Marching band and football games

Mackenzie is in the middle school marching band, and they get to play at all of the middle school football games. This game they actually did a half time and marched on the field. They are pretty good for a middle school band. We all went to the game and watched their performance. (Kenzie is the one in the middle)

In the picture below, they are in the stands playing. Kenzie plays the cymbals in the marching band, and the snare drums in regular band.

Jackson and Daddy are watching the band on the field.
Jackson had more fun playing in the stands than anything else. He liked sitting on these little steps, they were just his size.J.T. was a good baby chaser, and didn't let him get too far away. I think Jackson liked the snacks the most.

The Graham Lounge

Remember this ?
All the wonderful messes we had in our basement, well we aren't completely finished yet, but now we have this...
and this... (new carpet)

(new cabinets, still some to be put in)
And in lieu of putting our big bulky furniture back in, we have these. 2 ginormous been bag chairs, and 1 small one. One is 7' and the other is 6'. The kids just love them, and both big kids have asked if they can sleep in them instead of their beds. John also said he wants to sleep in them. John also made a built in DVD bookcase to hold all of our movies. Now we have a nice lounge in the basement where we can watch movies and hang out. I also have a nice crafty area down there where I can work on different projects.
Mackenzie's room and the bathroom haven't been done yet, but the rest of the basement is once again functional.

There is still a lot to be done, (like recovering this chair) but it looks like there is an end in sight!!

Fall time fun!!

Today I wanted to go to the pumpkin patch because the kids were out of school, but I got lost. Don't use mapquest for directions, it is often wrong. We ended up going to a corn maze instead. (We will try for the pumpkin patch another time) We had a great time anyway. There were 5 vouchers that we had to collect throughout the maze, and if we collected them all, along with our admission voucher, we got a free small ice cream cone. The kids had fun trying to find all of the voucher boxes throughout the maze. They also liked to play Marco-Polo to see if they could find each other, or me and Jackson. Jackson had fun wandering around, picking up rocks and corn stalks, and tasting them. He decided that muddy rocks don't taste so good, but corn stalks rattle when you shake them. It was a good time had by all, and our ice cream reward was delicious!!



This tree is in my neighbors yard, I just thought I would share the PA colors. Gorgeous!!!

Doin' Business

So a few weeks ago I posted a picture on my facebook account of those little bags I made for my friends daughters birthday, (remember these) anyway, another friend that we know in Texas, is getting married next week, and she emailed me and wanted me to make a few for her wedding party gifts (you know, bridesmaids and flower girls). It started out as 5 bridesmaids, and 2 flower girls, but then she decided she wanted more for the rest of her friends and herself. Another 5 were added to the order. Then she added 1 more friend. Now other than the original 7 for the wedding party, the rest didn't have to be finished before the wedding, but being as good as I am (haha) I finished all 13 purses, and had them shipped by Oct 6th.
These are bigger than the tiny goodie bag size, and they all have zipper closures. They are all made out of different fabrics, so each one is unique. 11 of them are 9x12 size, and have 6 outer pockets, and 1 or 2 inside pockets. 2 of them are about 8x10 (for the flower girls) and also have the same pockets.

It was a lot of work, nut I enjoyed making them, and selling them.Thus one is for the bride. I sent pics of all of the fabric I already had, and she let the girls all pick their favorite pattern. They didn't know what was being made out of the fabric though.
I even had scraps, and enough time to make each one a luggage tag that matched. I printed their names on a card and of course added my business card as well.
I must say, I am pretty proud of myself!

Pick-up-sticks or rockets?

So as I was getting ready this morning after my shower, Jackson was hanging out in the bathroom with me, and he found a few new toys in the bottom cabinet. (good thing we don't keep chemicals down there) Anyway, he ran out of the bathroom with them, and when I came out into the kitchen he had them all lined up on the kitchen table.


I guess he opened one and realized it wasn't a treat.Maybe they are pick-up-sticks?
Maybe it's a rocket?


I guess he'll figure it out one day!!!