Snow, Updates from the Hand Surgeon and Baby Easter Bunnies

This is a long post and I'm apologizing for the length, but I have lots to share.

The snow storm could have been worse. Honestly, the girls LOVE the snow and I should really stop complaining because we did have a great time sledding and playing in our woods after church on Sunday, but...I'm ready for spring.

Here are a few snow pictures.







Josie visited her hand surgeon this afternoon and we're happy to report that she doesn't have to go back until the end of May.



Her x-ray looks perfect. Her hand is healing nicely and he's not surprised that her thumb joint is stiff. Her hand surgeon doesn't want us to do anything differently. All in all, a great appointment. Bonus. No tears from Josie!



Her next doctor's appointment is with our cardiologist on Friday morning. She'll have an EKG and an ultrasound (the usual stuff). More updates to follow that appointment.

Because I'm determined that spring is coming early to my house (even if it doesn't look like it in West Michigan) here's my first Easter craft project for 2009. Today's craft is dedicated to my Aunt Jean and Aunt Marion. They always had on display cute little pom pom bunnies during Easter. Who doesn't remember making pom poms? I loved making pom poms for my ice skates during junior high. You could vary the color of your yarn and make Easter chicks. We just happened to have white and pink yarn on hand and decided to make bunnies.



Supplies needed:

* Cardboard
* Two circular items you can trace around
* yarn
* Scissors
* Felt
* Hot glue gun (only Mommy works with the hot glue gun) or tacky glue
* googly eyes or other embellishments

Step 1. Create two donut shaped pieces of cardboard. Using your larger of your two circular items, trace out two circles on your cardboard.



I would suggest about 2 inches). Next put a smaller circle, a little under 1 inch, in the middle of your larger circles. Now cut out the two larger circles, then cut out the inner circles.


You will now have two donut shaped rings.



Step 2. Place the rings together. The idea now is to wind the yarn around and through the rings. Cut the yarn into manageable lengths for little hands, around 6 feet at a time works pretty good. Hold one end on the outside of the ring and feed the other end through the hole, round the back and through the front again.



Repeat this, working your way around the ring until all the cardboard is covered. As you use additional lengths, you don't need to tie them together, just make sure the ends are on the outside, not in the middle.



Step 3. The next step is the trickiest in making pom poms. Once your rings are fairly full of yarn, cut the yarn around the edges (i.e. the scissor blade should eventually pass between the two pieces of cardboard as you are cutting.) You won't be able to cut it all in one go so just do a few layers at a time.



Step 4. Pass a length of yarn between the two pieces of cardboard, around all the strands of yarn, and tie it firmly together. Now you can remove the cardboard rings. Trim any lengths of yarn which are uneven to give your pom poms a tidy look.



Step 5. Repeat this process to create a 2nd pom pom. We then trimmed the size of our second pom pom to be smaller than our first pom pom. The second pom pom is going to be our bunny's head.

Step 6. Cut 2 bunny shaped ears with felt and a triangle piece for a nose.

Step 7. Cut eyes out of felt or even better, use googly eyes available at most dollar stores.

Step 9. Using a hot glue gun, assemble your bunny. Let your bunny cool down and enjoy!



Happy crafting!!