playing with The Easter Bunny and hermano

Bug and I headed over to hermano's house today for some 'day before Easter" fun.  we saw the Easter bunny's helper

You would think that Bug was not having fun, but he was.  He was smiling, but hermano missed the smile here.

Bug got every one smiling here.

The Bunny preparing to start the hunt.

All done.  Seriously, the grab and dash hunt took all of 2-3 minutes.

Bug was quite happy with his haul.

On the way back to hermano's house, we drove pass the fields were the cows are now.  flooding is occurring and vaca Daddy had to put up some temporary fences to keep the cows and calves from getting into the flood waters.

These are some of the cows up in the 'drier' area.  It is quite muddy.  There is much more rain expected this week, hopefully these areas will stay dry enough that the cows can stay here.

After driving home, we stopped at the mall to do some shopping for Pap. Bug saw the train and that was it.  He had to have a ride.

After church tonight, Bug and I had dinner with Pap and Mam.  Bug loves hiding under Pap's chair, but with the way he is growing, he will not fit under the chair much longer.

for Popi, Momi Mireya and the girls: On Friday, when we talked, I was trying to tell you that it was raining here, but I kept using the Spanish for snowing.  No wonder you could not understand me.  We have gotten record breaking amounts of rain this year and we are expected to get nearly 10 inches of rain this week.  We have many roads flooded and as you saw in the picture from the farm, lots of standing water.  We came home today to some water leaking in our basement- not a lot, but enough to be an annoyance.

Well, Easter Bunny momma needs to go prep the eggs for the hunt here tomorrow.

Love and hugs,
Deb

Good Friday- just having family time

Bug and I had plans today to go to the zoo with hermano and his momma, but the rains came again and we decided against the trip to the zoo today.  So I decided that we would color our Easter eggs today after cleaning up the living room and dining room.  Can you tell that Bug was excited???

He was loving these egg tongs.  The colors on the eggs are fantastic.  We only colored 12 eggs as these are for breakfast on Sunday.  The Easter Bunny hides the plastic eggs, not the real eggs.

These are the Easter crafts that Bug made this week in school.  I love them.

Very in to his coloring

Almost done!!!

We did some painting and then skyped with Bug's first family.  While we were talking via Skype, Bug painted a picture of them - Popi, Momi Mireya, Susi and Nigua were all  on the computer at the time of the drawing and this picture shows how happy he was to be talking to them. Karla joined the call later as did Alex.  Bug was very happy to see everyone and listen to them talking to him.  He was not so excited to talk to them.  But he did show off his paintings and his school work (with lots of prompting from me).

After we finished with our Skype call, we headed over to see Mam and Pap.  Bug and Pap played cars for 3 hours.  Mam and I got to go to the farmers market and the grocery store (milk and Easter candy).  It was a good start to the holiday weekend.  Now Bug and I are watching "Mulan" for the millionth time- but Bug loves the movie and I like the movie too, so we are both happy. 
We are heading over to see Hermano and his parents tomorrow. 


Happy Easter to every one.  Love and hugs,
Deb

why you can't believe a 5 year old when you ask him questions

Today was "special visitor" day at Bug's school.  I was certain that there would be some sort of presentation to the parents, grandparents and visitors.  So I have been asking Bug about it for the last 2 weeks.  Every time I asked him if he was learning a song or practicing something, I was told, emphatically "No, MOM".  which just goes to show that as a parent, don't ever believe your 5 year old.  Thank goodness I took my camera.  Bug was the line leader for the boys in his class- he loves this job.  He just noticed me, Mam, Ms A and Little M when I snapped this picture.  If I could have gotten the face he made a second later- hugest smile, you would know he was happy. 

As part of the presentation, the kindergartners told the story of creation, Bug was day 1- the day God created light. He was so excited to have us all there watching him.

Bug is the second one in on the second row- this is all 3 kindergarten classes singing.  Bug was busy talking.  He does not sing in public that I am aware of.  He does sing in the car, though.

I think he was mouthing the words here.

Little M and Bug at snack time.  We had a cookie, some punch and we got to play BINGO.  OK- this is my thought, clearly the catholic schools have a vested interest in getting kids hook on BINGO early.  Bug did not like the game at all. I might have to try a variation on the game this summer to see if he likes it more.

