Upcoming Fun

(This is Bret and Eva last year at Me and My Gal Camp for Girl Scouts)

Monday, May 31 - we march in the Memorial Day Parade
Monday, Jun 7 - Lily starts day camp for the week
Monday, Jun 7 - Swim Team continues
Monday, Jun 7 - MWF craft day at the park begins
Sunday, Jun 13 - TACamp for the Girl Scouts
Tuesday, Jun 15 - Lily's dance classes start
Sunday, Jun 27 - begin Residence Girl Scout camp for Brenda and Bret

Kick-Off at the Library

The kickoff to the library summer reading program was today. We showed up to decorate blank journals. The girls were so excited to participate in this. And do you know who showed up to do this?? NOBODY. We were the only ones there. Was there something going on this weekend that I wasn't invited to??

and the POOL opens again!!!

When Marley found me this morning, she was already bugging me that today is the day the pool opens. We went in the morning, then again in the evening. I don't like to get them in the sun for too many hours in a row in the first few weeks of the pool. They will almost definitely burn. We even convinced Big Bret to come to the pool with us in the evening. He just sat out and read a magazine, but still it was nice to have him there with us. And I sat with him and worked on my new sweater while the kids wore themselves out. And so for that, the day was a success.

Though, for the first day of the pool being opened, there was not even a full crowd at the pool! I don't get this town sometimes. What kid wouldn't want to spend their summer at the pool??

Feild Day

Yeah, I know I spelled it wrong. We homeschoolers don't know how to splel. We typically don't socialize our kids. We generally don't have good educational tools. And further more, we think we are better than everyone else, so we keep our kids away from public educated kids...

Just kidding of course. Anyway we had field day last Friday. I asked Laura, who sets field day up every year, how many years we have been doing this. This is the 6th annual homeschool field day. Brenda and Bret were so small the first year that they didn't participate. It was just the boys. The girls played at the park.

The kids always have a blast. Even Gaige showed up so he could hang with his old homeschool friends. He didn't get the red shirt memo evidentally. lol.

So there was dizzy t-ball, skateboard racing, an obstacle course (this was new this year), and the soccer kick. After lunch were the relays: there was the potato sack relay, the relay where the kids all take off their shoes and put them in a pile then race one at a time to put their shoes on and run back to their group, and the relay where they crawl under eachother's knees. Then the ever-favorite waterballoon toss and fight to cool everyone down.

As you can tell by Bret's and Sophia's cheering, their team the "Purple Beave-Coons" (don't ask) won. A fun filled day, to say the least.

Baby Doll

Lily and I playing with our babies together. They are a family.

Filling Up

Brittany, wanting to start eating healthier, picked up a book that a friend loaned to me called Vegan with a Vengeance. She flipped through recipes telling me how good some of them looked. That got me on a cooking spree again.




So far my Tempeh Bacon was tasty! Except it called for fresh garlic. I know better than to cook with fresh garlic. It doesn't agree with me. I should have switched to powder. That and it looks more like sausage, doesn't it??



And my Asparagus and "Not So" Sun-Dried Tomato Frittata was fabulous. (It is "not so" Sun-dried tomatoes because I couldn't find sun-dried tomatoes and opted for cherry tomatoes as a replacement.) Yum yum.

The kids had chicken rice stir-fry that Josh and Brittany cooked up for everyone else. I didn't even miss it. :-)

Poor Lily

I always say "Poor Lily" because the girls always have their activities and friends over. They have their schoolish work they like to do. And Lily sits around waiting to be part of anything. The girls are always pushing her away, complaining about how she is getting into their things. And she just wants to be part of everything.

Well is finally old enough to do some big kid things too.

She is going to day camp for a week in a couple weeks at a farm where she will care for plants, make food the old fashioned way, do crafts and games out in the wide open air with the new friends she will make.

Then, I just found out that our PTA Dance Company is doing 6 weeks of dance in the summer so I signed her up for tap and Ballet for $35.00. That's right, 6 weeks of lessons for both Tap and Ballet for $35.00. Brenda and Bret will be gone too much to be signed up, so this is Just For Lily.

Plus she is on swim team now. She has been swimming since she was 2 and can swim the length of the pool so she will be swimming with the team MWF and swimming meets TTh through July.

Hopefully she will start to gain some of what the girls have that she yearns for so badly. Hopefully.

Tie Dying Week

So I decided to tie dye bandanas with Bret's troop for their last meeting. Blue and red and we would wear the bandanas at the Memorial Day parade so everyone could tell our troop apart from the rest. (Brenda was not amused.) But afterwards I had the rest of the dye left over. I decided to tie dye a shirt of my own so I could match with the troop, and I set up shirts for my girls to dye as well. We are finally out of dye from THIS kit. And we each have a shirt to wear that we dyed ourselves. The red looks a little pink, but otherwise the dye seems to keep a lot better than other tie dying experiences we have had in the past.

