After the work comes the play

The kids helped GR wax the minivan today and after wards were rewarded with a run through the sprinkler. They had such a good time. When I saw that they had gotten the umbrellas out, I handed GR the camera. Here are a few of my favorites that perfectly capture their ability to create pure joy and happiness out of something so simple ... water and an umbrella.

Special Date Night

We don't go out on dates but a few times each year - and really, the times we do get out, it's for church or work functions and I hardly call those dates ... five kids the ages of ours just make it less than easy to have a date night, even with willing family and favorite loyal babysitters.

But when our friends Kevin and Katrina called to see if we'd be interested in attending a Friday night cooking class at a Whole Foods type store that included being served the gourmet dinner we'd be shown how to make, we moved heaven and earth to go.

Over the years I've heard amazing things about the chefs they have teach here - my favorite scone recipe, Alyson got from a class she took from them, and it was great fun to finally experience it first hand. Chef Paige, shared with us a Mediterranean-Inspired Summer Menu that was fantastic and so satisfying. I have to admit that GR and I both felt extremely uncultured and uneducated in the ways of the culinary world, something that hopefully we can remedy once the kids are a little older and can be a bit more self sufficient. We've had a taste of the outside world and well, it was nice.

Potato Gnocchi with Asparagus, Browned Butter & Herbs (we forgot to take a picture until we were all to the very, very last bites on our plates, between the four plates, there was just enough to piece together this fork full. It was amazing, and I hope I can learn to duplicate it at home!


Roasted Rack of Lamb with Mustard Breadcrumbs served with Green Salad with Seasonal Vegetables & Olives


Apricot Custard Tart with Almonds


We truly had a magnificent time. It was a wonderful way to spend the eve of our 11th wedding anniversary. And it was so nice to spend it with friends, thank you Kevin and Katrina for thinking of us. Thank you again to your friends for making other plans and giving us their spots! And thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for making sure the right child made it to the right activity - both scheduled at the exact same time - Sam to his t-ball game, the girls to practice.

It was such a memorable treat for us.

It's All About the Details

Well before I opened Tiny Stitches, I wanted a label I could sew onto my handmade baby blankets or burp cloths, signing my name to what has been my signature baby gift for 12 years. I wanted something chic, I wanted something durable and I wanted something I could afford. I tried to talk myself into something I could print on my home computer and iron or sew on to the fabrics ... but I worried about the durability. My stuff gets used, and used a lot - just the way I like it! I needed, okay I wanted, something that would hold up to being washed and washed and washed and washed through multiple babies. I knew I needed - wanted - a woven tag/label.

Over the last two years I've looked on and off at all the woven label possiblities on and off Etsy, trying to find something that would meet my needs. The hard part is I don't need 1000 labels. I couldn't use up 1000 labels in my lifetime, not to mention the huge investment they would be - ouch. There simply isn't that kind of cash laying around these parts!

Earlier this year Heather and I were talking about labels and she sent me the link to an Etsy shop I'd ear marked before, that provided small runs and allowed me to design my own label, using whatever fonts I wanted. Just before we left for St. Louis for Rebecca's birthday, I took the plunge and ordered my very first run of labels! They arrived on the 21st of May and I love them.

I quietly carried one in my pocket for days. I carefully hand sewed them into a friends baby gift (which had be finished for nearly a week ... yes, I was waiting) during the girls softball practice, so I could finally mail them to her.

Now hopefully long after someone gets my blankets and has lost the tag and business card I ship with them and a someone asks who made their blanket, they can look at the corner and say ... Kathleen of Tiny Stitches.

Felt Sandwich Bread Tutorial

It's ready!! I'm hoping that although only one of you requested the PBJ sandwich tutorial/directions, a few of you were secretly hoping I'd post them even without saying so.

You'll see they are super simple to make, but I wrote out the directions after the fact, so please let me know if you have questions. I'd suggest getting the supplies to make 8-10 slices of bread (yielding 4-5 sandwiches) so the kids can really do something with them once you give them all the fixin's.

I have in my mind picking up some green and pink and white and red and yellow/orange, etc., to make leaf lettuce, ham and turkey, tomato slices, American or cheddar cheese and expand our Sandwich making opportunities. But we'll see ... just watch the felt sales and stock up so you've got everything you need. It's a great little project for keeping your hands busy while you watch a movie and the end product is perfect for entertaining the kids on a rainy afternoon or a blazing hot afternoon, two things our summer has had a lot of so far!

