The Stepping Stone.

Mike and Griffin created a beautiful project together this weekend ...


What exactly can you make using a wooden box and colored stones?


Well ... let's add a little cement to the wooden box.


And then smooth it out ...


Put our hands in it ...


Add some colored stones ...


Voila ... instant stepping stone.


And this is THE most amazing, MOST beautiful stepping stone ever!

We plan to move this to the walking area in front of our front porch as soon as it gets good and set up. Mike and Griffin had so much making this fun project together ... and I have to say ... Griffin is quite proud of it.

Mayonnaise Sandwiches & Such

The boys made a really fun & cute project yesterday.


This is a picture of them getting ready to make it. I will post pictures tomorrow of the process and final project. (Big Smile)

When I was making sandwiches for lunch yesterday Griffin grabbed a slice of bread that I had already put mayonnaise on. He sat there and ate the entire thing. That got me to remembering something we used to eat when I was a kid. Mayonnaise sandwiches. It's not because we didn't have lunch meat ... we did ... we just sometimes liked to eat mayonnaise sandwiches. Has anyone else ever had a mayonnaise sandwich.

That got me to thinking about other things we ate that might be considered different.

How about eating just plain sour cream with regular potato chips. I'm not talking dip here ... just plain old sour cream. I actually still do this sometimes and I love it!

And how about crackers & milk? That was a staple in our house. All you do is take saltines and break them up in a cup and add milk. To me it's so much better before the crackers get too smushy ... but still good all the same.

Are these southern things? If you didn't eat these sorts of things what kind of different things do you remember eating as a child?

Nice Day.

Hannah came over yesterday to help me with Griffin for a little while.

It was so wonderful. Beyond wonderful.


For two and a half hours I did not have to worry about checking on him every two minutes. I sorted & spot sprayed stains on our clothes, swept the kitchen, emptied the dish washer, made the bed, took things upstairs that needed to go up, and worked on orders for a little while.

It was absolutely FANTASTIC!


(Pictured Carol, Sara, Sam & Griffin ... Hannah & Zach were there too, they just weren't in the picture)

We did change our plans a little bit ... instead of the Hall gang coming over for lunch and playtime at our house, we decided to meet up at the YMCA. It was a perfect day for swimming. We had cupcakes for Carol's birthday ... her birthday is Sunday and we are going to have an "official" get together next week, but Hannah, Griffin and I decided to bring some surprise cupcakes to the pool.

While at the pool Griffin learned how to swim under water. Of course it totally freaked me out at first. He was watching the other kids swimming under water and he decided he wanted to do it too. And he's really good at it. I can't wait until Mike can seet this!

And yesterday ... Griffin had some really funny & cute things to say:

We were sitting eating lunch and Hannah said to him "Are you a boy"? Normally he says "No, I Griffin" ... well yesterday he said "No I pumpernickel" ... we were rolling on the floor laughing! Pumpernickel? Where in the heck did he get Pumpernickel?

And then when we got home from the pool, his face was a little redder than normal, so I needed to put some aloe vera lotion on it. I said "Buddy your face is a little red I need to put lotion on it" ... he said "My face not red Mommy, my face is white". Too funny.

I hope you all have a great weekend ...

TGIF

I've been busy getting some orders finished ... now all I have to do is get the letters cut for the orders and pack them up to ship out.


And today ... I will be able to do that.

Our friend Hannah (Carol's daughter) will be coming over to be my "mother's helper" today. I will be here at home working on orders and cleaning house and she will be keeping an eye on Griffin. This will be the first time we've done this ... Griffin loves Hannah ... so I'm sure it will go very well!

Can you imagine the joy I will feel being able to sort clothes without worrying if Griffin is in the fish tank ... seriously ... I just know this is going to be GREAT!

Hannah will be here 9-12 and then after that Carol, Zachary, Sarah and Sam will be joining us for lunch a playtime.

You've Got Supper.

Do you get tired of making the same old thing for dinner every week?

Do you feel that your meals are sometimes uninspired and repetitious?

I've discovered this great new website created by two Richmond women that may help you with that problem.



Just click here to join this free service.

