Boys and their toys

After Memorial Day and having to boil our hot dogs on a propane burner, Sean has been making noises about a table top grill. So I thought, "great! a gift for Father's Day." Luckily he didn't buy one for himself, as he's been known to do with presents I want to get for him. As you can see int he background, we have a rather large, nice gas grill. But, nope, he wanted to cook on the little charcoal one.

He was impatient, so the coals weren't ready when he put the food on and he had to maneuver stuff around. I have to say, it tastes better than the stuff off the gas grill, although grilling period is better than cooking in the house! And we even had coals left over for s'mores when we were done. Yum. Nothing like a good roasted marshmallow over charcoal. tasty!

Fairie houses & imaginary friends

Abby's grammy gave her a book about fairies and has her convinced that the little people are real :) So when she came over Abby wanted to build a fairie house. And me, being who I am (some have seen my tattoo and understand what I'm talking about) was all for it :) Sean is kinda worried, he thinks she is a little old to be believing in fairies. I say, why not? There are worse things to believe in, right?

So we took a piece of fabric and glues sticks to it, so it was like the fairies would have cool wall paper. I have about 20 rubber stamps of fairies and Abby stamped most of them and sat and colored them.

When she was done with them she cut them out and put 2 in the house so that they could have paintings :)

Melanie & Kenny's wedding AKA Wedding #2

For some reason, people in my family like to get their pictures taken with their tongues sticking out. Hmmm.

Stella waiting for her turn to walk down the aisle. The 3 flower girls, such cuties :)Bridesmaids Groomsmen & Groom

Melanie & her father walking down the aisle

Bobby wanted to run around during the ceremony. Candy has to slow him down. Ernie read a scripture after Melanie came down the aisle Exchanging ringsThe girls were getting a little bored standing up front. Melanie and Ken filled a jar full of 2 different colors of sand. Pretty cool. I guess it's kind of like the unity candle that is lit in other weddings.
Mr & Mrs. Kenneth Wolf
Afterwards we were given bubbles to blow. Slight problem though, no idea when to blow them. So we all stood around wondering when we were going to shower the bride & groom with bubbles. Uh, we didn't.
The kids loved the bubbles even though they weren't very good at getting the bubbles out. Bobby & Aunt Edie

Sewing projects

I made a dress for Abby for the wedding we are going to on Saturday. I actually had it cut out last summer for her, just never got it made. Luckily for me, she grew up and not out :) It fits pretty well, I think.After I got done I had some fabric left over. Sabrina wanted to make something so I used my handbag pattern and had her read the directions to make it. I figured if the home-ec teacher can use it for her beginning sewers it's a good place to start.

She hates the iron.

Finished product. Looks lovely for a first attempt doesn't it? Although the picture isn't that great. The only thing I'd do different is not help so much. I've made the bag so many times that I just told her how to do some of it, without having her read the next part. I should have let her go and then when she had questions she could come ask me. o well. live and learn, right? I'm hoping that she will bring her sewing machine over this summer so that i can help both of them with a project at the same time. Abby was getting upset that she didn't get to work on something.

The next day I helped Abby make an even simpler purse. Just a little draw string bag that matches her dress. I never realized how hard it was to sew a straight line. I'll have to ask my mom how bad I was when I first started out. I can't imagine that I was any better. :)

Here is the final product. Not bad, eh? I'm hoping the iron hasn't scared her off. I think the novelty is still high enough that she will be back for more even though she will have to use the iron again. Sometimes she is such a scaredy cat!

Audubon Nature Reserve

The first official day of summer (as the girls kept reminding me) we went to the Nature Reserve that is near us. I was really surprised, cause I had no idea it was even there. And I'm supposed to be the environmental freak. O well. Both girls had a camera and were snap happy :) They were taking pictures of all the flowers. The funniest thing was when we encountered birds or chipmunks or dragon flies, they didn't think to take a picture. ha.

