C-ville and DC

This past weekend, we went to C-ville to visit some friends.

We left on Friday, grabbed some snoballs and headed north.

Google mapped 3 different routes at exactly 3 hours and 37 minutes, all within a few miles of each other.  I chose the most direct one and we were off.

30 minutes into the trip and I felt like slamming my head up against the steering wheel. 

It was lots of lights, lots of turns, and lots of 25mph postings.

I have a need for speed, and this just wasn't doing it for me.

{Ok, no, I'm not a speed-aholic, but, I don't like being stuck behind people, going unnecessarily slow}

I thought for sure, we were going to be late, and with Laura promising dinner on the table at the designated arrival time, I felt anxious....and hungry.

Much to my surprise, the trip took exactly 3 hours on the dot!

Call me one happy lady, because that's what I was.

We arrived just after 7 to friendly faces and a home smelling of cooking food, mmm.

We relaxed, conversed, ate, gave the kids their presents, and I didn't get any pictures.

Saturday, we woke up, showered, ate a yummy breakfast, drank some Starbucks {ok a lot of Starbucks}, met up with Jenny & Jason, and headed off to the DC Zoo!

I did get lots of pictures of the zoo, so after much deliberation, these are the ones I decided to share...

Don't smile KennaKat, don't do it, Ah you smiled!  Tantrum averted by a camera and disobedience :)

Ice Cream sharing, cooling in the water, daddies and kids, and rock climbing.

Our group of kids: 1- 6 year old, 1- 5 year old, 2- 4 year olds, 1- 3 year old, and 1- 14 month old.
They got along splendidly, played together, laughed together, and had a great day!

Kenna Kat got a baby elephant and named her Joey, they had a lot of fun together.

At every turn, the kids were climbing and sitting together, we didn't even have to ask for these perfect photo ops!

KennaKat LOVES her daddy!

Hop Hop, follow the trail...we did this all day :)

Kids observing animals, and a cute, happy baby, what could be better?

You might be wondering "did you take any pictures of the animals?"
Well, yes, a few, enjoy :)
I don't know why the picture is so small, you may have to open it in a new page and zoom in.

We had a great day at the zoo.

I felt completely miserable {nauseous}, but still enjoyed myself.

It was a culmination of car sickness, espresso, a bad hot dog, aspirin on an empty stomach, junk food, animal smells, a bathroom that smelled worse than animal smells, etc.

Sunday, Laura and I both woke up feeling pretty terrible, so we didn't make it to the meeting.

The kids slept pretty late.

After showering and packing up, we went to the outside mall for lunch and gelato, shortly after, we headed home.

The kids enjoyed the carousel while the daddy's spun them around, and the mommies sat and watched

Our trip has ended, I decided to take the same route home- 3 hours is my shortest time to C-ville, and I've been there a lot!  My weak stomach finally settled on Monday.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Thanks for a great time Laura & Dave!

{we hope to see you soooooon!}

Slip N Slide

Wednesday of last week, we had some friends over to slip and slide.

Although I didn't get any good shots from that day, I thought I would share pictures of all the fun we've had on it this summer so far.

The hubster bought a shock proof, under water camera on sale at Costco.  It has been fun testing it out on the slip n slide with the kids.

Slip N Slides are the best!  I have great memories of having them over summer as a kid.

I've gone down this slip n slide quite a bit, but with my sore back, it really wasn't the best idea.  I just hurt it even more.

{it was worth it}

Best $20, ever!

Play date and pool time

Last Tuesday was a very busy day for us...

Library

Pool

Play Date

Monday Night, D sent out the pool invite, and it was just what we were hoping/waiting for.  We packed up our stuff and headed to the pool after story time.

We joined our friends for lunch pool side and enjoyed the lovely cool water well into the afternoon.

Generally, the kids start getting fussy and that gives the cue to head home, but this time, they kept enjoying themselves, laughing, and playing together, we eventually just had to leave.  Is this a glimpse into how outings with our growing kids will be from now on?  How will we decide when it's time to leave if no tears are involved?  Hmm...

We set up a play date for 'Boy' to join us over at the homestead after the pool and that's exactly what happened.  The kids kept having fun and getting along, that eventually I just had to say "it's getting late, let's take you home".  If this is the way things are going to be from now on, will I just have to set a play time timer?  How will I know when enough is enough without the tell-tell signs of tears, arguments, and toy un-sharing?

The pool had pretty much pooped them out, so we kept the playing indoors.  They built, ran around, laughed, hugged, said lots of "I love you's", played video games, ate all of their dinner, and got along great.  'Boy' even asked when he could spend the night, and when I asked "when do you want to?" he said "RIGHT NOW!!!"  Well, we'll just have to save that for next time!

