Grandparents Day at preschool

What fun I had today. It was Grandparent’s Day at preschool.

The festivities began at 9am. First, they performed a little musical program consisting of 3 different songs with hand gestures. Some of the children were a bit shy, but not my Josh. He loves an audience. He is the third from the left in the pictures, next to the girls, of course (he is quite the ladies man, by the way.)

The kids had done some Thanksgiving crafts including a turkey head dress, a placemat and a turkey puppet. One thing they did that I thought was especially cute was a little turkey made using cardboard tubes from paper towels and some construction paper. There little handprints cut out of paper were the tail feathers.....cute.

There was also a craft in which the grandparents were asked to help. It was a Christmas ornament made by stringing a bell and some pony beads onto a piece of wire. We finished it off with a piece of ribbon tied into a bow at the top. Then we wrapped it around our finger to make it spiral.

This all ended with wonderful brunch made by the preschool children and their teachers. Each preschooler was asked to bring something. Josh brought crumbled bacon and banana bread. There were all kinds of muffins, egg and bacon and sausage casseroles, hash brown casserole, banana bread, coffee cakes, fruit and much more. It was very tasty.

After we ate, the preschool was dismissed and the kids were sent home with their grandparents. A good time was had by all.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I found my blog again!

My craft shows are finally finished for the season. Now maybe I can get back to this poor neglected blog. I didn’t mean to be so scarce the past couple of months, but I just couldn’t seem to get motivated to post anything.

A lot has changed since I last posted.

Josh has started preschool. He loves school. That first day he was beside himself with excitement when that big yellow bus pulled up to pick him up for school. So far he still gets on that bus with the same gusto as the first day of school. I am so happy. I just hope he keeps that attitude for another 13 years or so.

Waiting for the bus on the first day of preschool.

The bus is finally here. Time to go, but first we better take another picture.

There he goes into the big yellow bus. He is the one with the blue batman backpack.

Back home after the first day of preschool. What an exciting day!

Every other Friday, there is no preschool, so Josh comes to visit Grandma for the day so his mom and dad don’t have to pay extra daycare. We have great fun. Josh loves to help in the kitchen.

He is a good egg breaker. Not one shcll went into the cake.

Yum!

Olivia is growing like a weed. She is 4 months old now and just chatters and laughs all the time. She is such a good baby. She has been sleeping through the night since she was about 2 months old. How did my daughter ever get so lucky?

A picture of the group. My daughter Kelly and her hubbie Kevin on the right are Olivia's godparents.

Olivia in her beautiful gown.

Last Sunday, she was baptized. She was adorable in her baptismal gown and she just loved it. It was a satin under dress with an organza overlay. She would grab the skirt in her little fists and pull it up to her face and grin......so cute.

As for myself, like I said the craft shows I do are finished for the season, so now I can concentrate on other things, like getting ready for the holidays. We go to my brother-in-laws for Thanksgiving, which is a good thing. I only have to take a broccoli/rice casserole. Christmas Eve is usually a soup supper, also with my hubbies side of the family, at a location yet to be named. But Christmas Day I have my girls and their families at my house and we have a wonderful prime rib dinner followed by Christmas presents. This is my favorite thing.

I think it is time for me to get busy with the decorations.

Have a great day everyone.

Crafts

I apologize. I am sorry to say that I have been neglecting this blog. Everyday I think I am going to get around to posting but something always seems to happen to lead me astray. I am determined to get something posted today. I am going to keep it simple. Just a few pictures of some of the crafts I do. A lot of these pictures are of things I did last year (I can't even get anything new done to photograph....lol).

I love totes. This tote is a summery pastel floral with a large divided pocket on the front side made from a striped fabric and lined with a mint green polka dot. There are a couple pockets on the inside also.


The following picture is the back side of the tote.

This tote is done in a floral with at green divided pocket in front. It is lined with a mottled black fabric and has inside pockets as well.

Follow is the backside of this tote.

This next picture is the inside of the above tote.

This next tote is identical to the floral and green tote except I used the mottled black fabric where I had the green on the other tote and the green fabric is used for the lining.

This is a little family of snowman ornaments I made out of white fleece.

This quilted Christmas ball is made using a strofoam ball for a base and small pieces of Christmas ribbon pinned in layers in such a way as to form a pattern.

