Birthday- All Day Long

From the time Brother woke up until he went to bed, the day was full of birthday and St. Patty's Day fun. A naughty little leprechaun snuck in our house, leaving a footprint trail to some goodies.Presents, Joy School treats, and making the cake occupied the rest of the morning. Our first birthday guests began arriving at noon: Grandma, Mason, Aunt Nik, Bentley, Lincoln, and Aunt Deidra. At 2:00 the "official" party began. Hudson had a few friends over for a dinosaur themed party. They got to try on a pair of dinosaur feet and go on an archaelogical dig to look for bones.
We had spaghetti for birthday dinner and then it was time for another party with family. Phew! We're glad birthdays only come once a year.

**On a funny note, the day before Hudson's birthday he woke up and said "This is my last day of being three." Later on he found some gloves and said he wanted to pick up trash for the day.

Humanitarian Work Day

Thanks for the pictures Des, I stole it.

On Saturday our stake had a humanitarian work day. It was a great day to visit, help others, and create. We were able to finish 170 little dolls that our wards has been working on. There were so many other wonderful projects too.
It seems as though all of the doll business has worn off on Sissy. She has been packing one doll or another around for the last week. In anticipation of giving the humanitarian dolls away, I sewed some up to keep and have around. Turns out, I'm still feeling charitable and would like to reward one lucky reader with this adorable peanut.
It's easy to enter, just drop me a line in the comment section and let me know you're out there.

Visiting

The recent sunny days are torturing me. I look out the window and think "It will be a great day to get out our wagon and go for a walk. or I'd love to start up my rototiller and get busy on my garden." And then I go out to feed the chickens and realize it's not as warm as I was hoping. Abort! Previous thoughts are ridiculous. The sun has sprung, but spring definitely has not. Maybe this weekend will bring warmer temperatures.

Once I'm back in the house I feel trapped. Trapped with someone I've been with constantly. I need a break from this house. And that's when the kids know it's time to get their faces washed and loaded up in the car. When it gets to this point, it can mean only one thing: VISITING. At first we started showing up on random doorsteps, but now we have a bit of a route.

Benefits of visiting:
It's cheap therapy
Make wonderful friends
Teach kids manners (like listening and being polite - please and thank you's)
Preserve the lost art form
Learn from other's experiences
Opportunities to serve (most people won't call if they need help, but you can help once you see a need)
Makes you happy
I'll be the first to admit, I love visiting!

Thrifting

During the winter I miss the excitement of garage sales and the hunt for good deals. But lucky for me, there are some thrift stores around that make pretty good indoor garage sales. Like all thrifting, it's hit and miss. I haven't struck gold for awhile, but yesterday yielded some pretty good finds.

I have a thing for wagons, as this makes 3 for us. But how could I pass up this cute of one with a $15 price tag?

Here's a little story behind my next find:
The other day I searched the entire town for a new pair of casual shoes and came up empty handed. I couldn't find what I was looking for. A quick search in the shoe section at DI and I found the ones I had been looking for. The best part, they were my size and looked brand new. They still had the sticker on the bottom to prove it. And at $5.00, they were priced just right for this girl.
I also found this shirt ($2) for Sissy and a little Laura Ashley corduroy dress for a buck.
I almost forgot how giddy good deals make me. I didn't even seem to mind the snow flurries.

Food Stamps

We're in the planning stages for Brother's birthday and I thought I'd swing in the post office and get some stamps for the invites. I came out with them and handed them to Brother for inspection. In a very reverent way he awed them and said, "Wow . . . food stamps."What kind of a gullible gull am I raising?

Workshop

faces, faces, faces

As our ward's humanitarian specialist, I've been spending a lot of time getting ready for the Stake's Humanitarian day in a week. Our ward decided to make some adorable, but simple dolls to be donated to orphanages. Lots of ladies in our ward have helped cut out the dolls, sew them together, and the other night several of the youth helped us stuff about 60 of these dolls.

Here's a sneak peek, I'll post totals and pictures of the dolls once we've wrapped up the project.

Need a song stuck in your head?

We checked out The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking from the library. I vaguely remembered it from my childhood, but it struck a chord with me and jogged my memory. I've been singing songs from it ever since. A classic we've definitely got to get a copy of.

Another song.

Blast from the past

My busy body daughter. She has more ideas and energy than I care to experience.

Just the other night I found her biting my new interior shutters in the kitchen. Nice little teeth marks as a constant reminder of her. (Reminiscent of the piping I chewed off the back of a seat of a car my parents were test driving. Needless to say, the car became theirs.) She loves to put all of my gluesticks in her purse for safe keeping. They double as her lipstick and treats. She now claps as an emphasis to her dirty little looks and can pitch a fit the size of the room she's in.

