Springtime?

I was actually in a discussion yesterday with a group of girls from church about the weather here.  We’ve had a girl move here from Dallas, Texas.  She asked about what the summer was like.   All the local, born and bred girls started telling her what a wonderful summer we always have …

I had to cut them off.  I said, “Coming from Dallas,  you’re going to think we never get out of spring.  We might have a week or two when we’re consistently in the 90s, and we MIGHT hit 100 on one or two of those days.  But you will think it’s consistently too cold.”

At the blank stares from everyone, I continued.

“I’ve tried to take my kids swimming here, in June, in July, and even in August … and when it’s 89 degrees outside, my poor little girls are only in the water 15 min before they turn blue.  Chattering teeth, freezing fingers … and we rarely last more than 30 min before heading home.  Maybe if you grow up here, you’re heartier, but coming from Texas … it will never get hot here, to you.”

I don’t think I’m exaggerating that much.  I know a number of people who have switched to putting their kids in swimming lessons in the winter, when there’s a dome over the pool, so they don’t freeze to death.

The new girl smiled at me, but I think I rubbed a few of the locals the wrong way …

BUT … back to the point:

We have gone outside to play lately … now that we’re consistently above freezing.

J is still on the girl’s old, pink bike.  He doesn’t know pink is for girls … in fact he picks the pink cup to drink from most of the time, because he knows it’s the one the girls want.

S used her birthday/christmas money that’s been piling up and bought herself this princess scooter.  She’s so thrilled!

She was scooting around everywhere.

L has the scooter she bought last summer.

I still think it’s high time I get her a bike, but it’s hard for me to really feel the need when it’s still freezing outside.

This is J pointing at C’s car and informing me, “Dada Car!!!” because I dared to look at it.  Back off, Mama, that’s Dada’s car!

Speaking of Dada’s car … there it is. 

One last thing:

I tried to get J to sing “Popcorn Popping” with me the other day.  He joined me for, “I looked out the window and what did I see?”  Then he leaped to his feet, dashed to the front window, and cried, “Dada’s Car!”

Learning …

Ok, so sewing is one skill I never developed as a girl, but I’m working on it now.  I’ve used the amazing “Wonder Under” before to make the “Incredibles” Logo on C and my shirts for Halloween two years ago, and I thought, “Well, what more to applique is there than Wonder Under and sewing around the edges?”

What more indeed.

If you look too closely, this Triceratops has been mauled.  His rear legs are in a horrible state.  I’m not sure he’ll make it through the night.

And the Allosaurus might finish him off for me, if not for the fact that he has no teeth … and no claws.  Yep, the claws were way too detailed for me to handle.  And I probably should have found another pic to do, because when I look at this one now, I realize his right hip is out of place.  So the Triceratops will die a slow, agonizing death because the Allosaurus can’t help him out.

This one was easier.  The lines were straighter.  I left most of the rigging off, which I was planning on putting on … but it was proving to be more than I could manage.

(Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with all 20 squares. )

And there I stopped.  For two weeks all the fabric sat on my sewing machine in the corner, and I bemoaned the fact that it wasn’t turning out like the vision I had in my head.

Then I faced the fact that the only way left to go was forward.

And I made this one.  I was rather pleased with it. (BTW, I think this is the only animal on the whole quilt who got to be his “normal” color.)

Then I made this:

This was the square I was dreading most of all.  What if I butchered my sweet little boy’s face?!!!  Thanks to a miracle, it turned out nicely.  I even got the poky hairs on the back of his head.  I decided, if I could get this one done, I could finish the rest.

I made C help me choose the tank, because I know he knows more about them than me.  Then, when I realized my lack of skills with applique, I dashed his choice to the side and chose the one that I thought would be easiest to make.  (Did you guess a Tiger?  Good, because I had to ask C again which one I’d ended up with.)

I was very particular about the airplanes.  J has two grandpas who have been pilots, and I wanted to use planes they’d flown.  Then, as with the others, I had trouble finding silhouettes.  This is what we ended up with.

Cessna.  Easy.  Quick.  And Grandpa O teaches people to fly in them.

C-47, because Great-Grandpa M flew one in WWII.  (My propellers came out a little wonky on this one, because I decided to try making them differently than I had on other ones … and it didn’t really turn out … which is why this next one lacks propellers …

See?  No propellers.  But I think the C-130 turned out the best.

I laid the squares out on my front room carpet last night, and I think I’m pleased enough with how it turned out.  Now I just have to piece it together and take it down to my mom’s.  I’m hoping she and my Grandma will help me quilt it … or at least around the squares … then I can finish it off with a quilting hoop, once it’s tacked down.