Emily Made Plywood

A lot of woodworking going on in the schools this week, it seems.

Emily (kindergarten) made plywood this week. They did before-after strength/stress tests. I was especially pleased with how the kids were instructed to spread a thin layer of glue on the pieces, instead of slathering it on. Grandpa Desmond (my dad) used to constantly remind us of this whenever we did projects. I will always remember him spreading the glue over surfaces with a scraper-type thing (sometimes just a card) the way people spread a crumb coat of frosting on a cake. He did this for all kinds of glue, and it is ingrained in my subconscious to the point where I still feel like I'm doing something wrong when I use a glue gun that spits out fat blobs.

Our newly-green bathroom is now in working order, and it feels good to finally finish that particular Depinking Project. 

The only other update worth mentioning is that this is Jenna's last week of preschool. We have been busy making Thank You And See You Next Year presents for her teachers. 


Here is an in-progress shot:

Isn't that such a Jenna photo? Can you spot the flower that is different from the others?

Quick weekend update

We've been busy this weekend! It rained, so we undertook house projects that we've been putting off. And by "putting off", I mean "since we moved in more than 5 years ago".  When we first viewed our house with the intent to buy it, Dave and I said to each other that the very first things we'd change were the drapes and the pink bathroom walls. Guess what - we've kept them till now. 


But finally, this weekend, we went out to the store and custom-ordered vertical blinds and then had a curry dinner at an Indian restaurant. The food was incidental, but it was quite good and therefore worth mentioning. When our blinds are delivered and installed, we shall show Before and After photos, that you may rejoice with us.


I also painted the second of the two pink bathrooms. Green! The first was painted (also green) when Dave finished renovating it last year. We are now happy to say that we now have zero pink walls in our house. Hurrah! Until the girls decide to paint their own rooms, I mean.


The baby robins are still living under our deck. We (well, OK, mostly me) were all very worried that they'd be drowned by the weekend thunderstorms. Emily said to me, quite calmly, "The mother bird probably sits on them to shelter them, Mum." She's probably right, but I ran out the minute the rain stopped, and peeked at them to make sure they weren't swept away by the deluge. I've been taking daily pictures and once I learn how to get them off the (new) camera, I'll do a progressive-development post. The girls are enjoying watching the little babies change color and grow feathers!


Worm updates:
Emily found a worm in the sandbox on Saturday and decided it would be her pet. "I shall call it Wormy!" said Emily, rushing into the house excitedly to (I assume) get a jar and rushing out again. After a while, she came back in, sad because the worm had escaped. I was careful not to let her see me do a little dance of relief. Why are there worms in the sandbox? 


Emily also reported seeing the mother robin with a worm in its beak. I interrogated her at once (Emily, not the bird): Where is the worm now? Did the mother feed it to the babies? Is it in small pieces? What kind of worm? Was it alive? Was it the worm from the sandbox? Emily said "I don't know" to all my questions. She must think I'm a nutcase. But a person needs to know where the enemy is at all times. It's tactically advantageous.  

Photo of the Day

Our hosta plant. 

At least, I think it is a hosta plant. 

It could be a rosebush or an apple tree, for all I know. 

I was never very good at identifying vegetation.

Jenna Wields A Hammer

Jenna made this in preschool this week. She elaborated that

1. she wore safety goggles
2. she did not whack her thumb
3. you put the beads on the nail first and it helps you with the hammering.

This was the second of two woodworking projects she did this week. The first one was identical to this, except the beads were of different colours.

Jenna has a birthday party to attend this weekend. It is her first invitation (in which her sisters do not accompany her) and she is very excited. She has spent the whole week thus far colouring bookmarks, which today we laminated. Some will be for her teachers, and some (quite many, in fact) are for the birthday girl. 

Kateism

Kate, frustrated that her voice was drowned out by those of her two older sisters, wailed, "Mum! Emily interrupted my saying!"

Living Things Update

Our sunflower seeds have become seedlings.

Kate waters them with her squirt bottle every day. 

We spent the afternoon at the zoo today. We had a picnic lunch, rode the monorail (Kate whispered, "Mum! Here's the plan: I will only ride the train if I get to sit on your lap!"), walked to the farm, fed the goats, watched a cow being milked, patted said cow, counted the piglets, spied on the chicks, had ice cream for tea, rested in the shade and danced in the sunny patches. Came home and collapsed on the sofa. Our feeble post-winter bodies are not yet used to the rigors of summer adventures. But soon we shall be.

Readers of both our blogs (this and ikatbag) might notice that I am updating this blog more frequently now, even more so than the craft blog. I have always enjoyed writing this blog much more than the other one, but it is hard to be motivated to take photos in the winter, so most of our winter family life goes undocumented. Now that we are once again basking in the sunshine, everyone leaves the house, takes photos, goes places, does stuff. And so you'll be seeing a lot more of us here! Yay!

Random Photos of Children

For Mum, Dad, Arne and Karen - enjoy!