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.