Happy Fourth

Happy Fourth of July to all who celebrate it! Enjoy the fireworks and be safe.

Can't believe it's July already. Things continue to be busy around here. Sunday was Elliott's birthday bash. Before dinner was served, the rain and thunder began, so we ended up moving inside.
As you can see - everyone had a good time. Lots of iron man and Bumblebee themed gifts.
Anyone else having a flash forward to Halloween? I have a feeling that Paul and Peg will regret putting the gun on his wishlist.

Just saying. And sometimes, kids toys can baffle adults. No one could get the Transformer to fully transform, for fear of breaking it.
Tuesday we had a cookout for friends and family. And celebrated Sarah's birthday (which is the same as Elliott's).
The boys are very good helpers when it comes to candles. Then on Wednesday night, we went to the Indians game.
The boys in front of Bob Feller.
The view from our seats.
Aubrey was the only one of the kids not freaked out by our meeting with Slider.
We were all decked out in our Tribe gear. And it helped - Tribe beat the Blue Jays 3-2.
Not that the kids let us watch much of it, but they had a good time and that's the important part.
And we've made a start on turning Sarah into an Indians fan - as she claims there's no chance that she'll become a Steelers fan (silly Cowgirls fan).

I finished a spinning project this week.
My "Verdigris" fiber, made into a lace-weight single (first ever single that stayed a single) and I love it. I should probably admit that I have about another ounce to spin up, but this 870 yds filled the bobbin, so it got taken off and finished. I'll finish the spinning a little later, maybe after I finish my new spinning project:
That is 8 oz of Crown Mountain Fibers BFL in "Life, Love, Laughter". So pretty.
I had thought to spin it up a bit thicker, but it had other ideas. The prep is a pencil roving so it's hard to get it to be real thick anyway. But this is my spin for the Tour de Fleece (yep we knitters/spinners celebrate a lot of sporting events don't we?)

I started some new knitting projects this week too. First, a lacy scarf with my handspun "Picnic Basket":
Nice and simple, so it should go fast. Which means that it will take forever. Just because I said that.

And then Friday night, I cast on for a Shaelyn shawl with my very favoritest yarn, Smooshy.
In "Midnight Derby", the same color I used for the pirate hat and mitten set I made for C4 awhile ago. Also, a nice simple but pretty pattern, that should work up pretty quickly. Seriously, I'm jinxing myself.

Yesterday, I went on a little trek with Meagan and Marcus to the West Side Market.
Total tourist picture, but it was only my second ever trip there, and the first was a field trip senior year in high school. It was loads of fun. This was my favorite booth:
Can you blame me? Granted I didn't look at each of the booths, but still, this one would still rank right up there. We had quite a spread for lunch when we got back to the house:
Very Frenchy-french in my opinion. We just needed to be sitting in a park with the Eiffel Tower in view for it to be complete. It was amazingly delicious, and we can't wait to do it again. Check out my Buckeye cupcake:
So sinfully good. Yeah - that's a PB cup in the bottom of the cupcake. Yum.

Alright, need to get some knitting done before we make the bison steak I bought yesterday, and then head out for the fireworks with Meagan. Happy Independence Day!

Whew!

Alright, so as you could tell from the last post, last week we played host to the Jersey fam. Always a good time. Always a bit crazy, and when you add in a holiday, blogging goes right out the window. So I will now spend a few days this week catching you up - although most of you were here for the craziness and therefore don't need a catch up... hmmm.... I'll assume that people not in my family still read the blog, and proceed accordingly.

So here's the quick round up of the week that was. Saturday - arrival, football, Wii Super Mario (surprisingly, the only game played on the Wii all week) Sunday - playground and family dinner, kids had some fun with Uncle Tom's covers. Monday - Farm Park (you already saw some pictures of these days). Tuesday - hung out at the house. Wednesday - I worked, they went downtown. Thursday - turkey and chaos. Friday - impromptu dance party to Christmas music after dinner. And then Saturday saw their departure. So here's a few more photos:
Making M&M cookies on Sunday. They were delicious.
Snuggle with the turkey, in an attempt to get a certain someone to nap. Fail.
If you embiggen that photo, you'll see Maddie's death look. She is the only one happy to see everyone gone.
The fam before they left.
Dance party!

Due to the fact that it's now the end of November, there has been a slew of finished knitting. Crazy finishing. I'll go into detail with a few now and save the rest for another day. Gotta spread out the blogging as I've recently been chastised for not blogging enough, again.