Eternal Family Olympic Games

Saturday morning was my very first primary activity - that is, from the planning vantage point. I work with amazingly creative and fun women who totally know what they are doing, and I was very grateful to only have a supporting roll in the planning process.

This year our theme in Primary is "My Eternal Family." Since families need to work together to be successful, we settled on an Olympic game theme, and created outdoor relay activities that related to gospel concepts we've been talking about in primary so far this year.

• Love Strengthens Our Families – Balloon Hug Relays
• Dads Strengthen Our Families – Stroller and Lawn Mower Relays
• Moms Help Build Strong Families - Rotation Relay - make PBJ, diaper baby, fold towel, sign check.
• Immersion (Baptism) Game – Dunk the Bishop game
• Prophets teach us how to strengthen our families game - Follow the Prophet Cakewalk
• Temple blessings unite my family – Tug o War for temple picture game

I got to use some of my creative skills in the tasks I was delegated and I have to say it was a lot of fun to spend some time doing a little sewing and graphic design in preparation for today's activity.

I made the makings for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out of felt - because Moms help us eat nutritious food. There are lots of really complicated and involved ways you could do this, but was going for fast, simple, mass production, and this totally worked for what we wanted [and the kids have been having a blast running PBJ restaurants and making stacks of sandwiches for each other!]. I'm thinking of creating a little PDF tutorial on how to do this, if anyone is interested, let me know.



I also made some baby doll diapers out of scraps of flannel - because Moms care for and nurture their children. Sam and the girls are seriously excited about this addition to their doll clothing collection! I used this pattern. It's super easy, and I was able to make five of them pretty easily. If you make these for a small doll like the ones my kids have (they are about 14-15" dolls), consider shortening the back tabs that wrap around to the front a good half inch on both sides,



My graphic design - and I use that term loosely as to not offend those who are truly skilled in graphic design - dabbleings were put to work making the advertising fliers. We invited parents to stay for our activity as spectators to cheer on the different events - the Olympics simply wouldn't be the same without cheering spectators! So I created tickets, loosely based on the Salt Lake City Olympic Game Ticket I found on eBay. The great thing is we had quite a few parents come and watch, which was great fun!


I needed a fourth "event" in the Mom Relay ... and came up with this one ... Moms help us obey the commandments and live the gospel, like paying our tithing. I made big faux tithing checks and had the local print shop turn them into a pad of paper for me.

Did any of you see this craft in the July issue of FamilyFun? I thought it would be perfect for any of the little sibblings who came with moms and dads as spectators. We modified the construction a bit to fit the supplies we had on hand. We'd gotten a box of straws donated from Sonic for another project and had lots of extras. Instead of using a dowel, we'll taped three big Sonic straws together for the handle. We also used our rotary cutters to cut and fringe the bags - so slick and made making 25 possible. One last tip ... used bags make better pom poms than new bags. New bags take a bit of russeling and scrunching in order to fluff up and make a decent pom pom. The kids LOVED these and several asked to take theirs home!

Reminiscing

While I saved all of the girls clothing from birth on up - yes the basement is insanely overrun with plastic tubs - I have also willingly handed them out to many babies over the last 6 years to wear and enjoy and return if possible. After Alex was born I tried to put everything back in "order" ... by sizes, by season, matching up outfits, etc. Anything I didn't totally and completely love, got passed on. About the same time my sister-in-law sent a box of girls clothing back to me. It went unopened in the garage where it stayed until Saturday. Convinced the entire lot would need to be pitched because who knows what had gotten in it, I sent GR out to open the box and asses the damages. Amazingly the entire contents of the box was in perfect condition, and I re-discovered some of my favorite outfits from the girls early years.

Sunday night we packed a picnic dinner (chicken crescent squares, apple slices, carrot sticks, peanut butter crackers) and went to an outdoor concert, part of our stakes Sounds of the Sabbath monthly firesides. We had a really good time catching up with good friends we don't see very often, and letting the kids play outside on big grassy hills, while we listened to beautiful music.

