Land of the Lost

hey!!! Bet you think i am never going to sew something or make something with the kids or ever blog again for that matter....

well, this time my excuse is that we are on vacation. Enjoying time with family while the husband is off on business. I am going to try to blog a little something while i am here, but you know how vacation goes. I might have great intentions but that does not necessarily mean it is going to happen.

Miss you all...i have to go and try to catch up on what is going on with all of you.

We've Been to the Beach

***Brace yourselves, this one is picture heavy....***

We went to the beach this week. Not just any old trip to the beach, we went camping at the beach.

We did not have to go far, obviously since we were camping there, to enjoy the sun and sand and wind and cool weather. The kids and Chris got to do what they love to do at the beach...flying kites!

Mitchell, showing off a little when i wanted to take a picture. He saw the camera in my hand and then started getting goofy. And, yes, that is a mohawk you see. We are trying out yet another new summer hairdo.

The sky and clouds were so amazing to watch while the fog was blown out to sea. I love the dark colors. The ocean kept changing from a dark gray to beautiful greens and blues. it was so pretty.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Avery...we have one that is very similar to this from when she was about 3 or 4 flying a kite on a beach in Washington state. My how she has grown.

This time Mitchell could get in on it, he has always been too small, not strong enough, to manage a kite in the wind. So, these are pictures of his first time ever flying a kite.

And a great shot of the boys flying the big kite together. Chris has many large kites and trick kites that he likes to bring along...and nice daddy that he is he lets the kids have a go when he takes it out.

Oh, and building the obligatory sand castle...look what a great job he is doing!! Careful, careful...

then, oh no...i think you can guess what is about to happen!!!

as for the camping part...because i am sure that any of you that know me in person are wondering(especially after reading about our first trip in the woods)...it was good!! Beach camping is way better than woods. The weather this time of year is better too. And we slept great every night, Chris made all the food and did all the work. The kids and i just played at the beach!!! How hard could it have been?

More Rainy Day Fun

This time our fun came in a can of shaving cream....and they loved it.

I told them to go and collect up a few small toys and animals....we added in some marbles and corks from my collections and a few kitchen utensils...

they played for ages....making messes...and pretending to clean things. Avery thought that it felt weird. It does!

I think it must have taken up at least an hour or more of time that they could not be outside because of the rain storms. It was a stretch for me. I am not a fan of messy play but we tried to contain it as best we could and they loved it. And i felt like i scored some cool mom points with them!!

Mitchell's Take on Things

Honestly this should be a weekly installment, an ongoing post of sorts, because this kid says some really funny stuff. Today they all center around his impression of our trip to a modern art museum called the DIA. Yesterday was free day for the local community, so we decided to go and check it out.

Let me tell you what Mitchell thought.

Mitch, as we walk in, looks around..."this is not art!". We tried shushing him.
...as we are standing looking at the scrap metal sculpture..."i am taller than that piece of garbage"
..."it doesn't even look like sculptures"
...as we walk into a room of all white canvas, "no art, no art, no art"
..."mmm, boring"

Now understand that this is coming from a kid who's introduction to 'art' is largely influenced by his first introductions at the National Gallery in DC and the Met in NYC. So, please don't be offended all you modern art lovers(Natalie). We found lots of things there to appreciate that were really impressive, there were just a few too many that made us say, "huh?!?". All in all we had a nice visit...Avery really loved it actually. There was even a point when all three, Chris Avery and Mitch, were kneeling on the floor looking at an art piece and i said to them, "even if you don't always understand modern art there is something to discover about it".

Sew and Tell Friday!!!

I have been out of the loop for sew and tell for awhile, but i am getting my sewing motivation back. finally! You can see why in my last post.

This week i pulled out a honey bun i had of Hello Betty fabric. I just needed to sew something...and since i did not want to put a whole lot of thought into it i just did it in the order it came off the honey bun...with only a little bit of changing around.

It is just a flimsy at this point, but i will get to quilting it once i get my machine back from the sewing machine hospital. In the meantime i have been doing all of my sewing on Avery's Hello Kitty Janome. When you've gotta sew, you've gotta sew!

You know the drill...head on over to Amylouwho's and see what other pretty things everyone is making and tell them what a good job they did.

One More

The time has finally come to share with all of you, my bloggy friends, what had been keeping me from my blog for so long. We are expecting a new little baby at the end of the year!!!!

I know these ultrasound things are sketchy to figure out at best, and this baby was not cooperating on the day we had this done...so the baby is at the bottom of the picture, on the right is a head and the lighter spots to the left are hands and feet( I am pretty sure).

