The little red house school

Last weekend we went to the Little Red House School on Willow Springs, IL.  Last time we went was when Ari was about 3 months or so.  That time we had the stroller and she slept through the hike.

Inside the school they have a lot of amphibians and snakes.  Ari looked at each cage with awe.  It is amazing to see through her eyes.  They sure look at things differently.

Arianna was explaining something to Papa.  How nice of her.

They have this caw that makes a lot of noises and jumps from one branch to the other branch.  He was injures and can't fly anymore so they take care of her.

They also have a lot of dead animals... Well, I think they say that they died from either accidents or natural dead.

Here starts our almost 2 mile hike.

They have 8 stops and benches all around so we stopped a few times to let Arianna and our old bones rest so we can continue.

I love paths.  I equate paths to decisions sometimes.  Should you go right or left?  Your whole life can go one way depending in that decision. 

Isn't it amazing that this used to be 99th St?

Took this picture for Ron and Evelyn!

Arianna was checking this boulder.  Yep, it is sturdy to climb!

Two different settings in one place!

I took a picture of this bird.  I am not sure if it is the female Robin or the Towhee that lives in here and looks very closed to the robin.

In our way to the car.  We had finished the 2 miles trip and Arianna walked about 3/4 of the way. :)
By the way, they had built a "big house" next to the old school.... open on June.  We are going back then!

Family outings...

My cousin Carlos came from Canada to visit and we were able to get together for a fun day of Sushi and Hamburgers.  Arianna and Mike stayed home because Ari was sleeping, but my sister was able to come with us.  It had been a long time since all 4 of us were together...

Then, later in the week we were able to go back to Chuck's restaurant for breakfast.  It is our new breakfast place to go to when we want some awesome pancakes!  They expect lots of kids and they have crayons ready which Arianna loves!  (The picture below I snapped it while she was wearing her hat which a lot of time she does not want to!).

Rain...

Arianna has started to make stories with her stuff animals. The other day she was eating a yogurt and she had her owl next to her and she was saying: " Ok owl, you sit there.  I need to eat my yogurt.  Yummy."  Later, when she was done eating she told him " ok, time to play.  What do you want to go?  Do you want to sleep? No, let's play." Then, it was something about moon and night, but I could not get the whole thing.

Bummer, it was raining and Arianna wanted to go out to play.  I told her we needed to wait until it stopped raining and she said "I likeeeee water".

Then, Papa came home and they started to play!

Cute!

52 projects #13 - Felt Flowers!

My swap craft is coming soon and I needed to finish this project so after 31 flowers (30 for the swap - one for Arianna) I am done and very tired.  No scissors for awhile!  But, I like the end result.  I was going to do something different for the center, but liked how the antique buttons look so I went that route.

It took me about 3-4 days to cut all the flowers... phew!1  I was happy when I was done with them.  Putting them together was actually fun!

The best model ever! She was actually shy in the beginning, but build her courage :)

Realized that I like the mustard- burgundy combination too much, but I tried to make each one different :)  First time working on felt flowers and one day my baby will help me to make them again :)

ADDED later:  The pattern was an idea from a magazine that I get Southern  Living.  Although my flowers are style different they are the same in that it uses four sets of "flowers" to make one flower.  The actual shape was done by me using a quarter and a compass :) , but I am sure there are something similar somewhere. Also, that means that I cut 124 flowers to make 31.. phew so yes I was very happy when I was done with the last one.  And finally, family helped me as well.  Arianna either modeling a flower or telling me if it was perfect or awesome or ok and throwing some of the leftovers in the garbage and Mike helping me picked the buttons for each set of flowers.  :)

WPP#16

Picture taken at Little Red House... It is a really good place to visit.  Another post with more picture will be coming soon :) but this is my WPP for this week.