School's Out

School is out! The kids were so excited to start on their weeks of sleeping in, sun, swimming, and grazing all day though the kitchen. Nathan and Gabby were able to participate in a Radkids program the past couple weeks. Also, this week we started library time and finished up on the first round of swimming lessons.

I've been doing a lot of yard work with the help of my Sammy girl. Of course, some of that help includes tearing my flowers from their life flowing stems. We just don't see eye to eye on that one yet, but hopefully will come to an understanding soon. She is so cute when she trys to be so helpful!

Here is a cool lego thingamabob that Nathan put together. I love when the kids create things like this. You can just sense the creative juices flowing!

Dance Festival

Every year our school does a dance festival. Each grade level gets together to learn how to do a dance to some fun music. During the last week of school the parents are invited to sit and enjoy the dances. I was lucky enough to have 3 kids doing dances.

Seth's 6th grade class did a dance to the song "It's On." They did a dance with jump ropes. It was pretty cool. (Seth is in the background with the gray shirt on.)

Nathan's 2nd grade class did the YMCA dance. He was rockin! (Nathan is in the center back.)

Gabby's class did a cute sycronized dance to "Zippity Do Da" that included a lot of ring around the rosies type movements. (Gabby is in the back far right with a light purple shirt on.)


This is how Sammy felt by the time we were done. Actually, I kinda felt the same way when trying to navigate out of the crowd to get home. All in all, it was fun and the kids enjoyed themselves.

Graduation

We had two graduations this year. Seth graduated from 6th grade in anticipation of starting Junior High, and Gabby graduated from kindergarten. (Yes, there is such thing as kindergarten graduation.) Both were short and sweet and ended with pictures and food. Congratulations to both of you!

Boy Scouts

We attended a Court of Honor for the Boy Scouts tonight. Carson received the On My Honor Award for at least two years active service in Boy Scouts and reaching Star rank. He also received his 45th merit badge. Seth advanced to 2nd class and received his 6th and 7th merit badge. Both really enjoy scouting along with their Dad. Way to go!

Father and Son Campout

The boys came home from the annual father and son camp out yesterday. They went to Little Sahara and enjoyed lots of what the sand dunes have no offer. Lots and lots and lots and lots of sand that is. They were accompanied by many of their friends to enjoy a night of roaming and exploring. Nathan, our family bug collector, found an impressive stink bug. Seth went four wheeling and got kissed in the face by a passing branch. OUCH! Carson hung out with his buddies while Carp relaxed with the other dads and chatted. In the morning they all got together to have a big breakfast before breaking camp. After they got home Carson took his shoe off and dumped a handful of sand in my hand. Carp and the boys cleaned up all their stuff and shook out all the sand they could. Yet, there was still lots of sand in the washing machine when I cleaned their clothes. Fun! Crunch, crunch goes the dryer door. They had a good time so it was all worth it!

The Music Man

Carson loves music. He plays the piano, cello, bass and messes around with the guitar. There are great people in this world that can inspire youth to pursue and develop their talent by building up their self confidence and pushing them past their personal expectations. Carson's orchestra teacher has done this for him. He has allowed Carson to experiment with and stretch his abilities in music. Now, I'm not saying he's the best, but that he enjoys and appreciates music more because of his experiences.

His school recently did a fundraising concert for their music department. He played in a couple of pieces. The first piece was called "Gallagar Gal" and you can view the part I recorded by clicking here. Some of it is a bit jumpy - I was the one recording, need I say more? In the second piece the kids loosened up by wrapping their ties around their heads and rolling up their sleeves to play a combination of selections from Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Mans Chest. If you want to watch it, click on this. Hats off to the teachers that can get teenagers to do so well and to the kids that worked so hard to do it.

Quilts

Prickly Star

Road to Oklahoma

I love to quilt. Fabric is like eye candy for me. I sometimes even find myself taking a good sniff of newly purchased fabric. New fabric, fresh off the bolt - yes, it has a smell.

I'm even taken by how quilt store package your purchase and hand it to you with a knowing smile. These great ladies know how much it means to carefully display my newly acquired fabric in a clear plastic bag tied with a scrap of a luscious fabric print.

Sailboat (hand quilted)

Lucky Stars

I've heard confessions of more than one friend explaining how they stroke their fabric off and on during the drive home. It is so hard to keep my eyes off all the color and design when the fabric is screaming, "LOOK AT ME!" It's like being handed a new box of crayon, untouched by toddler hands. (That's a topic for another blog.)

Wooly Stars

I have been asked many times to send pictures of my quilts to my family and friends. I figure this is as good a venue to allow anyone who is interested to see some of the quilts I have finished. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of everything I have made. Sniff, Sniff. I hope you enjoy these.

Lemoyne Star

Knots on Point (hand quilted)