Twirling girl, birthday dinner, fall colors, bee stings and more...

What girl doesn't love a dress that will fly up when you twirl and if you add red ruby slippers to the equation, well its just heaven.... *sigh*


The wind up!


Wow! What better expression of happiness...
Jolie's birthday dinner choice was Mom's homemade Marinara sauce over spaghetti with Garlic bread (extra Mozzerella please!) The side sauce is Alfredo for those who don't care for marinara.
Olivia's first time to ride her bike to school. (2.6 miles) She has definitely earned this priviledge. We made sure she understands how proud we are of her accomplishments in responsibility. She will be meeting up with her friend, MaKenna about half way to school so that they can ride together. After school these two will be riding all the way back here for a playdate. Of course... with Mom following part of the way.

They're off for school!

They made it!
My tomato! Still producing wonderfully juicy, tasty little jewels. The kids argue over who gets to eat the next one. I think today will be my turn!
Couldn't resist this shot as the sun was just starting to graze the tops of the trees in the ravin behind our house. Really made the golds, yellows and rust stand out.

Yes, I know, lovely picture. Do you remember the movie, "The Jerk" with Steve Martin? The part where some guy is shooting at him but keeps hitting the oil cans and Steve Martin shouts, "He hates those oil cans!" Well that is just about how I feel about my right arm. This now makes twice that I've been stung on the right arm in less than 10 days. Please allow me..... "THEY HATE MY RIGHT ARM!" ;-p

Birthday, I'm listening, room and more...

Montagues... one of my absolute favorite places to go. Here sit all the desserts. Trouble for the asking...
Tuesday morning knitting group. Vicki used to work at one of the LYS (local yarn shop), that moved to Atlanta and then closed so the owners could move back to New York. Now she's kind enough to let us relax and enjoy her company for free knitting time. Vicky has a great sense of humor and I thoroughly look forward to seeing her every week.

finished my variation hat.

Kaitlyn's old room. Walls painted in her style...


the carpet has been cleaned and looks wonderful...


only a couple of items still left in the room... they of course have already been claimed by others in the house...



new colors that will grace the walls in Kristina's new room...


I'm listening.... or so Jake would have us believe!


Max was kind enough to model my newly completed sock. I still have the other to work on, though only the ankle part.



So this is what 10 looks like!

Happy Birthday Jolie! We love you!

My Tinkerbell girl! She loves fairy's and of course....


Ruby Red Slippers!



Look great!


I think Jake was feeling a bit left out of the gift giving so he got his favorite toy to offer...








-4

Birthday, Gotcha Day, Camping and WAY! more

Wow! Where to start!? Well I guess the beginning is probably a great place, or so the saying goes....

Thursday's mail was left for me on the counter of the kitchen. David always leaves any mail from the schools to us, for me to open. Just irritates the devil out of me. Anyway....
This particular letter was from Liberty where Kristina attends. It states that our daughter, Kristina, has lettered in Academics! How exciting! There will be a semi-formal affair where she, along with the other kids who have lettered, will be presented with their achievements in front of family and friends. How exciting! We're so proud of her. She has worked so hard to achieve this and definitely deserves all the recognition and praise.


Friday after dropping the kids off at school, David and I headed to the "Golden Eagle Campground" to set up the campsite and relax a bit before heading back to get the kids from school. By the time we'd finished it was lunch time and we headed to Culpepper's Cajun Kitchen for lunch. Ohhhh... it was so good. We used to have one up at the north end of town but I guess they just didn't get enough business to keep it going. I was very excited to see that they were still around.

Max and Jake were so good to wait in the car while we had lunch. Of course, for their good behavior, I brought out a bit of my leftovers for them to share.

They each had a few crawfish and a couple of french fries. I promise that the crawfish weren't as spicy as these pictures would have you believe!

We finally arrived back at the house just in time for me to head off to get Kristina from school and get her back to the house so she could finish packing for the weekend. Shortly, I took off again for the younger group and arrived back with them just in time to get the car packed up with all of their stuff and head out with plenty of light left to enjoy the campsite before it got totally dark and to be treated to the sight of a flock of wild turkeys cutting across the field. Because of the no rain/high winds we've been having lately there are "No Campfire" bans in effect. So once it gets really dark we're off to bed. *not to mention that we're completely exhausted anyway*.

Dad did all the cooking this weekend and he really did a great job of it. Everything was basically pre-cooked. So meals went together like a flash and it cut down on what we had to take with us. Good job Honey, you get an "Atta boy!" for that move.

