April Showers

We've been having a lot of rain lately.  I know I shouldn't be surprised.  The phrase "April showers" is cliche for a reason.  But so many rainy days in a row makes it difficult to keep us all from going crazy.  If the temperatures were warmer, we would be playing in the rain.  But it has been fairly frigid, so we stay in.  Here are some of the things that have been keeping us busy.

Baking.

The twins love to help in the kitchen, and I had several small amounts of random fruit that I needed to use up.  So we made something that we named "Appleberry Crisp."

Cutting the apples - I gave the twins butter knives (very blunt ones) and let them cut the apples into small bits themselves.  They thought it was the coolest thing ever!

It turned out really well -considering that we threw in so many random fruits and only loosely followed a recipe.  I wanted the fruity part to be really gooey, so we drizzled it with honey.  I also wanted lots of cinnamon...which turned into a LOT when I let Ryan shake it in, and he ended up dumping it.  Allie also dumped in some extra oats for the topping (my mistake for leaving the open container of oats within her arm reach).  But it turned out that crisps are as flexible as I hoped.

 I couldn't actually eat any, but the twins and Lucas finished the entire pan in less than 24 hours!  We are looking forward to the next time we have random fruit that needs to be used! 

Our butterflies have also been keeping us busy.

Moving them to new digs - once they are all in cocoons, you move them into the butterfly house.  You can see them pinned to the top.

Note:  For anyone who has done this before, you will know that you are actually supposed to pin them to the side, a few inches from the bottom.  Somehow, I missed that until after I had them transferred, and I "disturbed" a few of the cocoons during transfer (one got so mad that it swung back and forth violently, and I was afraid it would have a little caterpillar coronary), so I left them and hoped for the best.

It turns out it only takes 7-10 days for them to go from caterpillars hanging upside-down to butterflies.  Isn't that crazy?  So few days for such a huge transformation!  It wasn't long before we had 1 butterfly, and then 2, and then 4.  We were hoping to see one come out, but it always took us by surprise - we'd look and suddenly realized that another cocoon was empty!  We currently have 9.  It appears that 1 didn't make it, but we are going to give it one more day before we call it.

One of our "painted ladies" - the type of butterfly we have.

A few of the gang.

The twins are so excited about all of the "pets" we have in the house.

Drumming.

You will think I'm crazy, but I was excited to see a certain package arrive in the mail.  A drum set! One would think it would drive me crazy, but it was the perfect new form of entertainment on another rainy day.  We took turns doing drum solos, practicing the badum-ching at the end of our favorite jokes, and playing along with some Beach Boys.  It was a blast!

Ry-guy enjoying the drums.

 He told me he was so excited because he had been waiting SIXTEEN YEARS for one!

 A short video.

Allie playing.

 My favorite moment was hearing Allie say, "Take it away!" before she started in on a drum solo!

Allie's video.

Today, I had big plans for our rainy day - we were going to catch up on some baking, go to the library, and maybe even work on an art project or two.  But somehow, I hurt my back.  And then I ignored it, and it wasn't long before the pain was so terrible I couldn't move.  So, instead of a fun, productive day, I was laid up in the recliner trying to entertain the twins.  One of their favorite things, when someone is sick and has to spend time resting, is to play some of the Hoyle card games on my computer.  We all pile on together and play an awesomely animated Crazy Eights, Old Maid, Memory Match, and Go Fish.

Go Fish - when an opponent tells you to "Go Fish" you have to actually catch one of the swimming fish on the screen by clicking on it.  It's our favorite part!

 I snapped a quick picture of the kids and I playing cards.  They are such hams!

We are looking forward to sunshine.  We have hope that we will see a little, here and there, soon.  Until then, we will keep finding ways to fill our rainy days.