Hot Air Balloon Festival

Every year around Father's Day weekend, the hot air balloon festival comes to town. Early mornings and late afternoons the skies are dotted with colorful balloons. I can't help but get just as excited as the girls when I spot one.

Church Camp

As a girl I never had the opportunity to go to camp. My girls have been fortunate enough to go several years with our church. The morning after we got home from California they had to leave to get to camp. I picked them up this afternoon. They talked all the way home about all that had happened at camp. This camp was special because their dear friends Abby and Alex who no longer live here, were able to attend. They're such sweet girls who we miss so much. It's hard to find good friends from families who share your same beliefs and morals. When you do, you have to hang on to them-no matter how far away they are!

Obviously they only missed out on one thing at camp...

SLEEP!!!! Oh to be a kid again!

More luggage tags!

I'm so glad I found the luggage tag tutorial at The Longest Year I've made so many of these! Mary and Grace have a spend the night birthday party to go to next week. We had Christy's gifts all bagged up when I thought about making her some luggage tags to spruce up the plain paper bags.

The monogramming on the green one doesn't show up well in this photo. I used some of my favorite thread-variegated lime green, yellow and aqua.

Christy and her family travel often so I'm hoping she'll get lots of use out of these tags.

Sunny California!

We just got back from a wonderful vacation to southern California. The weather there was so perfect-in the 70's with no humidity. We stayed in Laguna Woods in beautiful Orange County. I was amazed at all the colorful flowers and trees. Of course the beaches were gorgeous too. Here's some of the things we saw and the places we visited during our trip:

Here we are in Laguna Woods-you can see the Saddleback mountains in the distance.

I thought the palm trees were beautiful. I'm sitting at Laguna Beach in this shot that Mary took.The Pacific Ocean was gorgeous!The girls found the water a little too chilly! LOL!They preferred the heated pool at the hotel! LOL! Here's Emma with her new friend, Anna, who is from Russia. (she's actually 21 years old, can you believe it?) She taught Emma to swim during our visit. This was a really big deal, considering that Emma wouldn't even get off the pool steps when we first arrived. Anna is just as sweet as she is beautiful.

Even the rocks were beautiful in California.

Newport Beach is known for it's surfing-it was packed the day we visited.

Here's Huntington BeachWhat's a visit to California without going through Hollywood and Beverly Hills?????

We stayed at the Ayers Hotel which we loved! Our rooms had sliding glass doors that opened onto this courtyard. I loved sitting at the little wrought iron table and eating.

Emma enjoyed the courtyard too-especially the flowers.

It was nice to get away, but I'm glad we're back home. I'm really glad all the laundry's finally done! LOL!

Ice cream anyone?

Look what I made for Emma:A cute little ice cream cone that will never melt!
I found the pattern for this at Lil Birdie Stitches
She has so many wonderful things that I want to try to create. Be sure to go take a look at her creative blog. I'm sure you'll spend lots of time there-just like me!

Projects, projects

We've had lots of time to do projects lately. My girls and I love any kind of sewing, arts and crafts, etc. Here's some of the things we've made lately:

First of all, Grace and Emma made brownies so we'd have plenty of energy!

Mary picked out the cutest sundress pattern along with some beautiful fabric. She's busy working on that.I found this pretty mirror at the thrift store-it's looks even nicer painted white.Grace and Emma got these unfinished wooden boxes, basket and tray at Hobby Lobby. They had so much fun painting and decorating them.

I whipped up some very simple muslin tableclothes for the 3 tables at the barn.

Here's one of Grace's finished projects. She uses it to keep books in by her bed.

Keeping Cool

I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged. I thought things would slow down when we finished school, but it's been busier than ever-lots of fun stuff! First off, we're living in the water! LOL! It's already so hot here. In the next few days I'll try to catch up here and show you all the other fun things we've been doing.
(Skiing on the river)
(Swimming on the river)

(playing in the pool with friends)