I love reliving summer through my children.

The endless summer days, the relaxation, the fun, the laughs, the silliness, ahhh the memories!

Monday Service

Last Monday afternoon, 

we met up with Tricia and joined her in service.

It was short, but sweet.

I enjoyed a long call with another sister, and we shared many scriptural points to a group of people who were very interested in learning what the Bible had to say.  

While Tricia kept the kids content in the car.  

Tricia took Ethylwolfe on a RV and they look mighty comfy sitting on that porch don't they?

Date Night, Dinners, Farmers Market

Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together

There is nothing like sitting around and enjoying dinner with family and friends and we've been full of wonderful moments like that this week.

Lisa Pizza had us over to her place for some good food Wednesday night.

We had yummy tacos and good association.

Her sister Lori Story along with her roomies, were there.

Lisa played some awesome beats on the bass

The kids caught Fireflies

It was good times!

This weekend, Ana and Lani came to town.

Saturday, we visited the Farmer's Market, our first time this year.

Nani bought a HUGE bucket of blackberries and made some delicious blackberry cream pies.

Ana's belly has definitely poked out, I can't WAIT to meet my new niece!!

We hung out at M&G's until it was time for our date night.

The kids spent the evening playing with friends and we headed out for some one on one time!

We saw X-men.

{Much better than expected}

For dinner, we had African.

{Good, but definitely NOT real African food}
For dessert, we went to Brightleaf and tried blueberry cheesecake...
it was nasty {I guess NY spoiled us} so we traded it in for a Strawberry Crepe
A nice enjoyable evening with that guy I love :)

Sunday, We headed back over to M&G's 
for dinner with family and friends.


I knew Z&D with their twin girls would be there
But Tricia's presence was a nice surprise.


We enjoyed good food, yuuummmy blackberry cream pie, 
and good friends.


Ethylwolfe & ClaireBear were good buddies as per usual lately
and he made a crown of flowers for her hair.


The kids ended the night by catching fireflies.
The fireflies were aplenty and KennaKat caught about 20...
{no exaggeration}

The new week has already started with lots of fun, and more in store.
I can't wait to share more adventures and pictures.
Tah tah for now.

Tree Decor

Another project the kids and I made is this:

Painted CD tree hangs

We took old CD's and DVD's and painted pictures on them {But left the shiny side alone}

The best idea would be to use outdoor paint, 

I didn't have any, so we painted with regular acrylic paint,

then sealed them with outdoor modpodge.

I hung them from a tree in our front yard.

Every time I come home, I see sparkley bright twirly things that make me happy.

Hot Rocks

Each day, I'm trying to spend time with the kids making art.  

So far, so good.

Yesterday, we painted hot rocks with crayons.

KennaKat got a hold of them and scraped some of the wax off :/

It's so simple, the kids loved it, and begged to do it again.

You heat rocks at 350 in the oven for 15 minutes.

During that time, have the kids tear paper off of crayons

Prepare a heat safe spot for your rocks.

{I put foil on top of a pot holder for easy cleanup}

Also explain to the kids that they will get burned if they touch the rock.

{Have a cup of ice water near by just in case}

Once rocks are hot, start your art.

The crayons melt away as they are placed on the rocks.

The finished product is beautiful, colorful, pieces of art :)

Crayon Meltdown

Ethylwolfe's last day of Kindergarten was last Wednesday.  It was a sad and joyful day.  Sad that my little guy has already finished his first year of school.  But glad to have him all to myself for 6 weeks.  Happy that he learned so much and happy that he has a love for school!

I wanted his classmates to have a nice parting gift because I've come to know them so well and we had such a great year together.  Monday, we threw a pizza party and then Wednesday, Ethylwolfe brought in these awesome gifts.

These are simple and fun to make.

If you would like to make them with your kids, here's how:

Items needed:

Old pieces of broken crayons

Oven safe mold (like a cupcake pan)

**Be warned, after using your molds for this, you can't use them for cooking again**

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 250
• Remove paper from all pieces of crayons
• Break crayons into 1in pieces
• Fill molds with crayons {You can do coordinating colors or random, whatever the kids want.}
• Melt crayons in the oven, approximately 15 minutes depending on number of pieces in each mold.
• Remove mold from Oven and place on a cooling rack.
• Once wax has started to solidify, place in the fridge for 30 min and voila! you have colorful crayon rubs!

