"Do not yield to discouragement in the face of difficulties and do not abandon yourselves to false solutions which often seem the easiest way to overcome problems. Do not be afraid to make a commitment, to face hard work and sacrifice, to choose the paths that demand fidelity and constancy, humility and dedication. Be confident in your youth and its profound desires for happiness, truth, beauty and genuine love! Live fully this time in your life so rich and so full of enthusiasm."
"Let us look with greater hope to the future; let us encourage one another on our journey."
~ Papa Benedict XVI
Showing posts with label baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baseball. Show all posts

Monday, June 6, 2011

Birthdays, Baseball, and Other Adventures...

Ready for some photos?
Client #1 requested a Bears birthday cake....

He seemed happy with the outcome.

Ladybug, riding Charlie

Client #2 requested a pony cake ...
copied right from the pan's directions (which made things easy for mom!)

She was very happy with her cake too ...
but really, can't we ever just enjoy the artistic endeavor
before we devour it?

Cousins are wonderful!  This is Rowan.

He's not so sure here if Cat is quite big enough to hold him ...
i would question it too

Bear practices baseball with his older brothers and sister,
so on the field he's ready for anything...
even covering 2 - 3 positions at a time -
he is definitely NOT a butterfly chaser

Ladybug, busy sorting loads of fabric scraps for apparently many more projects than just mom's!  We received quite a bit of fabric from a friend who quilts, as well as from a woman, not far from us, who used to own a quilt shop.  Between what they gave us and the scraps we have received from our readers, we are going to be kept busy with not just my project but also a few more we will eventually tell  you about.  Thank you! 

B's Confirmation - with his sponsor, Aunt Jennifer...and of course, the Bishop

Ladybug and Cat making pizza dough in our new kitchen

Round one for client #3. 
These were after game snacks on Cat's actual birthday...
once we got home around 9pm!

Client #3 was, i think, the most demanding...
She worked with her own personal artist (her big sister) to create a design for her cake
 
Duff has nothing on us -
i'll be impressed when he actually has a 3 year old client
sit in the kitchen with him and direct the decorating...
The finished product ...
with a little artistic license on the decorators part

Ah, the joy of simplicity

Cousins are great to have around...
they make life more interesting!
(ps. welcome home Uncle Joe!)

The cake was well received

And she even helped supervise the decorations!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Catching up...again

Wow, 10 days without a post - well, we have been busy.  Our biggest time taker is baseball.  This weekend we have a 9am game, a 10:30 game, and a 11am game ... all in different locations.  Maybe the weather will help us out a bit. :  ) 

The kids are back to doing some school work, i am still pondering what else we really need besides finding the griddle cord and the crock pot, Cory is working hard as usual. 

We just celebrated Cory's birthday - i won't say how old he is because then you'll know how old i already am!   We managed to put a little aside through this move so we could get him a new grill for birthday/father's day. For mother's day i got a new, movable garden .... actually 2, but due to the cost of the 'dirt mixture' i opted to only use the larger one.  I have seeds for most things, i just need to purchase a few tomato and pepper plants and we will be good to go. 

Gardening is one of those things i have really missed these past 2 years.  Being homeless really puts a stop to gardening. : )  The kids have put in their requests for carrots and cherry tomatoes.  I am looking forward to the snow peas and fresh herbs...if they will actually grow.  
Over the years i have done quite a bit of research on gardening and have recently found Square Foot Gardening, which pulls together many of the things i have learned since we started our garden adventure about 5  years ago.   Our last neighbor used to give me a hard time about my gardening methods of raised beds and spacing.  She owns a farm and everything is done in rows.... the garden we had was huge and i could have gotten a lot more out of it than we did, i just never got all my ducks in a row.  She would be amazed now if she knew how much we are about to grow in 24 sq ft.  Its a little absurd. 

Gardening always amazes me, as the kids are willing to help plan and sometimes work, knowing they will have the joy of pulling cherry tomatoes and snow peas from the vine and just popping  them in their mouth.  The coolness of knowing something is hiding under the dirt that is nothing like the plant on top has them excited about the carrots.... they loved the years we did potatoes (with several other families)... such a treasure hunt is hard to beat.  Kids and dirt go hand in hand ....even with those kids who prefer to stay clean.  We have several of those and well, its totally my fault. : )  Even as a toddler i would make mud pies but cry and ask to be washed off if i got any on my clothes. 
I have always hated being dirty, which cracks me up because i am the one who threw pots through most of high school (a V-E-R-Y dirty activity) and i love to garden.  But then we must wash.  ah, to be clean.  I will be the first to jump in and get my hands dirty but don't ever stand in my way when it comes to cleaning up! :  )

I will try to get pictures up soon.  We have confirmation coming up for B. and pictures of the new house, baseball, new montessori materials, projects and the garden, which i am sure you all are dying to see. 
As always, please bear with me as things are crazy right now.... i'm looking forward to the middle of June!...when it all comes to an end - for the moment.  Geesh! : )