Cowboy Camp out

Every year the music teacher at the boys' school picks a day toward the end of the year to have a cowboy camp out. Each class has a designated day so cowboy gear lasts over a week. It's fun to see all of the kids at their school decked out in cowboy gear. It's also funny because we live in a little town close to big university city where there are very few cowboys....

I love that they come home singing cowboy songs from the trail. Humming Red River Valley and that one about the drifting tumble weed. Makes me want to get out my Michael Martin Murphey cowboy songs c.d.

So I'm a big talker...

I know I said that I would have this rug done by the weekend, but then I got cleaning the basement. I was trying to find the mystery smell. I worked on that room for 2 whole days - like real work days - 8:30 to 3:30 with a half hour lunch break. I'm still not sure that I found the smell, but I got rid of A LOT of crap and organized the rest! We can now walk around the rec room area without stepping on little bits and bobs.

My sewing room is also clean (it's in the basement). I really want to get down there and create, sew, quilt... I have 4 bow staff cases that I need to make tomorrow so I guess I will be down there for a bit. But that's not what I mean when I say I want to go down there and create.

Today after lunch, the boys painted airplanes and a boat. I think they had fun.


Simon sneaking some cookie batter from the empty bowl. I made a new recipe. It was a semi-homemade kind of thing with a cake mix, eggs, and flour. They were just meh. Ok, but meh. I probably won't make them again.

flowers and frogs

I just got back from the park. The boys are still there and I'm learning to let go a bit. They do have walkie-talkies to connect with home because I am not getting the oldest a cell phone until middle school. As I walked away I got a bit nervous, but I have to trust them to do what is right, Right??

I let them go down to the park without me. I walked to the end of the street and down the trail to the park.

There are berry bushes galore on the trail. In a few weeks, I'm going back with a pail to get black berries. I wonder how many other people have spotted these beauties?

When I finally got to the park, they had caught a couple of frogs and some tadpoles.



Ok so the walkie-talkie is good in theory. I just had to walk back to the park (because I didn't think to take the car) the "help" Simon come home. He was not listening to Ian.

hmmm, I wonder how the rest of the evening will go.

Saturday fun

A chilly morning made way to a better afternoon. What afternoon wouldn't be better with burning the Christmas tree and eating smores??

Well, for one, a boy could dress as a cowboy and try to lasso his brother!

Then, create a zipline from the lasso and give stuffed animals a ride.

Show off a missing tooth. It's a good look for a bandit!

Oh and those smores. We bought those "monster" marshmallows. The boys liked them. They also like to each the black charred sugar on the outside. My vote, go with the smaller marshmallows - they warm all the way through and melt the chocolate. Those big ones don't do that. They just get black. Really, really fast.

I'm stopping while I'm ahead (somewhat)

I have am having brain power problems today. I have been wanting to make a square cloth box for a while. I've had the instructions and materials, so today I started. I cut out everything the way the instructions said to and when I went to sew them together, the pieces didn't fit. See that piece of black spotted material. That was the first try. It was my luck that the pattern really uses the amount of fabric it calls for NO overage. SO try #2 involved the cool dancing people, there were several attempts at that until I finally got it right.

I just stopped though because I sewed two parts together that don't belong together. I think I need to do something brainless today. I'm not firing on all cylinders and I can feel it. The problem is I don't have any brainless projects to do. All of them are at that point where brain power is needed.

This pattern is not that hard. I think it WILL be fun when I can get my brain to function properly.

During my crafting endeavor this morning, the boys have been downstairs watching a movie. They are covered in quilts. It's cold down there today. And before you ask, Simon does not have a black eye. When I was removing his "red eye", it became blue.

I'm off to search behind the couch for something to do that is already started. Hopefully I missed an easy one back there.

Wordless Wednesday

Dog wash

Enjoy this photo "essay". Note the dog jumped out so I had to jump in. That's why there are to pictures of the drying process.



We now have a pleasant smelling hound laying in front of the sliding glass door snoring in the sunshine.

The boys Christmas gifts

Do you realize that Christmas was only a month ago? It seems like "months" ago to me. I promised pics of the boys with their gifts to each other. Above Simon is flying the owl that Ian designed and stuffed for him (I did all of the cutting and sewing.)

>Ian really didn't want to take part in this photo shoot, but there's the cat that Simon designed and stuffed for him. When Ian opened it, he said, " Huh a crab. Just what I wanted". Simon said," But it's a cat." "Oh I like it even better now."

The Front...

The "mood" front had moved on. This morning we made a quick trip to JoAnn Fabrics to get some minkie for the back of an alien quilt (not one of the 2 projects that I left on the table). We were scouting the polar fleece when I heard Ian say," I've found the softest stuff in the whole store". Wow, did he ever. I promptly put the canary yellow fleece/minkie in the cart. Then we perused the store.
It seems like I have been saying "no" to the boys a lot today. They have been asking for stuff... to go out for dinner.... to the grocery store for lunchables.... You name it they have asked for it and I have said "no". Today I said yes to some of those black velvet maker posters and they are working on them right now. Enjoying every minute.


Have a good afternoon, I'm off to do some machine quilting.

When the cat's away...

the mice play!!!

Kal bought the little yellow r.c. helicopter as a "group gift". Yup... So last night while he was at band practice, the boys tried different surfaces to launch (do helicopters launch?) it from. The best one was from the top of my head.

For those of you who may want to know why I let them torment me like this... it keeps them quiet and doesn't hurt a thing. When they got tired of this, they went and cleaned the bathroom. Yes... by themselves. Without being asked... though I don't think a 5 and 7 year old should be asked to clean the bathroom. They went through a tube of Lysol cleaning wipes. Cleaned the top of the lights - to get the dust mites...the back splash - to remove yuck that has been there too long and other "gross" spots.

What was I doing while they were in there being "butlers"? Why knitting of course. I was working on my strawberry afghan that Mom gave me for Christmas - more on that later.