Anna was wearing a little outfit Emily wore that we discovered in the box. I purchased the same outfit in the next size so Emily and Rebecca could match. I got them on sale from Landsend's and when we were in St. Louis for Emily's first birthday, I went to Walmart and had the girls pictures taken. The plan had been to make it a yearly tradition, having the kids pictures taken on her birthday, but the following year, when I took three week old Sam and the girls to the photo session, we lasted all of 10 minutes before I realized it wasn't going to happen, we left, and I didn't reschedule.

Here are Rebecca and Emily, August 8, 2002:


And Anna, May 30, 2009. Anna is 10-1/2 months old and thankfully the 18 month size outfit will fit her just fine on her first birthday. No worries there.


Monday we met up with friends at the park and I got a few more pictures of Anna:




Now if I could just get the boys to stop pulling the crazy faces, we'd be in business!

Saying Goodbye to Friends

GR helped our good friends Tiffany and Brandon load up their truck today. Monday they will be pulling out leaving Kansas to move out west and be near family. We had their family in our home their first weekend in Kansas - three years ago, they were house hunting the first weekend in October and GR invited their family to join ours for dinner. It was an instant friendship, a kinship. We will miss their sweet family and wish them the very best.

In quiet moments when the reality that Carson is moving very far away starts to sink in, his little eyes well up with tears. But Saturday night it was all giggles and laughing and jumping and leaping, so much so that as soon as they'd had a few bites of food, we sent them outside as the house was clearly not large enough to contain four free spirits.

We took this picture of the four boys just as they were heading back to their house ... the boys to sleep, mom and dad to finish retouching paint. You can just see their cheeks glowing pink and hair dripping with sweat - evidence that they had had a blast together and played on so very hard!

Last Day of School

Yesterday was the kids last day of school. The weather was extremely mild, leaning toward chilly with a very good chance of rain. Not so great if you had your heart set on celebrating school getting out for the summer by swimming with friends at Grandma's pool. Since they couldn't go swimming, we had everyone over here for a play date. They played computer games, Wii, were inside and outside, and inside and outside numerous times, having an over all nice, laid back comfortable afternoon enjoying their friendship. I made my favorite monster cookie recipe which the kids enjoyed.







Alex fell asleep on the couch just before dinner, and given how wet and chilly it was, we opted to not even try to go to the opening summer band concert. Hopefully next week!

* * * * *

We've been very pleased with the children's performance this school year. They each got excellent marks and are showing measurable improvement from the beginning of the year. It's so exciting to see Sam loving math and starting to read real books! The girls continue to be avid readers, reading well above grade level. But it looks like we need to spend more time this summer refocusing on math facts. There are a few things I'm hoping to discuss with the school principle this summer before we go into a new school year. While I don't have children who have been labeled as "gifted" I do have children who need to be accademically challenged. Thankfully, with only one exception, they have all had teachers who have recognized early on in the year that our kids will need a little extra challanges here and there to help them stay on task and not get bored - since in our family boredom (with the exception of Emily) mannifests itself in talking.

I am not meant to co-exist with the animals

My three big kids love spending time with Dad, but most of their life, they've lived with Dad being in school, working, working/traveling, serving in different church callings, etc. Thankfully, over the years, the time they spend with GR has always been "enough" to fill their little cups until the next opportunity. I've decided Alexander has a crack in his cup, because over the last month or so, he's been seriously missing his dad. And it not like GR's gone all that much. No more so than before. But GR will leave for work and, Alex will break down, late in the afternoon before the kids are home from school, a weepy boy will find me in the kitchen needing extra hugs because he misses his dad. So I've been looking for opportunities for Alex and GR to spend a little more time together, and I told GR that he needed to do the same.

Tuesday morning got off to a really hectic start. It was one of those extremely full days where we hit the ground running and never stopped until you head hit the pillow 16 hours later. GR needed a ride to work and since he works in the general direction of "the Farm," I decided we had enough time to spend a couple hours there after dropping GR off. Over the last couple of days, Alex has been asking to visit the farm and the goats. We'd gone on the 14th for a playgroup activity, and had a great time playing! GR offered to go with us and just go in late, and ultimately decided to take the entire day off given all we had planned for the day. It was so nice! The weather was cool and wet, so the farm was not crowded at all ... I kept telling GR that when we'd come with playgroup, there were 80% more people there!

Alex LOVES to feed the goats, and has no fear when it comes to feeding them. Because there were no crowds, and there was someone to stay with Anna in the stroller, I decided to take Alex IN the petting pen to feed the goats, rather than feed them through the fence.

