Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Is is spring yet???

It has been COLD around here, and we have been SICK, and we are all getting tired of sickness and coldness! We are ready for nice weather and complete health! I think we are almost there, though! Fabio isn't feeling great, but is back to work, and I think the others of us are okay. :) Today was the nicest day we have had in a long while - around 70ยบ - so we thoroughly enjoyed it!
While shut up in the house, we did a painting project. This was Israel's VERY first experience with paint, and it was immediately followed by a bath. It was fun, though!

















I had gotten these little ceramic characters a while back, and the kids had a lot of fun painting them.

















This was the first time Dominique paid much attention to detail, and I was proud of her! (She wasnt done in the picture, so you can't really tell, but it is a ladybuy, and she painted her back red, with the dots black, the head pink, gloves black, shoes blue, and the flower she was holding yellow. :)













A few nights ago, I babysat my brother's kids and they all brought their scooters. The parking lot is such a nice area to bike and scoot and such, that they were thrilled to be outside until it got dark (and even then I had to MAKE them come in!), even though it was freezing cold!! I always like it, though, when they kids feel like doing something active and wear themselves out good! ;-)






Afterwards, my nephew Levi slept over. He is one month older than Joshua, and it was the very first time Joshua had had a friend spend the night. They were both very excited, but thanks to the scooter-riding, they were both so tired that they didn't take long to conk out!








The next morning we went to the forest preserve. Again, it was chilly, but still pretty in spring. There were all sorts of wild flowers blooming that we enjoyed seeing and identifying.

























Dominique is still advancing her culinary skills, and loving it! I want to be like the Amish in at least one way: they train their daughters to be able to do everything a mother can do by the time they are twelve years old - cooking, housework, childcare, etc. What an asset for life for the daughter, and what a help to the mother!













Even though we haven't had much warm spring weather, we are still enjoying much about spring. One of the things is all the young animals that are born! Yesterday we saw this little sweet baby squirrel just outside our patio door. Isn't he cute?










We have a mama robin nesting outside our front door, and a family of sparrows outside the back door, in one of the nesting boxes we have. The sparrow babies hatched yesterday or the day before, so we can hear them peeping for their food whenever we are in the kitchen!








We saw this poor little one this afternoon... I wonder why he isn't in a nice safe nest??













This is at the mall this morning. I had to go there to get a new watch battery and since we needed some time out of the house anyway, we took our sweet time and I let the kids play here about 20 min or so. They love it! If you've never seen it, it is kind of like a video game that is activated by shadows. The kids can chase balls, stomp on monkeys to make them disappear, make butterflies appear by the dozens, etc. Fun technology!




Then we took another nature walk and spent some time in the nature center of our local forest preserve. We really do love that place! Just getting the kids out of doors and encouraging their natural curiosity about the things around them and an appreciation for God's creativity is so wonderful!









This is back at the house. The blossoms on this tree are so pretty still, but so high you can barely see them in the picture... Still a friendly reminder of spring!! :)

4 comments:

momanna98 said...

Where is the nature center that you go to?
That baby squirrel is soooo cute! I have never seen a baby before.
We still have our house up for sale, but instead of living like we are moving - like we have been for the last year and I am SO sick of it - we are just living. We only get about one showing a month, so it really isn't inconvenient.

Bipin Sen said...

It's warm where we are... :-)

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to let you know that Anna had her baby. Email or call me if you would like to know the name. The details are on her blog:)
:>Michelle

Kathy said...

Ah that looks like fun. The malls are great for different kind of play, my kids love it. And the forest preserves too are great, the total benefits of living urban life.