A rollicking band of pirates, we

The Christmas decorations are put away, and with them the Christmas gnomes, sadly—but never fear, Clementine still has HER gnomes. She has pink gnomey, Big Big Gnomey—and now, thanks to her sisters, two MORE gnomeys. Junie made a small gnome—at least he seemed like a small gnome until Daisy made Tiny Tiny Gnomey! They are all very cute, but now we have to endure Clementine saying sadly nearly every night, "Where's Tiny Tiny Gnomey??" after she—inevitably—loses him among her blankets!

Here is the tiny gnome in Daisy's hands, for scale. (Daisy just can't help herself. She has to make bigs and tinies of things! It's like a sickness.)

And here is Tiny Gnomey sitting on Big Big Gnomey's nose!

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Speaking of tiny, I made these tiny rolls for sliders on New Years. They were so cute! They were only the size of golf balls or so when I shaped them!

New Year's Day Feast

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Not sure what this is, but some kind of Caw Picnic, I believe.

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Clementine with a ponytail ("my tail," she called it, proudly)

Seb brought his drums upstairs as he apparently feels compelled to do from time to time. It was actually really fun while he and the other kids were playing music together—he was making up parts to the kids' piano songs, and he and I even played some jazz together! Super fun. But, when he wasn't playing, everyone else was playing the drums, which—in the middle of the living room/kitchen—was not so fun. Too loud! Clementine is so cute when she plays, though!

She'd head in to play them every time one of the other kids started practicing the piano

And here she is playing in the little drum room, back where such activities belong!

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Goldie dressed Clementine up to match her doll. The doll has a cute name—Evie—so named because Marigold's beloved doll is named Ferny, and Fern is Clementine's middle name—so it seemed only right that Clementine's doll should have Goldie's middle name, Eve!

Anyway, Clementine loves Evie and carries her around everywhere. She was soooo delighted to match her! And the rest of us were equally delighted! Just wait until she grows into all the matching dolly-and-girl clothes the older girls had!

Here are the two of them ready for church on another day. The best thing was when Sam hung up Clementine's coat on the coat hooks at church, and then hung Evie's little coat up right next to it!

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Clementine has a strange, not to say unhealthy, fascination with knives, which she unvaryingly refers to as "sharp sharp knives" (which is hardly reassuring). She is always climbing up to the counter, getting knives (without permission, need I add), and then walking around brandishing them and saying "sharp sharp knife!" in a sober, lecturing, yet somehow gleeful tone. It is very alarming! It reminds me of when some child or other used to carry my phone around saying, "Oh dear, no, no, don't get Mommy's phone!" I think Clementine has done that too, come to think of it. Anyway, this series of pictures shows the general idea (although she only has a butter knife in these pictures, so as to spare your delicate sensibilities).

Here she comes to show it to me and tell me about it…

"Sharp sharp knife, mommy!"

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Some versions of the hill we have seen lately. I love all the different skies and moods!

And a few low-lying clouds for good measure!

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Goldie drew the cutest pictures for the thank-you card she wrote to my mom after Christmas. It was like a little mini-book, showing Goldie and my mom as beautiful Jane-Austen-era ladies. Here they greet each other and set off with their basket for a picnic.

They picnic under a tree, weaving flower crowns, and then do a little reading (with cake for refreshment) at an outdoor table.

They end their day sitting gracefully on swings, chatting to each other. I love it! :)

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Ky got his driver's license. Hooray!

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Sebastian started cutting up some old pairs of jeans a few weeks ago, telling me "I want to make a denim vest." I am sorry to say that while outwardly supportive ("Won't that be nice!") I was inwardly very dubious. I did tell him it was pretty hard to sew on denim, and he'd be working without a pattern, and I didn't know enough to help him, so he should prepare himself for a lot of frustration as he figured it out. 

I was (mercifully) at a debate tournament with Ky and Daisy all day on the day Seb decided to sew the vest, so I didn't actually see how much frustration there was, but he persevered and by the end of the day he had this amazing creation! I was genuinely astonished when he showed it to me. He'd used another jacket as a pattern, and he'd pieced all the colors together, and added little pockets and embellishments, used some fancy embroidery stitches for detail, and even sewed the edges with an overlock stitch so they would fray just the right amount. I don't know why I keep being surprised by him, but I do! I don't think I could ever have made such a thing, even with a pattern and a whole week to do it!

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Ziggy was a long time working on this "surprise" he made for Sebastian one day. He put up these little signs all over the house, with "DO NOT GO DOWN THERE" signs so no one would go downstairs to mess up the surprise. Then he unveiled the surprise to Seb with great fanfare:

It was all of these monkeys sitting on the stairs, one to a stair. Just what Seb would like! :) So sweet.

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We finished our unit on Pirates for homeschool and had a Pirate Celebration, which turned out so fun. I had the kids plan and carry it all out (with help from me with cooking etc.) Each of them had a different assignment. I loved the costumes everyone came up with!

Daisy and Teddy set up an amazing treasure hunt with chocolate coins in a chest at the end.

Junie planned a pirate ship craft where we made a pirate ship out of a big cardboard box.

Goldie did the beautiful table setting and room decor, with help from Ziggy

She also made labels for these little bottles we found lying around from some previous project. We made homemade root beer to put inside them, though I am sorry to say everyone took a great deal of pleasure in calling it "rum"!

What a rollicking band of pirates!