Never.again.Never.

Within seconds, hungry goats with poor table manners had covered my white pants in mud and other mud like substances :), nibbled my shirt and used my waist as a stepping stool, bringing me eyeball to eyeball with more than one goat! I guess it was good and bad that they quickly deduced who held the food. Good, because they totally left Alex alone. Bad, because this city girl really doesn't enjoy being mauled by livestock (are goats even considered livestock? ahh they are).

My only recourse was to throw my handful of feed across the pen, raise my hands to surrender, grab Alex and quickly back out of the pen! From now on we will be feeding the goats through the fence.





I love how Alex feeds double handed!


Aren't the ducklings adorable! There were ten of them, and you could tell they and mama were totally use to having hundreds of kids surrounding them. Alex could get as close as he wanted and they didn't mind a bit.


We tried to ride a pony, but Alex didn't want anything to do with it ... maybe next time when he's technically old enough to ride the pony (gotta be 3, not 2 and 22 months). We also visiting with two Elders logging community service hours. They spend Tuesday and Friday mornings at the Farm (ETA: we later found out that these too Elders serve in Bishop Topher's ward - one of GR's former roommates!). Alex got to be nose to nose with a mama jersey cow, and her calf, we got to listen to some wonderful stories told by a Native American Folklorist in the teepee, and of course we sat on a tractor and surveyed the land.

The Farm has made lots of wonderful new additions, with many more scheduled in the near future. I'm looking forward to taking the big kids back this summer with a big roll of quarters, so we can keep feeding the goats through the fence.

Summer's Official Start

This week marks the official start of summer for my kids and they look forward to it every year! Memorial day brings the opening of the pool, a place the kids and I plan to spend a lot of time this summer. We spent the morning lazily getting ready for our afternoon at the pool and barbecuing with a few friends. The weather was just warm enough for an early afternoon dip in the pool. Thankfully, no one forgot how to swim over the winter, Alex is navigating the water beautifully in his arm floats, and we discovered Anna is a total water baby! What a nice change from terrified Alex!

Our friends arrived just as our kids were getting out of the pool and the temperatures were starting to cool. The kids played and played and played in Grandma and Grandpa's field. They took a short break to eat and then went back to playing ... the boys went one direction, the girls in another. The mom's talked and visited and bounced babies while the dad's visited and supervised the driving of cars, the throwing of balls and the flight of frizbees.

Sadly, I don't have a single picture of our blissful day. I'm learning that when I'm totally comfortable, relaxed and enjoying the company of good friends and family, the camera tends to get forgotten and pictures aren't taken. Hopefully, I won't regret that in the years to come. I'm hoping that, the experience, the people and being in the moment, not distracted by other "things" will be just as important too.

Sweetness

This Week in Pictures via Alex

We made Rice Krispy Treats and ate blackberries.

Mama did some sewing and preparations for our upcoming Primary Activity in June. And Alex said, "Let me takea picture?!" and did ... lots of them.


We went to the park and played with friends. Went looking for velcro and continued my frantic search for ribbon - Michael's has stopped carrying the brown saddle stitched ribbon I use in my most popular burp cloth bundle - sigh!!


Meet Edward, Just Plain Edward that is, not to be confused with Edward II, Edward III, or Edward IV, because they all live here too. And in case you're wondering, Edward is wearing his duck costume, obviously.



Saturday Daddy and Alex discovered a toad while mowing the lawn. Alex came into the house, "Quick Mommy, come outside and bring your camera!" I kid you not. Word for word, from daddy's mouth to his ears, from his mouth to my ears. And I obediently snatched the camera and came.

A Hat Trick

Soccer season is over, and t-ball/softball will quickly follow. The kids all did really well this season and really enjoyed their coaches and teams. As Emily and Rebecca get older, their fields expand, the girls start understanding their positions more, the score is no longer inflated, and at times, their games are very exciting to watch. Emily ended her season with another exciting game that included her very own hat trick! ... that's right three goals! Add a couple of assists to that and we had one very happy girl.

At the end of her game GR told her he'd purchase her a hat since she had a hat trick ... I suggested possibly getting a headband instead, we'll see what she picks.







And we did celebrate the end of the season with a late afternoon trip to Ben and Jerry's.

