Craft day!

Hannah is modeling our project for today, the last day of school for us! (Hooray!)
Fridays are craft day for us when we are in the school year. The girls never let me forget!
Here is how we made our shirts:

I slipped a t-shirt over my big cutting board to protect the back side and to keep it taut. You could use something else just as easy keeping in mind the same goals.


Plan a simple design that you want to put on your shirt. Cut it out and coat the back with spray adhesive. Let the adhesive dry a few minutes so that it won't stick permanently to your shirt.


Affix the shapes onto the shirt and press down well.

Spray a solution of bleachy water onto the design. Be careful not to get it so wet that it bleeds under the paper.

Blot the bleach drips from the paper with a rag and then peel off.

Here's the tricky part: Wait the perfect amount of time and then rinse--well.

When you're done, dry the shirt and it's ready to wear!
That shirt that Hannah is standing behind is the one Annette and I made. Next to it on the left is the shirt that I am going to wear tonight on my anniversary date with my honey.

By the way, It's a surprise anniversary date. Not because of the date but because he doesn't remember it's our anniversary today!!! Hee hee! I'm taking the girls down to my mom's now and then I'm going to have a little time to come home and clean the house without anyone messing up under me (a little treat to myself!). When Steve gets home I think we will go and pick up some subs and go to the beach and float around with our eyes closed because we never get to do that when the kids are with us. We never go on dates that are things we enjoy just as much with the girls along and we never go out to eat as a date because we tend to just sit there and not visit so we do other stuff. One of our favorites is to go to Barnes and Noble and just sit and read together. BTW, it's eleven years this year!

procrastinating...

I am sitting here delaying what needs to get done. The Garage. Yuck! I really don't want to tackle that at all. But it needs to get done and I am "nesting" in a way. I don't know when our dossier will be submitted by the translator to the Ukrainian Social Services, and I don't know how long from the time they get it until they contact us with our appointment, and I don't know how long from the time of receiving notice until the actual appointment date it will be, but I do know I don't want to spend that last month working like crazy trying to get the house in shape for us to be away for 5 weeks! I don't want to miss that time with the girls and I do want to bring the children home for the first time to a home that looks and feels clutter-free and welcoming. Besides which, I am going to be jet-lagged as well as adjusting to caring for 6 children and I am not going to want to do it then!

The trouble with the garage is that it is full of stuff that we are planning on selling in a garage sale. Because of all that extra stuff in there, the usual things that we keep in the garage are harder to access so after we have dug them out to use them we have been putting them back in places where they don't belong and it has become a jumbled mess; sale-able items mixed with things we want to use, like the hose nozzle that must be somewhere in there! Also, Annette has been missing for several days now and she might just be in that pile. I'd hate to inadvertantly sell her in a garage sale!

Well, I've talked myself into getting myself together and setting my timer and doing one hour's worth of work in there--for the children. I can do it for them, I guess. And for Steve; he'd really like to see the garage all neat and tidy when he gets home, I'll bet. Oh, and for me, too; there's nothing like knowing that a big chunk of the to-do list has been crossed off!

Wash the Suburban?> Check.
Laundry?> Check.
Clean the garage?> Gro-o-o-oan....

Down Memory Lane...

Here is a picture I took of a baby racoon whose tail I rolled over with my bycicle while it was napping in the sun. This was back in 1991. I was 16 years old. I was with this friend in the other picture. Although that picture was not taken the same day. (She is a little overdressed for a bike ride.) Her name is Heather and we pretty much spent the entire summer together every year; me spending the night there and then her at my house. She tells me that she checks my blog every day but I don't believe her. So, Heather, If you're out there you'd better say hello before I post some other picture of you...and believe me, I have a few!

By the way, I haven't heard from my dear sister-in-law, Lynn in a while, either....

Sunflower house

I did a little Just-for-fun gardening this weekend! Hannah and Annette saw and ad on T.V. for one of those pre-seeded mats that you roll out and water and up pops an instant flower garden. This one in particular was a square that had sunflower seeds around the edges and I suppose grass seed in the middle. It's meant to be a little "enclosed" play area. I don't know what it cost but my guess is $19.95 plus shipping. Anyway, if you know me then you know I am incredibly tight with my money when it comes to buying stuff! There is no way I would pay that much for sunflower seeds! So I went to the Dollar General and got a 25cent packet of sunflower seeds and two bags of pottong soil from Walmart and dug out a square border's-worth of sod from the backyard. I filled the trench that the sod left behind with the potting soil and then planted the sunflower seeds. Total invesment: $2.25. Now we wait and see if it grows into the little play area with sunflower walls the girls are hoping for! In theory, it sounds like it should be a great place for them to play and be creative this summer!

Show and Tell Friday!

Well, I have been noticing on a bunch of other blogs that they have certain events that corrospond to certain days. One of these is that Fridays are for show and tell! Yay! I was talking about this earlier to Hannah and she asked if she could do it today so I said, "Sure!". So she took the camera and her very favorite special American Girl doll named Nellie out in the backyard and took 56 pictures! I am not going to post them all (hee hee) but here are a few. The first is Nellie climbing a tree, next is Nellie strolling through the yard and the last is Nellie doing some gardening.

