Fresh air

This morning after Rebecca (with my supervision from the other room) nearly burned down the house making a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave, we opened up all the windows, turned on a bunch of fans and left the house to allow the smoke and smell to clear.

Our little playgroup was scheduled to go to a children’s farm in KC, but I wasn’t sure when, so we simply left after the burned oatmeal incident.

The farm was packed. I think a number of local schools/preschools were using it as a last fieldtrip location, because I have never seen that many people there at one time before.

This is a really neat little place. I thought you might enjoy a pictoral explination of the facilities rather than long commentary.

Lots of farm animals you can touch and feed (and others are just for looking at):

Playground equipment to play on… slides, sand pits, climbing stuff, etc.:

Tractors and other farm equipment to climb around and interact with:

Sam can spot tractors anywhere now - he saw this one from the slides and insisted on going to sit on it. He loves tractors and airplanes right now.

And beautiful gardens and landscaping!

We are definitely planning multiple trips back this summer.

Obsession Update

Okay back in April, I posted my current obsessions, and I thought I would give a little update to on my progress.

Obsession 1: Scrapbooking
I haven't made much progress in this area. Although I recently attended a party hosted by my neighbor for a company called "Once Upon a Family". I really like their products. The products are a way of documenting and capturing the simple pleasures of childhood and family life. And in a future post I'll write more about some of their ideas and how I'm implementing them in my own way.

Obsession 2: Sewing for the girls
If you look back at this original post, you’ll notice that the yellow fabric is what I used for Rebecca's birthday dress. So there's one piece of fabric out of my stack. I also finished the capris my Mom had started for Rebecca/Emily and they look adorable – the pattern is definitely a keeper. I'm hoping to make a dress for Emily soon. A friends little girl wore a dress to church a few weeks ago where pom-poms had been used as a cute detail around the bottom of the dress ~4 inches from the hem. I really want to replicate this detail in a dress for Emily.

Obsession 3: Quilting
Bite #1 – the bright baby quilt I started over spring break is totally finished is actually being used by its new owner - Mary Ann’s new baby girl! I’m pleased with how it turned out. Except for one row of quilting, I did the entire thing myself and although it’s a little rough in spots, I’m pleased with its overall look.

Bite #2 – Flag wall hanging – I’ve finished the top, but I’m waiting for batting to go on sale at the local hobby shop before I start the quilting. I’m going to try and quilt this one myself. I’m not going to do anything complicated. They suggested wavy lines in the red and white stripes and then outlining the stars, which sounded like something I could easily do.

Bite #3 – Lost Ship – I’ve located a pattern, I think Diane is the one who found it for me in one of her quilting magazines. So when I’ve got some free time, I can start cutting pieces for this projec!

Bite #4 – Sentimental Journey – I have now collected enough fabric from this line to make what ever I want. Now I need to pick the right pattern and doing something with it.

Kansas Skies

This morning when I opened our front door, this is what the sky looked like. The clouds literally looked like the ocean, or like Green Bay on a really rough day. I thought for sure we'd get rain, but so far we haven't gotten a drop. Since Mom loves clouds, I thought she would enjoy this picture.