Three years goes by so fast.

He never really was this small, was he?

Couldn't have been.

But he was. And he was loved from the first moment we saw him.

All of us.

I hardly recognize him in some of these old pictures.

In others, not so hard at all.

Quiet and playful.

Giggly and loves horse rides.

Misses his Daddy when he's at work. (He spent 5 minutes dusting Daddy's picture on the family tree.)

Lets his sisters dress him up.

I can't do anything in the kitchen without him right there wanting to help.

There was never any question of his tractor going into the garage with the bikes at the end of fall.

He is so very loved.

Happy Birthday my quiet little guy.

I can't imagine our family without you in it.

The More It Snows

by A. A. Milne

The more it snows - tiddely - pom,

The more it goes - tiddely - pom

The more it goes - tiddely - pom

On snowing.

And nobody knows - tiddely - pom,

How cold my toes - tiddely - pom

How cold my toes - tiddely - pom

Are growing.

This post brought to you courtesy of Grayson's current favorite poem.

Also, if you're following along on my fabric stash busting, I've got a new post up - Library bags and Library card wallets.

Life is dangerous.

It is therefore only prudent when you protect yourself.

From flying game pieces.

Or unruly peas.

Or snow. Dangerous stuff, that.

Or little brothers.

He looks dangerous doesn't he?

Clay can be dangerous too.

And playing with matches.

Alright, she's got me there.

She's even gotten her brother in on it.

Though for him it may be more of a fashion statement.

Balloons are back.

Balloons have been relegated to the game area for months while new interests have taken over. A few weeks ago Hannah wanted to play with them some more, so she started back up.

Poodles, of course.

And swords. Those are the fastest and easiest.

Then dragonflies.

And fairy wands.

Then Ainsley got into it, but she was not going to stick with 'normal' balloon items. She made her father a sleeping hat.

(and insisted on him trying it out that night)

Then she made herself a sleeping hat.

(and decided that it wasn't very useful)

But this ... this was the crowning achievement of the night. Ains and her daddy put together an entire warrior outfit. Helmet and all.

She designed it. The helmet *still* kills me.

She made her daddy an entire outfit too. She was the queen and he was her knight and she led him into several battles that night. Oh, how I wish those pictures had turned out.

Hannah was slow to the warrior party, but once she got involved, Ains let her be a knight also.

This holiday was made for her.

Please. A holiday to celebrate love? That should have been Hannah's birthday. It's almost bigger than Christmas for her.

We've been working up to it for a week, making mailboxes,

making lots of little crafts.

Not nearly as many crafts as I had planned though. You see, Valentine's Day is so important that it can't be just one day. It has to be a week. So she took my craft ideas and recipe ideas and spread them out over the next week. A week filled with love - I'm not complaining.

I made foam lips and moustaches and stuck them on lollipops for the kids.

That was fun to find in the mailboxes first thing in the morning.

All day they were checking the flags on the boxes to see if they had any more mail. All day they were putting valentines in each other's boxes.

We made stamps for her to seal her Valentine's letters with. (You have to send the cards *on* Valentine's Day, she says, as they have more love in them that way.)





Then, though she didn't want to do the next day's project that day, she went through the ribbon she wanted to use for it and exclaimed over it and sorted it in ten different ways and then built a tower with it. Then she took pictures and asked me to share them on the blog.

Picture by Hannah

Picture by Hannah

Picture by Hannah

Flowers from Daddy.



The rest of the day was spent on a mix of Valentine's day and normal day stuff.

Tractor pulls.
The ever-present art store on the stairs.

Microscope time.

Diego - on dvd and on the computer. My son loves Diego right now.

Hannah teaching violin class.

Reading.

Picking out fabric for library bags.

Cuddling by the heater.

Farm chores.

Going to Coldstone Creamery for their Valentine's special - free ice-cream for the kids, $1.50 ice cream for the adults. Yum.

Picking up a heart-shaped pizza for $6 - who doesn't love V-day specials?

Letting the kids dream at the pet store.

Then home to eat and go to bed.

Or not.

More Valentines made for everybody. Daddy gave them his.

An experiment about how useful opposable thumbs are.

Very useful.


More reading.

Bed, finally.

Yes!

It was a love-filled day.

Cause they're crazy.

Hannah's cousins told her that they were having a bonfire.

So we had to have a bonfire.

We knew our little cold-hating redhead wouldn't last longer than ten minutes - if that.

Turns out that she stayed out there for thirty minutes and Hannah headed in after ten minutes.

Ains is so ready for spring to be here.

The day in which Hannah realized that 'Museums are my thing!'

Yesterday was Hannah's violin lesson. She got a violin - purple, no less - for Christmas and has been wanting to start lessons ever since. Last week was her first lesson, this week her second. Since she's taking lessons from a Suzuki instructor, I have to pay close attention in class to take practice notes for her, so I have to bring stuff to keep the other two quiet and engaged.


Done and done.

After class we had a few hours to kill before Ainsley's gymnastics class and it was too cold for parks. We decided to go to our local museum. It's small but has cool stuff.

Like this replica of a human skeleton. We hadn't seen that before. It captured imaginations.

And this one always sucks Ains in for some reason - a recreation of a living space in a cave for American Indians that lived in this area.

They also have a room with art that changes every so often. The last time we were there there was a bloody and gruesome settler/Indian 'Hamlet on the Plains' display. We had to stay well clear of that one, but now they have abstract art in there. Ains loved this painting.

And Hannah, after spending 20 minutes having me read signs above dinosaur bones to her declared "You know, Mother, museums are my thing. They really are. You can learn so much here, and what's the point if you're not learning?"

Ainsley looked at her like she was nuts and ran back into the room with fluorescent lights where Gray was already giggling at his shoelaces.