Earlier this week I was downstairs doing some cleaning when I realized it had gotten really quiet upstairs. While my children may be older that the age of creating major messes, they still can get into mischief.
When I came upstairs to check this is what I found and the reason for the quiet. They ended up spending almost two hours reading stories together. Such a pleasant afternoon.
I realize that Christmas was exactly one month ago, but I thought I would share the jammies I made for the children. I ended up not being able to finish the tops for the boys and purchased t-shirts that coordinated. It worked out fine, but I wish I could have gotten them done.
The children picked out the fabric they wanted, choosing green because they had never worn green before for Christmas. I just loved listening to them work it all out between themselves in the fabric store.
I finished them two days before Christmas, just in time for them to wear them for all of the festivities! Don’t they all look so excited? This is what they think of pictures before opening presents. Then I remind them that the more they smile the faster we can be finished.
Pajamas are very easy to make, especially the boys pants. They only took me about two hours to put together. The gowns require a bit more work but are also very simple and I enjoyed working with the flannel. Much easier to work with than some other fabrics. Despite the fact that I was working like crazy to get them done I can’t wait to make some more and have all ready purchased fabric for next year!
Today it rained, and yesterday it rained, and yep it rained the day before that one too. The forecast for tomorrow? More rain. Now normally I love rain, it makes me want to curl up with a book, bake cookies , and generally lounge around the house all day. Especially if it’s a chilly rain. But this? This is during the harvest and I am busy. I don’t have time to do all those things the weather making me want to do. I must dice up those tomatoes that are sitting in boxes, string the beans, freeze the broccoli and some how try to keep the house clean in case someone wants to look at it.
The children are very helpful but there is still only so much I will let them do when working with boiling water and pressure canners. So after asking me about a million times to play in the rain, I finally said yes. After all there was no lightening or thunder and it was warm. They played outside for 3 hours, building dams, moats, and filing the boat with water.
They were quite resourceful in their playing and wore themselves out!
The girls? Well they didn’t want to get wet so they played inside under umbrellas.
Sometimes saying yes is worth all the extra work.
In the middle of all of our chaos we took a little break to get some ice cream at the dairy store. So yummy, especially after a hard days work.
I set out all prepared to take a family shot until I couldn't find my tri-pod attachment. So my father-in-law took this one for us. He only took one shot, thankfully we are all looking in the same direction. 
One must not forget the hundreds of outtakes to get that perfect shot. :)
And one more because it's so hard to pick and choose. 
A little bit of swimming,
Lest you think all we did was work when my parents visited here is proof we had fun too! My Dad was only able to stay a few days, he is a veterinary pathologist at Virginia Tech and was running out of vacation time. The children love having him here, they rode bikes that he fixed up for them, pulled them around in the wagon, read stories, made them breakfast, played games, and listened to all their ramblings and silly stories. What more could you want form an Opa? He is the best!
Nothing like a hot day to go raspberry picking! My little helpers and I picked 12 pounds and then came home to make jam.
A bunch of very tired children!
This is the new style in our house. The children get so excited to go swimming that they can’t wait to put their goggles on, even if they are to big or upside down.
