Rooty Toot Toots

 You might think these are toilet paper and paper towel rolls. In reality, in our house, they are rooty toot toots. This started years ago when after hearing the song, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Clayton asked what a rooty toot toot was. Cyle answered with a paper towel roll. And rooty toot toots they've been ever since.

A couple evenings ago, after using the last paper towel on the roll, Cyle promptly took the roll off and put it in the recycling bin. Clayton was watching from the supper table and, through tears, exclaimed, "But Daddy! That's a rooty toot toot!" Now, Clayton keeps everything. When I say everything, I mean everything. Last week he tried to keep a Capri Sun package to use as a fan. He calls it his "stash."  Cyle told him that, yes it was a rooty toot toot, that we had a million rooty toot toots and we weren't keeping this one. So, while Cyle wasn't looking, Clayton rescued the rooty toot toot from the recycling center. Secretly, I was on Clayton's side. It is just a rooty toot toot after all.

 The next day, I decided perhaps we should use those "million" rooty toot toots so that the next time we had that discussion I could say that we do, technically, do things with them.

 I gave the kids a stack of rooty toot toots and some masking tape and let them go.

 Clayton's evolved from a megaphone to a giraffe.

Levi made a bug looking glass. Most importantly, we used those rooty toot toots right up. So the next time Cyle doesn't want to save it, we can tell him we're restocking our "stash."

Teeny Tiny Volcanoes

 I needed to get a few things done in the kitchen while Clarey was taking a nap. The boys had finished their rest and were starting to pester each other. Pinterest to the rescue! I've seen this come around a number of times and had been waiting for the right time to use it.

 I gave them each a plate of baking soda, three small jars of colored vinegar and a medicine dropper.
Then I let them be.

 Teeny tiny volcanoes, over and over and over. We went through nearly a box of baking soda.

Once they were done making the explosions and the baking soda was used up, they started dropping the colored vinegar on their paper towels and watched the color bleed.

 Clayton particularly enjoying pointing the dropper up and "making it erupt like a real volcano."

Once they had finished that, they emptied their plates of completely exploded baking soda onto their paper towels. Thinking it looked a bit like a batter, they decided to do an experiment and "bake" it on our deck. We're still waiting to see how it turns out. Clayton is betting it will be like a cake. Levi is guessing more like cookies. We shall see.

What I really loved about this was the way the boys took it their own direction. While they had fun making teeny tiny volcanoes, they continued on, making new discoveries.

Pretzel Making

 After seeing a recipe in Food Network Magazine about stuffed pretzels, I thought we'd give it a try.

 The recipe was even whole wheat. Clarey played with the dough, tearing it into pieces.

 Levi shaped his snake into a circle - his favorite shape.

 And Clayton, true to form, was most interested in cutting.

 We made two sets: cheese stuffed and cinnamon sugar stuffed. The cinnamon sugar stuffed we made into numbers.

When all was said and done, we scarfed them down for lunch! Yum!

Welcome to the world, Adelaide Grace!

 This is one of the sweetest little girls ever born: Adelaide Grace.
She is the brand-new, beautiful daughter of one of my closest friends.

This is the quilt I started making for her waaaaayyy back in February and, by the skin of my teeth, finished last weekend. 

I love the prairie points. (Not quite as much as I love little Addie or her mom...) They really make the quilt. I designed it as I went and used vintage reproductions with modern prints. It is completely hand quilted and is a prayer quilt. 

Congratulations, Emily and Andy! I can't wait to meet her!

Critter Capture

 I wouldn't necessarily describe myself as a risk taker...but I take a risk every time I step away from the kids for longer than 1 second. I never know exactly what will happen when my eyes aren't on them.

In this case, I had very quickly run to the garage to get a level. And as I am walking back down stairs I hear, "Mom! Mom! Come quick!" My adreleline is surging because I also hear a lot of screaming.

What happended, so I was told, was that the cat had caught a chipmunk. Clayton wanted to be a "creature rescue-er." So he "saved" the chipmunk from the cat. Clarey, being the last one out of the house, didn't close the door behind herself. To escape the cat and the boy, the chipmunk sought refuge in our basement. In the bookshelf actually. And this is where I found all three children and one terrified chipmunk.

Normally, I try not to care too much about these critters. In Ottawa I was at war with them. We had perfectly good woods in our backyard, no pets and yet they decided our house should be their home, too. But this little guy had had a pretty rough 3 minutes. I could see him panting as he peered out at us from behind a book. Yet, he could not stay where he was.

Very quickly I closed all the doors and said a little prayer we were faster than him. I handed the boys a butterfly net each and took Clarey's for my own. Clarey, not wanting to be left out, grabbed an aquarium net. Very slowly and carefully I started to move books and gently encouraged the chipmunk out of his hiding spot.

He took off across our basement. Clayton and I were quick on his tail. Praise the Lord I caught him before he had a chance to get under or behind anything else. Wanting to capture the moment, we went through the house to let him go so I could grab the camera. After we were on the front porch and all entrances were securely closed, we let him go. He took off for the woods. I am absolutely sure he will never come close to our house again.

 Because catching a chipmunk in our basement wasn't enough, the next day, Clayton caught a mole. Yes, he caught a mole. See the waterhose behind him? He noticed the ground moving. And since he was already watering the hydrangea bush, he decided to flood it out. Clayton was waiting with his trusty butterfly net and snatched it right up.

We put it in the bug keeper to observe it a bit. I'm sure the poor little guy was totally blinded by such bright sunlight. It kept it's tiny eyes firmly shut the entire time. He also tried to escape by burrowing out of the net and the plastic container. At least we didn't have to worry about it jumping like we did with the chipmunk.

The kids were really interested in it. We spent a long time looking at all of it's features and talked about why they were like they were. The longer we looked and the longer we observed the more I liked this little guy. But he has also destroyed our yard. He's killed plants in my flower beds. Once again, we have lots of woods he is more than welcome to live under.

Knowing I couldn't release it and knowing Cyle was out of town and knowing that I absolutely could not kill it, we walked it over to our neighbors and left it there, secure in the bug keeper, for Jeff to deal with. Thank goodness we have neighbors.

I'm almost afraid of what we'll catch next.