Memorial Day Weekend

Here it is Monday already. Shabbos passed fine without Jeffrey and the boys (though we missed them) who were camping with the Boy Scouts. The girls, the little ones and I had our meals, made it to shul for a little while, and even managed to attempt a walk in the park (which we don't normally try since it's outside the eruv). Addie walked happily about 1/2 mile from the house and then sat down and wouldn't budge another step. Gilad found a caterpillar on the path, put it on his arm, took it with him for quite a while, then shared it with Addie who wanted a turn. Then they put it back on the path to continue on its way, but they hoped to come back and pick it back up on our return. Unfortunately by the time we got back to it, it had been squished by a bicycle. For the record, Gilad had named it "Naruto."

Sunday, my mother, Tirtze, and I took Gilad and Addie to the zoo. We saw a lot of the animals, but Gilad's favorite part of the whole zoo trip was the mist machines they have up along the main path.

Jeffrey and the boys came home in the middle of the night last night. Kayla's out camping with the Girl Scouts now, and Tirtze's at her grandparents.

I've gotten very little knitting done, but I have finished the front and back of my "Boggart in the Window" sweater (so-named because I joked about Harry Potter book boggarts appearing to me in the form of a cable needle, and the sweater pattern is called "Windowpane."

Age One or Fifteen?

Yes, Addie is lounging, listening to an iPod with Tirtze...and drinking a baby bottle.

In other news, I attended a bas mitzvah today, Kayla attended her first school play rehearsal as part of the tech staff, Sachy went to a birthday party, Feivel went to the movies, Jeffrey had a ton of paperwork to do, and I did a tiny bit more of Pesach cleaning.

Oh, and I finally finished a long-languishing sweater:

as modeled by Kayla.

We made it to Sunday evening

And now the snow is falling.  Apparently it's falling pretty much everywhere across the East Coast.  The current prediction is 5-11" for us, but of course that could change drastically in either direction.  I'm suspecting I won't be heading out to work at 7:25 tomorrow, nor will the kids be off to school a half hour after that, but we'll have to see.

So what did we do with our big Sunday?  Began the Pesach cleaning.  The boys' room is as done as it's going to get, the girls' rooms are supposedly done though neither of them vacuumed, and we've started working on a couple of other rooms.  Of course, I haven't started getting anything ready for Purim yet, and that's in less than 10 days.

I did finish some yarn last week and so here are some thumbnails:

It's 415 yards of fingering weight, woolen yarn, made up of various wools, alpaca, angora, mohair, angelina, tencel, and I'm not even sure what else--possibly squid or unicorn fiber for all I can remember at this point.  It was my Potions project for an OWL in our Harry Potter-themed fiber game over at Ravelry.

Gilad thinks outside the tracks

While Zombie Addie and her monster Pibbie come to get you (Addie's the one on the right if you weren't sure):

And eventually vampire Kayla gets her:

(but Kayla made me delete the photo).

Meanwhile, in somewhat saner lands, Feivel and Jeffrey survived the Boy Scout ski trip today and had a good time.  Sachy had basketball practice, Kayla had Girl Scout Thinking Day, and Tirtze supposedly did all her homework.  Added bonus:  Kayla brought home vegetable California rolls and Sachy ate a ton of them.

Oh, and we started our Purim baking a little.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

So we had a relaxed yet busy day.  Several of the kids had homework to catch up on.  Feivel rode his bike and his skateboard, and complained a lot that he was bored.  I took Addie on a couple of nice long walks (and being me I periodically spotted bits of lichen to throw in the stroller bag for dyeing fiber at a later date) through the neighborhood and through Rock Creek Park.  Gilad just played.  Everyone went out to the swings a couple of times.  Kayla got to go downtown with Oma to the National Gallery of Art to see the special exhibit on Pompeii, which delighted both of them.  Tirtze may or may not have done her homework but went out to spend the day with a friend and the friend's mom while they ran errands.  Feivel was supposed to have gone to swimming and to a BSA meeting, but being Feivel he refused to go to either of them.  Oh well.  You only get so many 60 degree sunny Sundays in February!

What We've Been Up To:

Working hard

Being cute

Just thinking.

Actually we had a fine Shabbos, then Saturday night Feivel went to the high school play (no one else here wanted to go but he had a great time and felt very grown up seeing "I Remember Mama").  Today, Kayla spent most of the day working with her friend Naomi on their project to recreate the clothing of the Kohen Gadol (chief priest of the Holy Temple) with all his special garments; Tirtze is with her friend Sarah for the afternoon; and Feivel and Jeffrey are now at a Boy Scout meeting.  Then everyone gets back home, we'll light the first Chanukah candles, and then I head out to a knitting get-together while the rest of the family goes to the synagogue's Chanukah party and dinner.

Oh, and I'm knitting an unusually constructed baby sweater for our next-door neighbor's new baby boy; in essence it's two octagons folded, joined, seamed, and finished into a baby sweater.  Here's one half already folded and the other ready to be folded and seamed (pattern is XRX's 4 Tam Pram Set):

Why You Don't Want to Be Here Right Now

Because my kids are discussing sticking hot dogs up each others' noses.

Kayla has eaten at least 4 of them and may right now be sneaking an extra bite.  Gilad only ate one though, because not only did he go to a birthday party after lunch, but when he came home we had a birthday party for Tirtze who is now 15 YEARS OLD, complete with a Snickers ice cream cake.  So now, he's not but so hungry.  Adele did eat a half a hotdog (we didn't feed her any cake).

And I'm trying to finish spinning some Romeldale/silk roving:

Rainy days and Sundays

After several rainy days, we woke up this morning to find...it was pouring still.  So I put some cinnamon buns in the toaster oven ('cause I need to keep the big oven from being milchig), put in a load of the little kids' laundry, got an apple and streusel cake in the oven, and am figuring out what else needs to be cooked when.

Gone, though, are the plans to spend the day at Shepherd's Purse Alpaca Farm (it's National Alpaca Farm day, you know) and their neighbor, Rock Hill Orchard.  Even Kayla was excited about crias and apples in close proximity.  It's just not worth going in drenching rain and days' worth of mud.  We'll just have to buy our apples the new-fangled way, at the supermarket.

So instead Gilad will spend the day whining about Scooby Doo and Blues Clues (cue Addie flashing the pawprints sign), and we'll cook.

Jeffrey and the boys spent the weekend up in PA at a boy scout camp out, but they're coming home a little earlier than originally planned; they're expected back around lunch time, rather than dinner time as previously expected.  This makes us happy here!

Of course, as usual their return from a rainy boy scout weekend means the mud content in the house will increase by several pounds.  

Sunday blues

We had a lovely brunch at the Freedenbergs' on Sunday, but unfortunately we were minus Kayla who had the flu and Jeffrey who stayed home with her. Why does Kayla get the flu every single winter (aside from the obvious answer, that she won't get a flu shot)?
By the time we left Paul and Bobbie's it was raining, so no letterboxing (insert frowny face here). According to Sachy, that's all my fault somehow.
No significant knitting updates--I'm working on the socks is about all. Plus trying to listen to Lime & Violet's 50th episode extravaganza.
I'm boring. So sue me. Nah-send yarn.