Winter on the Hudson

Photos taken today during a visit to one of our favorite parks by the Hudson River. Yes, that is pack ice (no waves) on the river!

Sewing Project

Someone is having a birthday!--Ju & A's school friend. Their circle of friends are American Girl doll enthusiasts, so we decided to try a doll clothes sewing project as a gift. Fleece was our fabric of choice as the girls are beginning seamstresses and fleece does not require "edge" work. We found directions for a dress online here: http://my.joann.com/topics/1420287/ and directions for a hat here: http://www.makingfriends.com/winter/doll_fleece_hat.htm. The next step was to find fabric. The only local shop that sells fabric is Walmart, so I made a drive down there and investigated their fleece collection. The print fleeces all had very large prints and thick fleece--unsuitable for a dress for an 18" doll, so I settled on a lightweight pink fleece. There was less than a yard left on the bolt, so I took it all. It was hard to carve out time for the project, between school, music lessons, church, etc., especially with dad out of town and mom having to take all the kids to every kid's appointments. We ended up squeezing it in in bits and pieces. We pinned the dress pattern on the fabric at home. Then, while the big brothers did quizzing practice at church, the girls and I borrowed the church office where we worked on measuring and marking the hat pattern, cutting both and beginning the sewing. We soon realized the scissors we had along for the job were rather dull, so mom had to do the tricky bits of the cutting. Then Ju started to work stitching the first seam on the dress while A worked on the hat. We got about halfway through the seams in that session, then picked up our work again the next morning, sitting in the corridor of a school while brother D auditioned for the All County band. The first hat turned out a bit small for an American Girl doll, so we decided to keep it for our girls' Best Friends Club, Ink. dolls which are more slender, added three inches to the original pattern and sewed up a second hat for the birthday girl's AG doll. J trimmed the dress with bright buttons to add some interest to the plain pink. We found we had plenty of fabric remain- ing, so the girls decided to make scarves -- all cutting, no sewing, one for each of their dolls and one for the birthday girl. We decided on an 18" length for the scarves, measured out with a ruler and that worked out just right. The birthday party is Saturday, so we'll find out then how the Birthday Girl likes her new AG doll outfit!


The photo above (left) shows the outfit on our Ju's BFC Ink doll, Kaitlyn. It will fit better on the Birthday Girl's AG doll.

Field Trip

The third graders make four field trips to Black Rock Forest, one each season. While there they make observations of temperature (water, air and soil) , plant life, animal life, wind, water, sky, precipitation,etc., both in the forest and at the reservoir. Usually, mostly moms volunteer to chaperone. Today, for the winter visit, it was fifteen dads, my neighbor Sue and me. The Valentine's Party is this afternoon, so I'm guessing the other moms preferred to help at the party, but I'll take Black Rock any day!
It looks cold, but it was a balmy, breezy 49 degrees Fahrenheit with a gorgeous blue sky, hard packed snow on the trails (there was that one place where I stepped through and found one leg thigh deep, but it wasn't on the trail), and 16.5 inches (depth) of ice on the reservoir. I understand that's deep enough for a mid-sized car to safely drive on it (our guide encouraged the kids to jump up and down on the ice!--all together!) The kids' favorite part of the trip?--sliding down the banks by the reservoir!

Black Rock Forest in Winter