A little area in the forest. I thought it was pretty cool cause it was shady and the sun was coming down in this one area through the trees.
Our first snack break. The girls picked the long trail. Not sure why, but they did. About half way through Abby was ready to be done. They picked this log to sit on and eat their snacks that we brought with us.

The second snack stop was at a part of the trail that's called the tree topper. The reason is because it's in the canopy and you are about 15 or 20 feet off the ground. Pretty cool. The girls decided to do a "spit test." Uh, I have no idea, that's what Sabrina called it and then proceeded to spit over the edge. Never said these 2 were a bunch of sissy's. :)

Abby on the trail. It was a really nice trail, well maintained. We didn't see much, I'm thinking mostly cause the girls were talking. THE ENTIRE TIME! Closer to the end they were more quiet, I'm thinking that was just cause they were tired. The middle part of the trail was uphill for a ways. nice.

At the end there is a nice little pond. The girls stopped and looked at some of their pictures before we left. Abby was grateful for the chance to sit down. She was really tired afterwards.

After the pond we went through a small meadow that had lots of dragon flies in it. They were sitting on this fence. One more reason to be grateful for my new camera. I got these pics right before the dragonflies took off.

Really cool place to go. And it's free. Nothing better :) Next time I'll have better directions to, so it won't take as long to get there and I won't be mad on the way.

Summer has begun

Abby & Sabrina's last day of school was Tuesday. It was hot, they wanted to cool off, so we set out the snake sprinkler. These girls NEVER use things the way they were intended. Sabrina ususally has the crazy ideas, and Abby follows right along :) They usually use the snakes to hose each other down. They actually take turns and try to "run" away from the other. Or something along those lines. Who knows, really! Well this time the game changed because I gave them a large tub.

First they filled it, then they stood in it. Then they stuck their heads in it. Then they sat in it. I got this picture before they ralized I was out there snapping away :) Once they realized I was taking pic's they ran. ha
Then Sabrina got the bright idea to make "mud puddles." Find an area without grass, point the snakes, and fill with water. The stomp in it to make mud. Then paint legs with mud. Nice, ain't it? The best part is that Sean has told them before not to do this cause it makes nasty holes in the yard. They seemed to have forgotten that part.

What cracks me up about this is when we were young Candy and I were playing in a mud puddle and we were supposed to be going out to the garden with Mom. She told us to get out of the puddle, but it was so hot and the puddle was so cool, and we didn't want to go tot the garden. So we ignored her, one too many times. She said she would send us to bed early. And she did. We missed the Donny & Marie show. We were MAD!! Amy got to watch it and we didn't. How sad :)

Abby's field day

Abby had field day at school today. It is nothing like what we used to have when I was in elementary school. This is a day to get wet and play outside. The very first game they played was a water game where they threw sponges full of water over a tarp covered volleyball net. And got soaked in the process. Then they moved onto kickball. After the water, they went to the field, where they got covered in dirt. That turned to mud. Fun to clean up! The field day was supposed to be on Tuesday, but was postponed because it was supposed to rain, which it didn't. But it was warm on Tuesday. Not the case today. It was cold and it did rain early in the day. I don't think the kids even noticed.

Next was capture the ball. AKA capture the flag. There was no strategy amongst these 3rd graders, none whatsoever. Kinda funny.

The second round the entire red team ended up in the "jail" with no one to get them out. So one of the parents on the side lines jumped in a freed a few.
Then inside for dodgeball. This girl throws like a girl! We'll have to work on that :)

Then the fireman's game or something like that. It was also known as the over under game. They had to fill a gallon jug with water from a bucket at the other end using only a cup that they passed from one end of the line to the other going only over their heads or under their legs. And the cups had holes in the bottom.
The water was cold and Abby's friend Elena sometimes wasn't paying attention. So the water would go down Abby's back. :)

The last competition was tug-o-war. Abby's class won both times. I'm not sure it if was sheer numbers that helped them win or the big kid on the end!