I Have A New Passion

While on vacation, my friend Kimberly taught me how to knit. We found a yarn shop in Charlottesville and bought the coolest yarn to make scarves. We spent the entire time knitting--even while we were standing outside watching the guys fry the turkey.

My first attempt at knitting...

We took a picture of our almost finished projects right before we left.

I have finished knitting my scarf--now I just need to learn how to cast off. God bless the internet! (and all the people in my life who are knitters!)

This Is What Vacation Looks Like With Teenagers

Crafting with Oona

Recently, I was reading Notes From the Trenches and saw that Chris had posted this picture of her youngest son wearing a turkey mask. I saw the mask and asked where she got it...the reply, in a $1 bin at Joann's Fabrics. I ran out to my Joann's, but there were no turkey masks to be found. Once again, I found myself saying, "I can so make that."

I downloaded a basic mask here. I then added my own turkey head and cut the entire thing out of brown felt. I bought large sheets of heavy felt at Michaels. Then we traced oak leaves on different colors of felt for the feathers. We made hair out of embroidery thread, a hat, eyes, a beak and a snood out of felt.

We glued everything together and this was the end result...

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Kind of Lawyer

They kill me! Every last one of them!

Shots in the Woods

I recently got a Nikon D90 and I have tons to learn. Whenever I get a chance to just shoot random objects I do. This past weekend, I went on our church's youth retreat as the cook for the day. In between meals, I had a few hours to explore the surroundings and spent an hour outside taking shots. Here are some of my favorites from the day.

Goodbye To My Little Red Car

For my 40th birthday, Tony surprised me with this sporty red car. It was a really fun car, but not exactly the car to tote 5 kids around, or grocery shop, or drive in the winter. It was great for Girls' Weekends at the beach though!

When Tristan started driving, he drove Tony's car and Tony started driving the little red car. He's been driving it for 7 months now and winter is coming...supposedly we are going to get a lot of snow this year and the little red car is not good in the snow. (Also, I think that when a guy drives a red convertible, it screams mid-life crisis in the biggest way!)

Earlier this week, my birthday present (with my encouragement) was traded in for this...

Life is SO not fair.

Note: several people thought that Tony replaced my red car with this new one. This is Tony's new car and my little red car was traded in for it.

Crafting With Oona

First, I know that it's Thursday, but I've been a little busy. As I mentioned before, my daughter's friend, Oona, comes over on Tuesdays for the afternoon. Several weeks ago, I decided that we were going to craft each Tuesday afternoon thus "Crafting with Oona" was born.

This week while I was perusing my favorite blogs, I came across this craft on Full House. I was off to Walmart to buy convex mirrors in a heartbeat! The best part is that the mirrors are $1.26 for the small ones and $1.66 for the larger ones. (note: Do not go to the Walmart in Hunt Valley as I bought all of their convex mirrors)

I decided that we would make ornaments for Christmas trees so I gave the girls the small mirrors. I cut small pieces of paper for the sunbursts (approx. 2 x 4") The girls then rolled them up starting from one corner. Once they rolled up the piece of paper, they glued the end and held it until it was unable to come undone. I recycled the paper out of the catalogs that I have received lately.

We made a bunch of paper rolls at a time.

The mirrors have a sticker on the back, but we added additional glue. The girls made a plus sign with the paper rolls. Then they added more rolls between the rolls that made up the plus sign. There was no method to the madness--they just kept adding until they were happy. We also added a piece of ribbon so that the ornaments could be hung on the tree.

The finished product...

The one I made is hanging on the window in my office. I love how they look and I plan to do an entire window display of them like the ones on the Full House blog for Christmas time.

Isn't it cute?

We So Did It

A Work In Progress

This is another sign that we saw in South Moon Under. I decided that I was going to make this one and Maureen was going to make the other.

First, we painted the canvas with acrylic paint.

Then we placed the stencils.

Then we started painting.

Then I realized that I need larger stencils for IS LOVE, LOVE IS. Doesn't that figure?

We Can SO Make That

While on my Girls' Weekend Away in October, my friend, Maureen and I saw these signs at South Moon Under and we both wanted to buy them. They were outrageously priced and I turned to her and said, "We can so make those."

Famous last works. Today is THAT day.

I'll be back with a progress report...

Mud Bowl '09

For the past couple of days it has rained... a lot. Saturday morning, we woke up to a drizzling rain, but since it was the last game for the season, the rec league decided that the kids would play. The fields were really muddy.

This puddle was a total ball magnet. The ball would land in the puddle and completely stop moving. Then the kids started kicking and the mud went flying.

The game was pretty physical and the field was slippery.

The kids ended up on the ground... a lot!

And this is what Kellen looked like at the end of the game (which they won 5-2).

I was just relieved that this little guy didn't have to come home in my car too!

Please Promise Me

Please promise me that these sweet little girls

who like to play in the dirt when they are not in the game;

who are all about hugging;

who turn cartwheels while on the field;

who see how long they can stand on a ball during warm-up;

who are all about the snack after the game;

will not turn into these girls.

Please promise me that this won't happen.

Until The Whole World Hears

For Tristan's 16th birthday, my in-laws planned to take him to a Mercy Me concert. Due to a conflict, he wasn't able to go and they decided to take him to see Casting Crowns instead. We decided to go too so on Saturday night, we took the whole crew to Woodbridge, VA for the concert.

We have seen them before and they get better each time. You would have to be dead to not feel inspired after seeing them in person.

Kellen knows most of the words to the songs, so he spent much of the night singing along.

Enough said.

Turkey Trot '09

It's Turkey Trot time at the local elementary school. After "training" in PE class once a week for a month, each grade races against each other in this much anticipated event. This year, the third graders had to run 3/4 of a mile.

And they're off...

Ammy was still smiling at this point. She's about half way done.

She is not loving this race much at this point. She has about a quarter of a mile left.

She finished the race with a strong kick at the end.

21st place!

Kellen didn't compete this year. He was...