Fiesta

Yesterday was my 37th birthday! Yay! We had some friends over for a party.

David shows Stu his mad grilling skillz.

We had mexican: fajitas, beans and rice, salsa, margaritas. Connor fell asleep while eating.

Look Beth, you made it on the blog! ;)

I got cocky and was teasing Caleb that he forgot to pie me. Unfortunately, my MOTHER remedied that error and got me!

Summer Camping

We had our annual group camping trip on Monday. It was wonderful. We camp in the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine Forest. Tuesday we spend the day at the beach in Elkhart Lake. Wednesday we go on a group hike before heading home. This year it was really hot and we didn't get rained out. This is the best group of families to go with, and the kids are fantastic. We had 21 kids this year, and all get along really well.






I'm already revising my camping checklist and looking forward to next year.

State Fair Registration

Today is the deadline for me to send in my State Fair entry form. They moved the date up a few weeks, and thankfully I remembered yesterday, or I'd be SOL! I printed off the forms and last night I figured out what I plan to enter.

Division 100:
Class 3 -- fabric baptismal outfit (my nephew's christening gown)
Class 31 -- one piece garment of stretch fabric (this will be Vogue 8379, yet to be made)
Class 33 -- serged item of clothing, using serging as main construction method (my Jalie 2449, why not?)
Class 40 -- woman's two piece sport outfit (this skirt, and this top)
Class 54 -- purse (an Amy Butler purse that is cut out but not sewn yet)

Division 206:
Class 620 -- combined fruit jam (peach-strawberry that I just put up this morning)
Class 624 -- strawberry jam (to be put up this afternoon or tomorrow)

They raised the entry fees (again!). Eight bucks for the first 5 items, four dollars for each additional 5 items. I have most everything made already, all that is needed is to make the knit dress and finish the purse. I toyed with doing a bathrobe too, but normally I don't like deadlines, so having to finish two items is enough. The actual garments are due July 18, with judging on July 20. I hope to actually go to judging this year (I say that every year, but it might actually work out this time).

Off to get this envelope in the mail so it can be postmarked today!

Strawberry Time

I know I've been lax in posting. School is out and we've been busy this week! I hope to get back in the sewing room soon, but right now, the garden has been calling.

Anyway, it's strawberry season, and we went picking at Barthel's today:
My mom shows Connor how to pick strawberries. (as an aside -- I made that sundress for myself over 17 years ago. It's held up really well. Good quality fabric -- rayon in this case -- is worth every penny)

We all had to sample the strawberries as we picked. :) I think I took home about 17 pounds of berries. We also picked sugar snap peas, and I bought some balloon flowers, hollyhocks, and a roma tomato. On the way home we stopped for some custard at Culver's. Yum yum!

Later this afternoon we brought some berries, peas, and food to my brother's friends, Dan and Kelly. They had a little boy on the 5th (who has a most excellent name). I got to sit and hold little Connor, which was such a treat (thanks guys!). I just LOVE newborns.

I hope to get some jam put up on Monday afternoon. Maybe some sewing after that.

First Birthday!

My nephew is ONE! Where has that time gone?!?

One year ago:


Yesterday:


Happy Birthday Cuzzy! We are looking forward to many more fun parties. Lots more pictures can be seen here.

The End of an Era?

I think diapers are a thing of the past in this household.

These are the only diapers I have used and washed in the past 8 days. About 2-3 weeks ago, Connor had a little bit of a rash, so I was letting him go either nakey, or just in a diaper with no cover. First he started telling me right when he was wet, and would take his diaper off. Then he started telling me that he had to go "pee toilet!", and run in the bathroom. He stayed dry through the night. He even stayed dry on our 7 hour drive to Iowa on Memorial Day weekend (both ways!).

This is a bit bittersweet. I'm pleased he's growing up, but I've never really minded diapers. Yeah, they can be stinky, but hey, it's part of parenthood. I've never had to deal with 2 children in diapers at the same time, and I've had fairly long diaper-free time between kidlets. Diaper changes are one of the few times I have the child still and just with me. We have our little silly belly kissing and games of peek-a-boo. We'll still play these silly games, of course, but no diapers also means my littlest baby is growing up, and doing it too fast for his mama. :)

It also means a little less laundry, and I am grateful for that.

Costumes

The production photos for the play that I helped build some costumes for are up. Unfortunately, you can't really see the ones I did. Anyway, if you go to Milwaukee Shakespeare's website and click on 'Production Photos' (it's a sub-menu under 'On Stage'), that will take you to the main photo page. Click on 1 Henry IV, and a separate window will pop up, with photos from the play. I built Hotspur's (Brian Gill) gray shirt (I don't think you can see it), Prince Hal's (Jeff Withers) black shirt (though he wasn't wearing it the day Calvin and I saw the play), and the prostitute's (Courtney Jones) chemise and skirt (which was then overdyed and roughed up a bunch). I also altered the skirt that I believe is worn by Mistress Quickly (Tiersa Ferraro).

It was fun to do, and when we saw the play, I had to remind myself to just enjoy it, instead of picking over my work. :)

Missing

You ever have one of those weeks (months?) that all of a sudden all these things need to be done, and you feel like you time warped ahead a few days and lost a bunch of time?

Yeah, it's been one of those weeks. :)