Crochet, Cookies, and ... Hockey

I couldn't think of a "C" word to go with hockey.  Maybe "Canada's National Sport"?  

Crochet:  This winter I experimented with a few new patterns for birthday gifts for all those nieces we have!  I made two of the little purse, one a little bigger than the other.  The one pictured is the one I gave Alexandra and it is pretty small, just big enough for a little notebook and mini-pen and maybe you can slide in some church candy.  I made a slightly larger one for Nora.  I have always wanted to try my hand at amigurumi and found some cute patterns here.  My creations are far from perfect, so don't look too close.  

Cookies:  The girls have an American Girl baking book complete with cookie cutters and lots of ideas how to decorate those cookies.  After many days of begging, we finally rolled out sugar cookie dough and made pretty little prom dresses.  Even Seth enjoyed this!  The idea of rolling out dough, cutting, baking it, making frosting, etc always seems so daunting that I put it off as long as I can.  When I see how much fun they have decorating, I always wonder again, "What took me so long?"

...and Hockey:  Last week we went to our first Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game.  Another home school family from church had extra tickets to a Wednesday night game and invited us to join them.  We enjoyed the game and the time of fellowship, and the boys all came home with hockey pucks that they were giving away.  Too bad we don't skate well enough to play a great game of hockey.

After working three weekends in a row, I am happy to be off for several Saturdays.    This weekend I am planning to attend the Hudsonville URC women's conference on Friday night and Saturday.  The speaker this year is Martha Peace.  I am planning to attend with an older lady from our church, but also found out last night at the MWI meeting that many seminary wives are also planning to attend.    Russ and I won't see much of each other since he plans to leave Saturday for London, ON as he is preaching at the FRC there on Sunday.  

Our elderly neighbor called us last night to tell us she was moving out of her home this weekend into an apartment.  She says she just can't do steps anymore and even fell a few weeks ago.   We will miss having her across the street and will have to make sure we visit her in the new apartment.   She is not planning on selling her home right away and has asked Caleb to mow her lawn this summer.  He can add that to his growing list of mowing jobs...

And...track season started on Monday.  Hard to believe with so much snow on the ground and the below freezing temps.  What a nightmare for the track coach (Russ).  Guess he will just have to be have more creative practices.  Tomorrow...soccer in the snow!