September Thornberry meeting

Not to many got to come yesterday but we had a nice time and got our little 9 patches swapped out. Here was my show and tell, this was a UFO I finished, It had lain dormant about 3 years so it was fun to get it done. It is for our bedroom wall and it'll be fun to hang it up and enjoy it. I started it at the quilt shop for a demo sample on the stars so it's nice to have it done. Sue finished up some little trees, this was a swap we did in this group years ago ( mine is still unfinished, top is done but I need to unearth it and quilt it up)

Lorene finished up this cute little quilt for her new little grandson.

We didn't do so good on our BOM's. Sue and I had these vases started, neither one of us had them finished so our gung ho start was a bit mushy in Sept. !

Sue and Lorene and I had a nice visit, I had to leave after lunch for Aiden's school and just got to give Bobbi a hug in the parking lot as she was coming in. Hope everyone gets back for our October meeting as we've got a fun pumpkin project planned at Lorene's house.

We got to go to Grandparents day at Kindergarten !

It was Grandparents Day at Aiden's kindergarten class today and Ken and I were invited and so excited to go. They sang us a few little songs and they all sang so well and did all the motions ! Aiden is one of the tallest in his class, that is him in the stripped shirt singing. Here we are, Papa came straight from the shop, all sawdusty but no one cared ! Aiden saw us first thing when we walked in and he was so excited, smiling from ear to ear! The other little boy was Seth, he had no one special to be with so we adopted him for that special hour !

Aiden had fun showing us around the classroom, he's standing by where they put their backpacks.

We got to see all their "centers" and read a story they each picked out from the library. Aiden's was about a bug family and Seth's was the einsey weinsy spider. We were lucky to get to read 2.

Here is Aiden with his teacher Mrs. Schaeffer, it was so wonderful for her to plan such a nice day for the Grandparents !
Aiden is standing by his poster he made here, his is the green one by his head with lots of favorite pictures and decorated with some lovely glued on fuzzy things and glitter !

They had 2 cute little pictures they had drawn and colored for us and we made a special magnet together to take home too. We got to take Aiden home so that was fun so he showed us the crosswalk and which way to go ! It was a great day ! I was so proud of Aiden ! And one kind grandma was so complementary to me, she asked if I was the Mom, she said you look 30 ! Hahaha, wasn't she nice ! :-) What a fun time and isn't this one cute little boy !!

Weekend stuff

It was a nice weekend, Amy and I had a little time for some bargain shopping at Kohls, don't you love 80% off, we met up with Chris for lunch as MB was off with friends to a movie so we had our favorite soup and salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden!

Sunday morning we all met for a bagel and Chris went out with us to Ken's job to help lift a cabinet into place, it was great for me to finally see this job and the great things they are remodeling, Ken has been the General contractor on it besides doing cabinets here and there for their update.
Ken and I went to breakfast for the holiday morning and then I started cleaning out the toy cupboard, it was a disaster but back in control for little people ! Added a few newbies from up high that were there so Aiden had a blast with a couple of his Uncles toys that I'd saved. We met Amy and the boys for the Chick-fi-la special of free sandwiches for lunch, thankyou Chick-fi-la !

Here are the boys playing with Jeremy's batman set with the car that had moving parts. Uncle Chris's littls mini fusball game came out too. Poor little Ethan was running a fever so he just needed holding and popsicles. Amy and I were getting dinner on the table and looked over and the boys had gotten out the battle ship game. Lots of pegs to go into holes so they had fun making it up ! It's so cute to see that quiet play together.

Judy's wedding

For those of you who know Judy you will enjoy a few little tidbts about her wedding last night. Ken and I enjoyed being included in this wonderful family event. All 40+ of the grandchildren proceeded her down the ailse in their sunny yellow outfits, the little girls all in fluffy yellow skirts and there were a gazillion of them ! Ken said look at all the "little Judy's" !!!!

Here's a fast snap of how cute they all looked at the end crowding to congratulate Grandma! That's a whole lot of congratulations Grandma with over 40 little girls and boys ! We all enjoyed taco salads and wonderful wedding cake after the ceremony. The bride and groom got to dance and promptly ended their nice slow number with a rap happy song so all the little kids cheered and joined them on the dance floor ! and the 60 year old newly weds kept up for a few minutes before bailing so the kids could have fun !
Here are the newlyweds Gary and Judy! Judy looked so pretty in her black suit. They are off to a honeymoon for a week at the beach, something I don't think Judy has ever experienced, time away alone !
I got a kick out of Aiden as he and I chatted on the phone after school on friday, I told him I was going to a wedding for Miss Judy his swimming teacher and he promptly thought, if she was getting married, maybe she'd get a baby ! So thankyou Judy and Gary for including us in your special moment and we are so happy to know you can share your lives together !

