Sunday, May 30, 2010

~What Heroes Gave~

Each donned their uniform to be
Defenders of our liberty

Their mission sure, their spirits bright
Guard freedom’s home, be brave to fight
One final day each faced their call

Each gave their best enduring all

We’ll never know what they went through
But know they loved this country true
Deep down inside we should all feel

What heroes gave, their cost so real

We must stay thankful, grateful of
The gift of freedom through their love
Their loved ones bore the gravest pain
What we can’t know, some now sustain

To God I pray their pain will cease
And each will find long-lasting peace
Remember this from year to year
What heroes gave – shan’t disappear


We’ll never let their special day
Their time for honor slip away

These brave fought for a nation free.
If not for them, where would we be?
©2004Roger J. Robicheau
~Pictures taken at the National Cemetery in Chattanooga on May 30, 2010~

Sunday, May 23, 2010

~All Callie's Idea~

I had planned on just taking a couple pictures of Callie and her new outfit in the backyard.  She ran from place to place, telling me to take her picture 'like this'!  I indulged her for about 2 dozen shots, before I called it quits! :)  Here are some of her silly poses/faces!

She loved 'hugging the tree'!
Don't quite know who she resembles in this photo! :)
Hanging from the hammock frame.  Please excuse the various bits of toys/junk the kiddos have hauled into their ENORMOUS sand box!!! I have simply declared that area a 'lost cause'! ;)

Callie was quite pleased that I was able to make her a Dora shirt to match the Dora fabric she picked out for a skirt.  I found these iron-on fabric transfers at Wal-mart AND they were on CLEARANCE! 
I made this late Saturday afternoon.

This was the final picture she begged me to take.  She is quite the tomgirl!!!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

~Making crayons & more~

We decided to make new crayons with the old broken crayon pieces lurking around the house.  Kiddos & I peeled off all the paper......that was WORK let me tell you.  That paper was stuck like glue!!!!!
...dumped them in a mini muffin tin.....Make sure you spray your non-stick pan with cooking spray if you try this!!  Don't ask me how I know.....;)


We popped them in the oven til the wax melted.....pulled them out, let them harden and voila....
Beautiful new crayons!!!!!

A little while later, Samuel fell asleep while coloring.  I ran and got my camera and he woke up and stuck his foot in the air, supposedly to protest the picture-taking! :)
I put my camera away and heard snoring.  He had went BACK to sleep that FAST!!!  I snapped several pictures and he NEVER woke up!! :)  You gotta love the outfit today!  Geckos and camo go together, right?!!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Bee attacks Beethoven!!!

Picture this......the beautiful notes of Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' being played by a 9th. grade boy during his piano lesson.  All of the sudden, he turns to his teacher(that would be me) and says there's something crawling up my leg!  The teacher immediately assumes it's a very LARGE creature such as a mouse and jumps up from her chair!!  The boy lifts up his leg ever so slowly and there is a HUGE bee of some sort crawling.  She grabs a music book and asks the boy if he wants her to smack it!  His voice goes up an octave or too when he says, "NO!!!  Don't do that!!"  He flicks it on the ground.  Teacher dives on all fours, down to the ground, flopping all around, trying to squash the bee beneath a tiny little chorus book(Titled..."A Pocketful of Praise)!!!  She vaguely hears the music studio door open and close, but doesn't pay any attention to who came in as she's smacks the bee over and over!!!  Finally, the bee stops moving.  She looks up, the person that witnessed the whole flopping around on the floor while trying to squish a bee, is NOT a parent(thank goodness).  It's just the older sister come to pick her brother up.  Everyone had a good laugh of relief that the bee was squished and no one was stung in the process!!  As the lesson came to a close, the teacher found out that the brave student played an entire page of Beethoven, before he couldn't handle the crawling sensation and stopped to see WHAT it was!!! 