After school, work and homework, we went out to play.  We finally had some sun!!!!  It was very cool.  I think I freaked the girls mom out by putting them in the tree - but I loved the blossoms, the green and the happy kids.  it is a great picture.

The kids then found the tree they could climb without me helping.  They were happy campers.

And silly

Bug and I headed to our favorite store to buy some paint, which also meant there was some tractor riding expected.  Bug now wants to move all the levers and he is strong enough to do it now.  Thank goodness the keys are not in these and they don't have gas.

There were lots of tractor sounds being made as he "drove" the tractors.  It was cute, though the adults who came by while Bug was playing were not too sure.  I still think Bug is the cutest thing every when he lost in his play time.  There is something completely joyful about watching him be such a boy and loving every minute of driving the tractors.  We tried out a push lawn mower, but Bug still does not have quite enough strength to move the mower.  So the idea of Bug being able to cut grass next year (under close supervision) is not going to work out.  I guess I have 2 more years before he can cut the front grass at least.

Bug has one more day of school before Spring Break, which means I have one more day of work.  Tomorrow looks to be the best day of the next week- no rain.  I am still thinking Guatemala is looking great.  Now if I could win the lottery so we could afford the tickets. But next year, definitely.

I am off to try to get some sleep since I was up last night due to the storms here.  Nothing like sirens going off in the middle of night and tornadoes about 20 minutes south of us to keep me up.

Love and hugs,
Deb

The many lives a quilt

This is the latest quilt top to be worked on.  I have had the fabric for almost 2 years now (yikes).  it was originally supposed to be a duvet cover for mariposa (see below), but with her exit from the house, it sat as I tried to figure out exactly what to do.  I finally gave in an admitted that I loved the fabric as much as when I bought a bunch in 2006 and started working on a quilt for Nigua.  It needed to be bigger for my bed, so I bought some bright orange fabric for the outer border and put it together.  I can not get the flower or striped fabric any more, so I had to figure out what to do on the back.

I think I am going to quilt it in straight lines thru the flowers.  Originally I was going to quilt circles around the flowers, but then I realized I would probably rip the quilt to shreds in frustration.  So I I think I have it worked out and it should look awesome (if I do say so myself).

 and this is the back- a bright purple/red/orange/pink batik with a strip of the orange border from the front down the middle.  it really is pretty bright- but I like bright.  The back also allows me to use it in the spare bedroom if I ever need too since the purple on the front and back theme to the color on the walls in the spare bedroom.  Although I fully plan to repaint the spare bedroom in a year or 2 since purple just does not go with the rest of the house.

These are the 2 sides together.  I am going to bind the quilt with the stripped fabric from the front side inner border.  I think I can have it done by the end of this month.  Then next month I will finish up the 2 Chinese Zodiac quilts for El's girls.  I need their hand prints to complete the quilting.  That should take a week max.  so there is lots to do, but I am getting to the point of just having to do quilting, instead of piecing quilt tops together.

This is Mariposa, for those of you who remember the name, not the face.  A part of me feels bad about not sending the quilt to her, but her room in Germany is red, white and black, so it would never match.  I might make her a table topper at some point, but I am not worrying about it at this point.

In other news, Bug's fish died today- the fish got sick and I did not catch it in time.  I ran out at lunch today to get the fish some medicine (yes I did) and by 3 pm the fish was dead.  Bug wants a new fish.  I think we should stick with Blueberry (the Betta) for a while.  But I think Bug is going to get a new fish over the Easter Holiday.

The weather here is going to be bad tonight.  What is it about being a parent that makes you worry so much?  We have tornado watches tonight (so far) and the worst is due to come through at after 3 am.  I am thinking I am not going to be sleeping much tonight.

what have we been doing????

it has been a busy week.  Bug spent last Thursday playing with friends and then playing Tball.

I am sorry about the quality of the pictures- I deleted my photo memory stick before every loaded up and these are all I have. 

The funny thing about this part of practice is that Bug and Little M chased after a ball, and both of them ended up in the only mud hole in the field.  Thank goodness, I had clothes in the trunk of the car that we were taking to hermano on Friday.

