Busy, Busy Days

So on Monday, after a very full day of school, my husband surprised the kids by getting off work an hour early. We quickly packed up and went to a local state park, where we fished , roasted hot dogs & made smores and the kids were in heaven. To say we all slept well after such a busy day on Monday would be an understatement. I keep thinking the days will slow down a bit now that school is going, but they seem to be even busier than ever. So I have finished nothing in almost a week now ... and most of the projects require next to nothing to finish either ... maybe I should start drinking soda again, it would certainly help me finish more on my to-do list, lol. I realized I never posted pictures of the things finished in Savannah's room, so here's the first project for her room. I cut out a TON of circles with my cricut to make some bunting for the room. When you can't paint, you gotta make more pops of color wherever you can! Then I saved all the little scraps for another project I'll take some pics & post tomorrow. :)

Winter's Coming ...

Two years ago it snowed on September 15th, last year it was mid-October. Winter's coming ... and who knows how much longer until the snow, wind and freezing temps will arrive. So I am in overdrive right now trying to de-junk and make everything nice and ready for the deep-never-ending winter. And to be honest, I'm torn about whether I want it to come or not ... the flies are driving me batty here ... but it's a LONG 9-10 months of snow ... oh well. So, this weekend my husband was awesome enough to cut up a 4x8 board we got at the auction last year for $5 and make some impromptu shelves for our garage. See the cute shelves in the garage there??? It's part of a HUGE entertainment center ... and for now at least, it's staying in the garage until I can figure out where to put it. LOL. It's taken me two years of de-junking and working with what we had to get the garage this nice & tidy. It may not look like much ... but the fact that we could park the car in there tomorrow feels like a HUGE accomplishment to me! We also fit in some Mother-Daughter craft time ... so exciting to Savannah. I'm hoping to have some time to finish that project this week ... and I'm also trying to hurry up and spray paint everything I want done ... because once the deep-freeze sets in, nothing will get painted for a long, long time.I'm hoping to have a finished picture to show of a project I'm working on tomorrow ... but I guess we'll have to wait & see how the weather co-operates! :)

Boys Room - Mathching Bedding -

I've slowly been collecting plaid fabric for the past year to make all three boys plaid blankets, and eventually I'd like to make a copy of this bedding ... oh I love PBKids! But, for now the two older boys had jean blankets and I wanted to make some matching bedding for Jax's toddler bed. So I pieced together some leftover batting, used some fabulous fabric I already had on-hand and did a simple tied blanket. Last night I sat by Jax's bed while he fell asleep (he's got a nasty head cold right now) and did the binding. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeazy! Not an exact match, but it works, it was free and he absolutely loved it! As soon as he saw me arranging it on his bed, he wouldn't leave it alone, or get out of the picture. What can I say? He's the 4th child, he's territorial by nature. LOL.

Homeschool Field Day!

So in most schools, there is a field day in the spring. But, we don't have spring in Cheyenne. Last year the last snowfall was near the end of May, and I was still wearing long sleeve shirts on some days in June. So, we decided to have a field day for the first day of school (before the snow starts ... some years as early as mid-September)! I wanted to do something fun for the kids, still school related that would get them excited about their upcoming year ... and they had a blast! There were three other homeschool families that we have now met thru church with kids of similar ages, so we all got together to kick-off the year!

Since most schools will sell t-shirts for field day, we decided to tie-dye shirts with kool-aid (main tutorial followed is here), the only bit it didn't add on the instructions, that most other sites had was to pre-soak the shirt in water before beginning. It was pretty crazy trying to do the rubber banding & soaking for each child (and letting them be a part of the whole process) ... but the kids were so excited to see the designs popping out on their shirts! They are now the "cool" pj shirts in our house. :) My husband veto'd the twister idea I had (something about spray painting the grass on the rental just didn't fly with him ... he brought up the whole "grass-going-into hibernation-before growing-out" thing), but the kids had a lot of fun with the water bottle bowling, relay racing, water balloon toss (which quickly became water balloon fights) and the egg race too.We didn't get to make the bubble snakes I wanted to, but we're planning on doing that one tomorrow after school to celebrate surviving the first week. :)

Hunter's new quilt

So one of my very first quilts was made in 2008, as a Valentine's day gift for Hunter. He has always appreciated the handmade gifts, and I let him pick the different fabrics to go with the space ships he requested. I used that FABULOUS retro spaceship fabric ... and I was VERY proud of that creation. I didn't realize that I shouldn't use super stretchy jean material or that the flannel would shrink differently than the cottons ... but I did manage to have most of my points meet up well ... and I was excited to give it to him. But it's only 39" x 50" and doesn't work well for the 8 1/2 year old boy anymore. He's been asking for a new quilt, so the other week I asked him what he wanted ... no surprise, he said a Mario quilt. :) But they don't make Mario fabric, so while I was looking for ideas, he saw this quilt ... and wanted it so badly! Seriously. So after looking at it for a bit, I told him I would make it for him, but it would have to be a birthday present, his main birthday present. And I would have to start on it now to have it done in time ... and he agreed to that! So, now I'm trying in all my "free time" to finish up more projects ... because I have to finish ten before I get started and this quilt feels pretty intense, so I'm wanting to start as soon as possible. EEK!

First Day of School

Today was the first day of homeschool, we decided to kick it off with a fun field day with some other homeschooling families ... the kids had a blast! I'll post pics and more details as soon as I get them edited. :)

Happy Birthday Colton!

My son turned 4 this weekend. Holy cow ... four years ... done & gone. We took him to McDonald's on Saturday, after Ryan took them for an early morning fishing adventure. He wanted a car cake, so I tried ... it won't win any awards, but he was happy with it ... and even more so with the five cars that he got once the cake was eaten. :) This little boy is a light to our family, he's always cracking jokes and he makes me smile on a daily basis with his silliness and humor. I am so grateful for him, and can't imagine our family or life without him! :) Happy Birthday Bubbas!