We cut up squares from cereal boxes, wrote "have a great summer" and Ethylwolfe handed them out on his own.  The kids LOVED their gifts, and we made extras to have at home.  We used cheap-O crayons and they worked fine.  I hear crayola works better, so maybe we'll try them next time to compare {there will definitely be a next time}.  My kids LOVE using them and they are very proud that they made them themselves.  They are awesome for rubs of plants and large coloring projects.  Have fun!

Snoballs and Spiritual Food

We had our CO visit two weeks ago and it was wonderful!  

KennaKat and I got to work with sister F during the week 

along with many other great friends.

I placed 2 books!

We also had the privilege of enjoying lunch with them twice.

The kids grew really attached by the end of the week.

  

Sister F knew exactly how to handle KennaKat's moods and KennaKat loved her.  Brother F was caught throwing KennaKat up in the air and tickling her before the meeting for service.

Ethylwolfe drew a picture for them with himself, KennaKat, 

and the two of them in the Paradise.

They wrote him a thank you card back.

{He grinned from ear to ear}

 On Sunday, we had Heather, Kaile, and Bryan join us with a meeting attendance of 245! 

We of course, had to take them to get their very first snoballs after the meeting!

Ethylwolfe had fun taking pictures of himself ...and others.

We can't wait until another visit from the F's!!!

~Come back soon~

Family Worship Night

I had to share The Husbster's idea for family worship last week.  He made a little person out of a wire coat hanger.  Then had me draw Spiritual Armor, We each colored a few of the pieces and  attached them. We read Eph.6:14-18, discussed what each one was, why we need it, and then had a quiz game afterwards.

We all really enjoyed it and the kids still remember what they are. Yay!

What are your Family Worship Nights like?

Shirt Flair

I'm slowly but surely teaching myself how to use this antique singer sewing machine that the hubster got me 2 years ago.  I think the idea of tackling a machine that I know nothing about was the number one fear of mine.  The second was, can I make something without caring if my lines are straight?  There are 2 types of people out there...those that can follow a recipe or a pattern or a line just so and those that can't.  I am the can't.  Partly because I don't want to and partly because it's not who I am.  I'm not a measure-er, I'm and eyeball-er... in fact, I put up the shelves in the kids closet by the eyeballin' it technique {I couldn't find a level}{later, when the level was found, it turns out they were level...YES!}.  I know that I am, at times, setting myself up to fail, but when I succeed, I feel awesome!  And I'm teaching myself along the way.

I made the kids crayon holders for the meetings, yeah, they definitely aren't perfect, but I learned a lot and they love them.  I will definitely be making new ones sometime in the future :)

This past Saturday, after I put up the shelves, I sat down and fiddled away on the machine making flowers for more shirts.  I know, it seems flowers are the only thing I can make so far to decorate my shirts, that's because they can be uneven and still usable :)  One day I'll branch away and on to something new, but for now, I'm sticking with flowers...all of my plain t-shirts are going to end up with flowers on them...

I'm learning how to make different flowers, and fiddling with different techniques.

I don't own a lot of fabric so I've been using shirts from my teenage years that are way to immodest to ever wear again.  It has been fun dressing up shirts that I never wore because they were boring.  And including a touch of my silly past.

I also ventured towards altering a few things.

One was a shirt that was too large so I sewed up the sides to fit better.

The other, I was a little nervous about.

I've had this dress for a few years now.  It drove me crazy because the sleeves were twisted and sewn together and it always showed my bra.  It drove me crazy!  Then, under the arms it was open so it ended up showing my bra.  Grr!  I was afraid of messing it up but decided to give it a go.

SO, I snipped the sleeves, untwisted them, shortened them and sewed them together.  Now it's nice and wide  instead of skinny and awkward.  Next, I sewed up the sides and now I'm not showing my bra every time I lift my arm, yay!  

My machine kept getting brain wraps {I call it that because I used to work in a movie theater and that's what we called it when the film fell of the table and got in a huge twisted mess} I don't know what the "proper" sewing term is, but it felt like a thread brain wrap.  After I finished {threw my hands is defeat} the hubster took a look inside the machine.  There was a huge collection of dust inside...yes, it's antique, and a few threads that didn't belong.  So, hopefully all is well, and the next time I sew, I wont have a jumbled mess on my hands.

He says that I have to make something for him now.

How do I make something that's not girly??

The only 2 non girly things that I've made are a piggy bank and pictures of sea life that I painted for Ethylwolfes nursery.

And lets face it, both items could pass for girly.

SO, what to make, what to make?'

I want to make the guys ties but I am SO not there yet.

Any suggestions???

Happy Tuesday!!

Mosaic'ing it up

I've been quite the busy girl lately.

If you come into my home, you will only find a few random things that I've personally made.

