An Ethio-treat

We were all missing Ethiopia the other day, so I decided that we'd have an Ethio-treat, just like at Morning Coffee Guesthouse in Addis Ababa.  Popcorn and very sugary coffee.  Yum!

Just like for Spanish class

As a teacher, I used to line up all of my teaching aides on a front table, just like this.  Old habits... although this is a good one that I'm happy not to drop.  Thanks Mrs. Kindschi!

Sibling love

Mita slid off of her Tonka and the boys ran to help her back on. 

Happy heads

Flat rope twists with "bangs"... this is more practice for the coming yarn extensions  (The green hair is coming, Elena!)

Fun with fur!

School

I decided to ignore uppercase letters for a bit. 

Counting beans...

Geometric insert-ish activity

Music

Ever since I relented a few weeks back and allowed G to begin drumming on a toy's storage box, his music career has taken off. 

Thanks to seeing PapA play at church last week, he has now decided that he must wear headphones too.  Oy!  (Notice the right foot, which is playing the "kicking drum.")

Oh yes, and thankfully he also saw Uncle Monkey Bread-No-More playing the guitar, which he now also plays... although left-handedly. 

(BubU is just hanging out with the one man band!)

Quilt update

After a set-back do to faulty quilting math (which I really don't get because Math and I were good friends)...

... and a very sad attempt to make my scraps be enough to finish, which did NOT work,

I got back on track last night and should have the top done tonight.  Wahoo!  (The reason for which I am so excited, however, is only because I want to pick out fabrics for G's quilt, which I'll make next.)

Flat rope twists

This was much easier, although more time consuming, than I had anticipated.  Now that I know it works, I am going to attempt colored yarn extensions.  Mita has requested green!  Stay tuned...

What the children are saying

G:  "MamA, I'm putting Ty in the sling!" said with so much excitement, as he put on a pink tie, crosswise, and beckoned to BubU.  Thankfully I arrived in time to stop the loading of the baby.

G:  "Let's go to work on our 4-wheelers (huge emphasis on the "l")!"  And the twins excitedly agreed.

G:  "You can't have that because it's delicate (emphasis on that "l" again)."
Ty: "Delicate.  Delicate.  Delicate."

G:  "My teeth will fall out soon and maybe we'll put them in the compost.  Ty, do you want to do that... put your teeth in the compost?"

Thank you, Library

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any courser like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!

-Emily Dickinson, The Poems of Emily Dickinson

War!

Ahlan wa sahlan, Iraqi mariposas!

They later morphed into gati-posas, meowing and crawling around. 

SuperPapA

Here he is, SuperPapA, making Snickerdoodles with the boys.