Best Brownies Ever

I have to say that while I love the idea of homemade, from scratch, brownies, they never seem to turn out like the box kind, and consequently, in my mind fall short. I am not a cake like brownie girl. And most of my, from scratch brownies, have turned out cake-like.

Sunday, Diane tried a new brownie recipe she is hoping to use for Farmers Market. We didn't get a chance to eat them Sunday night, so she sent us home with the pan. They were amazing, and the entire 9x9 pan was polished off by Monday night. The three big kids spent a couple hours at Grandma's this afternoon and brought home the recipe:

Best Brownies Ever

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine, melted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Heat oven to 350. Grease 9" square pan. Stir together margarine, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs; beat well. Combine flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Add to margarine mixture. Spread into prepared pan. Bake 25 minutes. Frost.


Creamy Brownie Frosting

3 tablespoons margarine, softened
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons milk

Beat margarine, cocoa, corn syrup and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and milk. Beat to a spreading consistency.

Busy Little Gardening Bees

It's planted ... two tomato plants, two bell peppers and one sweet basil. And hopefully a few of our seeds will sprout too!

Happy Mother's Day

A number of years ago I started trying to get a picture of me with all the kids around Mother's Day for a special Mother's Day Album (and did the same for GR and Father's Day). A place where we can look at pictures of the kids from each year, collect their cards along with the many handmade creations. Although I'm not in this picture, it will be our 2009 submission for the album (once I actually have time to assemble it!).



It was taken Friday evening in front of the dentists office. The girls had back to back appointments just before closing and after Alex spent the majority of Emily's appointment running the length of the office we went outside to work off some energy and run in the grass before someone either got hurt or the patience of the few people left in the office was exhausted. Once everyone was all finished, we took a line of shots out front and thankfully gone a pretty good one to send the Grandma's for mother's day.

* * * *
We all survived another Sunday. I survived my first sharing time and although extremely tempted, didn't throttle a single child, including my own. GR got home around 2pm and we headed out to his mom's for some playing time and then dinner.

During the warmer days of winter we noticed that the girls, especially Emily were getting too long for the battery operated cars. GR and Bob both started researching alternatives that would still be fun and safe and age appropriate but would better accommodate the girls height, length and weight. I wasn't excited about large, expensive, gasoline powered ATVs intended for adults, that could rip up the yard and a small child in a single tire revolution. And thankfully there were reasonable alternatives. We considered tween sized ATVs, golf carts, dune buggies, build-it-yourself options, and in the end, Bob and Diane settled on two go-karts.

They arrived around Rebecca's birthday and the kids have had a couple of opportunities since to drive/ride in them. In addition to a number of factory safety features we've implemented, the biggest rule is you must be seven to drive the go karts. Each time the girls get out and drive them, a new rule seems to be added. They are handling this in stride - in some cases better than the adults :) - and we've had many conversations with frustrated little girls that more rules aren't been laid down because we are mean, or because we don't want them to have fun, but because we love them very much and want everyone to be safe. Hopefully we'll get the last of the wrinkles ironed out and everyone will find a comfortable grove with the new cars and the summer will be a fun, and safe one for everyone.



Until this afternoon, Alexander has had ZERO interest in riding in the new cars, or driving any of the smaller cars. But today, he had the courage to ride with Emily, and had a blast!





* * * *

Tomorrow the children and GR have promised to prepare and plant the garden for me! All while I eat another one of these ...

Charlotte's Web, Opera Style

All the kids soccer games were done by 10am, it was wonderful, because the older three and I had tickets for Charlotte's Web in Kansas City. Remember our Library visit back in March? Not knowing anything about the theater, other than very general directions, we packed a small activity bag with 2 chapter books for the girls, a few beginner books for Sam, along with a notebook and colored pencils. We were second in line and people watched until it was time to enter the theater. We got front row seats right in the center, although the theater seating was stadium seating, much like a movie theater, so I think the kids would have done well just about anywhere.

I sat next to a woman who's 10 year old daughter was one of the little sheep. It was fun to talk with her about the Lyrikids production, how they got involved and her daughters experience. What a fun experience for someone interested in singing and acting!

