Our weekends are usually busy…getting “stuff done” that normally doesn’t get done during the week. This weekend wasn’t any different in that sense, but man - I think we went non-stop! (We even forgot to watch Battlestar Gallactica on SciFi Rewind- gasp!!)

Friday we went into the city…well I suppose some call it a suburb, but to us “country folk,” Fairfax is definitely the city. While Michael had a doctor’s appointment, the girls and I decided to hit up Fair Oaks Mall. I was excited to get to Yankee Candle Company (I’ve been debating over THIS item but wanted to see it in person before I bought it, which I happily ended up doing) and the girls were excited to play in the indoor playground area - or as some of us describe it: the place to take your kids so they completely wear themselves out and conk out in the car on the way home, which of course didn’t happen for us - the girls had as much fun jumping on our bed when we got home.

Saturday was a complete “nesting” day for me. I re-organized (yes, organized…again) the girls play room, decided to pick up some great craft supplies from Oriental Trading Company (thanks Mandi!), and ran errands with my partner in crime (also known as Lilli ). I’ve been wanting to get a LARGE chalkboard for the girls, but am not going to spend a large amount of money on something that we can make for a lot less (and have fun doing at the same time). My sister in law, Tracy, had painted a chalkboard on one of her walls and said it was awesome. The wall behind the girls’ door is perfect for that so Lilli and I went off to Lowes for chalkboard paint, as well as some other ”supplies” needed by my project lovin’ hubby. Target was another stop for some picture frames, as well as Chik Fil A to get a super duper mega yummy milkshake…I believe this was Lilli’s favorite “errand.”

Today I started off a little under the weather. But after I perked up, we painted the girls’ wall, made some more birdfeeders, got the laundry going (Lilli loves to sort) while Michael & Smiley worked on Michael’s garage…something about rafters???, did yard work, played on the playground, and had an enjoyable cookout with our incredible neighbors Wade & Julie. We should all sleep well tonight…especially the girls, who had a blast splashing around in our neighbor’s hot tub!

Spring is here…the flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, and our pond seems to be the “cool place to hang out” for all the frogs and turtles this side of the mountain.

A couple weeks ago, during a rainstorm, Michael spotted a turtle crossing our yard to meet his friends. But before he could join that party, Michael brought him to the front porch to say hello to the Clarke ladies.

We have yet to catch any frogs…they are just too darn fast! So in the mean time, we decided to make some frogs of our own:

I’m sure you can figure out how we made these critters just from the photos alone, but here are the directions anyway
What you will need:
Green, Red, Pink, & Black Construction Paper
White Crayon
Glue Stick
Scissors

1. Fold green construction paper in half and cut a half circle, starting at the crease (when you open the cut out half circle, you will have a large circle). This is the frog’s head

2. Repeat with the pink construction paper, however make this half circle smaller. This is the inside of the frog’s mouth.

3. Align the creases of the two circles together, with the pink inside the green, and glue together.

4. Repeat step 1 for black construction paper for his eyes (these half circles should be significantly smaller).

5. Fill in as much white for the eyes as you’d like on one side of the black half circle.

6. Glue opposite side of the black half circle onto the top of the frog’s head.

7. Cut out a LONG rectangular strip of red construction paper and scrunch it (as if you were making a fan). This is his tongue.

8. Glue one end of scrunched tongue close to the top crease in the pink circle. (When you scrunch up the tongue and close his mouth, the tongue should pop out when you open it back up…this gets quite a laugh!)

9. Enjoy your new friends!

About a month ago, Michael made finch feeders from pop bottles. This was actually inspired by my maternal grandfather - I remember him making them when I was a child…he was careful to describe (in detail - no matter how long it took…lol) how and why he made them the way he did. Unfortunately I don’t remember the designing details, but I would have to say that one of my favorite memories from visiting my grandparents would be watching the yellow finches and black capped chickadees feed from the back porch. I wanted to relive that memory and pass it on to my girls.

Well this past week we FINALLY had some activity! I was beginning to worry that our random pop bottles hanging from the trees in our back yard would just, well, be that. So far, we’ve spotted the American Goldfinch, Purple finch, and Black-capped Chickadee. Hopefully as the weather continues to warm up, our Hummingbird feeder will see as much activity…and hopefully I can have my camera handy in time