We'll continue with the cute kiddos helping me model a few things. First up, Master Charles helping with a hat, of which he has now requested a duplicate (the danger of enlisting a 5 year old as a model).
This is a Christmas present, so I won't show the whole thing, and I guess you'll be seeing another one eventually. Adorable though, right?
Sarah was gracious enough to help with Elizabeth's Christmas present. It matches the mittens I made for her last year. Looks so cute on Sarah, not so cute on me. Not sure if I'm a beret girl, hmm. Here's the shot of the hat itself:
The finished look makes the fair isle hassle so worth it. Next up, the Milkweed Shawl. The last time you saw this yarn, it was attempting, miserably, to be an Ishbel. No more. Garter stitch is happy.
Really great pattern, nice and quick and easy (how much do we love that?). And like I said, garter stitch! This is for Bridget for Christmas. I'm totally on the small triangle shawls as scarves kick right now. I love them!
Dresses up any outfit. Uses up sock yarn. People get to see it more than the socks. All good things, on top of the fact that the little bit of warmth is great right now. Speaking of small triangles for the neck...
I started a Lacy Baktus Thursday night (I needed something I didn't have to think about), and finished it Saturday. Yay fast pretty handspun project! I used my "Sweetheart" handspun that I spun up in August.
It still needs a light blocking, but I wore it around the house all day yesterday. Nice a squooshy. Warm, but not heavy. The yarn:
The fiber:
Alright, I think that's enough for today. One other piece of big news....

I HAVE LOST MORE THAN 50 LBS!!!!!!!! Officially. As of Saturday morning. Yay!!!! I can now wear the smaller jeans my sister got me for my birthday. And I'm within 15 lbs of goal weight. Tomorrow marks the 1 year anniversary of me starting WW, so I made my goal of 50 lbs in a year. To celebrate, I went out to Knitting on the Square, and was pleasantly surprised that the sale was still going on. So I got a few yarny treats for myself - better than foody treats!

So now I will leave you with the best sound of last week. Miss Sarah's giggles. Had to get it on video, we're not sure how long she'll continue to laugh like this. You can't help but laugh along.

Family Time

Edited: Blogger having issues uploading photos, so I used Flickr, however, the photos are now appearing with the right side cut off, and I can't figure out how to fix it. Won't let me put the pictures on align left instead of center. Sorry about that.

Can you tell that I"m ready for fall? Ready for football - it's already begun, but my Steelers don't start until tomorrow. Ready for the chilliness - as evidence by my urge to knit sweaters. Ready for apple picking - mmm, apple crisp, apple cider, apple cake... Anyway, you get the idea. But I've got one last summer blog post to do. The last weekend of August saw a rare occurrence - the entire family together at one time! Actually, this is a first - the last time we were all together, Miss Aubrey had not been born. So that means that Tommy came home from Afghanistan.

And the Jersey folk flew in for a quick trip. And a busy but fun weekend ensued. Friday I managed to hang out with the kiddos before work, then it was off to the first slaught- I mean football game, of the high school season. Let me just say, that it's going to be a very, very, very long season. While I was gone, Tommy actually arrived, so I got the surprise of him being home at midnight when I got home.

Saturday, the fun began! A trip to the zoo with the Jersey fam. I know I've said it before, but I love the zoo. And so did the kids.

The beaver, especially, was a huge hit!Just to prove that Grandma was there, I had to include a photo.
It's always good that the whole family can play on the rope rocket thingy!

On the way home, we stopped by Paul's softball tournament. And then trekked home for some Mama Roberto's (yum) and were eventually joined by the Perry fam. We played some cornhole, and beat up on Uncle Tom.
And when it got dark, some Dance Dance Revolution, Mario style. They don't really enjoy the actual dancing part, just the mini games, but it's so entertaining.The only picture we managed to get of all the kids, it's not the best, but what can you expect from 5 kids under the age of 5?

Sunday was the big open house for friends and family. A very full house, Mother Nature didn't fully cooperate, it rained early in the day. But we eventually got outside.
Had to finally break in the fire pit Ellie and I got Mom for her birthday. Ellie introduced a new recipe for s'mores - graham cracker, marshmallow, and a Reese's cup. So not good for points, but so dang good to eat.
And then it was time for the family photo shoot. Always a good time - let me tell you. Gets more fun the more kids we add!
I know this isn't the best picture of the girls, but once again, the only one we got.And this one, is for old times sake. Once upon a time, our Christmas photos looked like this. Every year. All 5 kids lined up on the steps, we've gotten tall enough that the photos had to come off the wall.

Monday morning, we headed out for a round of putt-putt. Sarah would much rather have gone to the beach, she was determined to lay out on almost every hole. Unfortunately, I don't have a ny pictures from putt-putt, silly my forgot my camera, and Ellie has them on her computer.

And then, sadly, it was time to go, all too soon. But that seems to be how it always is.