Happy 6th Birthday, Marin!

Bay-buh...Sweetie Pie Pumpkin Baby Face...Love...Foo Foo Paw is six!!!!

This year, we celebrated with family out at Findley State Park. Popper and Cinder just rolled into town to support Nick at his Ironman, so I said, "Let's have her party at the camp site!" Something different...shake things up a bit...didn't have to clean my house. ;-)

I decided to do something different for her birthday cake as well...and, Marin said it was alright to have Chocolate Dream Dessert, so we did! :-) I remember that this was all I wanted for my birthday cake for a while when I was a kid. My parents picked up Marin's special request from Lorenzo's---anitpasta salad. That's all Marin wanted for her birthday dinner was salad from Lorenzo's! And you're darn right Bumpa and Barbie would go and get it for her. :-D

Marin also got to have some friends over for a party a few days later. She wanted Equestria Girls as her theme.

Look at this awesome cake my mom made for her!

We made rainbow slushies from crushed popsicle sticks. Super easy and fun for the kids to spoon what colors they wanted in their cups!  We also made friendship bracelets and it was so sweet...pretty much all of Marin's friends wanted to give theirs to her. <3

Happy birthday sweet baby girl! I love my always-singing girl! :-D

BIRTHDAY QUESTIONNAIRE

Marin, Age 6

Nicknames: 

Pumpkin Pie Sweetie Baby Face, Love Child, Love, Foo Foo Paw

How old are you?
6

What is your favorite color?
All of the colors..."Pick a color"...purple and pink

What is your favorite animal?
All of the animals

What is your favorite book?
Pinkalicious and My Little Pony and deerie books

What is your favorite TV show?

My Little Pony, Paw Patrol

What is your favorite movie?

Equestria Girls

What is your favorite song?
Meemop Zekeemop

What is your favorite food?
Salami sandwich, pizza

What is your favorite drink?
Chocolate milk

What is your favorite breakfast food?
Toast

What is your favorite snack?
Pepperoni

What is your favorite outfit?
The Equestria Girl one (which outfit is that?)

What is your favorite game?
ABC Mouse

What is your favorite toy?
My Little Ponies, Littlest Pet Shop, Equestria Girls dolls

Who is your best friend?
Chase, Charlotte, Anna, Malenna, Sophia

What is your favorite thing to do?
Watch a movie with Daddy

What is your favorite thing to do outside?
Playing in the kid wash and the sprinkler

What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas, Easter, Halloween, summer

What do you like to take to bed with you at night?
Deerie and Pink

Where is your favorite place to go?
Anna's house

What is your favorite restaurant?
Lorenzo's

Where do you want to go on vacation?
To Mammoth Cave again

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A movie maker!

What did you do on your birthday?
Open presents, eat pizza, eat anitpasta salad, went to school

First Day(s) of School 2015

Oh what an exciting beginning of the school year we had!

Marin started kindergarten (*tears*), and our new elementary school opened...and it is beautiful! I seriously go, "Wow!" each time I approach the school while driving. I feel so crazy blessed that the kids get to go to school here with the amazing teachers and personnel who fill the building. The building is seriously so bright (thanks to lots of big windows) and colorful.

The best part about open house was Marin finally became excited about going to school. Ha. Up until that point, she was mostly indifferent about it.

Her teacher this year is the same one Emory had for kindergarten. So that is fun. Her teacher is very sweet and loves the children. She is older, but you can tell that she still has such a passion for what she is doing. :-)

Rockin' her Rarity shirt by the school tree:

Emory has the same teacher for 2nd grade that Evander had...and she's awesome! I was so so hoping Emory would get her. :-)

Emory's best friend is in his class this year! We have talked lots about being good. Ha.

Oh, Emory.

Evander has four teachers this year....and they are all younger than me. Lol. Guess that happens eventually. :-P

He has his homeroom teacher for reading/ELA, then another for science and social studies, and TWO teachers for math. He will rotate social studies for 4 1/2 weeks, then science for 4 1/2 weeks, etc. which is really a bummer because those two classes are really fun---and the best in terms of learning to love knowledge and learning about the world. His math teachers will rotate as well. One will be in the class room M, T, the other  Th, F, and they will take turns on Wednesdays.  This rotation has nothing to do with the children, but everything to do with the teacher's request for part time. Still not sure how I feel about it, but Evander seems to be rolling with it.

Evander is so thrilled to have his two best pals in ALL of his classes this year. Wow. I'm so happy for him. :-) There's also a girl in his class this year (who was also in his third grade class) that likes him, that he is "okay" with her liking him. Hee hee. She bought a candy bar from Evander last winter when we were up at the grocery store selling them for Cub Scouts. I didn't know who she was at the time and Evander didn't give me any clues that he even knew her until she left and said, "See you Monday!" I said, "EVANDER! She's in your class?!?" He was so nonchalant  about the whole thing. She called the next day, but hasn't called again. :-P

Bruh-doos:

Babies:

Here's to an awesome 4th, 2nd grade, and kindergarten year!!!!

Memory Quilts for Two Special Girls

I finished up two more bed quilts about a month ago for two special little girls.

Not *those*girls! But you see, they both insist on being on top of things.

A dear friend that I grew up with commissioned me to make these for her daughters. Memory clothes quilts are always special, but the pieces included on these quilts might be considered extra special, as some of these clothes are the ones my friend's daughters came with, and some were worn when first memories together were made.  My friend's family celebrated their adoption anniversary this month! :-)

Here's the first!  Ta-da!

Just kidding. That's what happened when I asked Nick to hold the quilt up for me. Uh huh. Nice, nice.

Here's the better shot:

Ohhhhhhhhhh....now we have a boy and his butt in the picture!!! Even better!

The pink quilt is for the younger daughter, and the purple for the older---their favorite colors.

Hey, look!  We got a bunny!

I quilted the purple one with the meandering squares:

And the pink is quilted in the dogwood style. I love quilting this pattern and figured this would be a snap! But this quilt gave me so much trouble!

Whenever someone says about the kids, "They'll go to bed early tonight," or "Betcha they sleep well tonight," I always tell them that I don't make those kinds of predictions anymore. Lol. I guess the same could go for quilts. There is just no predicting how they will behave!

And for your viewing pleasure, a non-butt picture!

It is always such an honor to make memory quilts for people. I feel so blessed to be a part of something so special in people's lives. :-)

Chalk Walk 2015

We love the Oberlin Chalk Walk!  Although, it changes each year as to which child loves it most. :-P

This year, Marin was super into drawing her own things. She planned ahead of time that she was going to draw Rapunzel, and our new bunny Clover!  Yes, I said "our" and "bunny" in a sentence. :-P (I really, really like the bunny! It has surprised me how much I like Clover...but maybe that's another blog post?)

The weather was sketchy, threatening to rain, but once I spoke the words out loud: "Wow, the cloud cover makes it really nice and cool, and makes it the perfect day to be on the sidewalks!" the sun blasted forth from the clouds and hid no longer (which, after all of the rain we've had in the week and a half since the chalk walk, I think seeing any sun would be an occasion for celebration!).

We ran out of black chalk quickly, which almost caused Evander to quit, until he thought to make his cat calico:

Emory decided he needed to add a feline to sidewalk as well.

Marin did a cat, too. What can I say? We love cats.

We *really* love cats. Our love is so big...

I think this cat is actually a tiger...but, I'm not sure:

And here are our favorites:

Gotta catch 'em all!

Of course, Marin spotted the deerie and needed her picture by it. This chalk drawing was done by the boys' art teacher:

And, Emory spotted Sonic!