Picture of the squished bee!!!
This has got to be one of THE most INTERESTING things that happened during a music lesson.  I'll never hear/play Moonlight Sonata again without thinking about this event!!! :)

Sunday, May 9, 2010

~Making Memories on Mother's Day~

First all, got to warn you.....LOADS of pictures ahead!!!  Today has been one of my most memorable Mother's Day so far!! :)  A couple months ago, I was talking to our pastor's wife & daughter.  Too make a looong story short, I volunteered to make gifts for each of our mothers today at church.  The following 3 pictures are what I came up with.
Starting clockwise from the top left corner we have fabric tissue covers with Kleenex inside, Boo-boo bags filled with flaxseed, Wheat therapy bags, potholders.key fobs...... 
wristlets,coin purses, sunglass cases w/ sunglasses, plastic grocery bag holders......
the rest of the bag holders, a cloth grocery bag(for those 'going green'), and a tote bage!  I had so much fun thinking up things to sew for the ladies at church.  I made 50 gifts total!!
Simon brought me breakfast in bed this morning.  He has been talking for weeks about wanting to make breakfast for me on Mother's Day.  Soooooo.....he cooked the breakfast last night.  Put the plate of food in the fridge, and warmed it up for me this morning.  It was yummy!! :)  He did it that way, 'cause he's been going with his Daddy EARLY every Sunday to ride on the bus to pick up the kids.
My yummy breakfast in bed with a gift bag stuffed with 2 hershey dark chocolate candy bars inside!
Me with Callie & Samuel in front of the snowball bush at my father-in-law's house.  My mother-in-law would have her picture taken every mother's day in front of this bush.  I thought it would be neat to get some pictures of me and the kids with it this year!
My sweet (but terribly hyper) daughter!!  She all but danced around during the 'moment of encouragment' at church this morning.  She raced from person to person shaking their hand.  If someone didn't see her and walked past, she ran after them patting their behinds!!!!!!!!!!  Only Callie......:)  Oh...and I did I mention she hunted the pastor's youngest son down and gave him a kiss today!!!!!!!!!!!
Simon....wanted to wear a snowball blossom on his suitcoat lapel so badly.  One problem, their was no buttonhole put in the suitcoat for him to put the stem through.  He said he'd put a buttonhole in his jacket.  He picks up a colored pencil and prepares to poke a hole in the jacket!!!  I had to let him know that he wouldn't always want a hole in his suitcoat.  He thought about it and agreed with me! :)
Putting flowers on grandma's grave.  Simon and Calllie both wanted to put their snowball blossom beside the yellow roses we brought.  They were both digging little holes to try and poke the stems through.
My four wonderful children by my wonderful mother-in-law's grave.  She was the best MIL in the world and even though Samuel & Callie never had the privilege of knowing her, I just know she would have loved them to pieces!  We miss her so much, but God needed her more and I'm sure she's taking care of our baby up in heaven.  Oh....check out Samuel's tie....you can tell how windy it was outside today!!
Once upon a time there was a mommy that took her kids to the Dollar Tree.  She gave them each $1 and change and a shopping they went to buy a gift for her.  She tried to keep an eye on them while trying not to see what they were picking out.  She had a sneaking suspicion that it was all candy.  Sure enough, when the cute little gifts bags were opened there was candy a plenty!!!  The little girl bought her mommy 4 ring pops.  Just enough for one per child.  The youngest 2 boys bought her 2 candy bars each.  One for her and one to share with them she was told.  The oldest son, bought his mommy her favorite candy, Reese's PB cups!  He told her he was sad that they didn't have dark chocolate reese cups.  The mommy said these would do just fine, for she loved these LONG before they came out with the others.  He also made her a sweet card and had all his brothers & sister sign it.
Two of the Dollar Tree shoppers that insisted their picture get taken with mommy's gifts.
I pretended to lick all 4 of the ring pops, then handed one out to each kid! :)
And another picture of me and my ring pops just 'cause this has got to be the most unique Mother's Day gift ever!!! :)  Did I mention these were from my silly daughter Callie!!?? lol
And just ONE more picture of me and my wonderful, good-looking husband.  I just loved how he looked walking around the cemetery and insisted on a picture with him.  He went to get his tie all fixed up and shirt buttoned, but I said, "No, leave it!  I love it just the way it is!"  I told him he looked like a CIA agent with his dark jacket and sunglasses.  :)
If you made it this far, you're a brave soul!!!  Thanks for letting me share my memories(so far) of Mother's Day!!!  Happy Mother's Day everyone!!!!!!!!

