summer fair

every year our town has a homecoming fair in june. there's rides, good food, fireworks...and all sorts of good old-fashioned fun. it takes place up the road for us, so we all loaded up on our bikes and road our way to fun memories for the last four summers we've been here. this is another last for us. last time at the fair (sniffle, sniffle). we enjoyed shaved ice, funnel cakes, gyros, rides and games. there was also a live band playing oldies but goodies. this is the perfect summertime event.

i snapped this as the kids were looking at the rides and taking it all in. oh to be a kid again.

my favorite place in ohio

{G and our little friend picking raspberries}

we went berry picking this last week and i'm already dying to go back. let me paint you a picture. the drive to the farm is windy roads through the country. the minute i stepped out of my car, the smell of sun-kissed strawberries fills the air...my mouth starts watering. the breeze is blowing our hair and the vista is breathtaking. we are on the top of the highest hill in the area so we can see a small valley below. we pick these yummy strawberries and the juice just runs down our chins. little puppy just planted himself in the middle of the patch and would pick his own strawberries, put the whole thing in his mouth and then spit out the stem. his shirt was covered in strawberry juice. next we plucked raspberries from their plants...oh so yummy. i'll be going back very soon.

{thanks jenny for the pictures, you are amazing}

my little one is one

SAM I AM

SAM LOVES
his daddy {and mommy too...but maybe daddy a little bit more}
spoons
pull/push toys
playing outside
doggies
lollies
to laugh/giggle/chuckle {it's the best}
taco soup
beans {super baby thinks it's the "magical fruit"}
yogurt
graham crackers
to swing
play with J and G
pizza {his fav...am i a bad mother?}

SAM SAYS
out {he said it all the way to virginia}
hot
what's that {sounds like a whisper of "wasat"}
dada

SAM CAN
walk
squat
climb in the dishwasher
throw balls
spit
wave hi and bye
go from sitting to standing
climb UP stairs, but fall down them



i LOVE cupcakes!
this pan is my fav! i've used it over and over again.
you want my cute cupcake pan?
go {here}

going green {in style}

well, i had a little break from school, so again, i finished some projects. i saw this adorable market bag posted on my friend, tracy's, blog. while i haven't taken this beauty to the "market", i have used it at costco and the pool. i really love this little diddy. thanks for the idea, tracy! i love frill, so i felt the need to add that cute little flower.
i used 3 balls of lily brand, sugar n' cream from joann's.

here is another project that i was inspire by my friend emily. i saw her at church with a cute embellished shirt. i bought 2 green shirts from old navy {one of my favs} for $5 each. i bought my size and an extra large so i'd have fabric to work with. on the extra large shirt, i cut off the bottom band with my rotary blade and then cut 1 inch strips. i snipped off 1 seem and wound some flowers together. i started in the center of the flower, and then worked my way behind and around. i created the flowers separate and then tacked them {sewing by hand} to my shirt. it turned out so cute!

my G is five {holy moly}

so my girl is five...
seriously, where has the time gone.
i love G.
G is the perfect daughter for me.
we like the same things:
baking
musicals
crafting
sewing
making cards
dancing
singing
and snuggling.
she's a great snuggler
and she loves me.

she's got spunk
and i like that

she's not afraid to be different

she's always a movin' and a shakin'

she's VERY inquisitive,
she talks like she's 40,
she's creative,
and just plain fun to be around.

she makes me laugh
{she posed herself b/c now she likes photo shoots}
which, by the way, she hated me taking pictures of her up until about a year ago.

she hates princesses
because "princesses aren't even real women"
and "i'm not waiting for no prince charming"
and "their clothes are ugly"
and "they all have scary moms"

she likes girl characters like:
pippi longstocking
nim from the movie nim's island
lucy from chronicles of narnia
and of course, SUPER GIRL

oh, and she LOVES sharks

she's got a great memory
and a sensitive little spirit.

love you G, more than i can say

...the hand that rules the world

for school i am in this diverse family class and we have a project due at the end of the semester. my project all came about when i was sitting at the doctor's office and i had to fill out the line next to the word: OCCUPATION. i sat there for a minute and a hundred different job titles went through my head: launderer, maid, nurse, chef, counselor, hair stylist, baby bouncer, teacher, chauffeur, coach, tutor.....the list is never ending, really. i also thought, should i just write, "mom"? well, that's exactly what i did write, and i decided to base my paper on the importance of stay-at-home moms. i shouldn't have to feel like less of a person or any less successful or talented than my peers who can write all sorts of "for real" job titles on that form.

i had this brilliant idea that i would do a photo shoot of all stay-at-home moms. in mentioning my idea to some friends, i had some willing, beautiful women volunteer to be a part of my project. between my friends and i we are raising 20 1/2 children. this group is filled with educated, capable women with several different skills and talents. each of these women has chosen to stay home, and all of us have made sacrifices to do so.

being a stay-at-home mom may not be glamorous {i am reminded of this as i pick cherrios out of my hair or find chewed up graham crackers on my shirt}, but the rewards come as my son takes my face between his chubby little hands and says, "You're the best mom in the world," or my daughter snuggles by me on the couch and says, "I need my mom time," or at the end of the day my baby lays his head on my shoulder and softly sighs as if to say, "thanks mom for the million and one things you did for me today."

so just in time for mother's day, we had a day of fun and pampering. thanks to the ladies who did our hair and make-up! and thanks jenny for taking my picture...that NEVER happens. it was a great day. i feel honored and blessed to know each of these women and to have them as friends.

**to my good friends who want to be mothers and it has not come yet, you all have that mother within...someday it will come.**

"God could not be everywhere, so He created mothers."
-Jewish Proverb

"No other success can compensate for failure in the home."
-David O. McKay

"The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for
one purpose only...and that is to support this ultimate career."
-C.S. Lewis

"The mother at home raising her children makes a greater contribution
to the economy than the father in the workplace."
-Gary Becker {Noble Peace prize winner for economics}

"We should no longer allow a mother to be defined as 'just a mom.' It is on her back that great nations are built. To play down mothering as small is to crack the very foundation on which greatness stands. The world can only value mothering to the extent that women everywhere stand and declare that it must be so. We affirm other mothers and as we teach our sons, husbands, and friends to hold them in the highest regard, we honor both the mothers whose shoulders we have stood on...and the daughters who will one day, stand tall on ours."
-Oprah Winfrey

"No nation can exist at all, unless the average woman is the home-keeper, the good wife, and unless she is the mother of a sufficient number of healthy children to keep the nation going forward. The indispensable work for the community is not that of careers, industry or research; it is the work of the wife and the mother. The woman's work in the home is more important than any man's endeavors. She does play a greater part."
-Theodore Roosevelt

"All that I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother."
-Abraham Lincoln

"A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose
place no one else can take."
-Cardinal Mermillod

For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
-William Ross Wallace

birthday banner

G and i worked on that fun birthday banner so that we could
have it for everyone's birthday from now on.

1. i cut my fabric into triangles with pinking shears
(zig zag scissors...this helps the fabric not to fray)
{i did sew a front side to a back side so that
pretty fabric would show of both sides, but you
could glue it, or do without.}

2. i printed out letters i liked and pinned them to felt and then
cut out the felt and HOT GLUED it onto the triangles

3. i hot glued the triangles onto the fat ric rac

...my non-sewer friends can make this! i really do love it.