Left Behind

This one has the sick so we stayed home from church.  He watched sadly as Papa and Viola pulled away.  Poor little tike.

Family Photo

We all ended up on the stairs last night so Viola declared it family picture time.  After a scramble to get the camera on a tripod and the kids thought that they ought to both hold dinosaurs, blamo!

Cookie Sculpting

 Viola decided that we should make sculptures out of dough that we could eat.  Ok.

 Viola made a lady bug, a castle and a snake.  Charlie made several bites of dough go into his belly.

 Sadly the dough puffed up in the oven and little was left of all of this brilliance.  But they did taste really good!

We finally got Alissa out to the farm

 We tried to take Alissa the first time that we went to farm school (at Laughing Buck Farm) but she went and got herself a job.  Now that she's moving on Monday she finally had time to go with us.  It was so nice having her with us.  Thanks friend, we love you!

Viola and Alissa were excited to both be wearing cowboy boots.

 When given the choice Charlie chose the big horse, Lady Bug.  It was a good thing that Alissa was there because I would not have been tall enough to hold him on the horse.  And he was determined to ride.

 Viola stuck with Sassy the pony.

Viola made a crown this morning

 Somewhere between putting on socks and shoes she found an empty toiled paper roll and three minutes later she was asking me to tape it together.  Brilliant!

Morning Cup of Joe

 Charlie has been asking for a sip of my morning coffee so this morning I fixed him his very own Dandy.  And I think it's safe to say that he is a Dandy Man now.

 In fact he's covered in it.

This Morning

 Charlie tried really hard to peel his own Cutie.

 He just needed a little bit of help.

 He did a bit of wallowing about on the Mary's filthy rug.

 And created a work of art.

 And Viola did a "Slow Sliding Snail" just like in her Curious George ABC book.

 It was a pretty good morning.

Tiny Friends

Emi Faye came for a visit.  But somebody had a hard time sharing his toys.  Hopefully she will forgive and forget that swat to the face that she received.

Quality time with Papa and a Balloon

New in Wood: the Truck

 Brian built this amazing truck for the kiddos to roll around on. 

They all did some work together to get it ready to roll.

 Charlie loves to fill up the trailer with essentials.

 Charlie's legs are a bit too short to scoot around alone but he doesn't let that stop him from having a blast!

Manual Focus Freeze Tag

 In efforts to get some energy out on this snowy March day we played a game that involved the kids running laps around me and me trying to get a picture of them in focus with my F28/1.8 lens.
It all started when I tried to get a photo of Viola in her 12 month night gown (she's nearly 5!)

 Enter Charlie.

 I'm not going to lie, there were several total collisions but most of them ended in laughing.

Viola decided that she needed to put some exercise clothes on for so much physical exertion.

 There is a lot of throwing going on these days.  Balloons are the safest option. 

Shower Buddy

You can not announce that you are getting a shower around here if you don't want a friend.

Spring Break equals time to bake Chocolate Chip Cookies

We baked cookies today and Viola did all of the stirring (well almost).  She was very proud.   Then we took them, along with a picnic and had lunch with Papa in the alley behind the wood shop.

Lovely.

 The budding blogger needed a picture of her goodies in progress.

 Spatula licking.  A treat for the chef.

While we waited for the cookies to bake the little people put the dishes away.

My lovely little girl.

Yesterday as Viola was watching her new favorite show Miffy this beautiful light came in through the window and lit up her hair to create this silhouette of her little face in the throws of afternoon show joy. 

Soaking up the first day of Spring

 We spent a good part of the day in the new yard.  I scooped A LOT of dog dirt and Viola patiently waited her turn for the horse.

 She found an evacuated hornets nest.

 And then finally it was her turn.

 We enjoyed some iced tea.  Some of us with our mouths others with their whole body.  

So refreshing!

 And we moved some dirt around getting our pots ready for some herbs and flowers.  I can hardly wait to plant seeds.