dance camp

Allison has been at camp all week with the dance team. They stay in the dorms at Emporia State University. We went up today to see their team dance and individual dances they learned throughout the week.

 

They won gold for their team dance. And Allison won a showmanship award. It’s no wonder with that beautiful smile (now worth thousands of dollars! And worth every penny!)

But the best part about dance camp…knowing that the 6 a.m. summer practices are behind us! Now THAT really makes us smile!!

fireflies

Nothing beats catching fireflies on a summer evening!

babies

Last week my grandma invited her granddaughters (and great-granddaughters) out for lunch. The beautiful girl with the big belly is my cousin Ashley. It was her birthday and she was 37 weeks pregnant. With twins!

Delaney was very interested in Ashley’s belly. She knows there are 2 babies in there. What an interesting concept that must be for a 3 year old!

Those babies aren’t in Ashley’s tummy anymore. They were born on Friday.

Brody Mac and Boston Mac. They are so perfect in every way!

It was great having 2 babies to pass around. That way we all got a turn. With no fighting.

Delaney is just beside herself waiting to hold Boston and Brody. I told her she has to wait until they get bigger. So she keeps saying, “Boston and Brody are getting bigger now?” Another concept her 3 year old mind hasn’t quite grasped.

photo friday

This week we took advantage of some extra pleasant weather and our zoo membership and spent the morning at the zoo. Delaney was more interested in the animals this trip and really liked posing with all the statues. We had some pouting for the second half of our trip (let’s see if you can spot the pouter), but overall, it was a great day!

And for the record, a zoo keeper gave a branch of leaves to Bri to feed the goat. I didn’t want you thinking that we were breaking any rules. Because I’m a rule follower!

dining room makeover…take 2

My dining room used to look like this:

Very basic. Very boring. I was just never really satisfied with how it looked. So I updated it a little this spring and it looked like this:

Plus I had the same dining room table. Which was a concern, because our table only had 4 chairs and we have 6 people (5 who eat with their mouth and therefore need a chair at the table). I always planned to find some cute chairs to add to the ends. I like the eclectic look. But nothing materialized from that thought, so when the opportunity came to take my grandparents’ old dining room table, I jumped at the offer.

So then I did some furniture rearranging and ended up with an old church pew, that belonged to mom and came out of my grandparents’ old church and my dining room looked like this on Monday:

After a shopping trip to Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann Fabrics, my dining room now looks like this:

I made table runners out of brown and white damask fabric, backed in a heavier weight fabric (canvas or denim). I made a seat cushion for the church pew and made the 3 throw pillows. I think I’ll make one more of each pattern and put them all across the pew. I also made a new valance for the window over the kitchen sink out of the same fabric as the pew cushion.

I found the baskets for $5 each at Hobby Lobby. They had been $25 each. I love their clearance aisles!! I plan to use them to stash away gloves and hats and all those goodies that collect right by the door that leads to the garage.

I enjoy sewing, but I do not sew with a pattern. I’m sure Miss Wicke, my high school home-ec teacher would cringe at my unconventional methods!

If you read the post below, you can see that I was able to mark several things off my summer bucket list already! I hope you enjoyed seeing my dining room transformation. And now you can rest assured that everyone at our house has a place to sit to eat their dinner!

Today I’m linking up to Transformation Thursday at the shabby chic cottage.

bucket list

Today I’m linking up to Writer’s Workshop at Mama’s Losin’ It and I’m going to share my summer Bucket List. I’m a list maker and right now I have a long to-do list running through my head. So I thought I’d take advantage of this writing prompt, record my summer bucket list and share it here.

I already made a summer list with 20 things I hope to do. It’s mostly things to do as a family. Well here’s the rest of my list:

21. make pillows for the new bench in ourdining room
22. make a new kitchen curtain
23. make table runners for our new dining room table (hopefully pictures will come soon!)
24. make family room curtains
25. make onesies for Nate (I’m going to be doing a LOT of sewing this summer!)
26. paint the table legs on the small family room table
27. lose 10 more pounds
28. reorganize the kitchen cupboards
29. paint film reels
30. take a picture of all 4 kids
31. patio makeover
32. buy (not make) new pillows for the porch swing
33. label and inventory the rest of my classroom library
34. unpack and set up my new classroom
35. take a bike ride
36. go to Branson
37. eat at Lambert’s
38. go to the final Harry Potter movie (but I want to read the last 2 books first)
39. teach Delaney how to write her name (why did we choose such a long name for her?)
40. aqua zumba (I’ve done this once but want to go back)
41. Y waterpark
42. go to music theater (I’m going tonight)
43. open up my etsy store
44. go to the farmer’s markets
45. shop for bargains at Goodwill (I have friends who are always finding great deals there!)
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.

And I guess I’ll just have to wait for some inspiration to finish my list.

good times at gaga’s house

Hayden and Delaney love to play together. It’s so fun to watch them now that they are getting older and really interacting. I can only imagine the trouble they will be getting into one of these days!

 

Gaga and Papa have a perfect yard for playing golf…

and running…

and chasing.

Then they spent their time working together to fill this lantern with mulch.

And when it was full, they covered the top with more mulch. There was no arguing. No crying. No hitting. No whining. Just pure fun!

P.S. Next time we go to Gaga and Papa’s house to play with Hayden, I think I’ll have Delaney wear shorts!! The sundress was super cute. Just not real practical for their activities.