A Book Addicted Family

The kids just left for school and I just finished dishes. So I walked around the house to get started on my day when I realized my kids and I might have a problem. Books. They are always all over the house ... except the bookshelf!

Follow me on the literary trail through my house that was left over this morning.

On the blanket chest and chair; a dictionary, three books and a magazine.

On the window seat; two books, two magazines and a kindle.

Dining room table; two books.

Yahoo'a bedroom; a Bible, a hymnal, and three books.

My bedside table; a kindle, a devotional and two books.

Oh, and my sketchbook on the bed.

Yep. Books have always been important to me and it looks like I've successfully passed that gene on to my kids too! Now if only someone would invent a book that would reshelf itself.

Spring Break...thank goodness it's over!

Oh, were we busy over spring break; road trip, museum visits, art projects...a filthy house. It's nice to have the kids back in school....now where IS spring??? It's kind of windy and cold outside but there were sure some nice days to remember from last week!

 

We took a trip to Wichita to hit up some museums.

 

Outside the art museum the boys struck their best "statue pose"!

 

Ah!! A Chihuly! I love his stuff!

 

After the art museum we went to Cowtown, which the boys love.

 

Cowtown is a rebuilt 1800's town with mostly original buildings. As you walk through there are reenactors and plenty of antiques on display.

 

And look at that...a honest to goodness real grain elevator.

I thought I was able to get DR away from work for a day...guess not!

 

But guess what the biggest hit was with the kids at Cowtown....a bowling alley...in an alley! Wooden pins, a canvas backstop, a rail/ramp to roll the ball back on. We could have stayed there for hours!

 

After Wichita we went up to Manhattan to the Flinthills Discovery Center that had a great display about the ecosystem of the plains.

 

 

They even had a really neat exhibit about the science and physics of football. It was really neat!

 

 

We had one gorgeous day over break where ther was no wind and it was up in the 70's so we went down to Meade State Park and enjoyed the great outdoors!

 

There aren't too many trees out here in Kansas but this is the one spot where we can enjoy them occasionally. They were still bare but they were still lovely!

 

Now we are back to the grindstone of work and school....but we are still waiting on spring!!

Wake up little garden!

It's barely warm enough to be outside without a coat, it's supposed to snow tonight BUT it's officially spring so time to get in the garden !!!! DR tilled yesterday which madee so excited and we received seeds in the mail (which made it feel like Christmas ) and now all I have to do is wait a month or so before I dare plant anything!! How about you? Are your waking your garden up yet?

Spring break art time

We are on spring break this week and the weather has already been crazy! Warm then cold then warm again. Wind, wind and more wind. Today is WINDY!

 

So we've decided to spend the day doing some artwork. Yahoo playing with a bit of clay.

 

Recognize these? They are plants from the Plants vs. Zombies game app. My boys love playing it, don't all boys like zombies? Hopefully I can convince Yip (it's cardboard so of course Yip built it) that they need to be painted and put in the 4-H fair this summer. 

 

 

Yap even tried his hand at making something from cardboard; Yip enjoyed being the "cardboard teacher" this morning. I can't say that Yap had any success...he made something from cardboard but he wasn't too happy about it. Sometimes I think poor Yap just hasn't found his niche yet. He's a Lego freak and he loves to read but those aren't qualities that shine easily in a tiny town where every one is sports obsessed.

I did get him to sit down and plan out a painting for his summer 4H project.

 



 

He loves all things military and war so he chose to draw out a German shepherd. Hopefully we'll get it painted before spring break is over.

 



 

I've been busy doing some of my own artwork today too. It's kind of hard to tell from the photo but I'm creating a giant stencil (3'x3') from laminated paper that I'm going to use on a red burlap aisle runner for a wedding. We'll see how it goes. The wedding isn't until October, which is good, because it may take me that long to get this to work!!

 

My proudest accomplishment of the day though was getting a belt on my Singer treadle sewing machine!! I stumbled onto a sewing store in Wichita over the weekend that services the treadle sewing machines at Wichita's Cowtown.

 

I've had this machine for over a year but with missing pieces. I'd really like to get it working. I was so excited about getting the belt that I totally forgot to look for a needle or the other missing pieces! But I made sure I grabbed their business card!!!

 

Today never warmed up or stopped blowing but I'm crossing my fingers that we'll have at least one nice day this week where we can get out and enjoy the short spring we are sure to have!