Happy Birthday Nancy!!!

Happy Birthday to my best friend in the whole world!

[You're older than I am now.]

March Madness

Nothing much to report today, just want to keep the blog habit going... we filled out our NCAA brackets last night for the North University Court Banditos. The name comes from the house Matthew and all his friends lived in in Ann Arbor. Coincidentally, when they lived in that house, I lived in the apartment building adjacent to it (behind) on Wilmot Street and never knew any of them. All that time we were just a few feet away from each other - strange!

And now for the erata section: I guess I didn't say that Mom K was hiking with us, because someone (cough, Nancy, cough) asked if a ghost took the photo...

This morning, Joshie is spending the morning or day with us, depending on how court goes for Skye. I'm discovering that one can accomplish a lot more with two kids than with one because they entertain each other. If only I could produce a second one that's instantly three years old, but for now we'll settle for friends.

Time for a plug for Pandora Radio, the best invention since coffee. I'm listening to Young Pilgrims by the Shins right now.

Food News: We should have saved that potato chip, Laura. A corn flake shaped like Illinois just sold on ebay. Link here. I'm going to go inspect Matt's Special K.

Hiking Season Has Begun

We went to Fort Mountain State Park on Sunday. It was a little chilly, but we made it through without any hypothermia. G climbed a bunch of rocks and is learning how to plan his routes. There were many eagles flying around, and we thought one of them looked like a bald eagle - they are found around here occasionally. It was hard to tell, but they were beautiful nonetheless. That part of the state is a little rural, so there was nothing happening on Sunday. I watched for a loooong time before I finally saw a vehicle on one of the many roads down below, and I was happy to know I live a little closer to "civilization."

Zurt!

I invented a new amigurumi tonight, and I'm thinking of selling it on etsy. I'll provide the link when I have one in case you would like to try your own. Also, it hailed a LOT today so we videotaped it. Just after we did, we learned that there was a lot of storm damage in downtown Atlanta, including a possible tornado at the Georgia Dome and CNN Center. Anyhow, here's what we saw:

New-gurumi

I keep seeing these cute "softy" books - books for a craft called nuigurumi, which is like amigurumi in that you are making dolls, but it's a sewing version, as opposed to crochet. They look super easy, so I decided to try one. It's a somewhat sloppy version of one I saw on the Aranzi Aronzo web site, but maybe they're supposed to be sloppy, er, homemade-looking. Here's my first attempt, having drawn everything freehand and guessed at the sizes. It took about an hour from start to finish. Oh, and I painted the dress, too, if you can't tell: Speaking of crafting, here's a picture of Xavier with his new Muno: Yesterday, we had a terrific day for the park and kite flying. Bun brought a soccer ball and Daddy brought a Buzz Lightyear (inflatable!) kite: And finally, and I personally think we should call the Guinness World Record folks, something amazing happened at playgroup yesterday. SEVEN, yes SEVEN 2- and 3-year-olds played in total silence together. You can hear the one-year-olds in the next room... The room, yes Nancy, gets cleaned up before we leave. This is why playgroup is for the MOMS: