It's time for school!!!

Today was the first day of school  for the kids.  I can hardly believe our children are in 7th., 5th., 1st. Kindergarten this year!!! 

Samuel, our 1st. grader, was especially happy with his mommy made 'first day of school' shirt.  He told me over and over how 'comfy' it was!!  He had a wonderful day at school.  Hope it stays that way....

 Simon, our 5th. grader, informed me that 5th. grade was going to be 'tough'.  Apparently, they were given a test in History on the first day!!  Yikes!!!!

 Seth, our firstborn, is a 7th. grader this year!  Wow, where has the time gone?  Both before and after VBS this evening he was working on homework. I'm thinking it's going to be a busy year for him. 

 Callie, our baby girl, is in Kindergarten this year.  Once again, mommy is homeschooling her.  I'm excited about this year.  Last year, it was a bit rough starting out teaching her at home.  I'm hoping all goes well this year and we have a smooth/easy start.

 Daddy takes the 3 boys to HCS for their first day of school.

 Another picture of Callie in her mommy-made 1st. day of school dress.

 She moved her hair out of the way so I could take a picture of the back.  This is a very bright, colorful dress that received many compliments from total strangers while we were out today.

 We did lessons while she sat on the couch today.  There has been absolutely no time to search for a new desk for her as of yet.  Today, she wanted to use the couch.  :)

 After completing her lessons for the day, we took a trip to the library where she did reading.  Her K-5 program doesn't start reading until lesson 68.  I don't want to wait that long for reading to be incorporated in her lessons, so today's reading lesson was at the library.  She loves how she will get to go different places for her classes.  As a surprise, I let her pick out a donut from a local bakery. 

 I decided cooking classes would be added to her curriculum this year.  She learned how to make Cream Cheese frosting today.  She measured, mixed, tasted and frosted all on her own.  She was telling people at church that she learned how to make frosting today.  Too funny!! 

 I'm thinking I need to sew her a cute little apron & chef's hat for her cooking lessons.

 I showed her how to make fancy swirls in the icing.  She wanted it smooth and flat with no swirls!  She spent quite some time trying to get the icing perfectly flat.  lol

 Her music lesson....we just did some bow exercises today.  She is just starting to learn how to hold the bow.  Sailor 4(pinky) needs to be a bit more curved and poor captain thumb kept falling out of his chair, but she had fun sailing through the air with her sailors & captain on the bow.

 Needless to say, she was quite worn out after the day's activities, and took a nap on the couch.

After school was out for the boys, we went to Burger King with our free cheesebuger coupons the kids had received from VBS.  Then we came home, spring cleaned the living room/dining room and raced around to get ready to leave again for VBS.  This has been a crazy, busy, fun-filled week for sure!!

Not my favorite place, but the kids LOVE....

......CHUCK E. CHEESE!!!!!!!!

On Monday, we packed up and drove 45 minutes to a place we go once a year or less.  :)  This was a treat for the kids.  I printed out a coupon for 160 tokens.  It didn't take them long to find 40 different games/rides to do.  They had fun and then I got to go to THEIR least favorite place....a FABRIC store!  lol

 Samuel shows off all the tickets he won.  Don't know how he did it....I couldn't win that many tickets if I tried!!!:)

 Callie wanted to ride this ride sooooo bad but she was scared it would go too high for her.  As soon as she saw another little boy on it smaller than her, she HAD to try it!!

 Simon & Seth waiting for their sister to finish using all her tokens.

 The tickets Callie won.  One of the machines spit out a ridiculous amount of tickets for no reason.  That's why she had so many.

 All the kids chose a bag of cotton candy for their prize.  It was gone by the time we arrived back home.

 Oh, these were the donuts I bought FRESH-BAKED first thing that morning.  I discovered that I had not one, but TWENTY-FIVE items OVERDUE at the library.  I rushed to take them back before the library opened, but they were still THREE DAYS LATE!!!!  Yep, that fine is gonna be a killer!!!  Sigh......



Picture overload.....July events so far!

My June Challenge made on the very LAST day of June.  This is a business card holder that will be a stocking stuffer for someone. 

The inside...hope she likes it. :)  I want to make myself one now.

July 4th.  This was a fun day.  It started out with a 10 mile bike ride with my brother at 6:30AM.  My SIL was so kind to lend me her bike that is MUCH better than mine.  I damaged my tailbone on mine and I had problems sitting for weeks.  I need to invest in a better bike before I start my professional bike riding career!!!!  lol  After we biked the trails, we met Duane and my sil for breakfast at Bob Evans.  I was STARVED after the early morning exercise!! 

Here is Samuel chillin' on the chair....

Somebody's tired......:)

Doing what she does best.....computer work!!!:)

Nathan and I loved this fort when we were growing up.  It's still standing in my parents backyard.  The grandkids are enjoying it now.

Doesn't Samuel look thrilled to be with a bunch of girls!!!

Playstation 3----no other explanation needed.