Saturday arrived and we celebrated a "Gotcha day" with Olivia. 10 years ago we were in China being handed our first precious gift. We remember that day as if it were yesterday. We reminisced and then let the games begin. There was kite flying, playing at the playground, running around the lakes, and......

skipping rocks... and....




of course, some relaxing to be had by all!
Then there was more kite flying and...........(insert ominous quiet here)...... just as we were really relaxing........(insert more ominous quiet)................ Olivia started screaming about something stinging and ran towards Kristina who was further into the field to hand her, her kite and then turned around and was headed at us so fast......... * I didn't think it was possible for someone to move that quickly*. By the time she reached David and I it was apparent that she was being swarmed by bees! They were everywhere tangled in her hair! and flying around her! There had to be at least 15 just in her hair! They weren't bees but Wasps! So David, Kristina and I are grabbing these wasps with our hands, pulling them out of her hair and trying to keep the rest of the kids back so that they didn't start getting stung. When this was all said and done she had been stung about 8 or 9 times and our "true good luck" in all this was that the wasps being stuck in her hair kept them from being able to sting her in the face or head. Most of the stings were around the back of her shirt neck line, 1 on her heel and 1 on the back of her leg. David got stung once on the arm, Kristina was once on her hip and I got one in the palm of my hand. So after getting an anti-histamine in her and basically bathing her in hydro-cortizone we all settled down and just relaxed with Olivia sitting in my lap trying to get over the shock of all that had just happened. We shut down early that evening and everyone went to bed exhausted.
Sunday came and with that trying to celebrate Olivia's 11th birthday and better trying figure out where she had come in contact with the wasps. David finally went exploring, ever so gingerly, and discovered the colony of wasps. They had erupted from this hole and we concluded that Olivia while flying her kite must have stepped on the hole or gone to close and these particular wasps being agressive, attacked. So David went and found Carrie's mom (one of the owners of the campground) and told her about the situation. She came to look at the site so that they would know where to spray Sunday evening. Unfortunately she didn't recognize this particular type of wasps. I hope its not a new species for this area that has just moved in!
We arrived home from the campground at about 2 with plenty of time to really celebrate Olivia's birthday by opening presents and ordering Chinese food. One of the things that she asked for, was to go out alone with Mom and Dad for shopping and dinner. So sometime this week we'll be headed out for an evening alone, just the 3 of us.

Theyyyy're BAAAACK!, projects fini'd and more...

Our lovable "lawn cows", are back. This boy scared the daylights outta me when I went to get in my car and didn't realize he was munching right behind me. He was ever so considerate to stay put while I snapped picture after picture. Unlike that Bobcat from a couple of weeks ago.





Another project completed and marked off the list of "to do's". I'm anxious to start getting these on their way to their final destinations whether they be local or far off. I need the room on the guest bedroom bed for more "to do" projects!


Another hat! Still have one more skully to do...

Another project completed, Green Chili, China and more...

Can you say, "CUTE!" Oh my gosh! As I was doing this project I got more and more excited as I watched what I did take shape. The little leaves, the stems for the branch, the nest and then the little duck.

Have I made it to obvious that I've never done a project like this before with my excitement?



Green chili. Well the weather people LLLLLLIIIIIIEEEEDDDDDD!, to us. The following days last week were upwards for 90*! So much for Green Chili or Chili Relleno's! We didn't turn on the air so I wasn't about to start cooking in an already hot kitchen. So I have hope this week that I'll get to do some chili cooking...
The Great Wall of China. My mother was born in China and my parents are just now making the trip back to visit. My grandfather was in China working for British Tobacco before the Japanese occupation of Shanghai (1937) which is the reason for her birth in China. Today they are visiting Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. I wish I could be there just to see the looks on their faces when they see all of these wonders.
With our next camping trip looming in the near future I took the POO by the tail, so to speak, and bought them each a harness. Reason? Well - we set up lines for them to be on so that they can run somewhat freely throughout the camp but can't run off. Sometimes they walk/run a bit far and choke themselves when the leashes are attached to their collars. Now under normal circumstances I wouldn't worry about it. Max on the other hand already has choking related issues and Jake is starting to do a bit of choking also. So my fervent hope is that the harness' will alleviate the choking episodes and give me a bit more quite while we're camping.

They both look thrilled! Don't you think? ;-)

Fall temps, more Green Chili, Birthday and more...

Our temps the last few mornings have been in the upper 30's and 40's. Wow! Cool starts to great days. I've had the house open - airing every day - and have thoroughly enjoyed it. The kids have worn light weight jackets with their usual attire of shorts, crocks with socks and short sleeved shirts and tops. We're definitely to that layering time of year.

Hunter is a big "7" now and his family party went

off without a hitch.

Bakugan's galore!

No, this child is not "61"! We have inadvertently started a tradition in this house of putting numbered candle's together to add up to, or at some point subtract down to, the correct number of years you are, with the little ones in the family.

So 6 + 1 = 7!

These Bakugan toys are a hit in this house. I think the total Bakugan count for the house is now about 30 and its going up today due to a birthday check. Both Hunter and Parker are lovers of these tiny toys. If your not familiar with this line of toys then check out the link.

Still working feverishly on my surprises for everyone. I've even started getting requests! If you have Ravelry capability then check out my projects page for previews and during the process pics or wait and I'll put up pictures here when the jobs are done. I have to make a run today, my first time, shopping for beads! One of my projects, (pictured here) which is for me and will take months, requires beads. So I'll be outta here on the bike to run to Old Colorado City and a bead shop to purchase 5000 beads! Yep! 5000!

Lord...... what am I getting myself into?

I was reading back over my previous post (and drove by the Hatch Chili stand yesterday) and have decided that with this cooler weather we should have more Green Chili. So I'll be after that today or tomorrow as well. The last batch lasted almost 2 days! Everyone loves green chili up here. I don't think I've ever posted a picture of the spread that Green Chili requires so I'll do that soon. But until then..... enjoy these.........