Dreaming of Pumpkins

We picked out a pumpkin about 2 weeks ago.  Sunshine wanted to keep it in her room with her until we carved it.  She kept it covered up with a blanket much of the time so that it would be a "surprise".  One night I went in her room to shut of her lamp and found her fast asleep with her pumpkin...so sweet.

First Day of School

So excited!

We are 1 1/2 weeks into school and having a blast!  I snapped the picture above the first Wednesday we met with our Classical Conversations group.  We are so thankful for this community of friends to "do school" with. 

Kansas Trip

Sunshine and I spent a long Labor Day weekend in Kansas with my family.  We had such a fun time.  We hung out with my parents, picked apples, climbed all over my Dad's combine, played with cousins, swam at the local pool, hiked the Konza Prairie, and celebrated some very special milestones in the lives of my Mom, my Grandma Ferdinand, and my cousin Karen.

This picture was taken the morning we left and it's the only one I got with Mom.  Sunshine was so sad to leave that she couldn't compose herself for the picture.  My three sisters and their families along with my Dad and Mom enjoyed eating at one of my Mom's favorite places, the Hays House followed by a cake party at the park.  My youngest sister built my mom a picnic table that we gave to her over the weekend as well.  I am looking forward to many family dinners and desserts around that table.

 Here we are with my Grandma Ferdinand on Sunday at her community open house.  Many family members and friends showed up to celebrate Grandma that day.  So thankful to have another memory to add to the many memories I have with her.

Sweet cousins!  Love these kids.

Monday morning we were able to hike the Konza Prairie with Alex, Leah, & J.  It's one of my favorite spots to go.  Tryon and I spent many weekend hours walking around the Konza.  I love that place.  Sunshine was a trooper and hiked along with us while asking Uncle Alex all sorts of questions about plants. 

 Ascending the big hill.

Leah, Sunshine, Alex, and J (on her daddy's back) at the top.  

That afternoon we played at Lorrie's house and then headed back to the farm.  I loaded up a lot of belongings I still had at my parents.  I was surprised by how much I still had there!  I've spent the last week going through all of it. Sunshine has enjoyed playing with some of the toys that I had when I was a little girl.

Learning to swim

One of the many perks of a college town includes all the college girls who offer swimming lessons at their home.  Sunshine had fun taking lessons from Ms. Stacie & Ms. Emily this summer.  Here she is with Ms. Emily working on her back float and freestyle.  It was so fun to watch her work SO hard!

We love San Diego

We spent last week in San Diego.  It. was. wonderful.  We loved it.  The weather was cool, the ocean was gorgeous, the food awesome, but the best part was time away together!  Here are a few pictures from our time there....

First afternoon there....we went straight to the beach!

 Seals at the Children's Pool in La Jolla

One of several mornings at Coronado Beach.  We found so many sand dollars!  And like all good tourists we looked for them with our Starbucks in hand.

Lots of shells made the trip back to Texas.

We spent one day at the San Diego Zoo.

The sloth statue at the zoo.  I thought he looked more like a beaver and since Sunshine has a imaginary beaver friend named Michael, I thought it made a fun pic.

Exploring the tide pools at Scripps Aquarium.

Riding the ferry to Coronado.  We jokingly called this our "walking vacation".  We'd take the ferry to Coronado and then do a lot of walking.  Sunshine was a trooper...she probably thought her parents were crazy for making her walk so much.

San Diego Safari Park

The last morning at the beach, Sunshine fell and got soaked.  So we stripped her down and she wore my jacket until we could buy her a warm sweatshirt.

This morning

Those of you who know me well know that I am a homebody.  I love "homedays".  Today has been one of those days.  For Sunshine's sake, I am going to document what we did this morning.  She'll be reading soon and someday I hope she'll be looking back at this blog to see what life was like when she was younger.

Before heading outside we started our morning with spice pancakes and bible stories.  I planned on playing in the water, so we just went with the swimsuit this morning.  Sunshine is such a helper.  Here she is filling up the water for the chickens.  We had the water on the other side of the fence, but the heifers came over this morning and drank it all.

We picked and weeded the garden.  Today's haul included okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, & green beans.  I usually weed while Sunshine picks.  Last week she was sick with an ear infection so I had to pick by myself.   I really missed having her out there with me.

Her favorite thing to talk about while she is picking is the kind of soup she is going to make with all the veggies she is picking.

Next I worked on waterproofing our outdoor furniture while Sunshine played in the sprinkler and at her water table.  It was about 85-90 this morning...summer is here!

Here are the benches to our picnic table I worked on this morning.  I still have to do the picnic table and a bench my sister gave us for a wedding gift.

Sunshine finished up our time outside doing sidewalk chalk.  Recently she has been drawing a lot of people.  She draws a lot of pictures for Daddy to take with him to work.

After I finished the benches we loaded up the trash to take to the dump.  We stopped by the post office and picked up the mail and then walked across the street to get some chips and a soda.  I was ready to go, but she asked if we could sit by each other and eat our chips rather than riding and eating.  So we did.  She talked, I listened.  She had a cheesy-chip face topped off with sticky Sprite and gave me a kiss on the cheek anyway.  I treasure the time I have with her and I am so thankful I can be at home with her!

Scrappy Nine-Patch Quilt

I've been planning to make a quilt for our bed.  The first quilt I made just isn't quite big enough for our California King.  So, I found a pattern and pulled out my fabric scraps to see what I had to use and what I needed to buy.  As I started going through them, I realized most of the scraps I have are from dresses I've made for Sunshine...scraps I just can't seem to part with, but haven't known what to do with.   So now I am making a quilt for her room and then I'll make one for T and I.  The goal- Christmas.  I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I real enjoy it so I shouldn't term it "work".  I've cut all the squares and rectangles for her quilt (720 to be exact!) and now I am sorting them into blocks so that I can start sewing.  Here's what the quilt looks like so far....

I am hoping to post a completed quilt top by August!!