I snapped these frosty photos the other day.  Down at the edge of the pond the grass and leaves had beautiful long lashes of frost.

Guess what our little artist, Sarah, has been doing these days?

The first time she tried tracing her own hand I told her it looked like the hand of a monster.  I did most of the tracing but eventually I became reluctant about stopping my own projects to trace *yet another hand* for her, so she decided it was more time-efficient to do it herself.

‘Mom!  I did it!  And it doesn’t look like a Monster-hand!”

(it doesn’t?)

I taught her how to draw pretty jewelry, and fingernails, too.

This one doesn’t have fingernails.  But it does have a ring on each finger.

 

All that is required is paper and colored pens/crayons.  It kept Sarah busy for a long time and it gave her lots of practice with tracing, drawing, and designing.

lady-bugs

I traced two sets of hands on some of the pages, trying to save time and paper.

As you may have noticed, Billy-Cat came over to see what I was photographing.

He communicated to me that it was a much nicer idea to photograph a handsome cat.

*lick-lick making myself ready for my portrait*

*wait, let me pose first*

*this is my best pose*

*how’d it turn out?*

I have happy cats because Sarah and I went to the grocery store to buy them food.  They ran out yesterday and had to gag down dog food.  All four of them have full tummies and are in various places in the house, sleeping it off.

This is what our mantel looks like right now.  Jacob did the painting.  I love how the red in it matches the mushrooms.  Grace and Dave went for a walk and brought me the piece of wood (to the left of the painting, it’s the same color as the rocks so hard to see), they called it an octopus and plan painting it purple (I admit it would be easier to see).  My felt mushrooms are from the Masonville General Store in NY.  I pulled up some greenery from the woods and added artificial flowers along the mantel, too.  The “give thanks” banner is from Pottery Barn (last year).  I love how if you take the “e” off the end of “give” and then next four letters from “thanks”, it spells my son Ethan’s name.  Sometimes I move those letters to the middle just for fun.

fiestaware in the sunshine

Tonight, I’m making meatloaf for dinner, with spinach and mashed potatoes.

I’ve shared Sarah’s hands and now I will share her song:

Won’t you give her a hand?