Friday, May 7, 2010

~Pirates & Ooga Booga Monsters~

Callie picked out this Dora pirate adventure fabric when we went on vacation in March. Yes, I'm STILL working on that post.  Anyways, I had the crazy idea to sew her a dress to wear to the school program last night.  I decided this as I was going out the door to pick up the kids at 2:50.  We got home at 3:20.  I madly cut out the dress and sewed as FAST as I possibly could!  I had to start teaching at 4:00 and didn't get finished 'til 5:30.  Seth's program was at 7:00!!!  As soon as my teaching day was finished, I raced back to the sewing machine/serger.  I finished it, got myself and everyone ready AND cleaned up my sewing mess before we left at 6:30!!  Callie was soooo happy with her pirate dress!
Last night, Callie came out in her Ooga Booga pj's.  Samuel was like, "Mom, why don't I have Ooga Booga pj's?"  "Uh....son....because you told me you didn't like the fabric."  Anyways, I told him I'd make him a pair while he was at school.  Here he is trying them on after school was out today.  As you can tell, he LOVES them!!  They're a little big, but we like our jammies loose and comfy around here!! :)  This fabric is one of my favorite knit prints.  I just think the little ooga booga monsters are adorable!!!! 
Just some shots of the new technique I'm working on with my twin needle when finishing necklines.  I do have a coverstitch machine that will do this, but decided to try in on my sewing machine.  It worked great and I am in love with the results!! :)

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Is there a teacher in your life that you appreciate?

This week is National Teacher Apprecation Week.  I know I really appreciate all my kids' teachers.  They spend hours each week day teaching my children and setting good examples for them.  Here is what I just finished up making for all my kids' teachers.  It was a simple and inexpensive gift to make.  My 2 youngest had loads of fun 'helping'!  Now they want to finish off the Swedish Fish!!! :)  If you don't have time to make/buy something for the teachers in your child's life, a simple note would brighten their day, I'm sure!!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

~Samuel's School Program~

Samuel had a school program on Friday.  He was dressed in a furry brown costume that was supposed to be a cat, but looked more like a lion!!! :)  The kids were cute trying to do the movements on The Turkey and the Straw!!!  He only has a few more days left 'til his graduation!!!

~Samuel's School Program Videos~

This one is funny!!!

Samuel is NOT taking violin lessons, but they wanted him to pretend to play the violin during this song. Poor kid couldn't hold his violin right with the huge furry mane around his face. I wish I'd have gotten video footage of him trying to stuff his violin in between the mane, chin & shoulder!!! Way too funny!!:)

~Mother/Daughter Luncheon~

On Saturday, Callie & I got all dressed up for our first Mother/Daughter luncheon.  I even broke out my hot-pink high-heeled sandals!!! :)  The theme of our church luncheon was 'The making on an instrument' so I found some music note knit fabric and made us matching outfits! :)  It was an awesome luncheon, the ladies who organized it did a wonderful job!!!! 

Saturday, May 1, 2010

A 100 year age difference!!!

Our next door neighbor lady and Callie are 100 years apart!!!  She just recently has been moved to an assisted living care facility.  She loved to come out and talk to the kids and watch them playing outside her kitchen window.  We made a trip over to see her last Friday.  She was so happy to get to see the kids again.  I asked her if she minded if I took some pictures of her and the kids.  Callie was fascinated by her hands and kept wanting to hold them and feel her fingers.  I thought this was a sweet picture of the two of them together!  How many people can say they've met someone 100 years older than they are!!??
All four of the kids with our neighbor lady.  She's 103 years old and a wonderful lady!