Happy 41

The moment I heard Blackhawk on the radio ...somewhere around 1995... I fell in love with the mandolin. Henry Paul, the lead singer for the band, plays a mean mando.

Fast forward to 2009 when I watched 'Into The Wild' where Eddie Vedder plays an even MEANER mando. Plus, I just love Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam.

So since then I was determined to get a manodlin and learn to play it. Ive never taken any kind of music lessons, even in school, so it will be a tough road for me. So far I got my mando, thanks to my hubby, for my birthday this year.

Watch out world, here I come to play! Who knows, maybe we have 2 future mando players in our family.

Halloween Cake

Confession: I love sweets. Chocolate, pie, cake, ice cream...you name it. But I am a closet eater. I dont let my kids eat a lot of junk food so I must indulge either at night after they have gone to bed or sneak a bite of sweet goodness when they arent looking and keep it hidden away. Pathetic, isnt it?

With Halloween rapidly approaching I decided that this is the year to start making holiday sweets for the kids. Carmen helped make her very first Halloween cake this past weekend and she had a ball!

Upon turning the mixer on high speed with dry cake batter in the bowl, we escaped a minor mess. The cake turned out wonderful and we all indulged that evening after dinner.

Bring on the holidays!

He was right

The hot summer heat has subsided and this past weekend was cloudy and cool. The family was all outside on the back deck enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Andy: We should probably take the sun shade tent down for the season so it doesn't get ruined.

Me: Let's leave it up for a while longer. We can enjoy it all thru September and October.

Later that night we had thunder & lightning and a little rain.

Monday morning this is what we woke up to find.

I hate it when my hubby's right.

Fancy Folded Star Pot Holder

This has been a work in progress but is finally done! Got the full tutorial here:
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2011/09/fancy-folded-star-pot-holder.html

1st Day of Pre-K 4

Its that time of year again. Hot temperatures are starting to drop, cool breezes are picking up and school is in session. Carmen started her 1st day of Preschool, 4 yr old class today. This year she goes 3 days a week... M-W-F. Today went off without a hitch, same as last year. She has wonderful teachers and has many new classmates that she didnt know last year. Thankfully there are still a few of her old classmates in her class, too. We are so proud of her!

Happy 4th Birthday!

Carmen celebrated her 4th birthday in style this year. A 'Magical Fairy' party. It was held at Wish! Memories and they did a fantastic job of catering to us. They provided all the costumes for 8 little girls, decorations, games,music and photography. The only thing I needed to do was bring a cake. It was AWESOME!

Look at all the cute little fairies! As I stated above, all I had to do was bring the cake. That was the easy part. But I felt like I needed to do something more. So 2 weeks prior to the party I began making these Butterfly wands. They look easy enough, but there's alot of detail in the wands. I hand-stitched each one and even taught myself how to blanket stitch in the process. Oh, and dont forget, I had to make EIGHT of them! By the smiles on their faces, I'd say they were a big hit! And of course each little girl got to take one home with them.

Yes, there are actually 9 wands. One little girl couldn't make the birthday party because she was sick and since she is one of Carmens best friends, I couldn't leave her out of the fun. Her mother was kind enough to still drop off a gift for Carmen at the party and she took a wand home to her.

The Magical Fairy party lasted 2 hours... from 2pm to 4pm. Once we got home and got situated, Carmen had more birthday presents to open from family. It was such a long day!

I won't bore you with pics of every single gift, but did want to share with you the Hungry Little Caterpillar quilt that I made. Its been in production for months. And believe it or not I sewed the binding on the night before her birthday. Talk about close! By the smiles on Carmens face, I would say she loves it!

Happy 8th Anniversary

Aloha means hello, aloha means goodbye.

It means until we meet again beneath the tropic sky.

Aloha means forever, and always to be true.

But best of all aloha means I'll always think of you.

I love you Andy. You are my world!

4th of July 2011

Our local park is only a block away and each year they have a nice firework display along with a live band. We are so lucky that we live so close by. No walking, no fighting the crowds, no sweltering in the heat. Nope. We enjoyed everything from the comfort of our front yard.

