Grand daughter’s birthday

Visiting Spokane and enjoying time with two of our grand children (and their parents) who have recently moved here. The youngest has a birthday in a week’s time and so we had a sort of Mad Hatters tea party this afternoon. Not really an unbirthday party, but more of a slightly early one (just a week early). We shard the pizza she had chosen, and then came a gift unwrapping that involved the usual tearfest of coloured paper and then a slow examination of the goodies within.

We made it a double session as her brother was also due some bits and pieces.

We had made some of the gifts and these seemed to go down pretty well. Gabriella got the dolls crib with a sliding side that I put together in the woodwork shop. The mattress and blanket were also made to measure by Jo, my talented wife, so the thing was ready to roll. Here it is, with a knitted Teddy bear lying down for a nap. The one side can be lifted up or kept down. If you look closely you can see the pins, strings attached, that are inserted when the side is in the “up” position.

For Mathew I made a chair from walnut and Jo made the cushion for it. I also made him a wooden sword. Here it is. At least it was mostly wooden. The blade was cut down from an old piece of 2 x4 lumber. The handle came from a broom handle and the guard started life as the lid of a peanut butter jar. Mathew is going on his Halloween circuit as an orc, so the sword will be part of the outfit. He is deeply embedded in all things Tolkein and Lord of the Rings, so we have an order for a chess set from the stories. Don’t know if such a thing even exists, so now I have to dive into Google and see what is out there