Ohio and Kayaks

We took a quick trip to Ohio to spend some time with family.  We had an awesome time visiting the "Aunts of Ohio," but of course I didn't take a picture of anything there.  They had a awesome dog that Scout chased all over. Munchkin got over her fear of dogs and loved holding the dog's leash while we went for walks.  We went swimming in Lake Erie, and one of the big highlights for the kids was picking vegetables in their garden.  The kids will eat lots of stuff after they picked it. They even got to dig up sweet potatoes.  We had a great weekend.

We also picked up 2 more kayaks, so now this is a typical sight on weekends.  I am usually out there with them, so it took a while before they went without me and I could take pictures of them.

2 kayaks - 2 carts

 Daddy carrying the 3rd kayak.

 Scout and Daddy in the kayak, Scout loves it.

 All 4 kids and Daddy out playing in the bay, We all love it.

THANKS AUNTS!!

Quilt Top

This is the top of my latest quilt, basically showing it here so my sister can see and critique... now on to basting and quilting it.  I think concentric circles in each block.

Back to work sewing

I am officially back to work now.  I am working a part-time crazy schedule.  Of course I had to decorate my office.  I also needed to use up a bunch of scraps around my sewing room.

I needed a coaster for my coffee cup, so I turned a few scraps into this. (ignore the corner, I had a binding issue)


It works great for my Calvin Mug, this mug is my work coffee cup and is used proudly every day.

 My office is a bare gray cubicle.  It needed a little bit of color.  I took the scraps from the bags I made for the teachers at Christmas and sewed them all together.  Then I added a bright yellow binding.  It is a fun mini-quilt for my cubicle wall.  I may need to make a bigger quilt for the outside wall of my cubicle, it is bare gray and boring.

Cub Scouts Fishing Derby

The cub scouts had a fishing derby, since my kids don't have fishing poles we improvised and Daddy cut down some bamboo poles from the empty lot down the street.  They had a great time and Daddy even caught the biggest fish of the day (11 1/2 inches) with his bamboo pole.  One of the neighbors took pictures from her kayak for us.

 Our rock star in sunglasses.

 Scout didn't fish, but I love this picture of him peaking out from the people.

Reading

I can't imagine this is comfortable, but it didn't seem to bother her.

Concert in the park

We did spend a Saturday night having a family picnic and enjoying a concert in the park.  It was a good opportunity to take some fun pictures.

 Scout is the newest soccer star.

1st Day of School 2013

They are growing up fast and headed into Kindergarten, 2nd grade, and 4th grade.

Buddy will smile sometimes, I had to give him 3 days notice that we were going to have pictures and he was going to smile.

 Or, maybe not

 Still can't get a good picture.

Scout also started day care, and I went back to work part time.  Of course he didn't get any pictures taken.

End of summer 2013

The end of the summer was busy.  We had lots of fun.

A trip to Port Discovery was in the works, this time we brought friends.  It was nice to share one of our favorite places with some friends.  Of course the boys didn't want their pictures taken.  

 We had a few last minute Dr. appointments.  Of course where we take out the camera to entertain children while we wait.

 We had a few dart gun wars around the house.  This little guy is finally figuring out how to play.

It was a great end to the summer.

Buddy is 8!

Birthday's come fast around here.  Buddy turned 8 this week and that means NO CARSEAT! He is very excited about that.  He is growing fast and every time I turn around he surprises me with something. (sometimes good, sometimes bad)  He wanted a sleepover, so we ended up having 3 kids from another family spend the night, then everyone got a friend for the night.

He does hate having his picture taken, so I only have a few when he was busy opening his presents.

 He is hiding under the table ans wouldn't come out to blow out the candles until I put the camera away.

Happy Birthday!

Summer camping

We went camping at New Germany State park and had a great time. The weather was upper 70s during the day and in the lower 60s during the night. It was perfect.  Plus it was the middle of the week, so there were only a few other campers.  We went hiking and swimming in the lake.  We brought the kids bikes and they rode all over the campground.  They met all sorts of people.

Daddy mixing up eggs for breakfast

 Scout checking out the tent in his cute fuzzy pajamas, he loved the tent and even willingly took a nap in the tent.

 Princess however was a little chili and chose to sit with the cornbread at breakfast trying to stay warm.

 Scout thought that all stumps were his personal little chairs.  He loved walking through the woods.

 My boys hiking

 This is a Maryland Terrapin, it was in the nature center.  That mouth is fast and we were warned several times to not put our fingers near him.

 Munchkin and Buddy took a side trail to the top of the hill, we took the bottom trail.  This is Munchkin at the top.

 Our tormentors for the few days were these little bees, amazingly no one got stung, but they were around at every meal. We also had a friendly deer who arrived every night about dinner time.  He was eating the not ripe blueberries growing in the woods near the camp site.

History in Linen

My family is a lot of pack rats.  We keep lots of stuff that most people would not.  I love being able to look through stuff and see the history through it.  Even though the sheer volume of stuff is a little bit excessive.  My mom is going through piles of her stuff and passing it along or getting rid of some of it.  My kids got some cool dress up clothes that my mom had made for me and my sister when we were kids. I got some cool stuff too.

We found this in the bottom of a trunk. I remember shopping at Louis Fashion shop, I think it went out of business in the mid 1980's.

 In it was this.

 We are pretty sure it is my grandmothers wedding underwear.   It is pretty cool.  The bra has very little elastic and has lots of shaping sewn in.  It is beautiful to look at.  My grandmothers wedding dress is very stunning and it fit my sister when she was about 14 years old.  She was a tiny and very fashionable woman. I think my aunt has the dress now.

 The bottoms are very small and the lace is see through.

 The sewing on them is impressive, since the only elastic is around the waist, the bottom is gusseted.

It is a cool reminder of the grandma that I remember and loved.  

Also in the trunk was a few other cool things. 

We think my grandmother volunteered in the war for the red cross. This cross is hand sewn on a linen scarf and is kind of cool. 

There was also a large head scarf with this embroidery.  It was in it's own box and was my grandmothers.  (it does not look like it was ever worn)

It was intended to be mailed to someone.

 It has its own directions for how to wear it.  I am tempted to wear it somewhere, it is pretty cool.

 There were also a whole bunch of clip on earrings. My grandmother never got her ears pierced, and I remember her wearing clip on earrings everywhere.  This is on Munchkin.

 None of them are particularly valuable, but they are pretty cool.

Then there was some other cool linens some of these were boxed and had never been used, like this one.

 with the sticker still on it.

 It is all part of history, and I love it.