Our very routine, boring life

In case you are wondering why I haven't posted in over a week, well life has been a tad bit boring this past week.
The most exciting thing is that we are without one child this week. She left home July 18th and should be back late tonight. My Mom took Sarah to Colorado for a week. I am sure that she has had more fun this week than the rest of us. Lets see, what did we do this week. On Monday, I tried to help Kristen clean her room. Talk about a major challenge, she refuses to pick things up and when forced to do so, just throws things into any box she can. I spent the day putting together her many puzzles, to see what pieces we had and which ones were missing. Of course the fun part was finding the many pieces. We are still missing around 30 pieces that I am sure are somewhere in her room. Since she doesn't do her puzzles much and has really outgrown the ones she has, I will be donating the complete puzzles to a friend of mine who runs a daycare. When I called to see if she wanted them, her voice sounded thrilled to get the puzzles. Monday evening I had a voter's meeting at church. That was my excitement for the week. I never really expected the meeting to last as long as it did, or for some things to be so controversial.
On Tuesday, Kristen went to day camp at Grace. Tuesday's camp was Macrame day. I had planned to go to school and work a little on getting my room back to normal. No such luck, when I dropped Kristen off, they asked if I could stay and help. Seemed they were short a couple of adults for the kids help. Kristen had a fun day and made a worm bookmark. I did manage to get to school for about an hour in the afternoon and got started on things, but didn't get very far. My new room isn't ready yet, so I need to start back in the old room. Not a problem, except everything is packed in boxes and I don't want to have to unpack everything and then re pack it, so the plan is to just go through the boxes and find what I need for the first month or so.
Wednesday, I spent even more time trying to clean Kristen's room and also pick up the rest of the house a little. We finally succeeded in cleaning her room around 11:00 am on Friday.
Thursday I took Kristen to woodworking day camp. Her she made a really cute lap desk and then each child was allowed to make something else. She created a shelf/bench for her room. Just what I need more things in her room. While she was at camp I went to Davenport and took my scrap booking class for the month. I then ran a couple of errands and ended up at Menard's. I bought some landscaping bricks for the clover kids club. I have found someone who is going to come to a meeting and show the kids how to make a ladybug and a turtle out of the bricks. Plan to do this in November, but needed to buy the bricks this summer yet. When we got home, I took out my contacts as the one was bothering me, only to discover that it had ripped. This was my last pair. I called the eye doctor's office to see if they had any more in stock and was told that they needed to order more. So now I am wearing my glasses until contacts come in. Just for the record, I hate my glasses. I need bifocals now and my glasses aren't bifocal. So to see far away I put my glasses on and to see things up close or read I have to take my glasses off. I am really hoping to have the contacts before the state fair, as I don't want to walk around in the heat with glasses that I have to keep taking on and off. That night we went to Red Lobster for supper. I do a couple of online things where I earn points. I was able to trade in the points for a gift certificate to Red Lobster. The food was good, but I am not sure that I want to go back anytime soon. It was nice to spend some time together with just Kurt, Kristen and I. We don't get time like that too much during the school year.
Friday was spent cleaning the house and organizing my scrap book stuff. I went to the crop at The Church of the Open Door Friday night. I managed to get almost done with 6th grade for Sarah. Not bad considering she is heading in to her freshman year of high school. My goal is to get caught up with her so that I can stay on top of things for the next 4 years.
Saturday and Sunday we didn't have anywhere to go or anything that had to be done so everyone just spent time at home doing little things. I managed to finish the last two layouts for 6th grade and sort the 7th grade pictures.
Well there you have it, my really boring week in review.

We return you to your regularly scheduled life

The fair has officially ended for the Flathers household this year. Now it is time to get back to the real world. Dirty dishes, fixing meals, fighting with kids to pick up their room, feeding the cats, piano practice, reading for the library program, and of course it is almost time to consider going back to school. Before we head back to school, we get to spend one more day at the fair thanks to Sarah but this won't be until August 8th when her club performs at the 4-H building at the state fair in Des Moines.
I wanted to include a couple of last minute photo's from the fair. Two are of Kristen and her cousin Austin goofing around. One picture is of a CASEIH tractor that I just had to take in memory of my dad and the final picture is what happens to little girls who have had too much fair.
I still have to figure out how I did ribbon wise. I never took the time while at the fair to see how many I had so I guess there will still be one more post about the fair.

