Show and Tell: My Mom's Exceptionally Late Mother's Day Gift

So I meant to have this up on Sunday so I could participate in MOPPING IT UP MONDAYS, but that didn't happen. First, we were schlepping our way home from Family Camp (post coming soon) where I caught a tummy bug and was still recuperating. Second, I realized since I technically didn't do most of the work on this quilt, it probably didn't qualify anyway.

This is another of my great-grandmother's quilts. You can see the other ones HERE and HERE. My mom's mom's mom, if anyone is keeping track. Izetta Tidwell Yarbrough. How's that for a handle? Anyway, I had one more quilt top that needed putting together and I wanted to give it to my mom for Mother's Day because she didn't have one a complete one that my great-grandmother had made that was in good condition. 

I had my friend,  WENDY quilt it because I was a little intimidated and I put on the binding. I'm not sure if you can see it very well, but she mirrored the scallops by quilting through the white part of the quilt. We didn't want to take away from the all the other fabulous fabrics my great-grandmother used. And let me tell you, there were some great ones. 

I'll be honest, it was hard to part with this one. But I'd already told my mom about it so there wasn't any going back. I'm still amazed that all these little scallops were done by hand! Makes me tired just thinking about it. I told my mom that she better just make sure I get it back when she dies. That's a morbid thought, no?

But Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I'd like to say something along the lines of better late than never, but I'm not sure I really believe it.

Ten on Ten: August 2012

It's August 10th (can you believe it?!) and time again for TEN ON TEN. A day to take a photo at ten after the hour for ten consecutive hours, striving to find the beautiful amongst the everydayness of an ordinary life. 

Enjoy!

Go HERE to find the other amazing participants! 

Summer of Denial

I've spent all summer in a state of denial.

I haven't thought about Phoebe going to kindergarten. I haven't talked about Phoebe going to kindergarten. I've lived in a blissful cocoon of ignorance, pretending that life won't change drastically on the morning of August 27th, just living in the lazy days of summer. 

But the sun keeps setting and time keeps marching on forward toward the inevitable.

And ACU sends us a backpack. 

Just like when they send graduates the ONESIE when they have these little bundles of joy, ACU sends a backpack right before school starts the year they are five. Eli got one, too, but since he wasn't going to kindergarten until he was six, it didn't bother me as much. It was just another cool ACU thing. With Phoebe, it was like reality throwing a cold bucket of water on me, shocking me out of my denial.

She really is going to kindergarten. And it's really going to happen very soon. 

And then I'll blink my eyes and it will be the August of 2025 and she'll be packing up to head to ACU. 

I think I'll just work on getting her through kindergarten first. :)

Black and White Beach Photos

I know I told that I was all through with our vacation posts this year, but this really is the last one.

And I know that black and white photos are a little passé, but it's one of the easy edits I can do myself. 

Let's just say they're timeless, ok?

Water Bombs: Best Summer Pin Ever!

THIS just might be the very best pin ever. 

At least as far as summer goes.  My kids love a good water balloon fight, but I hate the hours and hours of filling up water balloons in involves for 15 minutes of fun. These "water bombs" are the perfect solution.

They take a half hour to put together and they can be used over and over and over and over again.  I found big, car wash sponges at Wal-Mart for $1.22 a piece. They were pretty fat, so I used a knife to cut them in half into two "flatter" sponges before cutting them in strips.

Cut half of the sponges into bigger ones by cutting the sponges lengthwise and tying them with pipe cleaner chenille stem. Make them as tight as you can because the sponge pieces will come out if they are too loose. 

Make smaller ones by cutting them width-wise. You'll want a variety of water bombs in your arsenal. 

Fill two big buckets with water and placed strategically in the yard. Invite your neighbors over.

And proceed with an epic water bomb fight.

Continue until someone (Brad) steps on a wasp and suffers a wasp sting between his toes and someone else (Eli), unaware of the wasp sting, throws a sopping wet water bomb into the first someone's back, who then turns around in a fit of passion to chunk his water bomb back in retaliation, but instead falls over the second someone, thus busting the second someone's lip. 

Or until you run out of water. Whichever works for your family.

Repeat every night after dinner while enjoying the evening on the porch. 

Well, except for the wasp sting and busted lip.

Vacation Part IV: The Phillies Game

Brad is often asked how he became a (diehard) Phillies fan while growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

It's a funny story, really.

When he was four, he went to a family reunion in Oklahoma. That's where he met a great-uncle, who lived in Denton and was a pitching scout for the Philadelphia Phillies. This great-uncle gave him and all his brothers a boatload of free Phillies stuff. And you know how much Brad loves free stuff! Since Albuquerque doesn't have their own MLB team and his best friend and best friend's dad were Cubs fans, it seemed like a logical choice.  

I'm pretty sure it's why we've vacationed near Philadelphia the last two summers. 

We went to a game the last Friday night we were in New Jersey. It was a cold and rainy game and the Phillies lost, but we had a good time anyway.  

Eli and Phoebe danced the night away (and wore a silly hat) in a valiant effort to make it on the jumbo-tron. They failed at this attempt, but it enjoyed the endeavor anyway.

Because it was so cold and rainy, my kids looked like crazy superheroes at the game. I hadn't brought them any long pants because it was the middle of July so we did the best we could with what we could find. We bought socks for both of them (Eli's were actually for me because I love socks, but I had jeans on so he wore them during the game), and because we spent enough at the gift store, we were given a free hooded Phillies towel that Phoebe wore like a cape.

My kids are nuts!