Memorial Day - Spending the weekend with a few billion of our closest ENEMIES

This Memorial Day weekend, we went to a bonfire at Meeper's house with my brother's family, and my family. That night set the tone for the whole weekend. A few billion of our closest enemies decided to visit....gnats.

They were happy for the buffet that they were provided...plenty of adults and kids to feast upon.

Luckily Meeper and her husband, Mr. Meeper, have a huge screen tent that provided a lovely retreat. As soon as dark came, all insects pretty much were history except for an occasional mosquito..much more tolerable. We had a GREAT time though, it is always fun to get together and watch the kids play.

For something different, I made homemade vanilla ice cream. Yummy!

The next evening, my stepson had some of his high school friends over for a bonfire. At our house, we realized that there were SWARMS of strawberry flies ready to attack anybody that ventured outside. Luckily Fred ran to Walmart and was able to buy a screen house to provide the kids with some refuge.

All I can say is THANK GOD for the screen house...it really saved the night!

Monday, Fred and I pulled together a family picnic with both his side and my side of the family.
I caught Michael and Allyson watching the marathon of Land of the Lost on sci fi right before the picnic. I used to LOVE that show!

Check out the bugs behind my Uncles head IN the screen tent!

So that is a recap of a very busy weekend with A LOT of pesky strawberry flies, gnats and mosquitos! But we did have a lot of fun, and it was GREAT to see everybody!

Shirr Madness!

For the last couple weeks, I have been researching and obsessing on how to make my daughter some sundresses for the summer. She is pretty much potty trained, and sundresses seem the way to go....

Today was the day. Allyson was really excited that I was going to make her a dress that she could dance in (?). Not sure where that came from...but anyway, below is the finished product so put your dancing shoes on Allyson!!!

The top of the dress is shirred. Some people call it smocked-I am not sure what the difference is between the two. I found two really great tutorials that explain how to do this, and it is really very simple. The trick is to use elastic thread in your bobbin. If you are at all interested, check out these two blogs for amazing tutorials!

http://houseonhillroad.typepad.com/photos/sunny_day/index.html

http://kitschycoo.blogspot.com/2009/04/shirred-sundress-tutorial.html

I have to say that the hardest part of the whole project was putting the straps on. I decided to wait until the end to put them on because I was so excited to shirr. But in retrospect, I will put them on during the shirring process so that the stitches will be hidden within the shirring stitches.

This was a very easy project...seriously it was! Shirring is really very simple, and if I say that as an inexperienced sewer, then you know it is true. This is definately a great beginner sewing project, and a lot of people make a shorter version as a shirt so I might be making some of those!

A blog I love....

I have to tell you about a blog that I have fallen in love with over the past year....many of you that blog know all about it, but I wanted to share it with my non-blogging lurking friends and family because I really enjoy it and you guys might too.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/confessions/

Pioneer woman is the whole package...she lives on a farm with her marlboro man, takes amazing pictures and is pretty famous in the blogging world. She has everything from photography tutorials to recipes on there. Her ranch is beautiful and her pictures are breathtaking.

So if you are bored one day, head on over there for a visit and check it out...I think that you will be glad that you did. I sure know I am!

Prom! (-:

Collin and his girlfriend Sam headed to Collin's Junior prom this last Friday. So much fun!

We were all really excited about it.

But first we had to do something with his hair.....hmmm.

Meeper showed up just in time to work her magic.

Collin, come back!!!

That's better!

Hi Billy Ray Cyrus...it's been awhile...

This is where Meeper says, "Who's Billy Ray???"

A little hairspray...and a little more....

Shake it to the left, to the left again....

Just not to the right...that could be bad.

And now perfection! Or not so much...hmm.

More like this....

Much better.

His mom, Denise, came over and put on his boutonnière for him....

Aunt Jen was also there taking pictures and fixing his sleeves...(and then managed to stay out of all pictures from this point on, how'd that happen?)

Then Collin made his great escape in his "sweet" car from all his doting admirers!

But alas that is not the end of the story....

My darling niece managed to capture him on his way to pick up his date

because there is NO escape!

Then we all took more pictures at Sam's house...

Making memories...that's what it is all about. :-)

I am happy to report that they had a great time at the prom according to Collin.

Mother's Day Weekend recap (only a week late)

For Mother's day, we spent Saturday going out to dinner with my hubby's family...we went to a local restaurant called the Bait Box. It was Fred's grandparents, parents, my sister in law Jen and my niece Cory, along with us - Fred, me, Michael and Ally. Collin had a robotics competition so he couldn't make it. )-:

Before dinner was even served, the electric went out for a pretty long time...which meant so did the air conditioning and the ability to get soda from the soda machine. It was so dark in the bathroom, Cory (my adorable niece) accidently dunked Allyson in when she took her to the potty. EWWW! Or maybe it was retalilation for the time I ripped her jeans off because they had holes in them....just not sure about that.

After dinner, we all took a joy ride in the spaceship....doesn't everybody?

On Mother's Day, Fred took us out to a local pizza parlor for a little dinner. And for Mother's Day, they were giving the mom's pictures of their families so here is ours....

Exciting stuff, huh? Don't we all looked thrilled...after that the fire alarm (it was definately LOUD) started going off in the whole shopping plaza and we quickly made our exit. We couldn't believe our luck with the electric going out at dinner the day before, and then the fire alarm incident on Mothers Day. I think somebody is trying to tell me to stop eating! (-:

Mother's Day night, we headed over to my grandmom's to celebrate all the mothers....here's my grandma hanging around...

Here is the cookie bouquet that I made for her and one for my mom.

Here are the younger cousins enjoying their time together under the watchful eye of Meeper's husband.

Allyson having fun jumping off the picnic table into her daddy's arms. (-:

Here is Colt and Ally running back after obtaining some chocolate covered pretzels from their grandmom (my mom)...run fast so Grandpop (my dad) doesn't get those pretzels!

Here's Colt showing Allyson how to build a campfire...He is his father's son!

And here is Kaylin (Meeper's daughter) quietly eating a stash of candy while everybody is engaged in conversation in the other room.

Don't you just love onry kids????

I know I do! (-: