Summer Days

Visiting the neighbor's horse- he usually comes right to the fence when he sees the kiddos.

Visiting the donkey, too.

Everything has been so green and lush since our winter and spring have been so full of moisture ( wet and soggy!).

The neighbor's field of wildflowers

Growing Up

Hope worked hard at wiggling her loose tooth all day. When I walked by the bathroom in the afternoon, this is what I saw.

Around 5 pm, success!

Victoria Magazine is Coming Back!

One of the most beautiful, inspiring magazines ended around ten years ago and is now coming back! I purchased several old magazines on ebay and have savored their wonderful pictures. How thrilled I was to learn that the powers that be are going to be publishing it again, starting this fall.

Here is the link to the magazine's website. It has subscription information, in case you are interested. I signed up right away so I won't miss out!
http://www.victoriamag.com/

Poor Lucy

Lucy endures so much! Hope put her dress-up wedding veil on the dog and Lucy didn't even get upset. Good thing she has such a mellow disposition and is used to being sat on, dressed up, etc.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Soda

From the Tasha Tudor Cookbook

2 Tablespoons Hershey's chocolate syrup
Club soda, chilled (we don't usually chill it, but that would probably be even better- we can never wait that long)
2 scoops chocolate ice cream (we use Breyer's)

In a tall glass combine the chocolate syrup with a bit of the club soda. Add the ice cream. Then fill the rest of the glass with the club soda and stir gently. Drink!

One of the best parts of summer is a chocolate soda on a warm day...

Thank Goodness for Google!

Jacob asked today, "Do cats have belly buttons?"

I assumed so, but it never hurts to look things up in a time of uncertainty.

The site I checked when I Googled "Do cats have belly buttons?" assured me that ALL mammals have belly buttons, but on some dogs and cats they have healed so well and are covered with hair so they may be difficult to find.

Now that that problem is taken care of, we can go back to our regular scheduled programming!

Jackson at Three Weeks

World's cutest newborn nephew is now three weeks old!

The strawberries from the grocery store have been wonderful lately. The past two nights we have enjoyed them with homemade yogurt and whipped cream (and possibly a little chocolate sauce). Yum!

April showers bring...

May flowers!

A Quilt for Hope

Pressing the applique pieces over the freezer paper

Fabric starched and ready for the iron

Quilt laid out and ready for sewing. The green "melon" pieces are just placed on the quilt for now- hopefully I can start sewing them on tomorrow and have the quilt top ready for quilting next week. I have never done applique before and when I saw this quilt on display at the quilt store, I thought, "That doesn't look too hard." 150 applique pieces later, I am regretting those hasty (and naive) thoughts! But really, what is life without a challenge?

Teach me your way, O Lord,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.
Psalm 86:11-12

Jon, Christy, Jackson and Dad on Mother's Day. Jackson was dedicated during the morning church service.

Abby in her Easter dress. These pictures are here so I can upload them to a sewing forum. Feel free to ignore them! :)

You Know It's Time To Dust When...

Your children use your furniture to practice their penmanship.

Five Weeks Old

This "batch" of bunnies has been a lot of fun- very sweet and playful. They are socializing well and should make wonderful class pets!

Summer Projects

Trims bought at the fabric store on Friday. The rick rack and yellow and white trims are all cotton from Wright's new "vintage" line. I was thrilled to find it since most rick rack is all poly and the cotton felt so nice. I just hope the color stays true after it's been washed! The ribbons at the top are for hair ribbons. They looked too pretty to pass up.

I bought some white pima cotton to make up this blouse for myself. I'm thinking of making the slim skirt later, but I haven't looked for fabric yet.

I found some nice blue shirting fabric to make the sleeveless blouse for Abby. I hope to make the white skirt and pink cumberbund, but didn't get fabric for it this week. Abby wants the red and white checked outfit, but we'll start with the blue and see how it goes.

I found this flannel for $1 a yard, so I bought 4 1/2 yards for jammies in the fall. The buttons- some I need for projects right now, the red ones on the end just because they are so cute and I know I'll use them!

Tea Party Ideas

This site looks like a fun place to spend some time on. They have wonderful looking cakes and ideas for an English tea. I think I'll download a few recipes for future use!

English Tea Party Recepies

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
Psalm 42:1

Family Celebrates End of School Year!

Our family tradition is to start and end the school year with a visit to a favorite restaurant.
The grounds are so beautiful and we love to walk around and appreciate the scenery.

We stopped by to see the beautiful peacocks.

I'm not sure what kind of bird this is but he sure is impressive!

Local farmyard animals...

We enjoyed listening to bluegrass music. They even played a Johnny Cash song.

A quiet moment.

Sliding down the "pig chute".

Most of us ordered the turkey, but Jacob had the fried chicken. Coleslaw, beets, cottage cheese and corn fritters come standard with every meal.

The goats would initially come over to you but once they assessed that you didn't have food, they wanted nothing more to do with you! So we gave in and bought two handfulls of overpriced animal feed from the nearby dispenser. The things we do to make our children happy...

In the restaurant there is a display of old sleighs and buggies. It looks like a romantic way to travel, but I'm sure that wasn't the case most of the time!

All Jackson, All the Time...

Another picture of the cutest newborn nephew in the world.
Jackson at home gazing at his mother with love.

As an aside, Dad, Linda thinks Jackson looks like YOU! (poor child!)