Girl Scouts is officially over for the summer. Well, except we have Troop Adventure camp in three weeks, Brenda and Bret are going to resident camp (they call it away camp since they will be away from me at camp which doesn't happen often) at the end of June. Brenda to Adventure Camp and Bret to You Can't Do That At Camp Camp. We will run the Girl Scout booth at the 4th of July festival. And there is that pool party in August. But other than that Girl Scouts is over for the summer. Tehehehe.

Girls At Church

This was kids recognition day at church. The girls each got up on stage to be recognized. I stayed in the nursery to hang out with the kiddos. Afterwards there was the Family Fun day. Games, face painting, food (they have a special grill for non meat foods :-), and just all around fun. Elenor came to eat with me and talk for a bit. I just think she is the sweetest little thing I have ever met! Here are the girls together looking joyous when it was time to leave.

Bret Made Me Kabobs! :-)

As you probably know, I seldom eat meat or meat products. I switched my eating habits a few years ago when I told a vegan person I met that it is too expensive to buy all those vegan products to replace the animal products we eat in the home. He outlined for me how I could just eliminate the meat and meat products and continue eating everything else I eat and still be healthy. I had never heard it put that way or thought of it like that. Suddenly I had a new way of looking at things.

Well as you probably know, I cook for 8 in my house and so my food is often sitting next to plates of meat and cheese and milk based dressings, etc. It was sweet the other day when Bret made Kababs and came up with a whole plate filled with vegetable kabobs. Everyone else got deer kabobs from his kill this last fall.

Lily on Swim Team??

Lily has joined swim team with her sisters. She has been swimming since she was 2. She has been able to swim across the pool since she was 3. Now she is 4 and she will swim with the team. Pretty cool. Pictures to follow.

I Can Do This

Lisa, my exercise buddy, my Girl Scout leader at my side, my friend that is happily glutton to any of my ideas, got me this new knitting book for my birthday. I can make socks, hand mitts, sweaters, surely I can make these beautiful dolls for me and Lily to play with. Certainly I can... right? Getting right on it. Her birthday is only 6 months away. And I need every minute!

Music Is Magic

So when we went on the Art Walk a few weeks ago, I met this most magical artwork by a lady named Juli Ryan. And I just loved it! I came home touting how happy this art made me. All of it.

So for my birthday, to my utter suprise, was my Music painting wrapped up for me. Plus the kids book she wrote too... The Sleep Fairy and Her Magic Sheep. Brittany took Lily out shopping. Lily gave me a small statue girl which she has claimed for her own now. And they baked me a cake.

And the lovely Brittany and Josh have cleaned the house for me... Including cleaning the refrigerator out, which helped when Brittany and I brought the groceries in. :-)

It was a lovely Birthday.

Canoeing on my Birthday

Bret wondered out loud several times why I would schedule a canoeing trip with the girls on my Birthday when the weather is cold and stormy. Well, we struggled to steer the canoe, moved slower than all the other people, the girls swung from a tree rope into the freezing cold water in their clothes, had mud fights with friends, and so much more. What more could I ask for in my birthday?? To answer that question I will have to take some more pictures... to follow.

The Mill Creek Program

So the girls (if you haven't picked up on this yet, the "girls" are Brenda and Bret) went to the zoo for the end of their Mill Creek Conservation program. The learned about water and dirt. They chalked about what they had learned. Then there was a pizza and pop party afterwards. By itself the day was worth it. The trip to the zoo for the day was a bonus.

Lily met a new Friend

Yes, she got THAT close to a peacock. It took some time of watching this bird eat the smushed food off the ground before it would let her so close. But I think they eventually became friends. We followed it around for 1/2 hour at least. This was Lily's favorite part of the day.

Birds at the Zoo

We went to the zoo for our Water Conservation project. But after it was over we went a-hiking to check out the animals. The bird cage is always our favorite. Here is me with birds flocking to what no doubt looks like birds nests to them. lol. I almost couldn't get out of the cage wtih all those birds attacking me.



Lily was scared and excited for the girls to hand her a bird to hold. Then it pecked her and she was ready to go. She showed everyone her war scar for days to come.



I was able to capture Brenda's expression when the first bird landed on her head. Those monsters were hard to get off our heads!



And here is Bret with her favorite bird. It only had one claw. That's Bret, always going for the underdog.

My Little Girl Growing Up

Well I couldn't take pictures really since I was in charge of the whole program, but!!! Bret is a Junior now!!! She was giddy with anticipation. When Contessa and I first started our troop 4 years ago, we needed girls to make our quota of 5 girls for a "Troop" So we threw our younger girls in to add numbers. Bret never had a chance to be a Daisy. She went straight into Brownie Status. So she overextended her stay. Now she is a Junior with her sister.

There were 4 troops who bridged altogether. We had a ceremony, ate some snacks, and partied it up afterward with games and crafts. This is a picture of the human knot that Rachel started up with some of the girls. There was someone there who took pictures and promised me a cd. So pictures to follow...