The show was fantastic! The set, costumes, performers, everything was very well done and held the kids attention the entire time. A couple of summers ago we listened to the book on CD as a bedtime story, and we have a copy of the book - which the girls haven't been willing to read yet - so while they are familiar with the general premise of the story, many of the details, specifically how the story ends had escaped their memory. Sam and Emily are my sensitive ones, and I realized after the performance started that I had completely forgotten to prep them for Charlotte's role in the story. Thankfully it all worked out. Sam courageously held back his tears and we talked a little bit about it at the end.

I think this was my first time doing something like this with just the three older kids, and I have to say as the Mama and parent in charge, it was such a different - enjoyable - experience. GR's most recent experience taking just the three older ones on an adventure was back in early January to see the Harlem Globe Trotters at the Sprint Center. And they had a great time! Before that it was a football game and then the airshow (granted the air show wasn't 100% enjoyable but currently the children only have happy memories of the experience.) The difference in their ability to sit and listen and enjoy compared to say the productions/concerts we took them too when the girls were about Sam's age, is huge!

I have to say it's so nice to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, and that eventually we will all be able to go places in public without me totally and competely loosing it.

Sleepy Boy

Yesterday Alex had a stinky diaper, and I asked him to go upstairs and bring a new diaper downstairs so we could change his diaper. He got quite distracted upstairs and since I was working on a couple of projects downstairs, every 10 minutes or so I'd remind him what he was doing upstairs. 45 minutes or so later, Alex had still not come back downstairs with his diaper, and he was no longer responding to my calls. Silence from this boy isn't always a problem, but I needed to be sure, so I went on a hunt for Mischief. One step into his room confirmed that he was in there, though I could not see him, I could defiantly smell him ...





He was totally and completely zonked out in his closet. Choosing an open bin of Sam's outgrown clothing to rest his weary head. I left him there until he woke up - his little foot must have fallen asleep, it was at such an uncomfortable angle. When he woke up we changed his diaper and he climbed right back into bed and slept until the "guys" came home from school.

It's Divine to turn Nine!

For months and months, Rebecca has planned her birthday celebration. Back in December, she realized that her birthday would be on a Saturday, making it possible for us to celebrate "out of town." All on her own, she settled on St. Louis as her destination as it would make it possible some of the aunts and uncles and cousins to participate in the celebrating - so essential to a good celebration. And so each time we were in St. Louis ... twice in December, and again in March, she invited and reminded all of my sibblings that her birthday was coming up and she would be in St. Louis to celebrate and will you are you please going to be there?!

The kids didn't have school Friday, and GR was able to arrange his work schedule such that he could take the day off of work. So after finishing up all our Thursday evening commitments and packing up the car, we were on our way, making it an extremely late night for the mama and the papa, but allowed us to maximize our time with Grandma Mutti and Grandpa Art and the rest of the crew.

Friday, Rebecca requested a trip to the Magic House, one of the kids favorite places to go. They have made lots of additions, and everyone had a really fun time.







Saturday morning, for her birthday breakfast, Rebecca requested Mutti's cinnamon rolls. Which everyone devoured before going to one of our favorite neighborhood parks for a couple hours of running around. While the little kids played on the equipment, the big kids followed Grandpa Art around the park grounds for a hike - another Rebecca request.


The last birthday celebration activity, Rebecca wanted to do, was a trip to the Butterfly House. Something we haven't done in ages. We had just enough time to walk among the thousands of butterflys they have, before that part of the park closed for the day. The butterflies were beautiful and amazing, and the amount of time we had to spend watching and admiring, was just perfect (about 30 minutes)!







We finished up with dinner, cake (banana sour cream) and chocolate ice cream back at Grandma's. Suz found some fantastic gummy butterflies at a Mennonite general store in northern Missouri, they made the perfect decoration for Becca's cake.



It's hard to believe Rebecca is nine. She is quickly growing up into a beautiful young woman and we are very proud of her. She continues to share her bright and bubbly personality with everyone she comes in contact with. She is an avid reader and never tires from reading stories about her favorite characters as over the years they become her good friends. She is a big fan of all the Ramona Quimby books, but has recently added the Penderwicks to her circle of friends. And this summer we hope to add a few more new girls to the mix. Rebecca has a strong creative side to her. She is always creating something from found objects ... scraps of fabric from the sewing room; containers, tubes or boxes from the recycling bin; paper, sequins, and glue from the craft cubboard. She is very generous with these creations, always intending them for someone special in her life.