Vacation Shenanigans!

New Englanders are perhaps a bit more prone to cabin fever than their southern counterparts....  So our family has a tradition to combat that dull and lifeless time of year.  All day sledding parties!  We go from 10-10 and invite everyone we can think of!  Crazy gatherings with herds of kids, goofy games, and some kind of entertainment.  Like duck tape.

Soooooo... what do a bunch of crazy teens do with several roles of duck tape?  And why do we call these parties SLEDDING parties?  The kids go sledding for a few minutes, then spend the rest of the day snacking, throwing marshmellows, playing games, whipping a ping-pong ball back & forth, and gabbing!  Oh... and decorating cars with duck tape.  Or taping each other into chairs.  Or to each other.  Or to walls....

I would sooooo love to share pictures, but I don't like to post other people's kids here unless I know its ok.  We did count, though... 23 kids in one photo!  Plus a few brave adults.  And the kids kept showing up throughout the day... I just forgot to dig the camera out again.  Too busy trying to keep snacks on the table, I guess! 

The day really was a wonderful start to vacation week!  Miss Sassy spent the day at Camp Nana & Boppa.  She even had her little friend, Bus Buddy, visit with her!  The other girls each had a herd of friends over.  The herds tended to hang out together and stampeded the kitchen only when foraging for food.  Or when their clothes were wet from sledding.  Or someone had a boo boo.  Or they needed more duck tape....  Oh, yeah!  I stayed busy....  lining up the crock pots, cutting fruits and veggies, getting out more games, scraping marshmellows off the floor, throwing more clothes through the wash.  And I wouldn't change a minute of the day!  (Especially since after the last remnants of food were served, I got to escape to the loft and join the ping-pong play offs!)

Another photo of what's been keeping me busy during vacation!  The girls brought their trombones home, so we have five (yes FIVE) trombones to use as doorstops....  My husband doesn't quite understand why we need so many trombones.  Oldest two kiddos play, so that accounts for two.  I play, so make that three accounted for.  Oh... except that I LOVE to play!  And recently invested in a second trombone.  Really a sensible investment for a trombone player.  Really... one large bore, one small bore.  Completely different sounds.  Ok... he's still not getting it and thinks I have become a very expensive wife....  Oh!  And the 5th trombone is the "fleet spare" for when we are all playing together and the kids forget to bring theirs home from school.  Sensible.  REALLY.

Oh!  A couple buddies and I just started a weekly trombone jam session.  Just in case two bands, a quartet, and playing in church didn't allow enough play time!  These guys are THE BEST!  We played, talked, and laughed half the night.  Sometimes we laughed at the playing... sight reading does produce some interesting chords!  Especially when we don't look at the lables on the music and start out with the most difficult piece...

And Miss Sassy!  Miss Sassy has trouble walking in all this white stuff.  So my friend, Awesome Neighbor, and I took her downtown for a walk on plowed sidewalks.  Miss Sassy goes for walks around town with her special class at school, so she is familiar with many of the businesses.  She lights up when she enters some buildings.  Like Murrays.  Hmmmm... I think she has been sneaking out for lunches!  She seems to know the menu.  She pointed to sweet potato fries when asked what she wanted to eat.  I thought I would get to share the fries, but no such luck.  I scored ONE fry....  She cleaned up the fries, ate her half of the burger and most of our salad!  Next time, I'm ordering my OWN fries!

And a bit of sewing!  Any guesses?  Yup... a baby quilt!  Oldest kiddo helped choose the pattern and fabrics.  She loves bright colors and chose a multi-sized star pattern... white for the stars and mostly bright yellows, greens & oranges for the background.  Honestly, I wasn't sold on the colors... but as the first blocks took shape, I LOVE IT!!!!  This promises to be a fun quilt!

Well... there's still a bit of vacation left!  And we have new white stuff still falling!  Time to go play in it!  Have a happy day! 

still sewing...

Ok... as much fun as I have writing silly tales about our family, I know a few of you are scratching your heads thinking, "where are the QUILTS???"

Ooooops... not a quilt...  But I *have* been sewing.  Really.  A little.  A very little... my other job is playing working as a substitute teacher.  Who would have guessed that I would be in demand during the month of October?  Or that after a couple weeks of subbing nearly every day I would spend a couple of bleary days sneezing and dripping and snuffling my way around the house?  Occupational health hazard, I guess. 

But, look!  After a couple of (healthy) days off, we have a cute little zebra running around our house!  Ok... so I cheated a little.  A discount store near us had these great stripey pajamas on sale for almost nothing.  Seriously... who wouldn't want to snuggle up to their honey at night looking like a honkin' snortin' zebra?  Well, I guess I wouldn't have lined up waiting for those jammies to hit the shelves....  But a cool thing about this store is all the mis-matched sets!  Apparently a few honeys didn't mind the stripey pants.  There were extra tops on sale for just a couple dollars.  And an extra top was all I needed to make a hat and tail to complete the ensemble!  I even have a sleeve left.  Anyone out there need a tail to add to those stripey pants???

