Some oldies

I have been so busy lately, haven't taken too many pictures. I didn't want to leave you all hanging, so I decided to post some old pictures. These were taken in April of 2007. My how the girls have grown! (Sarah was only about 7 months old and Mary was a little over 2 years old. )And these were taken on Easter morning, 2007. The girls' Easter dresses just came in, so when I find a little time I will be doing our yearly photo shoot, and will be sure to post pics.
Have a great day!! Jude is preaching tonight in at Trinity, so I will go straight there from volleyball to spend the evening with my family. YEAH!! We get to eat together, (I don't have to cook) and I get to worship while the girls are doing kids stuff.

Two of my favorites

In the following blog entries you will see that I am into making Pysanky eggs. Here is one of my favorite ones that I did. The picture is a bit blurry, but oh well. I was at Joyce's house tonight and she helped me varnish this, hence why it is sitting on nails, drying. All we have left to finish it is to drain and clean the inside of the egg.

Here is another favorite, more because of the colors than the design. This picture doesn't show it very well. The flower is actually more of a purple color and the lighter color is a cross between a green and a light blue. It's prettier in person, but I still wanted to share it with you.

Both of these eggs are designs that I drew on. Carol Buterbaugh (my Aunt's sister) taught me how to do it, and has me hooked. I love it, and find it so relaxing. I just wish I could find more time in my day to work on them. Unfortunately today laundry took second fiddle to my egg making. It got clean, just not folded or put away. That will be tomorrow's project, if I don't decide to do more eggs. :)

Pysanky eggs

Here is a dozen eggs that I have already drawn designs on and they are waiting to be waxed and dyed. (Gotta love fresh farm eggs, they come is all colors, and sizes...even green)

Here is a hodge podge of my eggs. A few have already been dyed, but need varnished and emptied, one needs cleaned plus varnished and emptied, and a bunch are only drawn on, and they need everything.

And here are some of my finished eggs. 4 of them are mine, and one is Mary's. She drew a picture on it, and I waxed and dyed it for her today. (It's the one that you can kind of see her name written on the top) I have to say, I am pretty proud of my bird designed egg (the one right above Mary's) It turned out better than I expected. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that it survives the emptying process. x-x

Pysanky egg making is really neat, and has a great story behind it. The process you follow is related to our relationship with God. If you ever want to try the art of pysanky egg making, or want to hear the story relating the two, let me know and I would be glad to teach you. I am hooked!! Oh, and each egg tells a story...the symbols and colors all mean something.

Pysanky 101

I am learning to make Pysanky eggs, and loving it. You start with a blank egg (at room temperature) and then draw a design on it. The egg pictured below is one of the designs I did.

Then you do some other detailed work, and wah-la...a finished egg. (well not quite, but mostly finished)

Here is another egg, I forgot to take the before picture, but this is a picture taken during the middle of the process. Pretty ugly, huh??

And magically it turns into this. (not one of my better eggs, but hey, I'm still learning)

Chris's Hair Extraordinaire

We had hair appointments this past Thursday for the girls. I take them to a friend from Tanoma, her name is Chris, and she has been the only one to cut their hair. She does a great job, and the girls do well with her. Both girls needed their bangs trimmed, and the rest lightened up. Sarah's was getting very long, so she trimmed it, and layered it a bit. Mary's was a bit more drastic.

BEFORE

DURING (getting a hair cut is serious business for Sarah)

AFTER (Mom, I can see...no more bangs in my face!!)

And the reward afterwards. I reward the girls with some candy for sitting so well for their hair cuts.

The title of this blog is the name of the hair place we go to. She does so good on the girls, I figure it doesn't hurt to get her name out there.

A new DO

BEFORE

DURING (she thought she looked like Tinkerbell with her hair on top of her head)

and AFTER

And the reward for doing so well. The highlight of getting our hair cut is getting some candy afterwards. It has been a ritual since our very first cut. Chris, their hair stylist, says she doesn't have any kids that sit as well as out two do for a hair cut. (especially Mary)

Lunch and stickers

As usual for our get-togethers, we all chip in and bring a few things. It works out perfect each time, and no one has the entire thing to plan or buy for. For lunch, we had hotdogs, apples, grapes, and these cute alphabet tater tots. I just had to do my best to spell out each of the kids' names. I didn't have enough of the right letters so had to improvise a bit, but you get the point. Then for dessert we had cookies and "green" mint chocolate chip ice cream!
Everything was so delicious...and the kids seemed to eat really well, so they must have thought so too.

Then we did one more sticker craft. Just decorating a St. Patricks Day scene.

Sarah was working really hard at "doing it herself"