camping

we had a great time during our 2nd annual labor day weekend camping adventure with the russells. a perfect way to spend the last official weekend of summer!

hunting for pond critters

 some nature painting

 

 

 silly kids who think its more fun to swim fully clothed than in their suits

some nature sculptures

 

 

 sweet girls

 a special ending to a special summer for this little family

dusting off the old sewing machine

i'm looking forward to my weekend project.  dusting of the old sewing machine! literally dusting off.  literally old.  as you'll see below this little guy hasn't come out of its box since about 1988 (when i was 8). you might not believe it - but i was quite the quilter back in the day.  won my fair share of blue ribbons at the good ol' hardwick fair and 4-h competitions.  impressed?!  my mom was... she'd hang my creations all around the house.  even if the patterns and seams never matched up. i even remember going to a quilters guild...when i was 8!

hoping it's sort of like riding a bike.  and thankful that i still have the instruction manual.  fingers crossed i can get it to work! not sure what my first project will be - think i'll start small.  wish me luck!

couple pics of some treasures i found in the box.

ella loves these erin stickers.  i remember having these all over my stuff back in the day (very territorial i guess)

 apparently i had some mean cross-stitch skills as well

bag of ...

i love kid projects - i truly do.  like most parents, our walls, fridge, doors and more are covered with kiddo creations.  we are also regular patrons of the good ol' post office to send off many of these treasures to grandparents, uncles, cousins, etc.  and yes, we toss... alot! i feel like we've got a good system.   then we get a day like this...

not the standard 2-3 creations.  nope - a giant shopping bag of them.  all from one day.   impressive, i guess.   dear family - make room, we've got more coming your way!

science & art projects

another snowy day at home called for some new ideas and a few new projects.  ella and i got a head start on our valentines with these cute animal cards.  ella's favorite is the luv bug and mine is the bee mine one.  thank you paper-source.com for the reminder on how to make these little guys.  aren't they cute?

we also have a little science project going on today - melting!  the little scientists have been checking on the status of their bowls all afternoon. we wish the snow outside would melt as quickly so that we could be out swimming like these little animals. 

time to go make some soup & grilled cheese for these talented little artists and scientists!  and... time to start thinking of some new ideas with more snow on the way tomorrow!