Allie's Branson Weekend

We spent two days in Branson a couple of weekends again.  We spent half a day at Silver Dollar City on Saturday and then checked into our hotel and had dinner before going to see Joseph at the Sight and Sound Theater.  The musical was AMAZING.  I can't wait to get to DC and see Noah and Moses at the theater in Lancaster.

 

These pictures are in no particular order and there are a lot of them and they are small since blogger is being mean with sizing and slideshows.

 

We loved the new Saloon Show.  I think Allie wants to grow up and be a Saloon girl at SDC.

 

We always love going in Grandfather's house.

 

Our favorite store in the park has to be the hat store!

 

 

Jaelyn was very happy to finally measure 52 1/2."  You have to be 52" to ride the Wildfire.  Caden was sad.  He's 50 1/2."  Jae had better watch out.  He's about to catch up with her.

 

 

 

A trip to an amusement park is not complete without a funnel cake!

 

 

Allie's main reason for choosing a weekend at SDC was to ride the new Outlaw Run wooden rollercoaster.  It did not disappoint!

 

 

My Parent's Visit

We had fun with my parents.  The kids were in school all week, but that didn't stop us from playing and shopping and of course, eating.  I love trying out new recipes on my parents :).

 

We did a good bit of crafting and some home repair.  My Dad helped me patch the vinyl floor that Gracie chewed up (yea for dumpster diving and salvaged flooring).  My mom help me cut and stretch tshirt yarn for a new rug.

 

 

 

The last Saturday they were here was the basewide yard sale.  We went and got a lot of great things.  I'd been sewing on a portable table that was not sturdy enough.  We found a solid maple table for $35 and the guy even delivered it for us.  I bought my first saw and Dad gave me lessons on cutting down the table so it wasn't quite as wide or as oval.  I don't have a finished picture, but I love my sewing table now.

 

 

 

Happy 10th Birthday Allie!

Allie turned 10 on April 6th.  They are growing up too fast.  Allie continues to be a happy, free spirited girl.  She's also very emotional and dramatic.  I worry about those hard teen years.  Pray :). 

 

We celebrated her birthday several times.  She had the party in Florida, then we had her actual birthday and then she chose a Branson weekend over a party.  I love that Allie always picks family fun for her birthdays.

 

 

Did I post a finished picture of Allie's quilt?  She loves it.

To decorate this cake, we rolled fruit roll-ups into roses and put them all over it.  They turned out really pretty.  Cornstarch is your friend when working with sticky roll-ups FYI.

 

She liked it!

 

I bought Allie a new twirly outfit for her birthday.  No toys from us...she's hit the clothing stage ;).

 

Spring Break - Very Late

I'm getting there.  I've spent the last two weeks trying to catch up on major things I've let slide.  Today is "Blog Morning."  I have until lunch to catch up as much as I can :)

Flipping From New Heigths

My Most Recent Quilt - A Special Gift

April 15th marked one year since my sweet friend, Kendra, had her stroke.  I wanted to mark it in someway for her so I decided to make her a quilt.  In my head, it started out as a lap quilt backed in fleece or flannel, but it grew and morphed into something more.  I think it's my favorite finished project.  The post office did a good job and got it all the way to Alaska on the perfect day.

 

It started with a text to ask Kendra her favorite verse and colors.  She sent me two verses of which I chose the first lines in the 23rd Psalm.  Her favorite colors are purple, green and coral.  I started making it over spring break.  I couldn't wait to get to Florida to a real fabric store as there aren't any lost in the woods.

 

Here's my color scheme.  For this one, I made the letters solid purple and pieced the other fabrics for the background.

 

 

I've been working on my appliquéing techniques so I decided to add a Shepherd and some sheep on the bottom of the quilt.

 

 

The Shepherd's hook...

 

I have a friend that writes with a paint pen for her tags on the back, but I hate my handwriting.  I learned I can run fabric taped to cardstock through my printer.  It's a little wavy, but for writing, it worked great.  Just heat seat it and it won't wash out (I tried before I sewed it on).

 

And the finished quilt...please ignore my hair day!

 

 

 

(and once again blogger will only let me make my first picture bigger arggghhh...click and view the photos in the slideshow to see them bigger!)

In An Attempt to Show Just How Behind I Am

This has been sitting on my desk a long, long time...see the little guy with the pot of gold.  That long!  Caden wrote this story and I think it's amazing for a second grader!  I hope you enjoy it.

 

 

Fun Saturday

Instead of waiting till I can play catch-up (hopefully next week), I've decided I just need to start writing again.

