Easter Morning

While I was finishing last minute things before leaving for church Sunday morning, Mark snapped this quick picture of the kids in their Easter outfits.



We had a great service, and Mark and I both enjoy singing in the choir.

Agnew Birthday Get-Together

We also celebrated the birthdays of Erika, Alana, and Stevie at our monthly birthday get-together.


Erika with a horse night light.


Alana with some scrapbooking stuff she had asked for.


Stevie with a shoe bank.


"What will he open next?"


Kara enjoying time with Erika.

Larissa was the main attraction of the day...

... with Krista.

...with Alana.

...with Stevie.

Kendrick's Birthday Celebrations

We had all of the Burcaws that were in town over to our place for Kendrick's birthday.


His cake.


Singing "Happy Birthday"


Posing with his presents.


All the Burcaw grandkids in attendance with Grandpa.


Here he is opening his presents at the Agnew get-together.


Blowing out the candles.

Kendrick is "8"

Kendrick turned eight years old on March 19. It is hard to believe he is that old already.


12 days old - 7 months


1 year - 2 years


3 years - 4 years


5 years


6 years (this was right after his bike accident; hence the scar on his forehead)


7 years - 8 years

Kendrick's Science Project

Kendrick was to make a volcano for science. Several days ago he formed a volcano out of playdoh, and we let it set to dry. Today we "erupted" it.


Here he is adding the baking soda.


Then he added the vinegar.

The Eruption

A Sign of Spring?

I found this on my African violet today and more are coming.

David's 5 year picture

This is my sister Christina's son David. He is 5 years old now. Pictures of her other children are in an earlier post.

Easter Egg Coloring

We had 2 cousins and a friend over to color Easter eggs.





Some of the finished product.


We had a little Easter egg hunt with some homeschooling friends on Friday, but I forgot to take my camera. So no pictures of that event. They had fun anyway!

Cute Easter Egg Pattern

I found this cute Easter egg pattern I want to keep for next year. Hopefully it won't get misplaced this way. http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=431

Secret Pocket Fabric Eggs
1. Cut one of Pattern Piece 1 using fabric A.
2. Reverse Pattern Piece 1 so the pocket is on the left instead of the right. Cut one
using fabric B.
3. Cut one of Pattern Piece 2 using fabric A.
4. Cut one of Pattern Piece 2 using fabric B.
5. Transfer the dots from the pattern pieces to the wrong side of the fabric pieces.
6. Pin 1A and 1B right sides together. Line up the pocket.
7. With 1A next to feed dogs, start at dot and sew 1⁄4” seam allowance around the
pocket side. Stop at the bottom dot.
8. Place 2A and 2B right sides together. (The bottom of the piece is slightly wider
than the top, so make sure you have the bottom to the bottom and the top to the
top.) With 2A next to feed dogs, start at top dot and sew 1⁄4” seam allowance along
one side. Stop at the bottom dot.
9. Open your pieces and pin 2A to 1B along the right side. With 1B next to feed dogs,
sew 1⁄4” seam allowance from top dot to bottom dot.
10. Pin 1A to 2B. Sew 1⁄4” seam allowance along right side, leaving 2” open for turning.
11. Turn fabric right side out.
12. Stuff the egg using a high-loft fi ll.
13. Using your fi nger, straighten out the pocket so it is centered in the stuffi ng.
14. Hand-sew the opening using a slip stitch.
Copyright 2008 Sew,Mama,Sew!

Maple Sugar Field Trip

Today we went to a tree farm to learn how maple syrup is made. This is the owner describing how he puts the tubes together. He has to replace them frequently because they get chewed up by animals, deer and coons, etc.



With help from Kayleigh he is showing how he puts in the pegs that the sap comes through. First he drills the hole.


Then he inserts the peg and hammers it in with a piece of hard maple. (A hammer would break the peg.)


He has other woods where he taps the trees and trucks in the sap. Here he is siphoning out the sap to his holding tank.


Stoking the fire.


This is the sap almost ready to boil. He uses a reverse osmosis system that takes out about 80% of the water so it doesn't take as long to turn to syrup.


The syrup goes into this barrel when it is ready.


Different grades of syrup.


He has a few trees that he hangs bags on to gather the sap.


Most of his trees are tapped and connected to these hoses that take the sap directly to the holding tanks.


He had a chainsaw carver there for our entertainment.

Rainy Day Fun

Another Interesting School Day

Thursday's theme for school was "Symbols of America". Here are my Statues of Liberty.

Schwebel's Field Trip

Our homeschool group went to the Schwebel's Baking Company for a field trip. We were not allowed to take cameras on the tour because we went right in the factory. I took the first two pictures with my cell phone so the quality is not that great. We all had to wear red hairnets (red denotes visitor) and headphones. It is very noisy in the factory so the tour guide has a mike so we could hear everything that she was saying.


This is some of the group putting on their hairnets and headphones.


These are mine with their hairnets and headphones. No one minds looking silly because everyone looks silly. (Kaylee didn't go because children under 5 are not allowed. She stayed behind and played with a friend that was too young to go, also.)


Everyone receives a free loaf of white bread at the end of the tour. We never have white bread in our house even though the kids like it. So they thought this was pretty neat. We also received a coupon for a free product from the outlet store. So we came home with 4 loaves of white bread, 1 loaf of raisin bread, 1 loaf of cinnamon bread, 1 package of English muffins, and 1 package of bagels.