The Birthday Shirt

It's me again. How are you doing on this lovely fall day? We are doing well. Playing catch up on some home and school work after being away for a week.

Some of our summer fun included our youngest's 11th birthday. She had a MineCraft party that I pulled ideas from lots of other people on the internet for. I spent a bit of time looking through those photos trying to decide which ones to blog about, and as I did, I came across her birthday shirt photo and thought I would share the idea with you. (I will post the party photos later). I bought a large sweatshirt and painted a present on the front with fabric paint. Each year we take photos of the kids in it on (or sometimes, around) their birthday to see how much they've grown. As a military family, this has worked great since we moved so often and didn't have a permanent place for a growth chart. The only thing I would change is to buy an extra large, or make sure you get one from the men's department. Our son outgrew the shirt in his early teens.

 I went through my files and found her past birthday shirt photos. Sigh. Time moves way too fast for this mama.

Ignore the date on this photo. I didn't have my camera set up properly.

1st Birthday--trying to climb out of the shirt.

This was her 2nd birthday.

 We had some issues a couple of years. A couple of them we forgot to take the birthday shirt photo, one year we were moving, and then there was a computer failure. :o(

Apparently I had good intentions. That's the shirt behind her, but I can't find a photo of her in it.

Wow, has she changed over the 2 last years! She's looking less and less like a little girl, and more and more like a young lady. I am so blessed to be able to home school her and spend most of my day with her, teaching and training, and just having fun together. And, while I'm looking forward to watching her continue to grow, right now I think I need to go snuggle with her while she's still wanting to snuggle with me.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings

Summer Fun Part 2--A Little Late

So, yes, I realize summer is long over. In fact, we've already had our first snow fall here, but I thought I would catch up on some of the fun things we did this summer before I move on to October's happenings.

We were able to meet up with one of our friends as she was flying through our area one afternoon. We decided a trip to the zoo would be perfect that day. I took quite a few photos, but I thought I'd just show you some of our favorites.

 Our zoo also has a conservatory with lots of different plants.

 These are the most unusual flowers I think I've ever seen.

We also spent an afternoon at one of the local county fairs. Actually, Mike and I were asked to be judge and technician for the talent show at the fair, otherwise, we might not have gone. Michelle was able to enjoy a couple of the rides and snacks, of course. 

And here's a couple of random fun photos for the summer. Michelle was making her favorite dinner (kielbasa with mac-n-cheese) while I worked on a cake. She got the awesome hat at a birthday party earlier in the year and loves to wear it whenever she can. 

One afternoon, Michelle and her friend spent several hours playing outside with their new "pets". Looks like quite a feast they were having there.

I did pick berries again this year, but there weren't very many. Not sure why since we had a LOT of rainfall. I think Layla picked more burrs on each trip out than I got berries.

Whew! That's it. I finished up our summer adventures. Maybe I'll have some time tomorrow to catch y'all up on October's.

September Recap

Hello there. Did you know it is now October? Seriously?!? What happened to September? It was just here, I know it was, I even have photos to prove it. Maybe I should share a couple of my favorite ones with you today and I can finish Part 2 of Our Summer Fun later.

Last week I was sitting across the table from my ever-so-diligent student as we worked on her language arts work. I was reading aloud and she was supposed to be following along. In my peripheral vision, I noticed a lot more movement than was required for silent reading and looked up to see what she was doing. I was totally ready to quiz her on what "we" were just reading when I saw this.
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I have to say I never got the "quiz" questions asked. I was too busy giggling. :o) This one definitely keeps things interesting.

One of our first days of school was quite chilly, so we had to have some hot cocoa. Of course, hot cocoa is always better with marshmallows, sprinkles, and doodles. Do you notice the notebook on the table? She has one of these in every color we could find. She's named our home school, HGU--Henderson Glitter University.

Most of the other pictures I took last month were of scenery, because, honestly, I can't help myself. It's just too beautiful this time of year not to.

Do you remember the trees from my Garden Love post? This is what they looked like about a week ago. It's been raining the last few days so I think a lot of the leaves from the yellow tree are gone now.

