What a Snow Day Means When You're Retired

    For those of you in Australia who are picking tomatoes from your gardens right now, a snow day means it snowed enough to make the roads too hazardous for school buses to transport our kidlets.  If you live in a rural area you get more snow days than city kids.
     Now that the girls live just two blocks away, a snow day means they can come here and mommy can still go to work.  They noticed in "their" bedroom I had the table set up for some projects and immediately they took over the pretty fabrics.

    Adelaide wanted to make a skirt for her panda and would take no guidance.  She is a hard headed woman and had her own ideas for how to do this.  Usually she sews with tape but she was really excited to get to use the little machine today.  This was my little sewing machine from when I was about her age.

    Elizabeth was a little reluctant to use the real electric machine because she's in love with my little one. But on the suggestion of Friend Jan, I took the thread out and gave her some paper to practice her lines, and she was hooked.  We drew shapes and lines on the paper for her to follow.  Straight lines, triangle, circle, scallops.

    She figured out how hard to step for the speed she wanted, she figured out she didn't have to put the pedal to the metal. 

 She loved a quirky piece of fabric I had from a give-away.  It was full of peace signs in bright colors. In a few weeks we are all going to Mikey's third birthday party and we are to dress as a superhero.  Elizabeth decided to make her cape.

 Let me tell you, she made this cape completely by herself.  I showed her how to pin down the edge,

and how to remove the pin as she came to it with the machine, though she said Grandma Marilyn says you can ride right over the pins.  I told her I don't ride over them because in the past I've landed on them and broken a needle or three or ten.  So she removed them. 
I pinned some occasional tucks for shoulder shape and a ribbon for the tie and she sewed them on.  Very proud of herself, she was!

 She wanted some air, Adelaide lost her steam and wanted to cuddle with a movie, so PH took Elizabeth outside into the cold, blowy day. 

 They found a lid from a plastic tub and she used it as a sled to ride down the driveway.  All the way! You remember....it's a very long driveway.

And was a trooper about walking all the way back up for more runs.  She was very proud of her invention sled.