Saturday Sewing & more....

I dearly love suprises!!!!  This was an unexpected gift from a piano student on Thursday.  A cute reusable tote bag, sweet note and a gift card to one of my favorite stores in town.....Jo-Ann Fabrics!!!!  Of course, I just had to go on Friday and buy some fabric for me.  I bought some dressy knit fabric that was 50% off and 5 yards of interfacing to use for loads of other crafty things.  I still have a little left of my gift card for another day!! 

 Here are the 2 skirts I made today for church.  I fell in love with the pink, black & white fabric when it first came in stock.  But at 12.99 a yard, I wasn't going to buy it.  The 50% off sale made it $6.49.  Not a bad price for a new skirt!!!  The colors are kinda washed out, but both of these skirts are nice and bright for summer.  I love the lime green and black print.  It practically glows!! lol

 Samuel models some summer pj's I made for him on Tuesday.

 Samuel spends hours creating things out of legos.  Here's something he came up with...

 The ship coming in for a landing on his own docking station.

 The ship has landed....

Callie's K-4 Graduation

Callie finished her very last day of K-4 today.  YAY!!!!!  I wasn't planning on having a graduation for her, but she kept asking me if she was going to get to 'graduate' like her brothers did.  We did the Abeka K-4 homeschool program with her this past school year and had to come up with our own graduation ceremony. 

She wanted to wear her pink princess dress that I made last year.  This worked out perfect!!

 I made the graduation hat and tassel up today.  It was made out of pink fleece and cotton crochet thread.  VERY fast and easy!!!!

 Watching for grandpa to come so she can 'graduate'.

 And here he is.....

 I found Pomp and Circumstance on YouTube and played that while she walked down our hallway into the living room area.  Please excuse the 'hallway under renovation project' that's going on right now.  We are putting in a new hall closet and new trim/etc.....One of these days, it will be completed!!  Oh, and please ignore the very naughty 6 year old that cannot leave his sister alone while she tries to walk down the hallway.....

Simon asked if he could give her her diploma.

 With her requested cake. Thank goodness it was an easy decorating job that the kids could do.  Earlier she had requested a doll cake.  She saw this and wanted it instead.....shooey....got off easy this time. ;)

 A gift from her brothers.....a wooden box with an old game boy game that they have outgrown and a sucker.

 A beautiful card and money from Miss Angie.

 A box of legos from Daddy and Mommy.

 Pizza for dinner.

 Special blueberry ice cream from Grandpa that was absolutely YUMMY!!!  Can you see how big her eyes were?  She LOVED this gift!!!!

 Finger-lickin' good!!

 Daddy helping her build her lego set.

Toads & more......

One of MANY toads the kids have been 'catching' and playing with in the backyard.

 Samuel proudly shows me one of 2 toads he caught today. 

 One of the rooms in the 'toad house'.  Can you see the toads inside?

Samuel and Callie had fun playing outside and finding toads. Here is the entire 'toad house' the kids have built.

 Here's what I worked on this evening.  Callie was in need of summer nightgowns.  I rummaged through my fabric, pulled out the thinnest cotton knits I had and made her three new sets of jammies.  These are just super-fast-very-basic jammies. Took me just over an hour to make all these!!!:)  I love the orange polka-dots on the purple fabric on the Ooga Booga nightgowns.  I just barely eeked out the Care Bears t-shirt out of the last of this fabric.

 She was sooooo excited to wear her new lightweight summer jammies tonight!

 And just one more silly pose!

 Another sewing project I worked on this morning. This was a snowsuit, hat & scarf set for a piano student.  This was a motivation/reward for memorizing her recital piece.  The snowsuit is black with purple ribbon accents on the sides of the pants and on the jacket.  You can't see them in this picture though.:(  It was fun to make and she was very happy when I gave it to her at her lesson today.

~Samuel's K-5 Graduation~

Samuel's K-5 graduation program was on Thursday.  Their class did a little skit entitled 'Good News'.  All the kids did fantastic.  They had a wonderful teacher this year!!!

 Samuel and his classmates.

 Singing a song together.

 I get all choked up every. single. time. I hear the graduation processional.  My baby boy graduated from kindergarten already!!!!

 Samuel tied with a classmate for the Highest Academic Average Award.

 His teacher refered to Samuel as 'her little mathmetician'.  He received the award for the Highest grade in Math.

 He also received an award for Most Improved Student.

 He also received an award for Exemplary Student. 

 Walking back with all his awards.

 My happy K-5 graduate.

 Samuel did this little dance when they announced the class of 2011.  Way funny!!!!!  And he denies doing it!!!!!  I even showed him the pictures and he was like, "No way, I didn't do THAT!!!:)

 Samuel and his teacher.

 The graduate and his family.

 We had cake, ice cream and a little gift for Samuel at home after his graduation.  He helped bake his cake.  It was chocolate cake with reese cups INSIDE the cake and on the top for decoration.  It was Samuel's idea to put the reese cups inside the cake!!  Turned out yummy!!!

 A new Lego set.  He couldn't wait to put it together!!

 The younger 3 all helping Samuel.

 Callie spending time with Grandpa.  She was just a bit miffed that the ENTIRE night was all about Samuel.  :)



Here's all the cute little video clips from his Graduation.

Mother's Day - Part 2 The Best Meal Ever!!!!

Here is a picture of my Mother's Day meal.  On Saturday, I was hit with a brilliant burst of inspiration.  Why not go to a favorite Chinese restaurant and buy several sweet-n-sour chicken dinners along with some egg rolls and re-heat after church on Sunday.  My dear husband, (who for the record does NOT care for Chinese food) agreed.  As soon as church was out on Saturday(we were in revival last weekend), I headed out to the restaurant and bought 4 dinners(they are big enough to split) and 6 egg rolls.  It re-heated wonderfully and I even had enough leftovers for my lunch on Monday.  Yay!!!!

Now for a FIRST in our household.  My sister-in-law had given me a bag full of chopsticks to use for fun with the kids.  I decided to break them out on Sunday.  Here's Samuel giving it a go....

Callie did quite well right off the bat, but quickly caved in and begged for a fork to finish!!

Duane had 2 servings of sweet-n-sour chicken and ate every. last. bite. with chopsticks!!!  I was super-impressed!!!!! :)

This was my father-in-law's first time using chopsticks.  he too used ONLY chopsticks for his entire meal!!

Seth tried them out, but caved and got a fork as well!! Oh had for the record.....if there's any chopstick holding/using pros out there....I did not research the proper way to use these.  We just dove in and figured it out by trial and error. lol

Simon gives it a go...while Samuel (in the background) uses BOTH hands to make it work!!!  This was the best Sunday dinner ever!!!  I was happy that everyone was willing to give something new and different a try.

Sorry folks, no picture of me using chopsticks.  I will say I did eat my entire meal with chopsticks and was quite good at it by the end of the meal.  I also used them to eat my lunch leftovers on Monday.  I'm finding is it VERY relaxing to eat with chopsticks.  It also makes one greatly appreciate each and every bite that makes its' way into your mouth. :)