Every Thursday you will receive an email alerting you to the new recipes. The email will include five fabulous entrée recipes and up to two side dish recipes for the upcoming week. You then click on the link provided in the email to go to the YouveGotSupper.com Recipe Page where you can view the recipes, cooking instructions and grocery list.

You not only receive the new recipes, they also include a shopping list!
How cool and easy is that?

I'm waiting to receive my first email this week ... I can hardly wait to try this!

Scrapblog.com

Wow ... have I discovered fun!!

Have you heard of Scrapblog.com?

If not ... you HAVE to check it out ... just a warning ... it's highly addictive.



I created two layouts using the same picture of Griffin.
Check 'em out and let me know what you think!!

And here's another one ...



This is so, so much fun ... you have to try it!

The Griffin Collection.

Yesterday I mentioned I have designed some new paper piecings ... I'm calling them "The Griffin Collection".

Every single day with Griffin is a gift. I see things through his eyes. I stop and take the the time to really live life and to pay attention to the small things. He brings this out in me. He learns something new each day, and many times ... I learn something new as well. I love being his Mommy.

He has inspired this new paper piecing collection ... hence the name.


This is a sample layout using my new Tractor Boy Paper Piecing Tag from The Griffin Collection.

I have five new Griffin inspired paper piecings to choose from. Of course they can be totally customized with your custom name or phrase ... and I can even customize any colors you might want.

If interested CLICK HERE to see all of them.

Please come back here and leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Sunday Shopping.

The weather was very rainy and gloomy out yesterday, so we decided to make a trip to town.

Mike needed some things from Best Buy and we all needed new shoes ... so off to town we went.


One of our first stops was Best Buy ... Griffin LOVES these little Geek Squad shopping carts. It's a great way to keep the kids busy while shopping.


We then decided to head over to the the Virginia Center Commons mall in Ashland. Before hitting the mall we had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. They have awesome wings and more than a dozen sauces to choose from!


And then to the mall we went in search of new shoes for our entire family. I'm pretty easy to buy for because I know exactly what fits my foot. I wanted to get Griffin some slip on docksiders. We did find the cutest docksiders for him ... he looks so preppy wearing them. He's wearing them here in this picture. Mike needed a new pair of tennis shoes ... mission accomplished!

We headed home ... Griffin fell asleep in the car and he took a good long nap when we got home.

Mike worked on recording some things for the DVD player for our vacation and I worked on a new collection for my Paper Piecing blog ... I'm calling it "The Griffin Collection". I will be offering a sneak peek of those very soon!

Sunday.

I'm having one of those I have nothing to blog about days ...


So ... I thought I would share a cute picture of Griffin.


And share with you that I have several paper piecings ending on Ebay today ... including this one-of-a-kind Everday Princess paper piecing.

Click Here To See My Ebay Items!

And finally ... wish you a happy Sunday!

July 4th Recap.

Happy Birthday America ...


Since it was officially a "birthday" ... we had to have birthday cake. Griffin and I had to run out to Home Depot for Mike first thing in the morning for some mortar, so we made a stop by Kroger for country spare ribs to grill and Griffin chose this birtday cake for dessert.

Later in the day I decided to take Griffin to the Fourth of July celebration in Sandy Hook. I had seen a sign earlier in the week at the grocery store inviting the community to join in ... so we did. Mike decided to stay home to work on the porch addition.


We were excited to see Keisha, Darren, Damian and Darius there. Keisha treated the boys to a snowcone to help beat the heat.


They had horse rides too ... the kids could ride as many times as they wanted to. Oh my goodness ... Griffin LOVED this!


And look at Darius ... he's quite the little cowboy himself! Yee Haw!!


Face painting was a BIG hit with Griffin. He told the lady he wanted a "purple circle" ... and that's what she did.


He was soooo proud of that purple circle ... it was so cute!

They also had a bouncy house ... I took a bunch of pictures of Griffin and Darius jumping in it, but I forgot to download them.

And then later in the evening after a delicious meal of grilled country spare ribs, corn on the cob, sauteed squash & zucchini and wild rice with mushrooms ...

