It wasn't ALL work, there was lots of play

First up, I finished something and now I can reveal it.  The last swap was Hedgehogs and Hippos and we were to include either the flip toy-from squirrel to hedgehog, or the hippo.  I made my first toy that did a magic presto chango.  This little squirrel flips in to become......

 A hedgehog.  I want to make another.  I'm not sure if I'll make an animal or the Cinderella for a birthday.

 I also whipped up two dishcloths.  Now these are fun and the hedgehog cloth was designed by Ber in our group for us to use.  She made 3 and I only had time to do one.  I've got the other two saved though and will do them soon.  They were just plain fun to knit and she did a great job designing the pattern. Details for all on ravelry.

 We are into late spring which means the winding down of the school year extracurricular activities.  The one we are heavily involved in is Awana.  For a couple of years now the end of the year activity is a skate party.  It is really popular with the kids and because we go on a Wednesday night, the rink pretty much belongs to our Awana kids.  Graypa and I helped the kids stay up for a bit and then they pretty much rolled on their own with a bit of help from Graypa.  I don't think they needed Graypa's help but they liked having him around to play and he came home saying, "Now that was fun." 

 The kids were given end of the year gift bags which included a stuffed animal.  I'm not sure if the animals were taken out in the rink for fun or for extra cushioning ;).

 Spring also means it's time to plant the garden, ours and my mother in law's.  My husband rounds up the grandmunchkins for a work crew and we head over after he's rototilled and plant.  A couple of hours of work? (more like play) and she has her garden in.  I could not begin to teach from a book what they learn with the hands on experience of planting a garden.  Plus they have fun and get to be kids. 

 The littlest of the work crew had a rough start but she rallied and was soon planting along with everyone else, or rather, digging and getting dirty.

 Miss S is an expert bean stringer and she was put in charge of training the younger crew.

 Sorry, couldn't resist posting this picture.  We found this on a consignment sale and it had to be on this boy.  It was designed for him. 

 They worked diligently.  For the first hour.

 And then the boss (Great Gram), not the crew chief (my husband) decided they needed a break.  Complete with a snack.

 I think my favorite memory of this day was watching the kids be kids.  They dug in the dirt.  They found tadpoles in the pond.  They released ladybugs and let them crawl all over.  And then they had lunch at McDonalds.  For a kid, that's a perfect day.

 And the next day was my perfect day.  I played all day.  It was the annual Guild shop hop.  Board a bus at 9am and get escorted to 5 different yarn shops.  This was the end of the day and we were enjoying a glass of lemonade before it was time to board the bus for home.  And we're still smiling. 

 It was Miss S's first shop hop and we'll take her again.  She won the gift certificate for the first shop and bought yarn and needles. She was a trouper the whole day.

 Mrs. C is still smiling too.  7 months pregnant and shopping.  Although at this point we were hungry.  Shopping is hard work!  We are not shoppers, any of us, but that goes out the window when it's the Shop Hop and we are shopping for YARN!!

 And here's the loot:  Madelintosh, Blissful Knits, Berrocco, Cascade. and others.  We had fun together.  Now it's time to put the Cold Sheeping into play and knit up what I have.

Which might take awhile considering the dining/school room is now scrapbook central and there are 6 months worth of pictures to put into albums and an order from Creative Memories has been unpacked and is ready to go.

sit back, get some coffee, Easter Weekend photos~

They say a photo is worth 1000 words. Well then, this post must be a novel, or several novels. Think the Lord of the Rings series. The weekend started with the annual Guild Shop Hop. This was my fourth year and my daughter's second. I didn't take too many pictures. I was too busy shopping and making decisions. Suffice to say it was as enjoyable as always. But this was it for me. The yarn diet has begun. No new yarn until next year's shop hop. There are too many beautiful yarns in my stash begging for their turn on the needles and out of the totes/bags/boxes.

This was the first stop on the tour (after Starbucks) and it is the yarn store I usually frequent so it was like coming home but with a big discount!

Since it was Easter weekend, there were eggs to be colored for the Easter egg hunt. Ok, so I love to color eggs and use the grandmunchkins as an excuse.

There is a difference in the egg coloring of 3-4 year olds and 9-10 year olds. It's 55 minutes!

And then Easter Sunday was upon us. The verse Pastor started his message with rang in my head for the remainder of the day: There is now therefore No Condemnation! I am no longer condemned by my sin. Because He lives I can face tomorrow. Because He lives all fear is gone. Such good news and the day would have been sufficient with that good news. My life would have been sufficient with that news. But I am thankful God has more in store for me.

