It isn't always greener on the other side...

A few weeks ago my yard started out looking like this:

By day's end it looked like this:

Neil worked long and hard that Friday to get everything finished. I tried to help but I was pretty much useless as the sod was too heavy for me to move. We had already put in the irrigation last year and Neil's been working all winter to drop the grade below the level of the fieldstone so that the grass would be even with it in the end. So that morning he moved more dirt, added sand, peat moss, sulfur, phosphorus, and gypsum, then rototilled the whole yard. After he leveled it off and passed the lawn roller over it a few times, he started laying down the sod. I helped trim and cut pieces around the fieldstone, trees, etc. I became very good at sawing through sod! I also helped water down the 1000 sq ft of sod sitting on our driveway. At the end of the day Neil was exhausted and I think we practically fell into bed. But now our backyard is green!

Charlotte

I don't talk about her very often but she is absolutely the sweetest thing in our house right now. Here's just a bit about her.

She's about three and a half months right now. I finally have a baby with brown eyes and boy are they big! I think I get more compliments on how beautiful her eyes are than anything else. And she is often compared to a dainty little doll. She's so small! There were about five baby girls all born within a month or two. Charlotte's due date was first and she was born third and she's the smallest of all!

I think that months 2 to 3 are always hard with my babies (are yours?) but we're finally past that. We had a few rough weeks of no sleep which were very disappointing because she used to go til 3 am! But now she goes til one or two o'clock and then wakes every two hours or so. Not perfect but we can manage. And she always goes to sleep on her own. Yay for that! Some naps are 30 minutes, some are close to three hours. She's totally unpredictable.

This little girl is very alert. She's either asleep or taking everything in. People always comment on this too. The big eyes probably help her look so alert. She loves to stand. I can't really wear her in the baby sling because she is always standing up in it. She is very strong and can hold her head very still. We can't leave her anywhere high anymore because she's already scooting. One day she actually managed to slide down into the bathroom sink! She rolled when only a few weeks old with the help of an incline but she did it all on her own earlier this month. I've been trying to catch it on video and I finally got this tiny little clip.

This is an attempt at getting her to roll again so I could catch the whole thing. I was unsuccessful but it's cute anyway.

This is Madoc playing Patty Cake with her. She loves this game and will laugh when we play. She has a very cute little laugh but we don't hear full on giggles too often. I'm always tempted to get her giggling but it always gives her hiccups that last an hour.

The Homemade Goodness

I made several Christmas presents this past year and I wanted to share them. But my life is crazy and so I'm finally getting around to it now that March is almost over.I like all of my babies to have two matching blankets. It makes washing them much easier. I use soft fleece and satin binding for multiple textures. Here is Charlotte with her new blanket this past week. I love the bright red, pink, and orange of the flowers and butterflies.
My kids and my nephew got some fun felt food. Jill has a good list of online tutorials. You can find it here. I also made strawberries but they're not in the picture.
Sadie and lots of sisters got flower hairclips.
My kids love building tents and forts so now they have a designated kit. I think this gets played with EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
I first saw the idea on Bloom.
The original idea can be found here. I started making the ties to add to the sheets but I didn't finish in time, what with a new baby and all. So I wrapped it up incomplete and after a few days of playing, I realized that I didn't want to finish the ties. The kids didn't need them and it was much easier this way. And when I need extra sheets for company I just rob the fort kit!

Our kit consists of four twin flat sheets from Wal-Mart, clothespins, clamps, and Lego walkie talkies. I stuffed it all in a $5 fabric bag from Wal-Mart. The stripey sheets always make our forts look like circus tents. So fun.

Star Wars

My kids have been asking a lot of questions about Star Wars lately. I'm not sure why. It must be the Lego Star Wars pajamas that Madoc got for Christmas. They want to know who all the characters are. So we decided we would watch the movies so they could see what it was all about. I think these are the most grown-up movies my kids have ever watched. Madoc thought they were awesome and would cry out in glee whenever something exploded. Sadie kept asking "who is that guy?" The answer was always Luke Skywalker. She just couldn't seem to keep track of him through all the costume changes.

St. Patrick's Day

I'm one of those awful mothers who forgets doctor appointments, bills that need paid, and holidays every time there is a new baby in the house. So this St. Patrick's Day snuck up on me. Sadie actually reminded me of it early in the day and then halfway through getting everyone dressed I remembered again. We had to scramble and change a few outfits but we all managed to avoid being pinched.

We didn't have our green pancakes since I forgot but I did manage to put together a quick craft. Good thing too because to Sadie, that's what holidays are all about! We traced two sizes of shamrocks onto paper, overlapping them in interesting ways, and decorated them with different patterns and shades of green. Sadie actually made two.
And I thought about making our stew and soda bread that night but we had already planned on grilling and it was beautiful outside and everyone was out playing while Neil dug in the dirt so we decided to stick with it. We did have broccoli salad to add some green to our dinner and I made a last minute trip to the grocery so we could add green punch and cupcakes.

It was well after bedtime before dinner was ready due to Neil using all the daylight hours he had in the backyard so the kids were watching Kipper while they waited. All three of them.

Magical Tools

In an effort to keep some control over the messes in the house, we've instituted a rule that upstairs toys are not allowed to be brought downstairs. Oddly enough, we have no problem with downstairs toys making their way upstairs. Probably for the same reason that upstairs toys have such a hard time getting back upstairs. That tricksy gravity has turned our stairs into a toy diode. (And that nerdy observation should make it obvious that Neil is writing this entry.)

There are a few important things to note about the following picture. (Madoc's hair is not one of them, though it is entertaining.) Those tools are very much an upstairs toy. That boy is downstairs.

Here is what he had to say on the subject:

"The tools came downstairs all by themselves.

"They turneded into a person and came downstairs and I didn't knowded because I was hiding. I was in here."

Well, that's a relief. And here I thought somebody was breaking the rules.

Cute Baby