Some of the latest

Last week I snapped away at my family reunion. Here are some of my favorites:

Happy Fourth!

I love this holiday and what it stands for. I'm grateful for this country, it's founders, and the liberties we have. The fireworks, firecrackers, and sparklers are an added bonus that I love, too.

Hope you had a great weekend!

As Promised

In my last quilt post I said I was going to try to make a blanket out of old dresses that I recently found. These dresses were all mine (from the early to mid 90s), and they are a little painful to look at now. Though they are all "dry clean only," I decided to give them a wash and see how they'd hold. It seemed like they survived okay, so I promply cut them up and went to work. By the way, don't miss the pleats on the far right . . .

I know with a pattern like this you can usually do some strip piecing to put the whole thing together--but not when your cutting up dresses, it just doesn't work so well. So, I pieced each square individually. Don't look too close because it isn't perfectly square, but it turned out well, I think. I actually love the colors together.

Oh, and I'm cheating a little, it's not going to be completely out of old dresses--I bought a black remnant for the edges and I think I'll do some black fleece on the back (can't easily find any other fleece colors that match, unfortunately).

Bubbles

My mom just got a bubble machine for the grandkids. Next week the whole family gets together for the week, so this should provide some great entertainment. Every new toy needs a trial run before a big audience, right? Last night we gave it a go. The 3 grandkids around old enough to appreciate it surely did just that. And I enjoyed snapping away. Here are my favorites.

This machine looks like a winner--it's Gazzillion Bubbles brand, and came from amazon.com.

Does your kid . . .

hug other random-stranger kids walking around in the park?

At least the feeling was mutual. The other kid actually hugged Guy first, and over a span of about 30 minutes of independent play there were 3 different hugging moments when they crossed paths.

So so excited

A former schoolmate of Rob's (Cristina) took some photos of Guy last 4th of July. Shortly after that, she and her husband moved to D.C.--before I could get copies. Just this past week I was able to get in touch with her (thanks, Rachel), and we used Dropbox.com to transfer the photo files (really wonderful internet application that you should learn about if you don't already know about it). These are some of my favorite photos of Guy ever, I just really love them. It makes my day to get these, and more (but I'll spare you).It's fun to see how much he's changed (grown up). Again, Cristina, thanks so much!!!

Water Time

Guy has a pretty difficult time trying new things. Yesterday it was a beach ball sprinkler thing. It took hims about an hour to warm up to this idea of fun.
Thankfully he finally got into it, and really started playing.

I'm glad it finally feels like summer so that we can do things like this, wear him out, and get a 2.5 hour nap in afterwards (for him, not me).

He's ALL Boy

Rough and tumble - that bump was huge and it's still quite a bruise

And the kid loves dirt--especially potting soil, unfortunately.

Photos: More of "the usual"

I'm probably having too much fun learning all of the capabilities of my new camera. Hopefully you aren't too tired of seeing Guy's many photo shoots. He plays, I photograph, we walk, I photograph, you get the point. I'm worse than most first moms, I know--but it's because I lack other subjects. Anyone want to bring your kids over for some camera time? Seriously . . . let me know.

B&W or color, what's your preference?

. . .

Cloudy weather today . . . so nice for photography.

Guy's Favorite Hiding Place--for things

There are a few place Guy likes to hide himself, and those are cute, but this one, not so much. Today Rob tried to stop Guy BEFORE he threw my contact case (WITH contacts) in this hole (a cut out for radiant heat plumbing/access).With the help of this (duct tape and a towel rod):In retrieving what I expected to just be contacts, I got all of this:And this. There are some parts of growing stages I'll never miss.

The Zoo

On Saturday Rob had a work picnic at Hogle Zoo. Unfortunately the timing coincided with my last day of work. If it hadn't been my last day, I would have tried to switch it with somebody else, but oh well. We'll go to the zoo again sometime, and maybe next time he won't be scared of the noisy parrot or monkey (also noisy). Eden joined Rob and Guy with the extra ticket I couldn't use. Here are some of my favorite photos they took.