Another picture of some of the many Christmas quilt balls I have done.

There you have it. A glimpse into my world of crafting.

Have a nice day and happy crafting!

Fun at Grandma's house

Here is a glimpse at the fun things that happened at Grandma's house this week.

Josh helped Grandma do a little crafting. He had his very own scissors, paper and glue. What fun!

He called his creation "A Flower Garden."

He finished it with his signature in the lower right hand side because, as you know, all good artists sign their work. Now it is ready to join his other creations on Grandma's refrigerator.

We can't forget Olivia. Another one of my internet friends sent me a package with four little outfits for her. What a thoughtful friend! Thanks, Rhonda.

So, we had to have a little baby fashion show. I love it! It is like playing with my dolly.

Have a great weekend everyone.

I am a material girl

For some reason, I cannot get motivated to do anything. I have craft fairs coming up in the fall and I have hardly anything done. I seem to be easily distracted these days. It doesn't take much to pry me away from my craft room.

I am sure a lot has to do with my daughter being on maternity leave right now. I am either at her house or she is at my house. I just cannot get enough of holding that new baby or playing games with my grandson. My daughter had doctor's appointments 2 days last week, so I got to watch the kids. Of course, if I am watching the kids, I can't get any crafting done. But that is ok, because I would much rather babysit.

Olivia is such a good baby. She only cries when she is hungry. Otherwise she spends much of her time sleeping or just looking around. She is pretty mellow, unlike her mother who was so colicky as a baby, I don't think she ever slept.

Josh is easy to take care of also. He is so mature for his 4 years and so smart, I am awestruck. He started talking when he was 10 months old. He knew his alphabet by sight when he was 18 months old.

I used to have these alphabet books I would read to him. There was one little 4 page book for each letter of the alphabet. One day when we were reading them, he handed me the "B" book and said "B". At first I thought it was a fluke that he happened to get it right, but soon after, I discovered it was no fluke, he knew everyone of them.

I will probably get more crafting done when my daughter goes back to work in September, but for now, I will cherish every minute I can spend with the grandchildren.

I have been doing a little in my craft room, although I have not actually made anything. Recently, I decided it was time to sort through my fabric stash. I have boxes of fabric. Lots of boxes of fabric. You would think I have enough fabric to do most any project, and I probably do, but when I get near a craft shop or fabric shop or even Walmart, I have to buy fabric. It is an obsession.

I thought I could reduce my stash somewhat and get rid of some of the older fabrics I hadn't used in a while. I am sure some of my fabric is so old it almost has to be on the verge of being vintage. I thought it would be a great idea to give it away to the church ladies to do their quilts for Lutheran World Relief. However, once I started pulling the fabric out of the boxes, I couldn't decide which ones to give away! I might need them someday! I didn't realize I would have such a bad case of separation anxiety for my fabric. I guess I am just a material girl.

So, I have devised a plan in which I will reduce my stash and still have all my different pieces of fabric. Some of my fabric pieces are very big. If I have a piece that is 3 yards, then I will cut off a one yard piece to keep and give the other 2 yards away. I think that would work. Who needs so many yards of the same fabric anyway.


Here are a couple pictures of some of my fabric. This is 2 boxes of fabric. I still have 3 more boxes in the closet yet.

Well, we will see how that works anyway.

Have a good evening.

It's time to start crafting!

I love to craft, especially Christmas crafts. Here is a sample of what I have been working on in my newly redone craft room.

Take a pile of craft sticks.

Make a few stategic cuts.

Add a few well place toothpicks.

The result is a neat little wooden sled ornament ready to decorate.

Here is one I painted. Don't look too close. I am not a great painter, but I have fun.

Have a great day everyone.

My little birthday boy turns 4

How time flies. It seems like just yesterday my little girl was just a tot and now she has two children of her own. Where does the time go?

Yesterday was my grandson's 4th birthday. He was so excited. Yesterday morning when I called his house, he answered the phone. I sang the Happy Birthday song and when I had finished he said "Thanks, Grandma. Where are my presents?" You got to love them.

Here he is with his Birthday crown he made with his mom.

Yum....birthday cake. Time to blow out the candles.

Finally, the moment he has been waiting for, time to open the presents.

This is what Olivia thought of the whole ordeal.

Such a good baby.

Have a great day everyone.