Mother's Day at Unity

Usually, I work in the Nursery at church every other Sunday, then I attend Service every other Sunday. That way I am still getting my inspiration, and volunteering as well. Well when I volunteer in the nursery, all the girls go to their Sunday School classes and meet me back in the nursery when church is over. But when I attend Service, Brenda prefers to sit with me. She likes to sing the songs best of all, she says. I do too. So last week I was in the nursery, and the Sunday School kids practiced a song they would sing during the end of service on Mother's Day. So today on Mother's Day, Brenda was torn between attending service with me, or going to her class to prepare to sing the song. In the end she did a little of both. She came to service with me, but kept a sharp eye on the time. When she thought it was time for the kids to arrive, she headed out of the church to find her group and entered the service with the kids ready to sing.

Always at the end, the kids file in to sing Peace On Earth with the adults before church ends. So Brenda got the best of both worlds. That is using her brain.

Our Crazy Mother's Day Game

So this was our big made-up kinda Mother's Day game. I passed out cards with a name of a person/animal/cartoon character/etc. You posted or taped it to your forehead so you couldn't read your card. Everyone could see everyone else's card except their own. Then we took turns asking yes/no questions about who we "were" to try to figure out first who our character was. We laughed so hard together. Even Josh and Brittany joined in on the fun. Just a real great time!

Mother's Day Weekend

So for Mother's Day Brunch, Brenda, Bret, Lily, and I started early on Friday. We made party hats out of wrapping paper, tape, and tissue paper flowers.



"Victoria" sat at the table with us this year for her first Mother's Day. She was my present to myself from the Art Walk the night before.



We made tissue paper flowers, stick animals/monsters, planted flowers in planters, made lots of finger sandwiches, fruit plates, tortilla wraps, punch for our wine glasses, and set the table up fit for a queen (or at least a mother.)



We hung up our Cinco De Mayo flags for added color and decoration. We celebrated by designing mini "prayer flag-esque" flags with our own personal symbols to share with eachoter. We played games, shared time, laughed and really made a great time of it.



Little Callie and Brittany. She has surpassed the 8 lb mark now. Thankfully the doctors say she is out of the hot water now. They will start treating her as a normal baby. AND she is as heavy as my smallest baby I ever birthed. Haha. We are glad she is doing so well. She even cracks a smile and laughs every now and then. Not bad for being three months old, after 10 weeks premature.

Our Late Night Out with the Girls

I took the girls out to the Art Walk at Essex studios. They feature 20, 30 or more artists that have studios in the building and their artwork. We had a real great time looking at all the different kinds of art. There was food and candy and wine at every studio, and lots of great art work to be seen and had. We were REAL fond of this artist...
www.juliryansart.com

The building also features a Sign Museum. There are tons of signs from all over the states and as old as the 1800's. Big Boy is there. Arby's. And so much crazy signs and history, we had fun just figuring out where it all came from. They do tours, for anyone interested in seeing the great sights.

Plus I bought something for myself for mother's day. And when we came home (at almost midnight) Brenda tattled on me. That little weasle! lol.

When I Came Back Downstairs

After Brenda and I made her hat, I came downstairs to the smell of burning wood. Bret had started a fire for us!! And just in time too, because I had just bought some big marshmallows. So we hung out together around the fire pit to end our Mother's Day together. It was real nice. Me and my wine, them and their marshmallows. :-)

A Little bit of Imagination and Viola...

This year, when we sold Cookies at the Cookie booths, we handed out coupons for milk. The coupons had a picture of a milk gallon with a green sash and a green beret on top. Brenda has been jonsing for that beret ever since. We went to the Girl Scout store only to find out they don't sell those hats and that hat was made just for the picture. It has been years since Junior's had berets.

I had Gaige drive me to the store today so I could buy the fleece. Then I found a pattern online, cut the fabric and showed Brenda how to sew it up. This is easy enough for any of our Girl Scouts to make if they want one too. And I figure they will all want one too. There is probably a badge in this somewhere...

Time to Paint Again!!! YAY!

Mother's Day gifts at Home Depot Kids Workshop. They had a special class today for Mother's Day gifts. Of course we were there with friends! And I have Wheel Barrel flower holders to paint now. YAY FOR ME!!

Next month, mini foosball game. Then a periscope is July. I love Home Depot. Support businesses that support children!

Ready for the big day

So I am sewing all the vests, sashes, new patches, badges, etc. Getting the girls all ready for the bridging ceremony in a week and a half. Why don't the parents sew on their own girl scouts badges? Yea, well I tried that last year. The girls came to meetings with their badges stapled on, in all kinds of random forms, all out of order, and mostly their sashes didn't even show up with them.

So this year I changed the plan. I sew all patches and badges. I collect all sashes and vests. This way whenever I want them to be wearing their garb, I have it all ready for them, neatly sewn and ironed.

Maybe I am anal retentive. A little bit. I suppose I am living vicariously through my children. Reliving the Girl Scout experiences I never had. haha.

Bret is giddy with excitement about bridging. Just a few more days available for sewing. And I am almost done. Then summer camp, and I get a break. (Yes, after Troop Adventure Camp, the girls are off to camp for the first time WITHOUT ME!!) What will Lily and I do... Hmm.