Add to that an unlimited number of Netflix-ed Land Before Time videos, a storytime at a different Ft. Smith public library branch every day, and a pizza supper with the cousins, and you have yourself QUITE the Spring Break.
Four the four-and-under set, at least...
P.S. Check out my ode to sketchbooks on Crafting a Green World and my shrinking #6 plastic tutorial over at Eco Child's Play.
--and then dump each scoop of cake batter into the cake pan smack on top of the scoop that came before it without stirring or mixing it up AT ALL: 
And then you end up with rainbow-y goodness ready to bake: 
My mistake, in rummaging through my family's kitchen, was that I used a white angel food cake mix, which I was able to find in a cupboard, but not an angel food cake pan, because I wasn't able to find one, although I'm sure of its existence somewhere in this house...somewhere.
But is the cake still delicious?
Why yes, yes it is. 
As we walked into storytime at the public library this morning, my girls were greeted by the SAME little old lady who was the little old lady who held storytimes when I was their age. I adored her then, and adore her now--she remembered my children's names after I introduced her, held the children rapt with a book about a duck who tried, to no avail, to avoid a spanking (she's a little old-school), sat with Sydney on her lap while a group of daycare children sang a St. Patrick's Day song for the local news (5 at 5!), and took my hand as we walked over to the crafts area so that she could ask all about my life ("Why, I'm a teacher, Ms. Louise, and I have a library science degree").
--and Breastfeeding:
But now, of course, I totally want to add to the list. How about Tandem Breastfeeding? Working with Baby in Lap?
Hosting Child's Birthday Party? Taking Child to Emergency Room? Finding the Perfect Sports Bra?
Telling Former Teachers that You're Now a Teacher Yourself?
We all deserve an entire vest full of these.
This doesn't follow the book's instructions step-by-step, but back when I read it I studied it until I figured out how the most striking construction elements worked, and so I imagine that my own marker roll has some very close similarities.
--and the up-and-down, back-and-forth quilting: 
I like this, in particular, a LOT better than the other ways I've seen discussed of constructing crayon rolls, which is to sew up only to the edge of the pocket and then backstitch to hold the stitch, and then move over to the next place the pocket needs to be sewn and sew up to the edge there, etc. When I made my own crayon rolls with that method, I was bored by the constant stop and start, and I disliked the look of the obvious backstitch.
I am going to look for some cotton button-down shirts at Goodwill tomorrow (50%-off storewide sale!) to use for this type of sewing, but I did make my peace with the new purchases a little by choosing that my outside fabric for these rolls be recycled blue jean denim. Makes it extra sturdy, I think.
The first flower was photographed.
--of beautiful green and rich and earthy moss:
We are apparently not the good kind of neighbors...ahem. Mental note: teach the girls to use a trowel, and then we could make terrariums!
And yes, I do think that there are little critters down there in the creek, once again:
Happy of happies, I got some sewing done today! I swear, there is nothing like blissfully ironing and measuring and sewing while watching streaming videos online--it's like a tiny piece of heaven trapped in the middle of my cracker-crumb day.
I'll show off my babies' new marker roll tomorrow, and yep, you'll love it, too.
--and worked--
--and worked. I had a plan to make some buttons around the alphabet for my VWX Alphabet ATC Swap over at Craftster (you'll see in a moment why this is no longer part of the plan), and Sydney seemed to greatly enjoy making entirely black button after entirely black button, but Willow did this funny thing where she made faces out of the buttons, using the buttonholes as eyes:
Ahhhh, negative space.
With more forethought, I would have cut out circles of varying sizes and thereby avoided the below phenomenon in which all of our shrink plastic buttons are now nearly microscopic--
But, eh. It's crafting!
What fun is forethought?
P.S. Check out my shout-out in the Weekly Craft Round-up over at The Long Thread. Woot!
P.P.S. I think it's really funny when people rename my posts when they link to them--they're all, "I'm sorry, but I am not putting the word "RAWK" on my blog!" Justifiable, I think.
--but it did end, of course, in me tersely escorting the girls from the museum an hour after entering, and I wasn't quite successful in convincing Willow, at least, that a museum without anything to climb on is still super-fun, but after spending 5 seconds looking intently at The Flight of Europa--
Willow did sit down with her sketchbook and colored pencils and create this:
When Willow asked me why the lady was riding the bull, I told her that it was a big, friendly bull named Zeus and it was taking the Europa lady off on a special ride across the ocean. For anyone else who knows the myth of Europa, you can join me with a quiet "ahem" inside your heads, as well.
--and then we'll move on immediately to some very different activity that requires a lot of climbing upon things.