It was time for the ...
SPARKLERS!!


This was Griffin's first experience with sparklers ... and he LOVED them. He called them "stars".


Enjoying some sparkling fun ...


And we ended the night looking for and trying to capture fireflies. You can't tell that's what he is doing in the picture ... but that was the goal.

It really was a great Fourth of July ...

Happy 4th Of July.

Happy 4th of July everyone ...


We did go to the YMCA yesterday ... and it was a GREAT choice. We had a good time with our friends Keisha and Darius and Griffin fell asleep in the car on the way home.

We have no plans at all for today, the 4th. Mike was scheduled to be out of town Thursday - Monday, however when he got to the plant there was a scheduling conflict, so the job was rescheduled. That means he is home with US this 4th of July weekend ... yaaaaa!!

Today Mike will be working on the porch addition ... Griffin will be playing in the little plastic pool (one of his favorite things to do) and I will probably be looking through some recipe books looking for some great new things to try.

Our town's 4th of July celebration begins at 5:00 pm and I think the fireworks are at 9:30. We may end up going to that if it doesn't rain.

I received a special package in the mail from my sister-in-law Bonnie yesterday ...

Included in the package was this picture ...


I showed Griffin only the face part of the picture and I asked him who it was. And he said "That's Griffin" ... he never says "me" ... it's always "That's Griffin". It was soooo cute ... it literally brought me to tears.

Well, needless to say ... it's not Griffin. It's Me! When I was a little girl.

Here's the full picture ...



And she also included a few more pictures, some things with my mom's signature on them and copies from her school years.




Thank you so, so much Bonnie that meant the world to me!!

And if you didn't see it ... the next post announces who the winner of my July 4 Bear Paper Piecing Give-A-Way was!!

I hope you all have a happy and safe Fourth of July weekend!

Today.

I'm sitting here mulling over what Griffin and I are going to do today.


(A self portrait of Griffin & Me taken earlier this year)

I want to do something fun ...

YMCA?
Kangaroo Jacks?
The Children's Museum?
Shopping for new shoes at the mall & then playtime & lunch there?

Mmmmmmmm ... I'm leaning toward the YMCA. I know Griffin would prefer to be outside and I'm almost guaranteed a nap from him if we do that.

He's upstairs sleeping and it's 6:47 am ... he's sleeping in this morning which is truly a rarity.

I would really love to be in Florida right now. My MIL Bett is going to Anna Maria Island for the 4th of July weekend. My FIL Ray & MIL Jeri have been in the Florida Keys all week soaking up some sun this holiday week. I'm jealous. Jealous I say. I'm kidding ... I'm really happy for them. I'm glad they are having a good time.

And a reminder ... if you are interested in winning the July 4 Bear Paper Piecing today is the last day to enter! Look at the June 30th post for more information.

Technology Today.

The thing about today's technology is ...


If you are missing friends you can click on the computer to see them!

The Butterflies Are Back.

It's so hard for me to believe that Mike and I have lived in Virginia five years now. Today actually. It seems like only yesterday we still lived in Florida. (sigh)

One of the first things that I noticed when we first saw this house five years ago was the beautiful butterfly bush. It was huge and completely covered with gorgeous butterflies.

Every summer I look forward to this amazing transformation. This year it seems to be blooming later ... but it IS blooming now and the butterflies have found their way home.


Isn't this a beautiful butterfly?


And a little closer look ...


Does anyone know what kind of tree this is? I wish I could get a better picture ... but it's a very tall tree and the zoom on my camera doesn't really reach that far. This tree has these really cool eyelash looking pink flowers. It's just so pretty. We have several of these growing on our property. Any ideas??

And c'mon ... really ... what is a Mommy supposed to do when her three-year-old is saying "I wanna watch Sesame Street where Big Bird is singing" ... (Doesn't Big Bird sing in all of them?)... each one I flip to is not "it". "Noooooooooo, Nooooooooo, Nooooooooooooooo!! Not that one." That's what I keep hearing from him. We have 30 Sesame Streets recorded on the DVR, people. How am I supposed to know which one his little brain is thinking of?