A pair of gray culottes for Callie out of some scraps of fabric.  I made 3 pairs of gray ones on Wednesday.  1 for her and 2 for friends.  This was in between 9 music lessons and studying for kid's club.

The darker pairs of culottes were made on Thursday.

I've been frantically sewing myself more running outfits.  My goal is to have 5 different complete sets.  So, I don't have to keep washing and wearing the same old thing over and over and over again.  :)  Here's my second set in grays and red.  Please excuse the red face and sweat dripping!!  My kids took the picture after I had ran over 2 miles in 90 degree weather on Saturday.  Don't think I'll try running in the heat like that again!!!  It was brutal!!

I'm really loving how these running skirts are working for me.  I no longer have skirt flapping around my legs while running down the road and I feel stylish and comfy.  I really wanted to wear this all day long!!!!

I love, love, LOVE the color lime green!!!!  I secretly wish for a pair of running shoes in that color, but havn't found any that are right for my feet as of yet.  I couldn't wait to get up on Monday and wear this set.  I was a tad more motivated to get up at 5:30AM to run when I knew this was waiting for me to put on!!  I love this shirt fabric.  It is super-thin and was so cool and comfy.  I have plenty more, so I might have to sew me another one.  I also bought lime green serger thread to match.  You might think I'm a bit crazy, but it made me sooooo happy to have lime green thread in my serger!!! 
Yep, the hallway is under renovation....excuse the half-finished closet.

This picture doesn't seem to capture the true lime-green of this stripe.  Oh well.....

Since my quest in getting up early in the morning and exercising I've been cooking breakfast nearly every day.  I am pleased to announce that I have become very good friends with my iron skillet.  I have discovered that this thing makes an AWESOME omelet!!!!!  Here's one of my creations this week.....egg, spinach, onions, peppers, tomatoes, cheese.....ahhhhhhhhhh.....yummy!!!! 

These are 3 egg omelets and I split one with Duane.  This skillet/omelet pictures is for the benefit of my brother-in-law!!! Check out how seasoned these things are!!!!!  They are loving the daily use!!!! :) 

My breakfast plate....half an omelet, 2 slices of turkey bacon, plain yogurt with fresh raspberries and flax seed.  Yes, I eat this much each morning and I'm still managing to lose weight!!!  I've found that eating a good breakfast helps me not want to snack on things all day.

Simon designed a Lego top that works while I was sewing on Monday.

 A short video clip of the top in action.....

More culottes for the teens at youth camp.  I managed to sew 11 pairs in 6 days!!!!

My 'knock-off' under armour compression capris.  I have one pair of the UA brand that I love.  They are sooooo expensive!!!  I was delighted when I found fabric at Jo-Ann's just like what UA used.  I bought 3 different colors.  I managed to make 3 pairs out of the yard and a half cut of navy blue.  I still have charcoal and black to sew up.  The fabric cost me $4 per yard.  I thought that was an AWESOME deal!!! I just used my capris and made a pattern off of them.  Now I have 4 pairs to use when I run.  No more having to wash over and over each day!!!!

Seth make a base out of Legos today.  I just love the kids creating things and using their imaginations

 The story of my running shoes.....

My husband bought me a beautiful pair of very nice running shoes for my birthday in April.  They were gray and aqua.  They were Saucony Grid Flex and sooooo comfy.  I LOVED them!!!!  I wore them out in just over 2 months!!!  On July 1, I was stretching and noticed a hole in the bottom of one!!!  I was just sick!!  Running shoes are not cheap and the thoughts of having to replace them so soon was not making me very happy.  Well, on July 4, after our 10 mile bike ride and meal at Bob Evans, we went in to the Finish Line at the mall in the Dayton area.  I showed the guy there what had happened to my shoes.  He asked if I still had my receipt.  Well, I did, but at home hours away!!!  He told me to take it into the store and they should be able to do something about it.  I could hardly believe that.  Well, I proceeded to try on several different kinds of shoes.  He brought me a pair that he that would work.  I liked them and gave them a test run around the store.  lol  He asked if I was ready to buy them.  Well, I told him I wished I would have brought the receipt in, but never realized that they would do something like that for me.  I never asked for any kind of compensation.  He ended up giving me the full price of my old shoes to put toward my new shoes!!!!!!!! I only had to pay $30 for my new running shoes!!!!!  I was happy beyond words!!!  So far they have been working great for me.  Here is a picture of the new shoes.  These are Brooks Adrenaline GTS 11th. edition.

 Yep, they've been used....see all the dirt!!  lol I forgot to take a picture the day I got them.

 I played the flute tonight in the Findlay Community Band.  There are 80 members.  We played selections from Gershwin.  It was fun!!

 I love this picture.  Seth caught the girl next to me mid-breath!!

 I love this picture of the band director getting into it!;)

 Glad it was over....by the end of the concert I was nearly blind from the setting sun shining right in my face!!  Now why didn't I think to wear my sunglasses like that lady?  lol

If you made it this far....WOW!!!!!  Thanks for reading!!!