Hula Hula!

Abby's been taking hula lessons for almost four years now.  

She does a lovely job and it's so fun to watch her perform.

They had their yearly recital last week...

sorry for the blurry pics...

The woman that makes all of the costumes made some doll size dresses to sell.

I see a birthday or Christmas present for the future.

 After it was over the kids got up on stage and Ben favored us with his own hula moves.

Ha!  It was so adorable :)

He surprised us by watching almost the whole recital on Bapa's lap.  After each number he signed "more" and raised his eyebrows at us.  I was so amazed that he was content just watching.  He tried to copy the dancers by waving his arms around as he watched.

Abby and her teacher.

Banners for Ben!

My good friend and neighbor suggested I sell my buntings/banners/flags/pennants at our community's Heritage Day celebration to raise more money for Ben's fund of Hope {scroll down a little to see Ben's}...(Dravet Syndrome Research).

The idea came to her a week and a half before the event so....we gathered some other friends and enlisted the help of their teenage daughters and worked day and night until we had

28 of these...

 

  8 of these...

and 17 of these...

It was super fun as well as a bit stressful :)

Here are some pictures of the process...

 

 The kids loved it!  They ran rampant for the week...back and forth between houses, playing in water, riding bikes, building a tree house and watching movies.  I had awesome help with babysitting :)  Ben started summer preschool that week and so I was able to focus on the project a little more in the mornings.

Bless Andy's heart...he took care of dinner, entertained the kids and got them to bed for the most part each night.

For the booth I gathered lots of my decorations from home and made some chalkboards.  I bought and old door and a couple of windows for display purposes.

Dad came and set up his canopy for me :)

Trina made a ton of cute cleaning scrubbies to sell.

LaReen made a super cute watermelon quilt to raffle off.  I don't know when she found the time to do that during the week :)

Wow!  What a learning experience!

I have gained a new perspective of people that sit in booths and try and sell their wares.

I so appreciated the people that actually came in and looked around.  There were a couple of people that, even though they didn't buy anything, made really nice comments about how much they liked the banners.

To me and my self esteem, that was almost as good as them buying one...just to know that they liked what we had made. (As I walked around to see the rest of the booths towards they end I made an extra effort to look and talk and buy...some small things :)

We didn't sell too many and I think all the ones we did sell were to people we knew :)

BUT...it was fun!

And, we have thought of some other avenues to try and sell them.

I was worried that after all the supplies I bought we wouldn't have much of a profit, but thanks to some kind people and LaReen gathering some donations, we actually did make some money!

Thanks so much to all who helped!

Peach Creamsicle Smoothie

In the midst of that ever constant battle to lose those extra, unwanted pounds, I put myself on a smoothie/salad diet a couple of weeks ago :)

I did quite well for a week but then I needed some real food!

Aside from losing a few pounds, something else good came from the diet...

A...

 was born!

I made this the first day as an experiment, loved it and looked forward to it often throughout the rest of the week.

I used about:

1 cup frozen peaches

1/2 cup frozen mangos

1/3 cup orange juice

1/3-1/2 cup unsweetened, vanilla almond milk

2 big spoonfuls of vanilla yogurt

and a handful of ice for that extra chilly crunch :)

(adjust liquids according to your consistency preferences)

The 6th Letter of the Alphabet

I know I've been MIA but before I post the reason I need to catch up on lots of little things...things that begin with "F"...

FESTS

 (Summer and Cello)

 Josh's cello teacher told us about an opportunity at the university a couple of weeks ago.  They had a cello festival where cellists of differing ages and abilities gathered to learned new pieces and receive instruction for six hours.  At the end they had a little performance.

I was so proud of Josh.  He was so willing to go even though he didn't know if he would know anyone there besides his teacher.  It was kind of a big thing for him to be on his own like that for so long.

He said it was so much fun and that he would love to do it again next year.

Way to go Josh!

I have a couple of super cute cousins that are very musically talented.  The oldest is working on her second CD.  She writes and performs (sings/plays guitar) her beautiful, original music and often her equally talented sister will join her in duets.  I love hearing their voices harmonize!

Recently they performed at the Summer Fest...a local art fair.

I took the kids to go listen to them.

The three oldest sat in the front and were just fine the whole time.

Ben on the other hand was a bit more difficult.  He sat for about 2 minutes before he got restless so I strolled him around and looked at booths (my brother was there and kept an eye on the others).

Ben desperately wanted to get out of his stroller so after we had seen all of the booths I finally released him in a shady, grassy area behind the tent where the girls were performing.

He was thrilled to be free!

There were a couple of women that I knew sitting in the back of the tent.  Ben went right up next to them and sat down.  He just felt right at home...like they were his old friends.

He would sit for a minute and then get up and run around again.  Then he'd run up and sit down next to them again.  It was pretty cute!

FINISHED FLAG

About a year ago I posted  about a little flag I pieced together.  It sat on top of my sewing basket for 11 months waiting to be quilted.  I finally took it to Mom's a few weeks ago and finished it up.

It was my first attempt at FMQ a real project.

(I stitched the straight lines on her traditional machine and then used her mid-arm for the blue section.)

If you look closely you can see my attempt at stars :) 

I'm excited to finally have it finished!

FROG #FOUR

Our frog saga continues...

You may recall that Matt's second frog passed away on my birthday.  The company promptly sent us a new one.  That one expired on Andy's birthday believe it or not.

Well, we're on number four.

This time instead of sending us a tadpole with only a tail, they sent us one that already had its legs...they must have thought a more established one might do better under our care :)

Last week it lost it's tail almost literally over night.  It was fascinating.

So far so good.  I told Matt that if we lose this one we won't be getting another one...mainly because I don't think Matt is remembering to feed it daily and therefore, it would be our fault (the company has been replacing these at no cost to us since they have a lifetime guarantee).

Here's to a long frog life for this fella!

FAIRY FLOWERS

I helped Abby plant a fairy garden a couple of weeks ago.  Last year at Swiss Days I bought some sweet little ceramic mushrooms and stepping stones that I have saved for this very purpose.

Not until I was doing this post did I see the baby grasshopper on the large leaf on the left.  I had also forgotten that we had planted seeds along with the little pansies...I didn't see those coming up by the purple mushroom until just now either :)

 

 She was pretty excited to put it together.

Right now we're working on building a little clay, fairy house.

We've placed the pot in a well shaded area that gets watered frequently...so it is flourishing :)

Maybe at the end of the season I'll post another picture with the finished house.

FIRST TOOTH

Matt lost his first tooth!

I think he was pretty excited that the tooth fairy was coming for him this time :)