It started with a book

A book randomly selected from the library called "Papa and the Pioneer Quilt". Etta LOVED it. So then we got a few more books from the library about quilts. One talks about a memorial quilt made to honor the lives lost in a tsunami in Hawaii (true event, fictionalized story). One talks about a school teacher and the pipes at her school freezing and bursting and them making a quilt as a fundraiser. One talks about a special quilt with all the family members names on it but it gets sucked up by a tornado. Another talks about a grandma who moves into a retirement home and hates it so they make her a quilt out of clothes, curtains etc she has saved and it reminds her of home. Lots of natural disasters or sad events. But lovingly handmade quilts.

Etta really wants a "scrap bag" so she can collect pieces to make her own quilt. I had already been setting aside favorite baby clothes to possibly have a quilt made out of. So maybe those baby clothes can become a homemade quilt and she can be a part of that project. But I dont see that happening within the next few months.

Meanwhile we made our puzzle of the Unites States and talked about what states the wagon trains went through. Now I placed a hold on more books about the Oregon Trail (hoping to avoid ones that mention scalping and cannibalism!)

I sure love the public library. And I can see the appeal of homeschooling: you find something they are interested in, you read lots of books about it, you tie science projects or "home - ec" projects into the theme and you enjoy the learning! Not saying I am going to choose homeschooling for Addie for kindergarten. Just saying it can be fun to focus on a theme.

Before the quilt theme started we were on the Bear Snores On theme. We had every single book with the bear character. We read them all countless times (if I did not have other things to do, I think Etta would be content spending about 4 hours or more a day being read to!). One of them talks about a new friend, so we got to look back at the other bear books & see which books had the friend. We used that as one way to try to organize the books by which came out first.

Who knows what will come next!

Perspective

We just got a Chasing Fireflies catalog in the mail. Not sure how we got on their mailing list. But oh my gosh their dresses are cute! Check some of these out: Faerie dress maxi dress and silk dress. Any other moms of little girls swooning like I am?

And holy cow are they expensive!!! One of the dresses on their sale page was $79,  originally $274.

When I told Addie they were super expensive, she asked how expensive. So this was my example
"remember all the groceries we got from Costco on Monday? All the food and fruit and toilet paper and diapers? For the same amount of money we could get all those groceries or we could get two of these cute dresses." That's perspective.

Our 3 day weekend

3 young kids
2 parents
1 minivan

Here is what we were up to:
-Sat morning: L goes to the gym while M watched the girls
-upon returning, L watches the younger girls while M takes A to practice on her big girl bike
-Sat afternoon: family time! the 5 of us plus "Aunt May" go to Lynnwood pool. only to find out it has reached full capacity even before the swim time has opened. Plan B - early dinner at spaghetti factory. Then meet Myron, Lori & their kids at Mountlake pool for some splashing fun.
-the girls are down so L makes a double batch of butternut sqaush Mac & cheese

-Sunday monring: M goes to church while L stays home with the girls. E is getting the cold that A is just getting over plus W is showing signs of it too :(
-M watches the 3 girls while L brings mac & cheese to a friend & visits with her & her 4 day old baby
(was it only 5 months ago that W was that small? wait, she never was! she was almost 10 pounds at birth, this baby was 7!)
then L goes to the gym
-L plays with the kids while M makes dinner!
-M & L watch a movie, plus W watches part of it (which she is thrilled with but we are not)

-Monday morning: M picks up a rental truck
-L takes W to the chiropractor while M plays at the park with A & E
-L returns home briefly then does a super speedy trip to Costco with A
-M takes the rental truck an hour north to the specialty lumbar yard while L has 3 girls still fighting colds plus a playdate with 2 boy friends (whose mom was willing to take a risk with our germs since her childcare fell through at the last minute)
-A & E sit & watch while M lifts lots of heavy lumbar out of the truck
-everyone together for a couple rounds of Uno and dinner (which included a yummy loaf of homemade bread)!

Then back to the normal weekdays. Which were not really normal this week due to kids missing co-op class since they were sick, or kids being in class but their teacher being out sick. I think every family is sick of being sick these days!

Willa is 4 months

Ok, I am almost a month late on this.

weight: 13.0 (50%)
height: 26 (98%)
head: 16 (70%)

She is a long baby!