The Play is the Thing

Well, we survived a week of pageant rehearsals and two performances, all in mostly sweltering heat and without shade for much of the day. We are still resting and recovering from such a demanding (but extremely rewarding) schedule. The pageant proved to be a great success, and was a wonderful experience for our family. We met so many new people, strengthened existing friendships, and made lots of memories together. We were so busy that I took very few pictures; plus I was holding Henry most of the time! But luckily someone was the official photographer, and as soon as I snatch his photos off of flicker I will post some of them and share with you a portion of what we were able to experience last week.

Until then, I'm off for some more R&R because tomorrow is CLEANING DAY!

Holly Hobbie is my daughter

I've been sewing like a mad woman lately in preparation for The Promised Land pageant next weekend. We have rehearsals all next week and I've been frantically getting our costumes together over the past few days. Finally, we almost have everything (minus a few things that have to be bought today while we run errands). I dont' have pictures of anyone but Emma right now, but I'll post more after next week. I know I will have a TON of photos! Doesn't Emma look like Holly Hobbie? Okay, who even remembers Holly Hobbie?

I'd love to say that I'm a great photographer and knew how to do some kind of hazy filter for the next two photos, but I can't take the credit. Let's call it....HUMIDITY! My lens kept fogging up.

Emma's dress was the result of a trip to Goodwill implementing several different types of material in what I call Frankensewing (ie--Frankenstein's monster). Emma's outfit consists of an adult jumper(a short one!), a toddler button up shirt, and a valance/curtain that was cut up to make the hem and apron (plus some leftover elastic for apron straps). Aaahhh...frankensewing! So much easier than sewing "from scratch"! Although I did make the bonnet from scratch.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

One of Audrey’s Young Women leaders at church is moving away, so Audrey volunteered to make a surprise cake for her.  She picked the colors, and the design.  I would have liked to have her decorate the whole thing by herself, but we were a little pressed for time.  So I frosted and smoothed the cake layers and did a little bit of the decorating.  But she mostly did the whole thing herself.  Everyone loved the cake, and Audrey was very proud of the results.  I think I see cake in this kid’s future….

Jam Session

Over the last few years, jam season has gotten away from me. Sickness, trips, school. Whatever. This year I was determined to get some serious jam done. Our first trip to the strawberry fields yielded TONS of berries. Perfectly ripe. And it only took a few minutes to get 3 full flats.

We ate those berries, knowing that we didn't have time to make jam then but that we would return with a couple of weeks for a jam run. Well, the one week that was dedicated to jam got sabotaged with sickness. I got a horrible cold. This was tragic because it meant the only jam week left was the last week of berries. But we went out to the fields anyway this past week. Such a change from our first visit. Little puny berries. And it took us forever just to pick the two flats pictured, and then they weren't even full.So we had to go straight from the fields to Sam's to get supplemental berries. Sam's also had some great blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries so we picked up some of each with plans to make Triple Berry Jam with Rosemary. Of course, then I had to go to Kroger to get some fresh rosemary (and also some eggs because the stinkin' snake is eating all our chicken eggs!....I HATE buying eggs!).

So above are the ingredients for the Triple Berry Jam. I ended up making 4 kinds of jam:

• Triple Berry with Rosemary (cooked--strawberry, raspberry, blueberry)
• Triple Berry with Rosemary (cooked--strawberry, blackberry, blueberry)
• Triple Berry Freezer Jam (strawberry with the leftover blackberry and blueberry)
• Regular Strawberry Freezer Jam

So we're set for jam for a while......here are some berry nice extra pictures. They have a few animals at this farm for the kids to see. Here's the peacock....always a hit!

A Trip to the Zoo

On a recent trip to visit family, we made a side trek to the Asheboro Zoo. It wasn't a horribly hot day, but with all the walking we had to do it was hot enough. Note to self: never visit the zoo in summer. I think our next visit will be in late fall. There were lots of school groups there, but luckily we were able to steer clear of them for most of the day. So here is a collection of photos from that day.

Overheard.....

Audrey: Emma you did NOT put your zone paper away! (it's a chore list)

Emma: Audrey, stop judging me!!!!

Busy, busy, busy

We haven't been posting for a bit because we've just been so busy, plus I'm not quite sure how to upload photos to this new computer yet. Since my last post:

• we all got colds, with me getting the very worst of it and Rick in at a close 2nd.


• we went to Mocksville and the NC zoo.


• Audrey and I went to the LDSEHE homeschool conference at SVU.


• at the SVU conference Audrey performed in the talent show (video coming soon) and also performed in an opening number for the conference with a pianist and vocalist.


• we hosted the area welfare specialists for the Church this past Saturday night (after coming back in the wee hours Saturday morning from the SVU trip).


• we had a fireside at Church Sunday night.


• I had to go to the hospital for a genetics test blood draw.


• I had a dentist appointment yesterday.....A+ visit!


• Audrey had her last flute lesson until fall.

So, since I still have to put on Cub Scout uniform patches this afternoon, make dinner, and get the kids to church, please enjoy this hilarious poster:

And especially for my sister, Anna, who loves these.....enjoy this latest Emma-ism (which occured less than 15 minutes ago):

Emma walks toward me from the kitchen, where Audrey has just finished a Pineapple Upside Down Cake for tonight's YM/YW Luau, and says:

Mom, can I have the last pineapple ring? I'm hungrier than you think.