Winner, winner no fish dinner!

Look who won the fishing derby this time up at Nana's house! I'm glad too because otherwise my life would have been miserable! You see, Amanda won last time and Evan was bent. This time Evan won and Amanda was bent. Can't you just be happy for each other? It's Labor Day Weekend and lots of kids would just be happy to BE here!!!

By the time they were judged those poor fish were kind of dried out and gross. That's fine by me cause I'm not cooking fish in the 5th wheel. Plus it's lake fish so there is a bit of nasty that you can't get rid of. I'm a firm whitefish from the ocean kind of girl. Even then I prefer it battered and smothered in vinegar and tartar sauce...

Let's Go Dragons!

Evan started playing soccer this year. Thankfully, he loves it! He ended up staying on the under 8 league since his 8th birthday was just after the cutoff. We decided that was ok since he'd never played before outside of with Dad in the front yard. Better to be the older kid than the youngest kid on your first year! Most of his teammates are in first grade and are first year players. You can't really tell by their heights. Evan is a shortie and blends right in! Skill level is a different story though. It makes me realize how much he's matured in the last couple of years
The soccerama day turned out to be HOT. Poor kids were melting at their scrimmage game. Where's Fall when you need it?

We found some shade while waiting for the parade to start. Ugh! This little guy next to me is on Evan's team. Tears started after his mom left so I felt bad and sat with him.

This, though, is my favorite picture of the day. Can you say 9 year old drama? Heaven forbid if she does something for her brother...even after he sat through practices and games for her softball career last Spring. Actually, she's getting off light since his practices are twice a week for an hour and hers were 3 times a week for 1 1/2 hours. His games are also only 40 minutes long. She better stop complaining! Wait, I'm not sure that's possible. What is it with 9 year olds anyway?

Poor thing! She's being tortured!

Evan's new bike

Here is Evan's birthday present. He was finally ready for a bigger bike...barely. The seat's in the loooowwwest position. He thinks he's big stuff now since he has gears and hand brakes.

How come they need a new bike every couple of years? Evan looked like a giant on his old bike. Chris, being a bit of a bike snob, requires their bikes to come from the bike shop. He detests heavy, cheap bikes and spent so much time fixing their first bikes from a mega chain store that we aren't allowed to go there again.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 8th Birthday!

Evan turned 8 this August. Although we'd transitioned into kid parties over the last couple of years, this year I did a family party for Evan as well. Last year we were living at my parent's house after we'd sold our house and hadn't found property to buy yet. He kind of missed out on the birthday thing. He'd say to me, "Remember when I didn't have a birthday last year?" Ugh, take the knife out of my heart! The weather was perfect that day, thankfully since I'm known for having BBQ's when it's 104.

There was lots of scooter/bike fun on the driveway---

Kid food on the grill---

Tree climbing, of course---

Sorenson cousins brought a stomp rocket/bubble blower---lots of fun---

Played games like egg passing, water bombs, and penny toss/candy games. It was pretty intense! The cutest was watching Luke, my brother's youngest, walk so carefully with his egg.

I also, drumroll please, FINALLY finished Evan's frayed edge quilt! It only took me 3 years to finally focus on finishing it!

The back side

And the front.

It fits his twin bed and is nice and big for couch snuggling.

Then it was time for banana splits and snickerdoodles as per Evan's request. How easy can it get? Whew! Hopefully this will make up for Birthday 2008, or lack of. Happy Birthday E!!

Hellooo!

Helloooo! (Imagine Mrs. Doubtfire here) I know, I know. I've been away for a long time. My life is busy, as is everyone elses, and I chose to focus on trying to keep the house under control so I'd also stay under control. The end of the summer brought on the last of our crops. Can you imagine the haul of tomatoes on thirty some odd plants? Even with this being such a bad year for tomatoes and some of the plants not producing we still had a ton. We made sauce, stewed, and salsa'd til I couldn't take it anymore. STOP PICKING!!!! I grew tired of my counters being covered and my table having a beach towel full of tomatoes on it.

Guess what?!? I already miss fresh tomatoes. Is that sick or what?

I promise to be a better blog buddy and will catch up on the past couple of months the rest of this week. We had fishing derbies, birthdays, soccer, sewing, and of course, more animal pictures. Hope you are all doing well! Love you!

Busy!

School's back in session, and I'm busy. I've been so tired lately and realized yesterday that it must be because I now do all of the house stuff plus work and after school activities. Evan started soccer practices and his first scrimmage is tomorrow. I've got pictures of what's been going on but not had time to blog about them. I have no idea how long it will be before I get to it so I'll leave you with this question...How many bb's does it take to kill a skunk in my hen yard at 4:30 in the morning? Chris knows. And he's probably getting a 22 for Christmas. Poor guy! AND my house reeks like skunk. Too bad I was so tired and didn't get up to help or I might have had a more descriptive account of the situation.

Have a great weekend!

More fruits, and veggies of our labor...food and otherwise.

Um, I'm now sick of squash, for this year anyway. The chickens are excited about this fact. They've been getting zucchini and cucumbers thrown in to them daily. The tomatoes, bell peppers and jalapenos are now ready...finally. Salsa anyone???

Here is a sneak peak at Evan's quilt that I've had in the works for 2 years. Now to just wash it and act like it's a surprise on his birthday since he's seen it. I gave up staying up late to work on it when he wasn't looking. The best part is IT'S DONE!!! Now we have a fun trip going to the laundrymat to use their oversized machines. I just love experiencing the laundrymat culture.

Here is Amanda's book bag for school. I just barely finished this one by the hair on my chinny chin chin. School starts tomorrow. I need to lengthen the strap a little, but other than that she loves it. It's stuffed with school supplies that we got yesterday. She is so excited to be in 4th grade!

We got a little crazy on the front with the embroidery settings on my machine(Maybelle).

This bag was a bit of an experiment since I worked from a pattern and picture we found on the internet and just changed the size up a little. One thing I've noticed on the free patterns you find on the internet is the directions are usually lacking. If I hadn't just made up 11 grocery bags made with similar lining concepts I'd have not been able to complete it properly. These people need to edit their directions better. They forget key parts that make a huge difference, like don't sew the handle all the way to the top since you have to tuck it down inside when you are sewing the lining to the outside. That way when you turn it the right side out the handle is on the OUTSIDE instead of the INSIDE. I think I'll write them a note. They forgot that whole step. Anyway, bookbags are packed and awaiting a lunchbag and school starts tomorrow. I see some closet organizing going on today in preparation for tomorrow. Fall is near, and I'm ready!