Little M had a fun time sitting on Third base.  He lost interest at 1 hour into practice (the normal stopping time), so the last 30 minutes was a lost cause for Little M.  But I know 2 mommas who are getting upset that practice is unorganized and going 1.5 hours instead of 1 hour.  This momma especially is not happy that Bug is worn out on a school night and getting to bed very late. We did the schedule for the games.  They are on Friday nights and a couple are at 7:15 pm.  That should just be lovely in terms of behavior given that some kids go to bed at 8 pm (Bug). 

some water to cool down.

The change of clothing

Saturday I took Bug to see RIO.  Had I known the entire movie was one big innuendo, we would not have gone.  This is a movie that will not be on our 'to buy' list.

But Bug had a great time riding motos and came in 3rd place in one of his games.

Sunday was Palm Sunday.  For the last 2 years I have forgotten that the kids march in during the worship songs.  This year I was determined that Bug would see me and that I would get a picture (yes, if you have not figured it out, I am one of those mommas).  The kids came marching in waving palm branches during the first song and Bug was second in line.  he was so happy to see me.

Then I ran up front to get a picture of praising while the band was playing- again, I am one of those mommas.

We came home and Bug played toss-across while I cleaned out the garage.

Bug played with Little M and had a great time.

And today, I finished the quilt top for my bed.  I love this fabric.  I used it for Nigua's quilt when Bug and I became a family back in 2007, and I loved it.  So I bought some more and the quilt has been waiting. I am going to have to take the quilt to the basement to pin it because the living room is too small. I think I have figured out how to quilt it- it is going to take a few days at least.

 Bug starts Spring Break on Friday.  they got back the days they should have to make up.  I had to planned to be Guatemala, but with the uncertainty around Bug's school days, and my work scheduled added on top of the cost of airfare- we are staying home.  But the savings for next year have started- we are going back to Guatemala. 

Love and hugs,
Deb

playing in mud puddles

Today was a rainy day here at home.  While I was waiting to pick up Bug from the bus, I was thinking that this would be a great day to go splash in some mud puddles.  When Bug got off the bus, he immediately asked if we could go play in the puddles after I was done with work.  I guess we are having a great start to the week- we are on the same wave length.  Bug wanted to invite Little M along too. 

I called M's momma and Bug got ready- rain coat- check, frog boots- check, umbrella- check.  Same gear for me and we were out the door to pick up M and his momma.   While waiting for M to come out, Bug played spin the umbrella.

And he did some great posing for me.

We walked down the street to find some puddles and found this instead.  A great Spring photo of the boys.

We hit the jackpot on the last cul-de-sac, a ginormous puddle on the sidewalk and a fast moving stream going to the drain.  This is where we stayed for the rest of puddle playtime.

M discovered that an upside down umbrella holds lots of water.  Bug was busy finding things to send down the stream- like leaves, grass, and dandelions.  I need to find a paper boat tutorial so I can make newspaper boats for Bug to float in the streams.

And then he found acorn caps, which he had to yell at me to look at.  He is fascinated by acorn caps.

When we came home, the boys were still determined to play in the street.  Our street see lots more traffic compared to the street with the huge puddle, so I suggested they look for worms instead.  Bug was a very good encourager to M.  Bug wanted M to pick up the worm, and kept giving him instructions on how to do it.  But, Bug refused to pick up any worms as 'worms bite'.  Where does he get this stuff.  Meanwhile, M's momma is preparing to instruct them on how to get 2 worms (pull 1 worm apart).  But the boys figured that out on their own.

M was quite happy to hold a worm.  And shockingly, so was I.  So long as I don't have to put them on a fishing hook, I can hold worms.  They are helping turn my clay ground into fertile growing soil.

See, Bug is encouraging- but not getting his fingers anywhere close to the worms.

I think the boys had a great time. 

The excitement continued when the UPS truck pulled up to driveway and delivered our 2 apple trees.  Bug actually talked to the driver- telling him about the worms. 

On the agenda for tomorrow- planting the final 2 apple trees. 

Love and hugs,

Deb