Aren't these camp chairs adorable? Got them on sale at Target a few weeks ago.

Carmen got a really nice bicycle for Christmas but has outgrown it already! Grrrr. My hubby picked this one up from the Goodwill for $12. What a great bike. Its near new and Carmen loves it!

And just look at my little guy Eli. He is 16 months old already. Where does the time go?

Hope all of you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend.

Lowes shopping carts

Lowe's has the coolest shopping carts for kids. Here's a double-seater with 2 steering wheels. Makes for 2 very happy youngsters.

Goodbye Sweet Gum Tree

Here is our Sweet Gum Tree in all its glory.

This was the only tree in our backyard. It was so beautiful and gave us great afternoon shade but it also dropped 'gumballs' at all times of the year. Imagine stepping on one of these in your bare footies. Not a pleasant feeling!

So this is how our backyard looks now. We still have 3 small pine trees and they may get bigger, stronger and healthier now that the gum tree is gone. Our grass may even get thicker, too.

Eagle

Another trip to the Memphis Zoo this week. I couldn't help but feel sorry for this majestic bird locked away in a large cage enclosure. But isn't he beautiful?

The Northwest Passage exhibit is gorgeous. I especially love all of these quotes that are engraved in stone. Unfortunatly, this is the only one I took a picture of. Next time I will get them all.

Hot pipes

The temperatures here have been in the high 90's for the past 2 weeks and I try to keep everyone hydrated as much as possible. But sometimes a cats gotta do what a cats gotta do even if that means drinking out of the kids blow-up pool.

Another day at the Memphis Zoo

Its Friday again and almost 100'... welcome summer, right? Well, we can only stand to be cooped up in the house for so long on hot days so I loaded the kids up in the car and we headed to the zoo again. Got there early and got out early.

First stop...the 'Animals Of The Night' exhibit...or what Carmen calls 'The Bat Cave.' We love this exhibit for 2 reasons. 1) the air conditioning and 2) the really neat animals inside. Porcupine, armadillo, sloth, bats, beetles, and a few really rare creatures from South America. Wish I could have gotten some good pics of the animals but its just too dark inside.

I did manage to get a good shot of Carmen and Eli enjoying themselves... and the creatures.

Our next stop was the new 'Birds & Bees' exhibit which just opened last week. We walked in and were overwhelmed with the amount of parakeets inside. Carmen even got to feed one from a stick. She just held the stick (which had a clump of bird seed on one end) up in the air and a parakeet swooped right down and landed on it. Pretty cool.

And whats cooler than a bird landing on your stick? Two birds landing on your stick!

Our last stop of the day was 'Teton Trek' which is the home to 3 grizzly bears, a small pack of white wolves and some elk. The lodge is very impressive. It is a much smaller replica of Yellowstone Lodge. We sat down inside and watched kids play in the fountain outside while we cooled off and enjoyed our sack lunch.

The great thing about going to the zoo is that we bought a yearly membership pass, so we can go anytime we want and just see a few exhibits each day. Next time we will see the Polar Bear and Sea Lions.

Tie Dye in the park

Every Friday in May there is this thing called 'Fun In The Sun' where the city puts on a free craft and music in the park. Last Friday was Tie-Dye day where we each brought in a plain white t-shirt and did our own tie-dye. Lots of fun for the kids. Carmen and Paige show off their works of art.

Just look at all the cute shirts hanging up to dry!

Cooling off

Its the middle of May but here in the Mid-South summer is upon us. Luckily the blow up pool from last year didn't spring any holes while it was in its winter slumber in the attic.

Zoo trip wears out a baby

We met up with some friends at the Memphis Zoo yesterday.

Carmen had a blast seeing the animals and our zoo trips aren't complete until she gets a carousel ride and an ice cream.

Unfortunately we had to leave a little early because Eli has been running a fever the past days and he was done. Even zonked out on the car ride home. Poor little guy.

I'm back

Geez, I haven't posted here since October. But I think I am back. All is well, just busy with life. Tomorrow I will update. Thanks to all of my followers.