 Sunrise:

 Sunset:

I can't finish the September post without introducing you to our newest family member. Meet Smokey. Michelle's friend's cat had 4 kittens and we decided this one needed to come live with us.

We're still having some issues between him and his canine siblings, oh, and the fact that he's a MAJOR distraction to school work, but all in all, he seems to be settling in with us just fine.

Yep, I think they're going to be the best of friends.

I'm going to close this here. Michelle is almost done with her school work for the day and we've got an apple pie to go make. Yum!

Till next time...

God's love and blessings!

Summer Fun Part 1

Where has the summer gone?!? It's actually only the middle of August here, but I've noticed some of the trees are already starting to put on their autumn attire. Sigh. I love fall, but I'm just not quite ready for it yet. Especially since my tomatoes have JUST begun to ripen. I hope to enjoy a few more summer time bar-b-q's and yummy summer salads.

We've done some fun stuff this summer. Michelle and I met up with some friends several times for various "field trips" to the museum, swimming pool, or just to get some ice cream. One of the favorites was the museum.

 Why, yes, my daughter is wearing sweat pants. It was a bit rainy and chilly that day, and she has grown almost 2 inches since spring and out grown most of her pants. Definitely going to have to do some shopping before the really cool weather hits.

Does anyone else feel really old when they go into a museum? You know, when you see one of your child hood toys behind a glass display? Sigh again. Life really is moving too fast for me.

We also had several friends over for a 4th of July bar-b-q and fireworks. 

Michelle and I went to our first Summer Camp this year. 

Our silly dog tried to tag along with us. Sorry, Layla, no dogs allowed at this camp. 

Yeah, I think she had a good time. ;o) 

Mike got to go with us to the zoo, and we're planning a trip to the aquarium with him tomorrow. It is his last day off before officially starting as a teacher this year. I'm so proud of him and all the hard work he's done. I know he's going to be an awesome teacher. 

Well, I think I'll wait and post photos of those trips a bit later. Right now I've got to go make some salsa and freeze some beans from the garden. 

Till next time...

God's love and blessings!

Garden love

Sigh, I love this time of year. Actually, I love all the different seasons here, but right now, I love this one. It always amazes me how quickly things green up here. One week we have a foot of snow on the ground and a couple weeks later, everything is green and blooming. Here's a shot from my hammock at the beginning of May:

And here it is today. Simply amazing how all those leaves just pop out of those branches so quickly.

We've had an amazing amount of rain this year. Our creek hasn't quit flowing yet. Every time it gets down to a trickle we get a couple more inches of rain and it starts flowing strong again. Pretty cool to listen to at night.

This is the dock at our little lake here in town. Yep, that's a bit higher than usual.

All this rain has made my garden really fill out nicely. My dad gave me the cute little boy and girl figures in this photo for Christmas. We set these up just before everyone arrived for our son's wedding at the end of May. Mike cut the stumps for me based on my measurements.

Apparently, I didn't measure very well. I moved the flower pot from the middle stump and stacked the short one on top so the girl wasn't completely hidden in the peonies. Good thing we've got plenty of downed trees on the property so he can cut me some new, taller ones later.

Aren't they cute though?

Here's my bed from the deck 2 weeks ago:

And here it is now.

I love how the flowers are filling in. Most of these are perennials we found around the property and transplanted here or were given to us from friends. The columbines I found in the woods as tiny little things got huge this year! The peonies have lots of flower buds that are just beginning to bloom. My lilies should be blooming sometime next week, I think, and they also have a lot of buds on them. And, my favorite, the daisies are beginning to bloom. :o) It's a hodge-podge of flowers, but I love it.

I thought I'd share these cool tulips I planted last fall. Love the coloring on them.

What about you? Do you have any garden projects in the works? I'll have to get out and get some photos of the veggie patch to share. We tried a few new things up there and they seem to be working well. Hoping we didn't get things planted too late in the year to be able to harvest before the first frosts come, though.

I actually have a rather free afternoon so I think I will get some of the crafting done I've been wanting to do, but haven't had time for.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!