Quilting

I've discovered a new store called Tuesday Morning near our home.  They had some great deals on these squares.  It limits the options for quilting but when you are beginning that is actually a good thing since the possibilities are endless.  My three older ones have been very enthusiastic about this so long as they don't have to take out any seams.  Actually, I feel the same way, so long as I don't make any mistakes, sewing is great fun.

Painting

On Mondays we are getting together with a group of friends to quilt, a total of eight kids are learning to use the machine, do color combinations, piecing and having fun together.  I was too busy during the quilting to take any pictures but I will try to remember on another week.
Here we are painting the tipi we made out of old sheets from goodwill.

Water Play

Water makes the hot weather more enjoyable.  Some friends came over to share in the fun.  Playing in sand is also so much more fun when you add water.
You can see the tipi in the background.  We painted that later in the week.

Drums

I don't know what prompted the kids to take out the pans and 'play' on them.  They've done it every morning for the last three days.  It is such great fun but I do hope it wears off soon or we are going to have to allow only the youngest two to play them, otherwise it gets too loud.
Today was the first day of summer vacation.  I have a whole list of activities for the summer but I think we will not start that quite yet, sometimes it's good to just relax.  They actually slept in till 6:30 but my internal clock still woke me up at 6.  I enjoyed a half hour of quiet in the morning.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

 I used Missy's whole wheat pancake mix and added a cup of left over mashed sweet potato for two cups of the mix.  I thought it was delicious and four of my kids agreed.  Only one didn't like it.  You can't please everyone all the time. 

TCBY

     On Wednesday, we usually go to TCBY for waffle cone Wednesday.  You can get a cone for 99 cents.  The vanilla and chocolate mix is very good.   So is the mocha almond.  This Wednesday, I got the vanilla and chocolate mix.  TCBY has very good ice cream.

Garden

 The sunflowers are doing really well.  So well I went back to the store to buy more seed and they had sold out of sunflower seeds!
The tomato is actually my second one, the chickens got the first one, who knew chickens love ripe tomatoes?  So this one I picked a little green.  I have to put more stakes around the tomato plants.

Here's Steve reading with the younger ones.  J calls everything that flies a penguin.  I guess we have to work on birds a little more.

Adventures in the restroom

We went to Chimes last night with some students.  I usually am not keen on taking the kids to restaurants, it is much more relaxing at home but it seemed important and I didn't have enough warning to get a babysitter so we all went.
After having visited the restrooms twice already with my other children my three year old declares she now has to go. Upon arriving in the restroom she promptly locks the stall before I can stop her.   I think to myself 'I really hope she can open that'.  But sure enough, she can't and even after several minutes of trying to coach her on how to open it, (you must push the lock only halfway up and then over) - she isn't able to figure it out.  Meanwhile, my one year old has crawled under the stall and is gleefully flushing the toilet, it is one of those that is very loud and there is no wait period between flushes so he got a good twenty or thirty flushes before I could stop him.  The other people in the bathroom are all asking if they could help and I'm thinking 'I just want to be left alone so I can slide under without anyone looking at me.'  Finally all left except one lady who kept asking how she could help.  She did stay to witness me struggle under the door - I console myself thinking I will probably never see her again. 
So I showed H how to open the lock, I just hope she remembers for next time.  Although, at this point I'm thinking we won't go to a restaurant again for a very long time.

Snake

Nature can be harsh.  I just hope he really enjoyed his meal.  I guess I'm going to have to move the bird house, I really didn't think that snakes could reach it.

Ag Magic

Once a year LSU puts on a week of "Ag Magic" where they showcase all the different agriculture in the state.  The highlight every year for us are the chicks.  D has been begging us to get a rooster so we can have baby chicks.  We certainly are not going to get a rooster and I'm not sure I want to go through the effort of getting any of our eggs fertilized, plus we're at the legal limit.

Yard wildlife

 We found a toad in the yard this morning and had great fun playing with him.  The kids were very gentle and I am happy to report that the toad survived.