What the Girl Has Been Up To

Ever since we got back from Alabama, the girl has been crocheting. She witnessed a couple of people crocheting and became interested in learning herself.

She bought herself a crochet hook, found an article in one of her kids' magazines on basic crochet and went to work with some previously purchased yarn (from other craft projects she's worked on).

She struggled with learning from just a couple of pictures along with written directions. Mom tried helping her but all mom could do was a single strand - which is totally useless unless you are planning on making a scarf for an earthworm. I'm glad children are not limited by their parents' knowledge...(or lack thereof).

But she didn't give up (she's definitely more like her dad). She kept at it until pretty soon she was making squares.

And then she made this.

She said it's not quite finished b/c she wants to add a face to it - but she still granted permission for me to post a picture.

I wish she lived closer to her maternal grandma or one of her aunts so they could help her with her crocheting...

What the Boy Has Been Up To...

For Christmas the boy received a book on how to draw military aircraft. As you can see he's been using the book a lot.

BIG NEWS!! EXCITEMENT!!

We got a library card for the St. Charles library system!!

There is a library close to our church in St. Chuck and it has a large kids' area, a fireplace and even a place you can sit and drink some hot cocoa or a soda.

I took the kids there today for the first time - figuring we'd just hang out and they could read books/magazines for an hour or so. But as I was looking through the kids' books - seeing many COOL and exciting books - I thought I'd ask, even though I figured the chance was remote - if they'd allow us to get a library card even though we were not residents of St. Chuck.

The answer was YES!!

They have a reciprocal relationship with our county library so all I had to do was show my driver's license and fill out a form and VOILA!

We do have a library close to our house - but it gets a little boring going to the same old library and I think the boy feels like he has exhausted their selection of books on WARS! WEAPONS! SOLDIERS! and the like.

He checked out: "Great Escapes of WWII", "US Warplanes The C-130 Hercules", "The WWII Soldier at Monte Cassino", "Secret Armies - Resistance Groups in WWII", "Bombers", "War on Terrorism - Weapons of War".

Hmmm what did the girl check out? One book. "Black Holes".

I checked out various books that she'll be reading as well - books on the Holocaust, a kids' biography on Tolkien, and a bunch of others.

I was so impressed with all the old books they had - I wished that they were all being sold :) Seems like our county library weeds out their old books and sells them - which I always enjoy pawing through.

So that is my big news. Pretty pathetic, some would say, to be excited about a new library card - but for the amount of time we spend at the library and the high volume of books and DVDs we sign out - it's reason to be excited.

Rambutan (Fresh)

Over a year ago we taste-tested some canned rambutan, but when we saw some FRESH (relatively speaking) rambutan we knew we needed to buy some and try it.

They are so cool!

You make a little cut into the outer "shell", press, and the little eyeball like fruit pops out. :)

It was sweet and juicy with a little seed in the center. The girl and I both loved it.

Helen's House

When we found out we were going to be staying in Tuscumbia for a few days, I checked on-line to see what "tourist attractions" might be in the area. I was excited to find out that it was the birth place of Helen Keller and that her home was available to tour.

The girl in Helen's dining room - the same dishes Helen ate off of. Who cannot forget the scene of Helen walking around the table grabbing food off of everyone's plates. We had a great tour guide - the rooms were actually gated off but she asked the girl if she wanted her picture taken by the table. The girl goes in, I snap the picture and the guide tells her to come out quickly...then she whispers to me "usually you have to be blind to be allowed in there to have your picture taken".

The four of us with the famous pump where Helen first connects the feeling of a word spelled out into her hand with the water trickling over her hand.

Frank's House

This weekend we visited our third Frank Lloyd Wright house - Rosenbaum.

Rosenbaum is the only FLW house in Alabama and it has been wonderfully restored. The interior and exterior have similar features to the FLW house in Kirkwood that we visited back in October.

I love all the built-ins especially the long hallways filled with bookshelves and storage cabinets...I love the countless doors opening each room to the outside ("A thieves delight" said the boy) - though home alone - late a night - in bed - after watching a "scary movie" - hearing a noise - would make one rather paranoid and concerned that all 599 doors were closed and locked!

Can you believe this photo below was the KITCHEN? It once held a small fridge and stove as well...