Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Sunday Afternoon

After church we set off for Alicia Popelka's graduation open house. It was SO cold! They had delicious burgers though and it was good fellowship.I had forgotten my coat at church so my sweet brother offered me his!
It was even the nice leather jacket that Alaina got him for Christmas, what a sacrifice!
Thank you Josh I really appreciated it!
The little guys had such fun playing around at the park where the open house was held!
That smirk on Phillip's face is because he was trying to escape and though that he had succeeded: )

After the graduation we left to go and watch the UNO orchestra. Alatheia L. and Ben S. where both playing in it! It was quite a treat!

This was the conductor's last year so they had a special gift for him. Evidently he was quite the guy! The last song they played was one that he wrote called "Sunflowers", it was absolutely gorgeous!!
Betsy, Hannah and Rachel had rode over with Caleb & Abby. So when they invited me to come back to their house and have Ice Cream, how could I resist!
Tootsie welcomed us as we pulled up the driveway...if you think she looks sweet...don't be deceived...those sweet ones can turn on you at any moment! I have learned the hard way!
When the Ice Cream had been thoroughly enjoyed and put away, we just simply talked..and talked and then talked some more! Caleb had begun a game of risk with Leah and B so we moved upstairs to talk with them and practice our "old English" we had quite the time! Evidently we got a little rowdy so Mrs. Grady sent us to do the dishes, which we accomplished in 9 min. flat!
Altogether it was a lovely day!

Monday, April 28, 2008

Seersucker, Stamp pads and Scrapbooking *smile*

About oh 2-3 weeks ago we got an e-mail from the "homeschool e-tree" from a lady that had a bunch of Stampin' Up stamp pads that she was trying to sell! I didn't read it till a couple days after it was sent and so I was afraid that someone else (someone like Anna N.) would have come along and bought it. So I quickly e-mailed back and all 24 of them were still for sale...at $1 a pad, or if I wanted them all she would give it to me for $15. (Which for those of you who don't know is a REALLY good deal!) I was needless to say, thrilled!!If you want to see them you will have to come to my house, I took them to church...and, well lets just say I barely got them back home again.
All my beautiful colors!
(I tried to get right side up but it just wouldn't go: )
Out of all the material I think seersucker is one of my top favorites!!! On a scale of 1-10 I would rate it a #10!! (10 being the best of course!) It's so easy to work with and is just about the cutest thing in the world! If you can't tell I really like it! I just finished a darling little dress out of some pink/red seersucker but I gave it away before I got a picture. *sigh*
A mother of some kids that Esther and I babysit is having me make 2 dresses for her little girl out of seersucker so....if you have a darling little girl that is in need of a darling little dress, just give me your order, and consider it done! Seriously I would love to!
Grandma and Aunt Paula turned 85 last Nov. so in honor of their birthday we threw a great big party in Fremont! Grace W. was so kind as to take....well if you know Grace you know how many pictures she probably took: ) Since Aunt Paula is having a hard time dealing with grandma's Alzheimer's we decided to make her a small scrapbook! So far it is really cute! I really like to make cute things(if you haven't noticed) : )
*smile*

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Fun with Stangls!

Stangl's invited us out to their place tuesday on the condition that we bring our volley ball net. It was so nice to see Ellie and Zach again! They also had Kim and Andy Mesick, some friends from blair.This volley ball game was such a hoot! It was probably the strangest game I have ever played: )
Pictures courtesy of Julia Stangl
After it got enough so we actully had an excuse to miss the ball..we came inside and Ellie showed us pictures of their trip. They were very exciting!
Dan and Zach enjoyed a quick game of ping-pong before we all moved upstairs to play a rousing game of Scatagories.

Volleyball, pictures, ping-pong, scatagories, cinnamon rolls, cantelope and lots of talking who could ask for more? Thank you so much Stangl's for a very fun evening!
It's nice to have you back Ellie!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Friends!

"A friend is one who knows ALL about you and loves you just the same!"
~Elbert Hubbard
I don't have a picture of all you out there who fit this quote...but you know who you are! *smile*
Thank you!


Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Spring Cleaning...

When the bell rang and we all clattered happily down the stairs to eat lunch, the smiles quickly faded, not necessarily to frowns...but the sight of mom writing long lists on the white board usually means a lot of work is ahead, and we were not mistaken!!
This list may not look daunting but...each number goes to a cupboard or drawer that needs to be emptied, cleaned, scrubbed and the contents cleaned and then restored. We love all our cupboard space, but when spring cleaning come around it is a little how shall I put it...less lovable: )
Esther rounded up all our spray bottles, we have quite a few!
After filling them all up she labeled them all to their own specific place.

::Esther diligently cleaning the freezer::Mommy's helper: )
Mom made everybody help (we all tried to tell her that we had a lot of school to get done today, but Dan was the only one that came out ahead of that one. *smile*)

Even the pull-outs were pulled completely out and scrubbed within and inch of their lives: )
After we got all the cupboards cleaned, we headed out to the pasture for a quick game of croquet for our break time!Stephen was such a good lil' scrubber: )::John sorting the "junk" drawer::All the lovely clean chairs!What a rewarding sight!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Graduation Invitations

Today mom decided to tackle the job of making Joe's graduation invitations. So she grabbed every one that was at home and set them up in a very efficient assembly line.
-Mom printed them out, cut the paper and oversaw the whole process-
-Stephen was our official ribbon cutter-

Phillip marked the holes and I punched them out, he got slightly bored because instead of neat little marks (like at the beginning) they suddenly became, smiles, letters, circles...anything but small dots...to keep it interesting: )
After John threaded the ribbon, Esther would "perfect it" making sure the ribbon was the appropriate length, and nothing was amiss....so if you get a defected invitation you know whose fault it really was. *smile* (She did a great job!)

When we were finished Phillip remarked, "if I have to help with my own invitations, I am just going to send out an e-mail inviting people."

You will have to wait till you get one in the mail to see the finished product!

Basketball season is "officially" over.


The basketball season officially ended last night at the annual sports banquet. It is going to be quite different next year not having an older boy playing basketball!But Joe "graduated" from basketball with flying colors! He averaged about 21 points a game and was very smooth from the 3 point line as well including a record of 8 three pointer in one game. Way to go Joe!
Not to mention he looked especially nice all decked out in his suit!

It was also nice to see some good friends, Ann & Jenny Murphy from the basketball team!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

You know your from a large family if.....

My brother posted this on his blog and it was just so funny!
Check it out!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Whoops.....


This was when they were in Oklahoma City: )

NCHEA!

NCHEA was so much fun this year! I got to be in the drama this year , and it was such a blast. Sorry I don't have any pictures to prove it. *smile*I had a wonderful team! Micah W. was not on my team, he was just playing some games with the kids. Nick Schriner, Amy Kruciak and Pamela Lu Vaas were the three people on my team.

I took a bunch of really great pictures....but then realized that most of them weren't on my camera: ) Whoops: )
I can't really believe that it is all over!
But as they say;
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
*smile*

I miss you.....

It just hasn't been the same without you Ellie! I have missed seeing you once a week at Goodnews Club, and our phone calls...well one 5 minute call over 6 weeks just isn't the same! I am counting the days till you come home! May God bless the rest of your time there in Africa!

"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only True Friends will leave footprints in your heart."
~ Elbert Hubbard

Love you Ellie!