Today was a good day. We woke up to sun and the promise of warm weather. Dan and I both saw snow flurries Friday morning (I was sure I imagined it, but Dan confirmed it for me). Anyway, we started the day cooking cinnamon rolls (a very rare food in our house) in the waffle iron. I saw it on Pinterest ...encase you are wondering, yes, I've become a Pinterest junkie. Anyway, the cinnamon topping stuck to the waffle iron so WHEN we do it again, I'll smoosh two cinnamon sides together (we loved the crispy outside and it was fast - I had 10 cooked rolls in about 5 minutes).

Next up was a geocaching event in Waynesville Park. It was a dud for the adults, but the kids had fun on their scavenger hunt and Gracie enjoyed being out and about.

I spent the rest of the day sewing. I finally sewed the nylon lining in the beach bag my mom made me last summer. I can't wait to use it. Adorable!

I made Allie a peasant dress (Pinterest again) and I sandwiched, quilted and sewed the binding on my Mother's Day present I've been working on for a month. Jaelyn wants me to make her a dress tomorrow. After that, I have the stuff to make me a messenger bag and Dan something (again Pinterest, junkie, I'm telling you), and then I'm starting on Jae's quilt for her birthday. Do you have any good words to describe her personality? She's been a toot lately so most of my words are slightly negative (head strong, contrary, ornery ;) you get the picture).

Silly Rhythm in the Middle of Chipotle

Randomness

Did anyone miss me?  The kids and I went to Florida over spring break and then my parents came home with us and spent another week.  We've had an amazing two weeks, but I'm very behind.  With my long to-do list, I'm hopeful to get my pictures pulled off my camera before our next adventure this weekend :).

In exciting news...Dan got his acceptance to NIU (National Intelligence University) at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, DC.  He mailed off his paperwork today to apply for ACS (Advanced Civil Schooling).  It "should" be just a formality as his Branch has 5 free slots at the university and he's been assigned one of them.  If all goes according to plan, we'll be packing up and heading to Washington the end of July.  I've intentionally not looked at the area, schools and housing, but now it's time to get going on that.  Middle schools worry me the most with Jaelyn.  It's going to be quite an adjustment to go from our teeny tiny little small town elementary school to a huge over populated middle school.  Can anyone say private school???  It would be ideal to find some sort of co-op school where they do the curriculum (because the thought of that totally overwhelms me) and we homeschool a few days a week.  Is there such a thing?  Did I actually just use the term "homeschool" referring to me and Jaelyn?  I need to go pull out a thermometer because I might have a fever.  Anyway, the plan is to live as far out as possible.  Dan's even floating the idea of living in the suburbs of Charlottesville, VA (our next destination after the masters) which is 80 miles from DC and a horrible commute for Dan, but it would put the kids and I stationary for 4 years.  That would be nice.  Pray for us about it...I'm trying not to stress and just know that God's got it all planned out already.

In sewing news...My extension table came last week and I got to quilt with it yesterday.  I quilted an about 40x40" quilt with almost ease (Pictures coming soon).  There was a little bit of folding and resituating, but it was so much easier than without it.  I think I could quilt a much bigger quilt now.  Exciting.  I posted pictures of my word quilts on Facebook and I have several friends who said they would love to buy them.  This might just turn into a small etsy store eventually.  I also got a new sewing table.  I've been sewing on an 8 foot portable table and it's not too stable.  I'm sure the vibration wasn't good for my machine.  The base had a yard sale this weekend.  I found a huge solid maple table for $30.  The guy even delivered it for me.  I bought a jigsaw and cut the two sides down with my Dad's guidance.  That was fun.  Sewing is a dream now.  After I finish the quilt I'm working on, I'm going to make my mother's day present :) and then I have a messenger bag/purse pattern to try.  I've been pursuing Pinterest at night and have so many things I want to make :).

Report Cards came home last week.  Caden had all "mastered" for his skills lists and the girls had mostly As with a couple Bs sprinkled in.  Overall, I'm very happy.  Allie still needs to buckle down more, but we are working with her medicine trying to tame the ADHD monster.  That and pretween hormones kicking in...let's just say the next few years should be fun...not.

Allie turned 10 which will be a post all by its self.  I can't believe both my baby girls are 10.  Time is flying!

Jaelyn finally got her cast off.  Last week, she was severely restricted to no running, jumping, climbing.  She didn't enjoy it, well at the least the days I remembered.  One day, Dan came in asking why she was riding her scooter.  Oops.  My brain is so absent minded sometimes.  I'm exciting to get her back into gymnastics and karate.

My time's up...my to do list is crazy for the day and blogging wasn't on it :p.