Nellie was a gift from Steve's sisters Laurie and Mary one year. Hannah got tears in her eyes she was so happy when she opened that gift.

Ps. Hannah will be watching for comments... ;-)

Mermaid for sale

This is entitled, "The Purple-Haired Mermaid With Lon Lon Hair" ("lon" is how Annette says "long") It is a crayon on paper drawing and it is for sale for 11 bucks and one dollar. This is because Annette does not know that dollars and 'bucks' are the same thing and any good price should have at least one dollar in it! hee hee!

The blue circles are bubbles but my favorite part are the seashells, apparently caught in the current....

Home Sweet Home

My sister-in-law, Lynn, mentioned that it has been so long since they were at our house that she couldn't remember what it looked like! That's just as well since we've done a bunch of work inside and outside of it since she was there last. I wish I would have thought to take this picture a couple of weeks ago when the irises were in bloom all along the front walk.

I always describe my house as being "architectually uninteresting". It is all straight lines and no curves or 'jewelry'. One thing I would like to do when I have a little spendable money again is to put some decorative trim around the top of the porch. For now, we added the lattice a few years ago and the climbing roses that came with the house are finally beginning to make a showing along with some ivy-type of thing that winds all around, dying off just in time to rip it down so the morning glories can steal the stage in late summer.

I just trimmed almost all the flowers off of the climbing roses the other day in the hopes that it would inspire the bush to keep blooming longer. It seems to have worked because there were a bunch of new buds opening up today. I had read that you should trim the fading flowers back to the first group of five leaves. I think I did that right...

Science lesson

The girls and I did a homeschooling review about seeds and germination and planted a few zinnia seeds in an unused flower box on the back porch the day before yesterday. Here is our first little baby zinnia already! I bought the seeds at the local Dollar general (4 packs for a dollar) so they weren't some kind of super-seed but my mom had the same luck with a package of shady mix wildflowers I got for her from there.

Teeny Toad

Here is the little toad I found and brought in the house last night. The two bigger girls loved holding it but Ivy spent her time keeping her distance!

I was wondering, does anyone know? Do toads "ribbit" like frogs?

Anyway, maybe this one was a frog; it was pretty moist.

Check out the toad my nephews caught on the same day. It really puts mine to shame!

Mother's Day weekend in Nashville

We were able to go up to my Sister Bethany's house for Mother's Day weekend. This is a picture of my mom being a good sport for her Mother's Day photo shoot! Anyone who knows Dad knows that a holiday can never pass without a representative picture and a personal holiday requires a portrait of the honored person. --also a video clip of the photo taking. :-)

Good looks run in the family....(hee hee)

My little sister. Such a lovely girl and such a nice hostess as well! Thanks for a great time, Bethany!

Good fellowship...

Good food...

Annette Loves Aunt Bethany!

I just noticed that I don't have any pictures of her husband, John, but he definately deserves an honorable mention. He spent hours on Saturday working on their boat to get it so that we could all take a trip in it. It should never have taken so long and he was frustrated that he couldn't get this one part to connect back on. Steve helped a few hours and then they took a break and while Steve napped, John and his friend from work got it figured out and put it back together. The poor guy was all tired out --and on his day off! So a big thank you to John from us!

Silly Ivy Mae

Here is my silly girl playing dress-up the other day. Ivy is two years old and loves doing the things that her big sisters do! I wonder if we'll bring home any two-year-olds from Ukraine?! I hope so; I love this age!

We spent this past weekend at my sister's house in Nashville, TN. I'll post more pictures tomorrow if all goes well. We are making our last big effort at finishing well with homeschooling for the summer. Only a couple of weeks left! Hooray!

Baby Bunny

I saw this little bunny hop out from under our front porch the other day. It stayed as still as it could, long enough for all the girls to get a chance to come and get a nice long look at it. It was quite small and would have fit nicely into my cupped palms. I was wishing I had mowed the yard when I was trying to take this picture, though!

Here, Ivy is with Hannah's friend Rachel's brother Neil on the day of the tea party. Ivy and Neil really hit it off, both enjoying each other's company. Ivy calls him "Neew". He is one year older than her almost exactly.

Tea Party

I am not much of a tea party-er. Fortunately for my little ladies, my mom is! They each get to invite a friend and then they arrive at Grandma's house to the table all decorated nicely. They learn manners and make a little craft together and visit. The girls have a fabulous time!
Hannah is sitting with her friend Rachel and Annette with Sarah W. (of course!). That little boy behind annette is Neil, Rachel's little brother.

Sigh of relief!

Well, The documents are on their way to Ukraine! After all this work and money, Steve was shaking his head at the irony of writing in the space marked 'total value', $0! Then, I could sense that he was hesitant to hand it over to the guy behind the counter. Encased in that cardboard envelope is the culmination on 6 months of stress and coordination of dates and just plain old hard work! It has made it as far as Paris, France last we checked.

Remember to keep an eye on our blog for more frequent updates.