DAISIES

aubrey is now a daisy..........
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a girl-scout daisy that is.
kindergarteners and first graders are called daisies. next year if she chooses to stay in girl scouts, she will become a brownie.
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so what does this mean for all of you folks? GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!
YUMMMY!
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we had a mom's meeting last night and picked a meeting night. next thursday will be her first official daisy meeting! she is just too excited!

FIRST DAY PICTURES

aubrey meets her teacher, mrs. guy at unpack your backpack night

the morning before the first day of school.

bff......aubrey and lili

one of the girls from aubrey's class last year. they are both in mrs. guy's room this year.

FIRST DAY

today aubrey is a first grader!

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where did the summer go! seems like just yesterday that we were taking her to kindergarten.

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she did really good when i took her to school this morning. last night was "unpack your backpack" where we take all her school supplies to her class room and she meets her new teacher. we also got to see who will be in her class. i was a bit disappointed that only two others from her class last year are in this years class. BUT, as she did last year she will make new friends in now time at all...........

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stay tuned for pictures later today. i'll add them when i get home from work.

MAKING PROGRESS ON MANY SEWING PROJECTS!

today, this is where i've been sitting ........

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all day....

i have been working on these little guys........

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it's called the pinnapple block.....

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48 of them put together look alittle something like this...........

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and from further away the stars appear!

then......


part of the day (or the last two days) i have been organizing my "bee inspired" blocks.
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many of them where a bit too small so i've added some fabric around them and will eventually trim them all up to be the same size.....
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the blank spot there in the corner is patiently waiting for terri's block.....it's in the mail and i'm hoping to get it real soon!!

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and finally.....
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this little number is a runner that will be used in my bedroom. it has been pieced and quiltied and the binding is sewn on and the hand stitching is all that is left to do....

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that will be done in a little bit....

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but first....

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this little girl and i are going to go play in the hot tub!

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A SEWING VACATION!

here is a peak at what i'm working on this week!

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while the hubby is away at a class in kansas city for the week i'm taking three days off as vacation days. even though i'm not "going" anywhere i'm still in heaven as i have time to complete a few quilting projects that have been piling up.

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the black and brown blocks above are a stack i'm working on right now. i have squared them up and am about half way finished setting the blocks.

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the pink and brown block shown below are all layed out right now on my living room floor. these are my "bee inspired" blocks sent from my quilting buddies. i have one more block that should be arriving in and mail any moment now! i also needed to make three blocks of my own for this quilt. i have two of them done and one left to finish but have run out of cream fabric. since i was at the fabric store first thing this morning for other supplies i'm kind of putting off another trip until tomorrow. don't want the employees at joann's to put me to work if they see too much of me.

and finally, the picture below is a grouping of "cotton blossom" blocks that im using to make a runner for a piece of furniture in our bedroom. this morning i finished up the blocks, set them and finished up the quilting. i'll share photos later after the binding is stitched into place. that's a job i wait to do in front of the TV tonight when i'm too tired to sit in front of my sewing machine!

so....that is all for now! my basement and machines are calling my name!!

MONARCH DUTY !

we don't have a pet of the feline variety, nor do we have a pet of the canine variety and i have long since killed off our bird by way of burning sticky buns in the oven, setting off the smoke alarm, giving the poor creature a premature heart attack......and we have yet to get any fish that we have talked about for some time...............

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instead the pets we have are temporary. each one is only with us for a short time. it's the perfect solution for a child that wants to care for something and parents that don't want to do all the work when said daughter finds other interests to occupy her time.

so what is our solution for getting aubrey a pet? callapitters (yes, spelled incorrectly..... spelled just like the way aubrey pronounces them)

tonight was time to let two of her callapitters go. for the last two weeks we were on cocoon watch. patiently awaiting the time when they would mature into what i think are some of the most beautiful butterflies around.
morgan, our next door neighbor, releases the first monarch. it flapped it's wings for a bit then was spooked by a couple giggle girls that were anxious to release the next one.
we have two more that should come out of there cocoons in the next day or so and four other callapitters (well maybe only three.....i can't seem to find the fourth one in the case......as he is only about a half inch long) that are happily munching away, preparing themselves for the next leg of their journey.

