PARTY!

We have a semi-tradition. That means that on some years(ahem, last year), I drop the ball and forget to plan it, or other stuff happens, but we usually have our traditional easter gathering.

I love having an all-ages easter egg hunt. It works out very well. We have in the family, a HUGE box of plastic eggs, collected over the years, which live at Grandma's house. I have the best yard for parties. Everybody brings a potluck thing and a bag of candy (or whatever) to fill the eggs with, and a good time is had by all. Grandma is also GREAT at hiding the eggs.

We have a little ones hunt inside the fence--basically walk around picking the eggs up like manna from the ground. The bigger people--anyone who wants to--go out to the larger yard, and rush around like maniacs! It's great! Then we have fun sitting around eating and talking.

I do love having parties where you don't need to bring a checkbook!

The Long Promised Pictures!

I apololgize for the focus issues, but this one shows the chicks cute coloring. They will grow up to be lovely glossy black hens, but now they are just cute!



Here are several of them demonstrating how well they can stand in their food dish (which is why it gets washed out so often!) Chicks are not fussy about their personal cleanliness issues.




Here are the easter eggs my creative crew colored. I wish you could see the incredible detail on EACH egg! My favorite is the TMNT Michaelangelo made by LargeBoy.



When we had colored every possible egg, I stuffed bits of wool into the leftover dye cups and look at the gorgeous rainbow of softness that emerged! Sometimes I just love happy accidents.

Easter thoughts:

Dying eggs always makes me wistful, because my little (next younger) brother is the all time genius of egg dying and Jack O'lantern carving (not at the same time, though!) He is now far, far away, and it makes me miss not only him, but all the rest of my scattered family.

Must stop posting and go attempt to remove the egg dye from the carpet. Thanks SmallDaughter. Glad we still have the wierd old carpet. And the steam cleaner. Sigh.

Old museums

There is nothing quite like an old museum for collecting a strange bunch of stuff. Our Cub Scout troop went to see our local old museum (the oldest in the county) today. I have never been to this particular museum, and it did not disapoint.

Every time I have a wave of nostalgia for times gone by, I am forcefully reminded of the wierder aspects of Victorian society. In this case "the largest collection of anthropomorphic displays in the country, including a chicken and duck tea party, a frog and rat band and a duck wedding". However, in real life these are SO MUCH WIERDER than the description!!

Yes, they are little scenes with taxidermied animals playing the major parts--although for the tea party it is with the heads of said fowl mounted on little doll bodies. Also there is one that defies all logic and attempts at accurate description--imagine a doll, with the head made out of a giant lobster claw, with a small fur hat. (I told you--defies logic, at least!) What were those Victorians thinking?? These scenes were very popular at one time (URGG!)

Fortunately, the rest of the museum was neat! Cool local history, an informed and passionate guide, something to interest everybody (antique guns & WWll era plane models for the boys, spinning wheels and antique clothes for me, native american (from both North & South America) artifacts for BigGirl ).

We will definitely be returning.

Glorious

Last night, I was driving along, out in the country, heading south, with a huge vibrant red-orange fireball sunset on one side, and a huge pale orange full moon on the other. It was a very beautiful and dramatic moment.

This morning, the sunrise was almost the opposite. The bare trees to the east of my front door were silhoutted against a sky the in the color palate of apple blossoms and cherry blossoms. From white, to palest pink, up the spectrum to intense pink. A perfect spring time set of colors.

An ounce of morning is worth a pound of afternoon.

The chicks are fine, thanks for asking. I am trying to round up a camera to document their cuteness (QUICK--while it lasts--I know what is coming!)

Today, I nobly resisted the urge to crawl back into my fabulous, warm bed (after fixing MFG's lunch for work, a little before 5 am). I am sewing on a massive project--a first communion dress for a friend's daughter. I am actually using a pattern--which is good, since this dress is much more complicated and intricate than either of the wedding gowns I have sewn! She will look like an angel, though!

It is spring break, so we have fun company for the week in the form of our spiffy cousin, ExtraLargeGirl (same age as LargeBoy, but a couple of inches taller than BigGirl) and SmallDaughter doesn't have school, which really makes working on projects difficult. And, since I am up to my earlobes in projects...early morning is my only hope. And, since they were all up SO late last night---I should have quite a bit of quiet morning.

In SUPER FUN NEWS: In the mail yesterday, I got 2--count them, two!--pieces of real mail! One was a wedding invitation (for a neat wedding I am decorating in June, congrats to S&G!), and the other was a letter from the Spinners and Weavers guild--I won a scholarship to take a felting class! I am so excited!!! The class is in October--and the only caveat is that I have to teach the guild members about what I learned (whee--I love teaching! At least I love teaching fun stuff...to grownups!)

Also...still snowy. However, since we live in an interesting little weather spot, we noticed yesterday that while we had a nice sugary dusting of snow on our grass, at the hatchery (17 miles away) they had actual drifts.

I hope the weather forcast for a dramatic warmup is right--we are having an easter egg hunt/barbeque potluck on Saturday! (I like the idea of the easter bunny coming on Friday night, so that the sugar high is on Saturday, and Sunday we can focus on the actual meaning of Easter!) Some years I am even on the ball enough to have that happen!

Chick Magnet

Well, it is definitely spring. How do I know? The old saying "April Snow Showers bring May Flowers". What? That saying doesn't neccesarily refer to snow showers? Well, it does here. Sigh. At least the grass is greener under the snow.

But--in the exciting news! The chicks have arrived! Today we drove over to the hatchery and picked up 25 chicks. They are so cute and the boys are even cuter as they watch each milestone--"Look, mom! They're eating! Look, they're drinking!, Look, they can perch on the railing!" Plus, the Wonderdog is FASCINATED! He just stands and watches with his tail wagging like crazy!(But NEVER by himself!)

Bookmaking

Interesting how familiar terms are used in a different way by yours truly.

For instance, when other people use the term "spinning" it means (1)whirling around in one place either on your cute little feet or on a swing (VERY popular when I was about 4--less so since then) or (2) a trendy term for a plain old stationary bicycle (still pedaling away, still never getting to see anything!)

HOWEVER, in my life spinning means the extremely old fashioned method of twisting wool or other fibers into yarn. Also, my "Fiber Friends" Group has nothing to do metamucil, laxatives or "regularity", but is a delightful group of ladies who enjoy making tremendously creative things out of various fibers--spinning, weaving, knitting...the list goes on and on!

Which brings us to my version of "bookmaking". Unlike the usual usage of "being a bookmaker" or "making books", mine has nothing to do with gambling. It is (again) the very old version of the word--literally making books. I learned how to bind books to make a few super-special Christmas gifts, and like so many other aspects of my universe, it has taken on a life of it's own. I have been doing some more today. OOOHH!

When I get a working camera again, I will post some pictures.