This Is How Leaf Piles Are Made

...well, around here, anyways.

Yes of course Eli rides along! Wouldn't have it any other way.

great fun

are you watching Mom?

headed to the piles

 And I just wanted to post a picture of this...

the kids made pumpkins yesterday with canning rings, string, and fabric leaves. 

Thought they turned out cute.

A New Lampshade

Grandma passed us sturdy old lamp last week, 

after declaring our living room had insufficient lighting for family parties.

(She is right, of course. 

It IS nice to have plenty of living room lighting during those long winter months, especially.

When so much time is spent there.)

The lamp itself is heavy, sturdy, and well-made. All things necessary in this house of Wiggles.

The lampshade, though, well, was not something to be desired.

So, armed with a vague idea from Daddy, we dove into the fabric scrap basket.

Celene did a fabulous job turning that lampshade into a work of art.

It brightens the whole room and brings a smile to everyone's face.

Love my little artsy girl. :)

 

Hannah and I cut fabric strips of all different patterns and colors

Celene hot-glued them all around the lampshade

She was excited to install the finished project ;)

tighten it up

it makes us smile for sure! :)

Playing "Natives"

This all came about the other day when Miles gathered a pile of large chicken feathers and made an "Indian" headdress with them. 

Of course, he got the girls going too, and this little event made for hours of fun the past few days. :) 

I love to see how a simple headband of feathers and an old sheet sparks their interest and keeps them busy.

an old sheet wrapped around a few tree branches makes a great teepee!

the view inside

proud

making something delicious ;)

a quiver in the tree

loading

harvesting

An 8 Year Old

Somehow life keeps going.

This guy, our oldest, is 8 already!

Thank you, son, for the privilege of being your Mama. 

It sure is a gift.

In so many ways.

Pictured here are two little parties he had...one with us on his special day,

and the other with family.

Light the candles on his own cake? Of course. Wouldn't have it any other way.

He also made his own cake, at his request. It was a camo-colored concoction with hunter orange frosting. A chemical nightmare, to be sure.

A metal detector!

This is a silly picture the kids wanted me to take. Shawn's been working on the house (as always), and they found this door, that he trashed, outside. They played with it for a morning, even setting it up in the actual doorway and demanding their picture taken. Their uber-happy smiles make me laugh!

Quite excited about a new rocket kit and engines. :)

Money money money!!!

Another item he's been anxious for: a magnifying glass

And "yes, I'm going to light this cake too."

His friend David came to play for two days and sleep over! Very exciting indeed.

Most of their time was spent outside, in the garage, in the barn, in the fort, and in the trees. :)

Autumn is Beautiful

Drawing Themselves and Making Suet

Just a few pictures of their projects one day last week...

I just love what their ideas are sometimes.

It really saves me a lot of work as I usually don't have to think of things for them to do!

Drawing eachother's shapes on a roll of butcher paper

She colored and decorated hers elaborately and cut it out. We hung it on her closet door in her room.

We save bacon grease in jars in the cabinet. Eventually one of them notices that there are a couple full jars up there and it's time to make suet!

We research what certain birds like to eat. Then we mix melted bacon grease with birdseed, dried fruit, coconut, nuts, etc.  The kids like to choose what to mix up.

Then we freeze it in pans, slice in squares, and store in the freezer separated by pieces of wax paper.

We have enough squares to last us a few months I think. We have 4 suet feeders outside.

Looks good enough to eat, don't you think? :)

My little labeler. :)