A finished quilt ( whew just in time) !!!

This is one of those projects you start and throw together as fast as you can cuz your heart wants to do it ! This project evolved 2 weeks ago when my dear friend Judy called and told me she's getting married. Now for you that don't know Judy, she's been my friend for 30+ years , part of my "thursday club" and that group has been thru alot of trials and triumphs together holding each other up, celebrating happy things and all of lifes little pleasures and bumps in the road. Well Judy's husband left her about 20 years ago soon after their 10th child was born. She's picked herself up, put herself thru school and supported those 10 children by teaching school and swimming lessons. Now that they are almost all grown ( one more still at home) she's taken on the responsibility of raising her deceased sons 3 children, the youngest whom is 3. So Judy has fallen in love and found one amazing guy as most would have looked at this whole situation and run the other way. They've thrown together a wedding to celebrate so that when the final adoption papers for these children come thru this month he can be on the papers. So I"m hearing word from the bride yesterday that yep all 40+ of her grandchildren will be walking her down the aisle ! If anyone needs a lesson on true family values I'm sure this group can give it to them !

So back to this quilt, I of course thought what can I do to celebrate them but a quilt. So Denise helped me pick fabric one day at work and I threw ( literally) this fast quilt together, quilted it yesterday after getting home from preschool , put the binding on and sewed it down by machine since that will be the sturdiest for that household. Label went on this morning after getting home from my 5:00 AM bike ride to meet my sister for our walk and whew thank goodness it's done as little boys all just left. Tied a big fluffy ribbon on it, smeared on some makeup, took off the playdoh baby gooed clothes and Ken and I are out the door to celebrate Judy and Gary !

Garrett and Grammy making muffins !

So just 2 little boys came over for the day today since Aiden was in school all day, and while Ethan had his nap Garrett and I had some great one on one time ! We made muffins to start with ! He's a great cook at 3 !He had great technique getting the scooper going into the muffin tins !This was part of the fun of course ! And they tasted so good for lunch too !

We had time for some fun playdoh !

And here is "Mr. Determination" doing his work...He has the most determined posture working that popper ! Chest out, arms back ! Back and forth he goes !
Way to go Ethan ! Learning to climb up on the chair was not a necessary thing tho today, I turn around with the chair in front of the sink to keep him out of the cupboards and he's up on top saying his cute little "ahhhh" ! Mr. constant motion Ethan will give you a run for your money ! But isn't he sweet !

Is it Trash Yet?

This is all recycle material in our area but first it has a home at a local organization called Treasures for Teachers. http://www.treasures4teachers.org/ They are an organizational place that takes things that people discard,donated closeouts from office supplies, all these sorts of "garbage"treasures and organize it for teachers to use in all their creative development for children. So I have an ongoing sack by the garage door and things that they might use go in there instead of the recycle bin. I take it to work as my boss hauls a load of this sort of thing to them every few weeks, plus the carboards from the fabric bolts, tubes etc. that we accumulate at the quilt shop. Amy gets first dibs at any of the lovely selections for her preschool class that she can use ,cash register tape cores, laundry scoops, spools from thread etc. Great things for little hands to learn with and make art projects with. I rescued this awesome 1 inch x 8 ft. cardboard tube from Chris and MB's house last night to take in, hmmmmm I wonder what creative thing it will become !So nope it's not trash yet, it'll serve another purpose yet before being discarded, another little Terry Tidbit of being "green"!

A good book series

I finished reading a 3 book series finally by Nancy E. Turner. They are a group of novels that are based on the authors own great grandmother and they take place in southern Arizona near Tucson, so it's interesting to read about nearby places back in the late 1800's to early 1900's. The first one is called "These is my words", the second one was "Sarah's Quilt" and the one I just finished is called "Star Garden". Arizona was a very tough territory to settle in. Makes you realize how good you have it !

Bragging time !!!!!

OK, are these the cutest boys or what! I know every Grandma say's that but come on, these little angels are the best !
We had a fun day, little smiling hugs at the door this morning and we got to play while Amy did some homework things, ( actually we got a screwdriver out and took apart a calulator to see what it looked like inside !) then off we went to the mall for pictures ! And here is what we got... they were all so cute so I will just show you a few.

