grandma Hanna saved the day! She played with the kids, transported them to the birthday parties, visited the library, and cleaned the messiest parts of my house.
Henry’s friend was given this ice dyed cape that I made.
Charlie’s friend got a store-bought gift, which I thought was kind of boring. I don’t have many good ideas for a homemade gift after all of their friends get a pillow case. And they are too old to have fun with capes. When Charlie saw the gift I bought for his friend he asked “how come you didn’t buy two?” I asked him, “Why, does it look like it is going to break right away?” No, Charlie wanted one for himself.
Robbie and I made this Minecraft TNT pillowcase together, which was perfect for that boy! I walked into the party and saw Minecraft stuff everywhere. That mom put on a pretty amazing Minecraft themed party like no body’s business!
Side note: I went to school on a Friday where there was a reading party kids can bring pillows and blankets to get comfy to read. I saw one boy with a pillowcase I made a couple of years ago, so that was cool!
We were home for Easter:
I took the opportunity to dye eggs with the boys while Nola Mae napped. She woke up at the tail end of things, she was happy to watch and hold an egg.
This was the first year we had enough of our own brown eggs to dye. I saved them so they were “old” eggs like the store-bought eggs in order for them to peel nicely. They peeled nicely and they were the most beautiful shades we have ever had.
I spent a total of $27 on our Easter treats/gifts this year. Each boy got a small gift with a small amount of candy in their basket. Charlie learned how to make those rubber band bracelets using his two fingers from a girl on the bus. This sweet girl has given him many handfuls of rubber bands. So I decided he should get a couple of bags of his own. Robbie and Henry were very excited about the cool colorful socks they got.
Nola Mae waiting by the window for the boys to come home:
We had Charlie’s VIP (Very Important People) Day:
Each child is scheduled for a VIP Week. The child can fill out the “all about me” poster and include photos of them as a baby and other childhood photos, and photos of their family and pets.
And then one or both parents come to class towards the end of one day for 30 minutes to talk about their work, hobbies and/or interests. I did a little demonstration on cake decorating with Robbie’s class when he was in 2nd grade, so Charlie wanted to do the same thing. Extra bonus is that at the end of our time everyone got to decorate their own cupcake.
I talked about sewing with Charlie and my sewing. I brought the shirt Charlie sewed when he was 5 years old and Charlie’s baby quilt to show them. I had a few other quilts in my bag, if they seemed interested.
I also told them about Jack’s interests in woodworking and brought a few of his wooden bowls that he has made.
Charlie’s teacher, Mr. Wester, knows how to facilitate the short time you have with the class so it is organized, purposeful in ways of giving the students opportunities to be respectful, thoughtful and polite while practicing communication skills. Mr. Wester asked Charlie to introduce me and Nola Mae, he had everyone sitting on the carpet to focus on Charlie and our talk. I am sure they are well-practiced since it is April already. The questions the kids had for me and for Charlie were impressive. My favorite question was from a boy. He asked something to the effect “what was the most important subject in school for you to be good at sewing?” Thankfully, I had the “right” answer…”Math”. He slapped his leg and said, “WHY DOES EVERYONE SAY MATH!!!!?” It was cute! I was able to pull out my current quilt that I am working on and explained to them the math I needed to do to figure out the spacing of many different colors. It was a perfect “math” example! I forgot to point out where I made some measuring mistakes. I had so much fun! I thanked Mr. Wester for taking the time to do this with all the families because it was so nice to come to the classroom. I hope that all the other families that had their VIP Day felt as excited and as important as I did being Charlie’s mom.
We took a hike on the boardwalk in town and did a little wrestling:
I am slowly adjusting to the fact that boys wrestle. I never did that with my sisters or brother. I became more open about wrestling when I saw home videos of my sister-in-law and her sisters wrestling. Here Charlie is on top, which isn’t always the case.
Often I wonder how the wrestling match started and why Charlie is the one that seems to get hurt. And then I see a picture like this…Charlie doing something to Robbie.
Sewing time is supposed to be fun and peaceful. The month started off great. I was able to make a few things with ruffles (see my post “I Love Ruffles” ).
And then my sewing time became unpredictable and limited. Nola Mae hasn’t been napping well and seems to know when I sneak away to the sewing room. I have wanted to take a picture of her on my sewing table for a long time. This day I had the camera and was able to get this shot:
Sometimes it is stressful when she is in the sewing room with me. Because she wants to be on the table. If I am sewing at the machine I sometimes let her sit there and she plays with the buttons and papers. She learned on her own to leave the spool rack alone because once it tipped over and it scared her.
I had some time to make a few cute skirts. I will post about that next, maybe.
A very enjoyable sewing project for me was coming up with this valance for someone who found my blog when she was searching for Minecraft things for her son’s bedroom. She was looking for a Minecraft Creeper valance. This is the design I came up with, 5 ft long and 17 inches tall:
And in the last week of this month I dyed these things. The fabric squares are muslin, with a base color of light green – my first attempt was a total flop. So over dyeing with Dylon Blue Jeans looks okay. I expected better results. While doing that dye project I slowly dipped this tank top in the dye bath, you can see a gradual change in the shades of blue, if you look closely.
Baby wearing photos this month:
Just before our ski.
Waiting for the boys to come home.
If anyone was wondering if it is possible to keep your baby wrapped on your back while flopping yourself on the floor, kicking and screaming. Nola Mae’s answer is “Yes!”
I am not sure what brought this on. This is actually one of the first times she has done this. That’s the reason for the photo.
Robbie helped Jack in the woodshop:
And so did Nola Mae.
I hate making cookies because I don’t like messing with the oven and cookies every 8-10 minutes, plus I eat a bunch of warm ones throughout the process. The boys love cookies. My latest and greatest idea is to make a triple batch of cookies and separate the batch into small logs (enough for 1 dozen cookies), wrap them in wax paper and freeze them. These cookie dough logs are larger than I usually do because I didn’t have any wax paper. I am not sure how well they will keep in the freezer with just plastic wrap, so we will have to use them up quickly. I also left out enough for us to have two pans of cookies this time.
I am ending this month with a cold. I had two very worthless days. I am drinking lots of water, mullein tea and eating garlic and extra vitamin D.
life with three boys and a splash of purple! 
