Sprout celebrated by making some goldfish- this is suppose to be a symbol of good luck for the new year.
She also colored dragons and made a dragon mask- they aren't heirloom quality but what do you expect from an almost 2 year old?
Wishing everyone a healthy and prosperous Chinese New Year.
Karen was hesitant to let me take Skippy through the class for fear that I would steal him away from her. Something tells me that she doesn't have much to worry about.
We bought Elena a kitchen for Christmas, but held off giving it to her until this weekend. She had a good time playing with it, but gets super-pissed if anyone else opens one of the drawers or appliances. She likes her kitchen tidy; everything must be put back in place and all doors must remain closed when not in use. 
We planned to give her the kitchen either when we were both home or when Karen was having a "really bad day." When I got home from goose hunting yesterday and saw the kitchen out in the basement, I knew I was in trouble...
After some cutting and shaping, here is the layout.
Here is Karen welding together the 'welcome' sign.
Here she is welding the top braces in place. Note that this is the same woman who won't climb a ladder to change a lightbulb or paint, yet she is balancing between the ladder and arbor.
We haven't decided what kind of fence we are going to build yet, but we plan to get after it once the ground thaws out.
We spent the first day of 2012 in the same manner- working on a few things around the house and watching some football later in the day. This is a picture of Sprout with her inherited rocking horse. It only holds her interest for a few minutes, but she seems to have a good time riding her horse.
