Carving Pumpkins

We decided that we'd better get to carving pumpkins if they were going to be ready to be lit up for Halloween night.  Since Halloween fell on a Saturday, it saved our bacon this year!  We didn't have a lot of time the week leading up to it, so we spent the afternoon carving.

Zander's pumpkin that he picked out was full of sprouting seeds!  We've never seen anything like that before.  It was pretty cool!

Crazy stuff right there!

It was nice that this year the kids are getting a little older and can handle more on their own. I only really had to help Eli and Lindey, and supervised or did touch up work on the other kid's pumpkins.

Zander carved his own face design.

Morgan found a squirrel! Right up her alley. :)

Micah carved one of the Teen Titans.  He was pretty excited about it.

Lindey's little pumpkin turned into a sweet kitty cat.

We had a great time carving, and I, personally, am glad that's done! Whew! It's quite a project to get all 6 kid's pumpkins carved.

October 31, 2014



Jr. Jazz

I decided that since this was the last day of Jr. Jazz that I probably ought to take my camera and get some pictures of the kids playing. Every Thursday was very long.  With four kids playing we lucked out getting each their own time slot with none of them overlapping by playing in the other gym.  Nothing like four hours at the high school each week!  We had many a picnic dinner outside by the car. :)

Micah's coach was Kristi Brady.  He was always willing to listen so he could do better.

I loved watching the 1st graders play their game after practicing.  They got into it and didn't always remember to dribble.  It was funny.

Morgan's group actually had practices during the week and played games on Jr. Jazz day. Her coach was Tyler Bastian.

Zander's team was getting the rules down by the end and actually played some decent games. His coach was Luke Shorts.

He loved doing jump balls and usually tipped it to his team mates!

Ian loves basketball.  We went from playing Jr. High ball to Jr. Jazz without a break.  We've been running him to practice since November!  Needless to say, we are glad that Jr. Jazz is coming to an end. He was coached by his Jr. High coach, John Corrigan.

It is fun to watch the kid's skills improve over the few weeks they play.  

April 24, 2014

Easter

April 20th was Easter Sunday.  The kids always love waking up to see what is in their baskets from the Easter Bunny.

When Ian and Morgan woke up Lindey, they said, "Come on, Lu! The Easter Bunny came!" This did not sit well with her and she almost started crying.  She did NOT want to come see what he brought her. LOL (She's had a rough few days with people in Animal costumes.  First McGruff at the Safety Fair and then the Easter Bunny at the Park for the Community Easter Egg Hunt. They freak her out a bit--the thought of the Easter Bunny in our house really freaked her out! Lol)

Morgan was excited to get a jump rope (she and her friends have been doing this at school during recess recently) and some paint by number pictures.

Ian loved his Bacon flavored sunflower seeds--does the Easter Bunny know him, or what?

Zander got a flying saucer and both he and Ian got little bats and balls to play their made up Ninja game outside.

Once Lindey discovered that the Easter bunny was not still in our house, she warmed right up to her basket.  Who doesn't like candy for breakfast on Easter morning?

Eli got a new car and some bubbles in his basket.

Micah and the girls got some sidewalk chalk to use.  They were all very excited about their gifts. :)

Happy Easter!

Levi Quilts

Well, I finally did it!  This has been a project on my to-do list for 3 or 4 years now.  I wanted to make Levi quilts for the boy's room bedspreads.  I wanted them all to match, but have their own spin on them by how I cut the Levi and the material on they back be their own choosing.  I saved Levi for many years, and was surprised that of the four boxes I had saved I only used one of them cutting out all four boy's quilts!  I decided that if I was going to do it that I might as well make quilts for the girls too.  Morgan and Lindey were so excited when I told them they'd be getting one too.  It was quite the project and it took me a few weeks to get them done, but I am so glad I did it!  The kids all sleep with their quilts and drag them all over the house. Lol--so much for the bedspread idea.

Ian choose a black and white checker for his quilt. He really wanted green and black check, but I couldn't find any.  The fun part about saving the Levi for so many years was that I was able to use pockets from some of Ian's favorite pants. When he saw his quilt all laid out, one of the first things he said was, "You saved my dragon pants??  I loved those!" :)  Made me smile (it's the square by his knee, by the way). Ian's quilt is made from 8 inch squares.

Teenagers--always have to pull faces as you snap the picture. Lol What a goob!

Morgan was so excited about her quilt as well.  I had pants from when she was 4 or 5 that had some fun flowers stitched down the leg, and sparkles.  Perfect for her.  When I asked her what kind of fabric she was going to choose for the backing, she said, "Squirrels!"  She really likes squirrels. Lol  I was worried that we wouldn't be able to find any because it was spring, and after looking online, I could only find a fall squirrel with yellow and orange leaves, or a really ugly pink squirrel.  Nothing that fit my cute girl.  We went to Scrapbook USA in March and went looking at my Aunt Paula's favorite fabric store. Morgan found this woodland animal fabric.  It has deer, foxes, bears, birds, and yes, squirrels! (And they are cute and pink at that).  I was so glad we were able to find something to her liking. Morgan's quilt is made out of 6 inch squares.

I guess it's not just teenagers...lol

When we went to pick out Zander's backing fabric, he went straight to this blue and said, "I like this one!"  That was easy. :) Zander's quilt is made of horizontal stripes that are 5 inches, 7 inches, and 9 inches wide.

Micah picked out a Black fabric with a blue circular design on it.  His quilt is made up of  9 x 12 inch rectangles.  I decided to make his quilt fade from dark to light using the color of levi.  Kind of a fun twist.

Silly boy!

Eli knew right away that he wanted green fabric on the back of his quilt.  He found this lime green and was so excited about it. His favorite animals are Alligators/Crocodiles and his favorite color is green, so I'm not surprised by his choice.  Eli's quilt is made up of 5 inch, 7 inch, and 9 inch stripes like Zander's quilt, but I made the stripes vertical. 

Lindey's quilt is 8 inch squares like Ian's.  Since she is our last baby, I cut up the maternity pants I wore while I was pregnant with her.  Some of her pockets have a little stork on them. :)  When asked about her fabric she said she wanted pink and purple flowers.  We searched long and hard in the fabric store for just the right one.  She was easily swayed, and picked out five or six different fabrics before settling on this cute pink one.  It had her pink and purple flowers, so she was a happy princess.  I love watching her lug her quilt all over the house. It's so heavy that she can barely pull it from room to room! :)

Now trying to get all the kids to cooperate and get 1 decent picture with their quilts was nearly impossible.

They kept hiding under them, pulling faces, and just being plain silly!

We had a lot of fun doing this photo shoot and being silly together while Dad napped. :)

Thanks, Ms. D for letting me be in a couple of pics with the kids and their quilts.  It was a labor of love and I know they love their quilts.  It was soooo worth it! :)

I love this crazy bunch!!

The last stitch went into the final quilt on April 9, 2014.

Our fun and silly photo shoot took place on April 20, 2014.