Easter and Art

Happy Late Easter!

It was fun to have grandma and grandpa Griffiths over this year! This morning Anne was still asking for Grandma.

We did the egg hunt at a park this year. It made for a much better egg hunt.

We went to see the baby horses at the university Easter morning.

Anne's art has been getting very good. A few months ago she started drawing people: 1- draw circle for head, 2-draw eyes (now with eyeballs but they started as swirls), 3-draw arms from middle of head (but now arms have been replaced by earrings), 6-draw lines from bottom of head for legs, 5-add lines above head for hair, 6-girls get eyelashes.

Anne did this today. Do you see the smile and the three eyes (blue, green, yellow)? (earrings, not arms)

The Fairy Queen's Tea Party

Well, about a month and a half ago Anne got a "save the date" card in the mail, announcing The Fairy Queen's first annual Tea Party. Ever since then I've been trying to figure out what kind of fairy costume I could make for Anne to wear. After all, when you're invited to the Fairy Queen's Tea Party you should be sure to wear your fairy best!

I finally found a fairy picture I thought might be fun to copy. (I really love the Christmas ornaments and cards by Patience Brewster. She's great!) Once I found something I liked my mind got busy figuring out how I could pull it off. I couldn't even fall asleep. I know. I'm a nerd. But this was a lot of fun for me.

It took quite a while to make--doing and undoing, and figuring everything out. I was putting the finishing touches on the wings up to about a half an hour before the party, but it all worked out.

As you can imagine, Anne had a hard time waiting the month and a half till the date finally arrived. She was so excited! Here is my little fairy--

Some of the guests with the Fairy Queen! What a great party!!!

Can't you just see her excitement??!

It was a fabulous party!! They learned fairy manners and told everyone else what kind of fairy they were and their name. They made fairy wands and fairy crowns. They ate fairy food (Anne says "strawberry treats and muffins and chocolates"), and had lemonade-- Wonderful day!!

Goings on...

My funny little girls are enjoying each other more and more. It is such a great thing to hear them playing together in the next room while I make dinner!!

Anne and the cookies...

Ruby having her turn rolling the pasta . Pictures by Anne.

Poor monkey.

The new favorite pastime.

So, here's the news

After much thought, prayer and discussion, we've decided to move on. Randy will graduate with his Masters this spring/summer and we've decided to stop there. We are excited about the future! We're starting the job search, trying to figure out what to do and where we'll be. As we've thought about our time here coming to an end so abruptly, it is a little sad. We've loved Ames and all the experiences we've had here. We also can't help but notice all the blessings we've had--from getting accepted to school here and having it paid for, to all the growth we've had as a family and individually. So many blessings to be grateful for!!! We've got to start to gear up for the changes ahead.

The other great news is that we're having another GIRL!!!

(Sorry, I couldn't get the ultrasound pictures to upload. Some sort of error. boo.)

We've got to get thinking of names.

Hooray for paints!!!

And here are some from our ice storm a couple weeks ago. Everything looked so beautiful, really. The trees, street signs, and everything was all coated with ice. It was pretty cool as long as you weren't trying to go anywhere.

good stuff

The Post: Here's the finished product--mailbag, envelopes, and mailboxes. We've had some fun writing letters to each other!

The girls love crawling and playing in the tunnels. We have found that rolling a ball just got a lot more fun when you roll it through the tunnel too!

Action shot!

Anne loves her apron and has to wear it every time she even touches anything that has anything to do with food.

Good thing for Dad who will play in the snow with the girls! They never want to come in.

They had so much fun throwing snowballs. Ruby was great to watch because her snowball would go straight up in the air and land in front of her. Sometimes it landed on her head, but she could always recover it. She only needed one snowball. Anne was funny too. The very last throw of the day she went to get dad (about a foot in front of her) and it landed off to her right a ways, almost perpendicular to her target. So good. I love it when little kids are so bundled they can hardly move!

Christmas Time Continued...

The girls got this doll house to share. My favorite part about it so far is when I hear Anne telling Ruby, "Don't climb up the stairs Rubus!" The stairs are for dolls, not Ruby.

Mermaids!

Making and decorating Christmas cookies with the cousins!

The beloved bingo tiara.

Anne learned about the Nativity story this year and one day she spontaneously put the nativity scene together. We all got to participate. This was taken afterward when she found her scary teeth.

As much as he tried to argue, Dad also played Joseph. (We had 2 Josephs. Anne and Dad) No shepherds here.

Mom played Mary, the doll was baby Jesus, and Ruby was a wise man. She even had the yellow blanket be straw in the manger.