It is thanks to this little smidgen of a babe that i lost all my energy, motivation, creativity and will to eat or get off the couch. But it is coming back now, all of it. I am feeling better. That is why, you might have noticed, i have been blogging a lot more lately.

We are all very excited. It is going to be fun to have a new little one in the house, when the other two are big enough to help a little.

What Do You Do on a Rainy Day???

Well, today we decided to do some embroidery and work on some stitching skills! This was Mitchell's first day with a needle and thread and i think he really loved it...note how hard he was working on it. See the tongue hanging out? He was working a little too hard. First time around we sewed our project to the couch pillow in his lap. We fixed that and then tried it on a clipboard. Much better idea.

This is a piece Avery has had stashed away for awhile....but in the last day or so she seems to have remembered it and wanted to work on it again. In the time that it was away she has gained a lot more hand eye coordination for this. Thank goodness...makes a lot less frustration for both of us.

They both worked hard and for a long time. I told Avery that once it was finished we could make a fun pillow for her bed. "Really?!", she said. i think she thought it was a good idea.

Mitchell was so proud of what he had made, and wanted to give it to Daddy. He said it was a wishing web(like a dream catcher, but that is what he calls them) that he could take to the woods with him for work. so cute....

So, what do you do with the kids on a rainy day?

Perfect Picking Day

We had the most amazing weather on Monday....high 60's with a breeze....amazing!! So we took full advantage and took the kids strawberry picking. We love to do it but the weather is usually hot and humid and no fun at all.


Mitchell had to get the whining and complaining out of his system a little...so he sat down in the middle of the field and took a moment. He was quickly feeling all better.


Isn't the view amazing. The farm is right on the top of a hill overlooking the Hudson river valley.

It is possible that more berries went in mouths than in baskets!!!! i caught him red handed, literally(below)!!!

Look at them! They are like little ruby red gems. I have plans for these guys...shortcake, jam, smoothies. I will share some of the results later.

His hands were just as they should be after picking all those warm, sweet, juicy berries. I love all those little wrinkles and despite him being 5 they still look like little little person hands to me. The rest of us were just the same color...i even had stained finger nails.

Wildlife

There has been quite a lot of wildlife in our last few days. We saw all of these guys above just in one afternoon. We had lots of fun at a local farm and lake. There were so many silly animals at the farm, including a dog the size of a horse...yet i somehow managed not to get a shot of him. There were tiny baby bunnies lining the road to the lake....baby birds(bottom middle left)running in the grass...big giant bees in the flowers. Pretty stuff!

Then there was this little guy. Doesn't he look angry? If i were him i would be too. He is just a little baby, and i think if he survives the night in our yard we are going to try to take him to the local wildlife center. He was hand raised and fed by a neighbor and then released in the last few days. Today he turned up in our yard....hungry and lonely. He is obviously used to people. He cheeped and peeped and then would stand in your hand. uh oh! Avery brought out some of our fishing worms for him, he was very grateful and knew just what to do.

We knew we were in trouble when Fluffy Muffy(we kind of named him/her) decided to join us for dinner at the picnic table. At first he peeped at us from a distance then before we knew it he was sitting in Mitchel's chair with him....then in Avery's....and then he hopped right up onto my shoulder. He thinks he is a parrot! We could not keep him away...every time we moved him he came right back. I hope he makes it through the night so we can take him to someone that knows what they are doing.

Our Anniversary

Today is our 10th Anniversary. Ten whole years. Ten happy years. Two kids. Six moves. Five cars.

We had a quiet day together with the kids. A little shopping replaced some things that have worn out over ten years. It was a nice day...the kids went to Grammy's restaurant tonight..no kidding, she actually made them a menu...and we went to our preferred restaurant for all occasion, Indian! yum.

We are now living where we got married. One of the things that was important to me about this anniversary was that that we get our wedding cake again, since we are close to the bakery that made it the first time. When i was thinking about this...mind you not too hard...i thought for a brief moment i could get a cake like these above. Get the cake that i would if i had to choose it over again, but then i decided that authentic was better...even if it meant it was maybe slightly out of taste or out dated.

So i went to the cake counter and told the ladies there that i would like to order a very small wedding cake. I did not go totally prepared(went all off of memory), so some of the decoration was missing, but i think it came out pretty close. To celebrate we had a few friends over to share it with us. If you look close you can see the old one in the picture on the counter. Make sure to wave back at Chris!!!

Happy Anniversary Babe!! Here is to 10 more great years!! Love you!!!!!