But you might have to see the rest another time cuz they are alllllllll so cute !

Isn't this one a gem !

So here is some of our Aiden, he's 5 and just the best little boy ! He's loving Kindergarten this year !

And HEEERRRRE'S Garrett !

I've warned you about his smile before so yep this one knocks your socks off ! He's just such a fun little character ! Such a big boy at 3 now in preschool .

And here's our Baby Ethan ! Don't you love those baby toes !

I still can't believe he sat still since he's in constant motion these days !
We surprised him with his blankie while we were there and got some darling shots of him ! I can't believe he's 1 year old now.

So can you tell I had a very fun time, we got to play on the toys for awhile and then eat lunch at the mall and go for a carosel ride ! Aiden was super brave and he and I went to the top level on the carosel ! Garrett chose a horse down below with Mommy and Ethan. Ethan clocked out on the way home so he had a great nap and the big boys had fun playing some "cave" adventure on the guest room bed during quite time and Amy was back on homework ! It was a very nice day with lots of hugs and kisses ! Thanks for letting me brag !

A fun date !

Ken and I enjoyed a great evening last night with Bob and Mary. They lease the other half of our building by the cabinet shop ,,, http://www.mastergater.com/Roxy_s_Gameroom.html ...and this month is their 1 year anniversary of having moved there and they invited us to dinner to celebrate. How cool was that ! They picked us up in his very "tall" truck complete with milk crate stool to get in with ! :-) Thanks Bob ! They wined and dined us at this great restaurant in Scottsdale . Yum it was so good. Wine, shrimp appetizers, wonderful salad bar and our entree...I ordered a dish that had 3 kinds of shrimp, Ken had his prime rib...and dessert to share ! The best part was getting aquainted with them, I'd not met Mary, and Bob keeps Ken in stitches down at the cabinet shop so it was great to get to know them better. We sat down and here the menu was printed just for the occasion. We had a great laugh when the waitress came to inquire who's anniversary it was and we said the guys..... she was really wondering ! We did inform her it was business related ! What a fun surprise to see this !

So what a great ending to a work day ( especially the part of getting YELLED at by a customer...who yells at people in a quilt store?!?!?!....it was my lucky day tho !) It was great to have such wonderful food and great people to be with !

Catchin up with the little dudes !

I had a busy day of fun. Met my folks first thing in the morning to go to some flooring stores to look at what is new in the market. Some very pretty products out there to pick from for their new room and kitchen floor. We went to 2 places and saw some georgeous things they can choose. I introduced them to a little mexican place called Costa Vida which was alot of fun, a bit like Chipoltle where you can choose a healthier mexican yummy meal as they make it at the bar! I got home in time for little smiling faces at my door ! They came straight from Aiden's school release time and were ready to jump in the pool ! Amy got a getaway and the boys and I had fun ! Here they are handing out the new "sea creatures" I found at Target for .25 ! What a deal, they played with them in the pool the whole time. Aiden was even the ocean rescue with a bag tied onto a float. They know when I take all 3 swimming we stay close to the steps and play in the shallow area, no diving in the deep end since I have the littlest dude attached to me.

Love this back side shot of the 2 little guys ! Ethan is not going to be left behind, he's gone from toddling walking to trying to run, you can tell it's almost out of control as he tries to go faster and faster !We jammied up after the swim and I made some dinner while they played.

Our old fisher price toys are still a hit, Ethan is starting to play with toys and put things into things.

Papa got home for the last hour to play so Jeremy's old garage came out and of course they had to be "up" so Ethan couldn't get them.

Still lots of fun to be had with these old toys !We sure had fun, I hadn't seen Aiden all week since he was at school so he got to tell me about his fun time being Star student and they had music and computers all in one day today ! So off they went to home and then Ken and I jumped in my car and I treated him to a blizzard to end the busy week ! whew ! off to work tomorrow but it was sure fun to play and catch up with the little dudes.

preschool day

I just had to post this fast couple pictures of Garrett at school yesterday. He was so cute joining in ! Here they are having snack.

The kids are all so cute, all the same size, all just 3, what a big adventure in their life !

Here is Ethan after his nap when preschool ended and our fast trip to the grocery store and subway ! doesn't he look like "where is my shape to sit on????"
He had fun playing while we ate lunch with MB. She got to stop in on her "visiting school" trek since she was out that way so we all enjoyed our subway lunch. One of her schools to visit is Aiden's school and his teacher is one of her teachers to visit so that is kind of neat !

Here's Ethan ready to drive !