Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Lemonade stand

When your daughter says she wants to put up a lemonade stand -- even if you try to convince her that it's insanely hot outside -- you gotta just bite the bullet and do it for her.


Except for this sweet girl, she only wanted help getting the supplies together. She wanted to do the rest. She made her own sign, organized her own table, prepared a money pouch for making change, and then patiently waited for customers to drive by.

I never anticipated her dedication to this lemonade stand to last as long as it did. I thought surely she'd get bored with waiting in the blistering heat. Nope. She would jump up each time a car drove by and point to her sign or hold up cups of lemonade and smile that sweet smile that only Kennedy can do.





Soon, neighbors and random folks in our neighborhood started stopping for a nice glass of lemonade for the bargain price of $0.50.


She had 14 customers. Earned $7. And was by far the happiest kid on this planet.



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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Soccer camp!

Another summer activity for Lil Bit -- SOCCER!! Five days for three hours a day!! Whew!! But lucky for her, it wasn't as hot as it could have been.


Kennedy was with Kaitlin (left) and Skylar (right) all week. Kaitlin plays for a competition soccer team in Dallas. Yikes! This was serious business!! :)


So Kennedy put her game face on and dressed head toe for her World Cup team's country -- Italy. She was named Woman of the Game on the last day of camp. I think her Italian-inspired outfit (and her British-accented cutie pie coach) gave her the extra drive she needed to play just a little harder.


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Friday, June 24, 2011

Books!!

When soccer camp was cancelled one day this week, I decided to take K to the library for another round of checking out books for summer reading.

I set up my computer to get a little work done while she cruised the stacks. She asked the librarian for help finding books on craft projects and dancing.

I left her to cruise alone, but after 15 or 20 minutes had passed -- I went to check on her.

This is what I found:


Talk about a proud mama moment. She selected nine books to check out. Let the summer reading continue!!


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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

#1 Dad

Father's Day 2011.... proudly wearing his #1 Dad paper tie, made in church that morning.



My babies LOVE their daddy. They beg for him when he's traveling for work... they jump in his lap when he's sitting on the couch....



The like to take a quick nap while snuggled up in his arms....



They love to go out and have one-on-one time with him... Kennedy had a Date with Daddy night last week. She felt like an absolute princess.



He is a pretty amazing dad. I am truly blessed to have him.

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Soccer Camp

This week, we're getting our soccer on at the British Challenger Soccer Camp. Kennedy gets lessons on her technique from the true "futbol" experts.


The coaches are awesome... and are teaching more than just how to dribble and pass. Each team is vying for points in the World Cup competition over the course of the week. Kennedy's team is Italy. At the library yesterday, she was looking for Italy on the globe and asking questions about the country. So we checked out a book about Italy!



Soccer camp + geography lesson! :)

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A Good Southerner

Lesson of the Day.....

A good southerner always offers the furniture delivery guys something cool to drink on a stifling hot summer day. . . .

Even if they are hours late.


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Sunday, June 5, 2011

Family Heirlooms

The thing about family heirlooms is that while they may be extremely precious items to pass down from generation to generation - it usually means someone has passed away. In my recent experience with receiving family heirlooms, no one passed away (thank the good Lord) -- but my Grandmother's health is definitely declining. Our dear old Faye Ingram is living in an assisted living facility for Alzheimer's patients. Her poor mental health seems to be declining more and more each day. She's my only grandparent left, so this is very hard on the entire family.

So as my parents started to clean out my Grandmother's house to prepare to sell it, they came across some items they thought us "kids" might like to have. Some of it wasn't worth keeping... most of it I'd never seen before. But there were a few things that were antique looking that came from my Great Grandmother that I decided to keep.

My mom and Grandma called her "Burr" -- no one knows where this name came from -- but her given name was Mae Harper Morgan. She's from Ringgold, Louisiana - a small town in Bienville Parish.

She died some time in the mid-80s, so I don't have any real memories of her. But my mother adored her. Apparently she collected small porcelain pieces, tea cups and other nick knacks on her travels across the United States. I wouldn't imagine that a woman from such a small town would travel across the U.S. in the 1940s and 1950s. But she did. And she collected "stuff."


I'd never seen these pieces before mom brought me to Grandma's house to look through the things they found. As mom and I looked at these mini pitchers and cup/saucer sets, I wished I had memories of my Grandmother using them for special breakfasts with me and my sister. I wish I could recall sipping orange juice out of the small cup while my Grandmother made pancakes. Unfortunately, I don't have those memories because it's not something we did as we grew up.

However.... I have decided that it is my mission to create such memories with my kids and grandkids. I love traditions. So it's time to make our own.

One tradition we've already started is making pallets on the floor for movie night. So it makes those nights even more special to be able to use quilts and afghans made by the women in our family. Since I started crocheting blankets, I've come to appreciate the time and dedication to this art. It truly is an art. It takes time, patience, and more time.... oh, and more patience. :)

I don't know how to make a quilt, but these beautifully crafted blankets will forever be cherished in my eyes. With the mind-numbing hustle and bustle of this generation -- I'm afraid this will be a lost art over the next few generations. "Burr" made these gorgeous pieces, except my Grandma recently told my mom (when asked about the history of these blankets) that the grey one - seen below on top of the kids - was made by "Burr" and her mother, which would be my Great Great Grandmother. WOW.

(Kennedy and Brady -- when you read this as adults, you BETTER still have these blankets. They are so very important to me.)


The amazing details of the stitching around the pets of these flowers is so beautiful. There are a few imperfections here and there, but that's what gives these heirlooms such character.
This pink and green one has definitely been used and is starting to fray in some areas. It was likely made from material that will not hold up to the rough-and-tough nature of my young kiddos. They don't just lay still with blankets. They wrestle with them, carry them over their heads to pretend to be monsters, make forts out of them. So this particular one will be for snuggle purposes only. :)




This brown afghan is Brady's new addition and the blue/green afghan is now Kennedy's. My kiddos LOVE blankets. Even in the 100 degree heat of a Louisiana summer, they like to be covered up. I don't blame them. It's very comforting.



Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Love our Library

Our first activity of the summer (other than going to the pool, of course) -- was to make sure sweet girl kept reading this summer. So we went to the library and she got her ......
.....VERY OWN library card!!! She was so excited because it has HER name on it. After we got instructions on use of her shiny, new card -- we wandered the stacks. She's just like her mama. She picks books based on the cover. If it's cute on the outside, it's bound to be good on the inside, right?
We plan to go every two weeks to make new selections and keep reading all summer. Hopefully she won't lose this card?!!!!!