And, yes... I'll leave you with a bit of quilting.  I have some great, bright dots and a few fun Kaffe Fassette's prints that I've been reluctant to cut into.  Something about wanting to find the perfect pattern for them.  Like perfect has any chance of happening with me at the rotary cutter!  I finally dragged the buggers out and started slicing away.  Just a simple Jacob's Ladder block, but I love the way the black stands out and the star points kind of flicker around.  First part of one star, then part of another.  Only one dilema.  I just pulled these things out and started piecing.  No idea what for.  Maybe a baby quilt (several friends having babies right now)?  Or a Project Linus quilt?  Scratch all that... two kiddos walked through and fell in love with these bright blocks.  My quilting just got doubled....

Have a happy day! 

Music, Random Mickeying, and Colorful Backpacks!

A two-concert weekend... gotta love it!  Saturday's concert was short and sweet.  Maybe because we went so fast?  A few of those pieces went maybe twice as fast as I could play them.  One of my comrades suggested that perhaps the writer of "Amparito Roca" thought that trombones were related to piccolos?  Let's just say "vivace" on that one means "don't take a breath, you'll miss 8 measures..."  But, hey!  Any concert followed by chicken barbeque on a beautiful day sounds like fun to me!  (Even if I am about half way through Amparito when the rest of the band finishes...)

Today's concert was an hour and a half of pure hilarity!  Our goofy crew went with "Thing 1," "Thing 2," and "Thing 3," for our WAY special shirts for this concert.  Our director referred to his baton as his "remote control" at the beginning of the concert.  Near the end of the concert, his remote control lost control and wound up nearly in the trombone section.  Did he slip?  Certainly he wouldn't intentionally throw things at the trombones, right?  Right????  Or maybe it was just our turn with the remote!  Darn it!  When I tried to snag the remote, the baritones gave it back to our conductor.  Foiled again!  (I do not have good luck wresting the remote away from anybody around here, either!)

Oh!  And oldest kiddo and I spent much of the afternoon on random acts of Mickeying!

If you see any victims driving around, just smile!

And then... home to finish a couple more backpacks!  Here is kiddo 1 holding her backpack and kiddo 4's backpack!

Have an awesome, very happy day!

Tigers and cheetahs and chains, oh my!

Kiddo #2 finished her backpack!!!  She's a wild one, alright!

K2 added lots of hardware to her creation... chains, charms, rings...

Oh, what a fun & sassy kid!

kick-butt-awesome-backpacks

My kiddos have been after me all summer... they need backpacks for school.  Now, we're not talking about normal kids needing normal backpacks...  I have sassy kids who prefer QUOTE... kick-butt-awesome-backpacks... END QUOTE.  Soooo... we can't just go BUY kick-butt backpacks.  (Can't you just picture me walking in and asking for a couple of those?)

When oldest kiddo started highschool, I offered to make her a bag.  She chose LOUD fabrics and quickly became known as the kid with the really cool bag.  Two years  later, she was *still* getting comments on that backpack.  But, alas, two years worth of heavy text books were taking a toll on the pack.  And... kiddos # 2 and #4 are both entering new schools this year.  Time for backpacks....

ANY GUESSES HOW LONG IT TAKES TO MAKE ONE OF THESE BUGGERS???  These aren't the little mini-packs like I carry.  These are the beasts of backpacks.  And we're making HOW MANY???  My feet were dragging a bit.  Enter helpful kids...  "Can WE make them?"  Yup... gotta recognize when it is time to surrender.  

Have I mentioned before that I have very patient parents?  (Good thing since they had to put up with me...)  Nana and Boppa offered to take the littler two kiddos for a couple of days so that the older girls and I could start working on those backpacks.

We are having a blast!!!  We started out with a trip to the awesome LOUD FABRIC store.  Then turned our livingroom into a whirlwind of cutting, ironing, sewing and LAUGHING!!!  Oh!  The stories these kids tell while working!  Poor hubby got home to a fabric-fiasco reaching from kitchen table to sewing machine... and kiddos that immediately said, "Mom!  Kick him out!  We're TALKING!"  (Apparently Dad is not privy to the latest girl-gossip...)

Oh!  If you read the "random dozen" post, I have to update the last time I laughed so hard I cried.  And I wasn't even tired and loopy yet!  We had a late dinner on the porch.  And the kids *did* allow Dad to join us for supper.  Dinner with two teens took on a whole new level of goofiness.  Wise cracks and highschool humor.  Rampant sarcasm and a comedy of innuendo.  Poor hubby finally had to give up on trying to control the ruckus and just laugh along with us!

Sooooo... today the sewing marathon continues.  Each of the kiddos formulated a plethora of ideas for decorating the packs as they worked last night.  So we'll be getting some colorful ribbons and chains today.  I can't wait to see these things!  Both kiddos' unique personalities sparkle through the choices they are making for their bags!  And we are working together on backpacks for the littler kiddos!  Soooo... I will not have to sit at the sewing machine for two solid weeks working on these kick-butt-awesome-backpacks!  Oh!  Life is good!

Have a wonderful day!