My home doesn't quite speak what I love to do most.

And that is that I LOVE making stuff.  

But the catch is that I love making stuff for others.

And my world is filled with people that I want to make stuff for.

The past few weeks, I have been making two mosaic plaques.

One for Kristyn's dad and family as a big thank you for taking us into their home while we enjoyed our NY experience.

The other, for M&G who so lovingly cared for our children for 6 days while we enjoyed our NY experience.

Keeping it a secret is tough because I love talking about what I do or want to do.

Not blogging about it, very difficult.

But I'm done now, M&G received theirs last night at dinner and Kristyn's family doesn't read my blog, so I'm safe there.

I'm always nervous about whether or not people will like what I make for them.

I can only hope they will like them as much as I enjoyed making them.

A big shout out of thanks to my husband for reassuring me {over and over and over again} and for encouraging me to do better.
Oh how I love thee.

One Room Down...

Unfortunately no, this mess has not been staged.

The kids toy room was completely out of hand, without proper storage areas it would quickly change from clean to disaster in less than a day.

After wanting to put shelves in the closet for months now, I finally got around to doing it.

{All by myself!}

The metal rack that is shown to the right of the closet used to serve as the toy storage area, but it was unstable and couldn't fit all of the toys on it.  So, it has been disassembled and most toys are now stored inside the closet.  The rest of the room has been rearranged.

I hung a really long shelf on the wall in front of the art table.

I have been searching my head for ideas on how to display the kids art work in a cool inexpensive way.

As I was purchasing supplies for hanging the shelf, it came to me.

I'll use the individual sides of the metal rack, hang them from the shelf, 

and make a display wall.

So, that's what I did.

Now it looks like a real art space instead of a random table shoved in the corner.

I also put a small shelf above the kids kitchen that I made a few years ago, and I'll eventually put some hooks underneath to hang the cooking utensils.

The space is nice and clean for now.

We got rid of 5 boxes worth of stuff{toys and trash.

It has survived for 2 whole days without disaster or mess.

Now that everything has a place, hopefully cleanup will be much easier.

We'll see :)

I still want to repaint the room.

I want to paint the entire room in chalkboard paint, but hubby says no.

I know I'll atleast have different sections of the wall designated for that purpose.

So, one room down, the rest of the house to go.

The past few weeks, I have been going through the house trying to organize, throwing things away, and simplifying.

Notice I didn't say cleaning...hah, yeah, I need to do that too.

Science Share

I can't believe I forgot to mention 

the Science Share!

In the beginning of May, Ethylowolfe's school had its yearly Science Fair (but they call it a share, because it's not a competition, it's just whomever wants to share something sciency, may come and do so.)

Ethylwolfe's project of choice was about capacity.

He made several different shaped aluminum boats and filled them with pennies to see which one would hold the most.

He made a hypothesis, charts, we took lots of pictures and made a large display filled with what he learned.

Of course the one shaped like the arc won!  Holding over 200 pennies!

Several of his friends stopped by for support along with Guncle Paycake {I miss him calling him that}, and Nani and Papa.

There were tons of cool projects on display.  Ethylwolfe found it way more cool to walk around and look at other stuff than explain his project over and over again :]

I forgot to wrap up May...

We've been so busy that I forgot to give a nice little wrap up for the month of May.

Before I do though, what do you think of the remodeled site?

I'm thinking maybe a new look every few months?

What do you think about the tunes?

{So this is May}

A Black Swallowtail Butterfly laid eggs on one of Garry's dill plants,
so he gave it to us to observe the metamorphosis.

Unfortunately for us {and them}, the last remaining caterpillar died the day after we got back from NY so we didn't get to complete the observation :(  But here is one plump little guy right before we left for our trip.

We siblings met up for dinner in Gboro, I didn't get many pictures but here are a few....

{I really need to be better about getting everyone in pictures}

We had another date night.

Painted some pottery

{Husband refused & contented himself by watching me}

Ate at Carrburritos

{One of my favorite places, mainly because of the homemade flour chips and chipotle salsa}

Then we enjoyed some of the sights of C-hill until our time was up.

{My completed pottery piece}

A trip to the mall with Nani

{Yes, I am now aware that I only took pictures of KennaKat}

Our first meeting after we returned from NY, 2 very sleepy kids :)

Ready yourself for a load of pictures....

The last Saturday of the month, we went to our friends house.

Several families got together and rented tons of awesome stuff...

Water slides, bounce house, regular slide, popcorn maker, 

and a cotton candy machine.

The kids had a blast, and I got camera happy :)

This completes our month of May, or atleast the parts that I took pictures of.

Have a lovely day :)