Like beautiful grandmunchkins dressed up for Easter Sunday! Little Miss R does not care for Easter bonnets so she opted for a tiara she got from her recent trip to Disneyland.

Check out Mr. W. He had me laughing all day and again as I went back through the Easter pictures. He was in rare form. Actually, not so rare for him. He reminds me of another with his personality. And that can bring the tears. I miss him so much and I wish I had enjoyed that personality of his even more than I did.

The princess and her court jesters?

Another sweet princess ready for the Easter egg hunt at church.

My husband greets and hands out bulletins every Sunday morning. He involves the grandmunchkins as part of his greeting committee. They've learned to shake hands, say "good morning" and, when it's someone special, give hugs.

Our youngest grandmunchkin in her first Easter finery. She was a little tired and later started running a fever so she was more sober than usual.

And, of course, Easter means pictures for the scrapbooks. Little Miss R was about fed up with pictures as well as being tired and hungry. Note to self...pictures only before church, not after!

The family pictures......

Like I said: Note to self..pictures before church!

After church we went to my parents for Easter dinner. In their mid 70's and they still had 30 people for Easter dinner!

After filling their tummies with good food, it was time to hunt eggs, real and those filled with chocolate.

However! This egg hunt may be one for the books! My husband grabbed the eggs from the fridge to hunt. ALL the eggs. Can you see the drip coming from the bag? Some of those eggs were white...for a reason...they weren't hard boiled. The Easter bunnies that hid the eggs did question why some of the eggs were white but hid them anyway. Oooops! Ah well, we all laughed and this egg hunt will stand out from the others.

Even the big kids found amusement in the toys found hidden in the eggs. One of the memories I came away with after Easter, especially after Easter dinner at my parents, was how much the family loves the children. There were 9 little ones under the age of 10 and there were pats on the head, hugs, help with hunting and hiding eggs, serving them dinner, laughter, toys for them to play with.

If you stayed with this post to the very end, go have some chocolate, you've earned it!

a shopping we will go

I barely slept Friday night. Not that that is so unusual for me of late but it was even more pronounced. Why? Because Saturday was the annual Guild Shop Hop! I had a seat on the bus for the third year in a row. But this time my daughter, the enabler, the supporter, the stashless one, was going with me. So not only did I get to shop for my stash, I was enabling someone else, or, shopping vicariously. I didn't take pictures of my stash enhancement, not wanting to incriminate myself, but there was some. I had a goal in mind of getting yarn that I had not knit with before for sweaters or vests for me. So I came home with Madelinetosh and Malabrigo. And some sock yarn, Blue Moon, and one skein of Dream in Color Starry for a shawl. That's my budget for the year. I had no intentions of getting yarn for grandmunchkins but one yarn screamed my granddaughter's name so it came home. I think I have as much of a problem with yarn as I do patterns because I picked up 4. The bus awaiting 55 knitters. Turned out our driver was a knitter but didn't bring it this day. He should have considering the waiting he did. We left at 9am and arrived back at 4:45pm. We had 45 minutes at 6 stores on the east side of town with a little longer at 2 of the stores to allow a lunch break. More like wolf down lunch so you could keep shopping. We came home exhausted. I am Not a shopper and prefer internet shopping with deliveries to my door. Once a year is good for a shopping excusion!

We were a welcome sight! In this economy to have 55 knitters shopping for yarn.....well, enough said!

Each store seems to have a specialty although they do overlap. This store specializes in sock yarn and the wall behind the enabler is all sock yarn. They are the only place in town that carries Blue Moon to my knowledge and the back corner is devoted to it. Seems funny, since Blue Moon is local, that more don't carry it. And yes, I imbibed.

I didn't buy anything at this shop (and one other), mainly because they didn't have a yarn I was looking for. But I can see going back there because their selection was large and there is another yarn store just 2 blocks away so it would be a 2 for the trip of 1.

The enabler, stashless one, is no longer stashless. To her credit, if she bought yarn, it was for a specific pattern. She is nothing, if not organized!

The shop hop has goodie bags from Lantern Moon (also no picture) and raffle prizes. For the third year in a row, my raffle prize was a sock kit! Each time it's been a different brand of sock yarn so I get to try different ones out and see if I was to try them again.

Another fun successful shop hop. BUT the best part? Shopping and spending the day with the enabler!

