Summer visits

Dean's family was here during the month of July and into August.

Pam arrived first with the boys....passing through on the way to Houston.
The weather didn't cooperate so we stayed close to home....but the kids still managed to have fun.

Here the boys are with Ripstick Boy....AWWWWW......they love their big cousin!



During a heated game of basketball, we had one injury....a bee sting!
But the patient was a brave boy and made a full recovery.



Then, Dean's grandmother, Lulu came for her annual visit.



She was especially fond of the s'mores I made one afternoon.



and when I say 'fond' I really mean it....she ate THREE!



Then Dean's other sister Marla came through with her family.

We took the 2 younger kids to the neighborhood playground...

they played on the slides...

and in the swings....


...of course, Curly Girl had to go!


We all went out to eat...before they hit the road.
Here, the three 'big kids' are doing some catching up...and LOTS of eating...

Dean's mom and other sister Laurie came to visit too.......but I didn't get any pictures of them....maybe next year!

Emergency Science Apron

Tuesday on the way home, Curly Girl told me she had forgotten to do part of her homework the night before. I asked her waht it was (forgetting homework is a big no-no so I wondered why she was being so casual.)
She needed a 'plain' apron for science. The kids are going to decorate them in class with fabric paint, glitter and other fun stuff.
I was thinking this was a cute idea and asked" when do you need it?"
She replied "tomorrow."
Well, you know its against my nature to just slink out and buy a plain old apron.
So, I whipped this one up using some white duck cloth from my stash.
I couldn't bring myself to make it TOTALLY plain so I used up a bunch of my bias tape remnants for a bit 'o' color.



It turned out pretty cute to be a plain jane apron. It has 3 large pockets and 1 pencil (or paintbrush) sized pocket.
I can't wait to see what it looks like once she puts the finishing touches on it....

adjustments made......

With school starting back up on August 7th, the last few weeks have been hard on our family routine and we've had to make a few adjustments........


Thank goodness, our adjustments haven't been quite THAT BIG! In comparison, ours have been pretty minor!

First off, with me back at work, Suki is being bullied by all 3 of our pets. (I know, I can't believe it either!!!)

Leo being a smart kitty quickly realized she is afraid of the dogs so he uses them to box her in whenever possible. The dogs, sensing her fear, will growl at her which causes her to stress out even MORE. Overall, she is regressing and is becoming very skittish again.

I still think she could whip Leo's butt, (neither cat is declawed, ya know....it could get ugly.)
I really don't want it to come to bloodshed:


So, I've decided to put her BACK in Ripstick Boy's room during the day so that she is 'safe' while we are all away. She was in his room the first few days after we adopted her in July and I think she will be happy to have her own space again. He is THRILLED with having her back in his room.
Then, as soon as he gets home, he can let her out and love on her. Cross your fingers, okay?


On the school front, Curly Girl is in 6th grade this year and is feeling overwhelmed by changing classes because it makes her feel rushed. She only changes 3 times during the day but has several 'pull-outs' which adds to the faster pace:
She earned a spot in chorus this year and is pulled out of math twice a week for that and once a week for gifted art. This is on top of the regular 'pull-outs' of library, PE, music and fast forward! (Thank goodness math is her favorite subject or we'd be in REAL trouble!)

On several occasions she has worked herself up and feels so over whelmed that all she can do is sit on my lap and cry. (and let me tell you, my lap is NOT getting any bigger...but she is!)
She craves routine. I know it will get better once she gets her 'groove' going but it is hard to watch her struggle right now.

I was going to suggest she drop out of chorus but she worked so hard to earn a spot that it would break her heart. Plus, I know NEXT year will be worse with 7 teachers and am secretly hoping this struggle will help prepare her for it.

Here is the hard part for me.
Curly Girl has decided to drop her (after school) art class. It is one day a week but she has homework each night so Saturday is the day she goes.
Of course, Saturday is the only day her friends can play so she feels she has to choose between art and friends.
After watching our son burn out right before he earned his 2nd black belt in TaeKwonDo, I felt it best to let her drop out. It was really really HARD for me to say 'okay' and sound like I meant it. She would feel guilty if she thought I didn't want her to drop out so I mustered up my best cheerleading voice and squeaked out my approval. I console myself with the thought that she is still in gifted art in school and she can always take extra art in the summer.....right?

So adjustments have been made and I'm sure MORE will be made as we get back into a comfortable routine. Hopefully we won't feel like this much longer:

Island Girl!

Check out this cute skirt I got at Goodwill for 2 bucks. I fell in love with it immediately. I enjoy repurposing things so I knew that I would be making something out of it.



It was a large size so I took it apart and cut it up.....added some 'stuff' and now it looks like this:

My Island Girl apron!





The best part is I have enough leftover to make another apron!

You're grounded!

Last weekend we did a lot of yard work.

Our landscaping has been so successful, we had to dig up and divide some plants. The neighbors were quite happy with that since they got free plants.

Just look at how pretty my cutting garden is!



Since we knew it would be a lot of hard work, Dean asked Ripstick Boy to be home from a sleepover by 8 am to help out.
When morning came, Dean didn't call RB because he wanted to "see" if he would show up.

well you KNOW what happened........

Ripstick Boy didn't show at 8 am.
In fact, Ripstick Boy didn't show until well after 2 pm. (when his friend had to mow his own lawn)

Dean was not happy. He grounded RB for 3 WHOLE DAYS (3 days, snicker)

About 4:30 Dean decided to play a trick on RB but needed help to pull it off.
Neither Curly Girl nor I would help unless RB's "sentence" was lightened. (I know, I am such a sucker...)

Dean agreed to our demands and we helped him carry out his dirty deed........

oh yeah........the rest of the sentence was dismissed after the motion detector light was installed, the lawn was mown AND a second bucket of water dispensed....at RB's request.

transformations......

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of FALL!
I love the colors and scents....I love the cooler weather (even though that doesn't arrive here until October...) and the foods I start to cook. The house always smells wonderful.
I also love to decorate for Halloween and to some extent, Thanksgiving.

I've been creating up a storm. I can't show everything because I'm sending some off to my bloggy friend Lori. She's gotta have some surprises, right?

With that in mind, here are two things I created I can share.......easy peasy too.

First off, I stumbled across these things on clearance at Hobby Lobby for less than a dollar each.




and turned them into these with stuff I had on hand at home.......

cute, huh?

I forgot to take separate photos of this next one.

My mom had an ugly grey rose pin from an old suit. One trip to the dollar store later and I made this....a broach I know any "ghoul" would love to wear on Halloween!



So.......are any of you creating fun Halloween goodies yet?

End of a season.....

This summer, Ripstick Boy was in a local basketball league again. They don't get together to practice, just meet up and play.

look at those moves! (he will be SO embarrassed that I wrote that....)


Here he is with the coaches....all smiles because the team did very well. (8-2)