So what do I do with her? I love her and laugh because she is me, in miniature. (Expect for the gluestick lipstick. That's definitely not me.)

Photo Shoot

Since I haven't taken some individual shots of the kids for awhile, I decided it was time. I opted for the bribery method and decided it was the way to go. The kids were relatively cooperative and happy. . . until they began fighting over the one and only lollipop.

Making the most of tv time

It's winter. It's cold outside. The kids and I are slowly running out of ideas. Sadly, the tv has become a favorite for brother.

I've found some advice that speaks to the inner guilt that tv time creates. It's the learning triangle. Letting your child watch appropriate, teaching tv is actually okay and can be an effective learning tool. The difference is that tv time is broken up with a follow up activity, and by reading a book on a similar subject. There's lots of great resources out there. There's also listings on PBSkids.org so you know in advance what the programs will be covering. Simply select the program you're child is interested in and click on the "parent and teacher link." Check out this, they make it so easy.

I think we'll check out some schedules, make a list, and visit the library.

**I had my mind made up to ignore the pleas of Festival and forget making my pledge to support Idaho PTV, but just writing this has made me have a change of heart. If you're PBS junkies, you'll have the opportunity in the upcoming Festival.

The Long Weekend

Our Valentines celebrations got an early start with the Joy School party at our house. The kids decorated bags, exchanged valentines, and decorated sugar cookies.

Then we headed to Campus Grove in Albion to spend the weekend with friends and family. We had a giant valentine exchange, played in the snow, skied, hung out, ate, and all that sort of good stuff.

Chilean Summer

During our trip we spent some time doing what Chileans do during the summer. We visited several lakes in the lake region and even camped at some since we took our tent. Their version of camping is quite different from ours. Electricity, hot showers, and sinks are almost always provided. On the down side, there are not many campgrounds and they are all very crowded. You can expect to pay between $35-$40 a night. One of brothers favorite things was helping me wash clothes in the camp sink.washing clothes by hand

bathroom and shower facility at Playa Hermosa
swimming at Lake Villarica

Driving through the lake region we were able to hike on a volcano, pick wild blackberries, stay in an adorable cabana, see several waterfalls, hike, visit with local farmers, and enjoy the beautiful scenery.


ski resort on Osorno Volcano
We found the most charming cabana. The fully equipped kitchen allowed us to make blackberry milkshakes. Hydrangeas could be used as a rating scale for accommodations. It seemed like the more you saw, the nicer the place.
picking blackberries
enjoying blackberry milkshakes
Claas choppers unite the world

After our trip down South, we joined the Malebrans for a vacation to Algarobbo, a beach side town where they recently bought an apartment. German's sister was also vacationing at their apartment in San Alfonso. We ended up spending a lot of time playing at San Alfonso since it is home to the world's largest pool. You can kayak, water surf, snorkel, and swim in the pool. It is quite an impressive resort and has lots of activities. It was the perfect ending to our amazing trip. taking a walk around the pool at San Alfonso

looking out to the ocean in Algarrobo
boat ride to see Humboldt penguins

Headed South

After spending a few days in Santiago, we loaded the kids up in Malebrans pickup and headed south to Puerto Montt. It was a bit of a road trip as we covered nearly 650 miles in less than 24 hours. There is a lot of agriculture to see on the way, so Brent and I always enjoy it. The vineyard's grapes are beginning to ripen. (Watch your produce this time of year, a lot of it comes from Chile, especially your grapes.) In this picture you can see the grain and melon fields in the front

and farmed eucalyptus trees are growing in the back. They are big producers
of eucalyptus, which the grind up and export to Japan.

Grain harvest is in full swing there and the fruit is just coming on. The highway (Ruta 5) is home to many vendors. We stopped at a fruit stand to buy fresh oranges, honeydew, cantaloupe, and apples. My mouth still waters just thinking about the fresh goodness. Puerto Montt is that last part of the mainland before you have to ferry hop in order to see more country. The lure of driving the Carretera Austral through Patagonia had become a dream for Brent. You can imagine his great disappointment when the ferry company told him we missed our ownly chance by a few hours. We spent the day in Puerto Montt, adjusting our plans and taking in the sights.

Brother, stretching his legs in front of the pickup.
This was in the ferry company's parking lot shortly
after we got the bad news that we wouldn't be
travelling any farther South.

Getting ready to dig into our pichanga, a dining adventure.
Grilled meats, sausages, boiled eggs, and pickled vegetables are
placed on a bed of french fries and cubed cheese.

Puerto Montt is the best place for picking up Chilean handicrafts.
Little shops line the streets. Most have some kind of hand-knitted item.
Sweaters, hats, scarfs, and socks are common to most shops.