Inquiring minds will want to know

I haven't posted in over a week and I know it. How do I know? Because I've been told...several times. And certain inquiring minds (that would be my sister) want to know. So grap a cup of joe and a comfy chair and let me fill you in on the past week...or so.... It's probably been one of the busiest weeks of the past 6 months. Two (er three) birthdays, baby dedication, a shop hop, meetings, and warfare. About the warfare...well that's for the end of this post...if you last that long!This is a greeter in training! My husband's "job" on Sunday mornings is to greet everyone and hand out bulletins. He's training the grandmunchkins and this adorable little one is taking the job seriously. She's not into hugging the people yet though.

DEDICATION!!! Our three youngest grandmunchkins were dedicated yesterday. The free flowing tears did not help the head cold in the slightest. Their great grandmother said it well: We prayed for these little ones, their health, the pregnancy, their birth, their time in the NICU, and then to see them up there, so healthy, being dedicated to the Lord, I was about to start in actually "boo hoo" out loud. Her comment started the tears again! (as an aside, W is being held by Uncle Z...Daddy didn't know how long he'd be up there holding two squirmy boys and enlisted Uncle Z to hold W)

Before W, B, and R were dedicated, their Papa had been requested to sing. He has a beautiful voice and plays the guitar well. He took the request seriously and decided to sing a new version of "Jesus Loves Me". He wrote the last two verses himself specifically for these precious little grandmunchkins. He promised to give us copies of the words and I'll post them when I get them. But before he sang the non traditional version, he had J and S sing the traditional version, accapella, for their cousins. Oh my...they sounded as good as they looked! .......excuse me....had to dry the tears again.....

I waited a long time to be a granny and God blessed me abundantly more than I could ask or think.

A week ago we celebrated S's birthday. 21!!!
This is what she looked like when we brought her home 11.5 years ago at the age of 10. Innocent, full of vim and vigor, no language but she could communicate! You know, we came home the same, full of vim and vigor to raise this child, innocent of what lay ahead, and at the low end of the spectrum in sign language. In some ways nothing has changed, and yet, the blinders God allowed to cover our eyes have been lifted little by little allowing us to see. See more the past than the future. I have said many many times I am glad God kept us innocent of what was ahead when we adopted S because had we known we may have told Him no and missed out on one of the biggest blessings of our lives. We learned to trust Him a little more through S I think. The future is still hazy for her and for us but He has not let us fall yet so we'll trust Him for her future. Her past was so dismal and though I don't understand why I am so glad God gave her future to us.
Woo Hoo! It's the Guild Shop Hop! 55 knitters on a luxury bus with a bathroom going to 6 yarn shops on the east side of the city. My family wanted to have me commited. Especially when I came home and said I had FUN! Met new people, inhaled, touched, drooled over yarn. Overspent my budget. Ahh yes, it was a good day for me and I'm signing up next year! I brought home my tour payment in free goodies so basically the trip was free! I went with a list of projects I wanted to buy yarn for. I did not get yarn for everything on the list but the yarn I did buy was for projects on the list. (does that make any sense?)

These books/patterns were NOT on the list. They just are to help ease the buggling yarn stash that is quickly approaching SABLE (stash acquistion beyond life expectancy). I had seen the Enchanted Garden in a magazine and wanted to see the inside before I bought it. Ok, saw the inside and had to buy it. I saw the American Afghan done up in one yarn store and bought the book. And my seat mate was making the Japanese Vine scarf and it was so pretty that when I saw the pattern I bought it.

I bought this for the One Shawl to Rule Them All KAL on Ravelry. All of the yarn shops gave 20-30% off and handpainted yarn at 20% off for the Woodland shawl couldn't be beat. Apparently other knitters thought the same and we picked the bin of this clean...not one skein left. But we were all making different things.

AND this yarn was 30% off. I purposely went for a color I am not normally drawn to and got enough for a sweater for mhwa! I'm normally drawn to blues, reds, purples, so green will be a nice addition.

There were other purchases for sweaters for grandmunchkins and lace socks for me and I won in the raffle a pattern and sock yarn so I came home with a fix to last awhile.

It was a good thing I had the yarn fix because when I arrived home, my family arrived home from a day at the beach to celebrate our sons' 29th birthdays. Not a picture taken but I hope they enjoyed the steak, salad, and pie! They then proceeded to educate me on the basketball finals and Nascar and fight over the TV remote alternating between the basketball finals and Nascar. They may be identical twins and usually their tastes are similar but not when it comes to Nascar!

Ok, this post is mighty long and I promised the warfare explanation. Five grandmunchkins with colds against me...who do you think lost? ME!!! It's hard to post, much less take care of home and hearth when one's head is bursting, throbbing, hurting and when one is coughing and can't talk. I am much better today (4 days later) thanks to Sudafed Sinus and tea and soup and a shop hop but now without further ado...pass the kleenex!