ANOTHER COUPLE POSTS FROM OUR FAMILY WEEKEND!

the only thing that would have made this event better was a day that would have had temps in the upper 90's ! but we all know what kind of summer we have had this year.

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grandpa, chuck, and brian headed to the golf course and us girls had a tea-party and a water balloon fight. not sure who exactly got me all wet, probably ava, but the seat of my shorts ended up soaked. carson and aubrey thought it best that i was the target. and, as you can see from the last picture, ava really gets into the game!

carson, aubrey and ian on the way home from our family photo session at wild cat den.

earlier in the day we all went to the "great river days" parade. like most small town parades it was short and lots of space in between entries. one of the highlights was seeing all the WW2 veterans. way to go ROGER !! these were the veterans that got to go on the last honor trip to washington d.c.
that's roger in the very back on the far right!

as for the kids, their favorite part of the parade wasn't any ww2 veteran but the candy that was to be had! each had their own bag and could grab as much as they wished. of course they all shared if one in the group couldn't get their share.

the fashion at this years parade was over the top! the first day of august and you would have thought it was october already. jackets for everyone! even grown-ups. AND check out that head band on holly ! boy do five/six year olds have a knack for style!

as the parade ended aubrey convinced her cousin carson that it would be a good idea to give her a piggy-back ride! aubrey will do anything to get out of walking!

SUNDAY AFTERNOON TEA-PARTY

here is another selection of photos from our family weekend get together. these photos of are after kevin and family had gone home to chicago and the rest of the "boys" had headed out to the golf course. we started the afternoon with a tea-party.

aubrey and carson baked a cake and frosted it with sprinkles.

carson served up the tea.

here we need a group photo before sitting down to eat and drink our tea.

FIRST TIME IN FOUR YEARS !

it has been a total of four years that our entire family has been together all in one location. we spent the entire weekend together getting family photos done, eating, playing and catching up with everyone.

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saturday started with watching the muscatine great river days parade. (pictures of that later maybe). from there we all got ourselves cleaned up and headed out to wild cat den state park for our family photo session. when i get those pictures back from our photographer i'll be sure to share them!

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after picture time we spent the rest of the late afternoon and evening playing and eating in back yard.

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the girls hung blankets on the clothes-line and made it their stage. they did little snippet performances for us. jillian was the announcer and carson the producer, director, costume coordinator, boss.

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the kids ate on a big blanket on the ground. perfect spot for them to bond and be to themselves!

here brian and chuck take a breather. dinner was a seafood boil with iowa home-grown corn, potatos and onions. shrimp, crawfish and sausage topped it off our feast.

the boys did most of the work. chuck is here supervising brian and dad as they cut potatos in half.

the girls spend their time at the blanket eating hotdogs and corn on the cob. notice my daughter doesn't have an ear of corn on her plate. this is where her great-grandma hilbrant would be rolling over in her grave because she isn't acting like a proper little hilbrant!

brian and shannon digging in to a hearty meal.

chuck, theresa and kevin eating their share. mom and dad are in the backround.

dad is manning the gas grill while chuck is taking care of the seafood boil. chicken for mom, hotdogs for the little kids and more corn that wouldn't fit in the boil pot.

and one of the last pictures for today. a sweet moment between my youngest two nieces. hadley and ava share a toy. don't blink because this moment won't last long. that was a VERY popular toy this weekend!

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as the weekend came to an end i thought back on the highlights and what i enjoyed the most. it was the time that we just spent together. kids running around playing and enjoying being with their cousins, the adults just sitting around talking and catching up on plans for the future and chatting about old times.

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here's hoping it doesn't take so long to do this again.