Ever so Clever:

Ava's Beautiful New Bed

Lots of excitement around these parts...

We're having a snow day due to a wonderful blizzard that slammed our area yesterday and last night. The girls are having fun : they're getting a taste of homeschooling with lots of play time outside.

Additionally, we finished painting Ava's new bed....

and now it's in her room!

Lots of excitement happening last night as Daddy was putting together the bed!

THANK YOU GRANDPA!!!!!!!

And here she is:

Isn't it pretty?

Grandpa made the bed over Christmas break. We added the finish trim (it's got a leaf pattern on it that you really can't see in the photos) and primed and painted the pieces.

Thank you Grandpa for this lovely bed! Ava just about jumped out of her skin when she saw Daddy installing the bed in her room last night. :-)

The bed plans came from the Ana-White DIY Furniture website. You can find the plans for this bed >here<. Thanks Ana for providing the plans and instructions for us to use! (the super cool thing is that she lives in Alaska- my home state!) I fell in love with the curves this bed has.

I still plan on finding some finials to put on top of the bed (as shown in the plans) AND I'd like to do some tole painting (haven't decided on a pattern).

Little firewood-stacking Helpers

I didn't realize I was in for a pleasant surprise on Monday afternoon when I looked out the window to check to see what my little Snow Fairies were up to (they love playing outside in the snow...and so does our dog, Mocha).....

The girls took it upon themselves to move the firewood we had stacked outside and stack some of it in the garage (a task we've been doing on the weekend to make it easier to grab wood during the week since we heat our house with wood). They filled the wheelbarrow with the wood and neatly stacked in the garage.

AWESOME!

They even continued moving/restacking the wood even though I told them to go play! They were very determined to continue working.

I took these photos from inside the house- I didn't want the girls aware of the fact that I was watching them. :-)

I took them out for a treat after they finished their self-appointed task.

Sweet!

Saturday Morning

Ava came into our bedroom early on Saturday morning asking if she could make waffles all by herself.

Pretty sweet thing having our youngest interested in cooking!

Once the adults were able to finally pull themselves out of bed, Ava got to work. She's been helping Daddy make our Saturday morning waffles for several months now. She doesn't have the recipe memorized but she's able to measure and mix and crack eggs all by herself. The only thing we didn't let her measure/pour is the expensive vanilla extract. ;-)

By the way, the waffles were awesome! Ava even operated the waffle iron.

Here is little Ava after a full, fun-filled Saturday (she fell asleep while listening to Daddy read "The Two Towers".

Sweet!

Yogi Tea/Chai recipe

>> Tuesday, January 25, 2011 – recipe

Here's my favorite yogi tea (to make chai with). I got this recipe from my yoga instructor while taking classes at UAA eons ago.

Hope you enjoy it!

Yogi Tea
Boil: 2 quarts of water with the following: 16 whole cloves, 16 whole cardamom seeds, 3 whole cinnamon sticks, 16 whole peppercorns, 6 slices fresh ginger root. Rolling boil covered for 40+ minutes. Add 1 or 2 black tea bags and steep for one or two minutes.
Strain tea and refrigerate until use.

To make chai: heat yogi tea and add milk or cream and honey to taste.