Wow, what a day for the Flathers family

We reported to the fair about 8:45. The first couple of hours were very relaxing. I had to open the creative arts building and supervise from 9 until 12:30. While there saw a really cool demonstration on recycled stitches. They were cutting up paper bags to make plarn and then knitting or crocheting into all kinds of things including rugs, purses, and bibs. May have to try making a few bib for the new babies in the family. I wonder if I can find pink and blue plastic bags. At this point the day became very busy. Sarah had a meeting at 12:30 for state fair, we needed to fill out the entry forms for her projects. Then Share the Fun was at 2:00. Sarah's club entered a really cute skit about the fair and the Olympics. Guess what they were chosen for the state fair. Looks like I now know what day we will be going to the fair. At 3:00 the kiddie tractor pull was held. Kristen always enters this. Guess what she was the top girl in the 8 year old category and has earned the right to represent the County Fair at the state meet in Sept. As soon as the pedal pull was finished we ran to grab a quick bite of supper so that Kristen wouldn't start complaining that she was hungry. Next up on the agenda was the clothing selection and fashion revue. Sarah received Honorable mention for her clothing selection and Best casual for her fashion revue. Since she took the top award in her division for the fashion revue, she is eligible to represent the county at the state intermediate workshops. All I can is wow, what a busy but rewarding day for the girls and I am glad that it is over.

P.S. Even Kurt's nephew Zach had a good showing at the fair. He took reserve champion derby Lamb. Plus he received outstanding junior for his woodworking project. What a great fair for the family this year.

Little cousins

Today was the Holst Family picnic. While not near as many attend as when I was little, there were still a few extra kids for the girls. Of course my cousin Kevin brought his family. My girls love to spend time with their little cousins and it seemed that a certain one almost two year old wants to keep Kristen around. Kristen is just the right age for giving in to this almost 2 year old. Sarah also had a chance to meet up with a couple of 3rd cousins. One is just a few months older, but is a grade ahead of her in school. She enjoyed talking with them and playing card games. It always nice to connect with family, even if you don't see them much.

On to State

Change the earlier post from yellow to Purple Ribbons. We just found out that both of Sarah's state fair consideration projects are headed to state.

Red, Blue, and Yellow

Sarah has spent the last several weeks working on her 4-H projects for the fair. Everything boiled down to today. It was conference judging day. Sarah had a good showing today. She had 3 projects get a red ribbon. Her sewing project received a red, I expected that one. She also received a red on her blanket and her journals. The journals were really neat, but she didn't follow the directions for the write up and had to be taken down a notch. She received a blue on her basket, clothing selection, and photography. State Fair consideration was awarded for her Food and Nutrition Project and also her Leadership project. These are the two pictured above. So even though conference judging is over, we still have a wait and see for these two projects. We will find out the results on Thursday. Sarah is also entered into 3 competitions on Friday. Her club will be doing a Share the Fun and Sarah will be in the Fashion Revue and Clothing Selection.
Kristen will enter her projects on Tuesday and Wednesday. Due to her age, there is no judging involved. All Clover Kids projects receive a participation ribbon, and all open class projects will receive a blue ribbon. I will also enter several projects on Wednesday in the open class and will know the results on Thursday when mine are judged.

Blog candy

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A good ending to a good day

Since I refuse to fork out 63 dollars for the "privalage" of going downtown and viewing the fireworks,and they are never actually on the 4th, plus they don't usually start until 10:30 or so, I try to buy the kids plenty of smoke bombs, snakes, and sparklers for their enjoyment. All the while, I am missing the fun we used to have with bottle rockets, spinners, firecrackers, and a host of other things now considered dangerous. This is always the highlight of the day for Kristen. For some reason she loes to play with fire. Maybe because I won't let her even look at a match or lighter most of the time. Kristen kept begging to go out for the sparklers and finally at 9:00 it was dark enough for the sparklers to work. (I remember being anxious as a kid for darkness also). What a way to end a very busy and relaxing day.

Family Gathering

My brother had the wisdom to invite the family over for a BBQ today. He supplied the meat, we all brought other things. He went beyond the immediate family and invited my dad's older Brother and his family. We were able to see, talk to, and in the case of the kids play with family that we haven't seen for a while. It has been almost 2 years since I have seen my uncle, aunt, and one cousin; and almost year since I have seen my other cousin and his wife and girls. It was so fun to get together again and watch the youngsters play. My sister's girls and my cousin's girls are almost the same age so they had a blast playing and all 4 of the youngster's enjoyed jumping all over their older cousins and getting them to carry them around instead of walking. I must say it was a nice relaxing afternoon and we should do this again. Of course I could invite everyone to my place, but then I would have to clean. Who wants to come and help me?

July 4th Parade

It has become a tradition for the four of us to head to Bettendorf for their annual
4th of July parade. We always sit close to the start of the parade. My Mom always joins us for this parade. Last year we were able to view the parade with a Veteran, my brother Dan, he had just retired from the Air Force. This year my sister and her two girls joined us for the parade. There are always a ton of entries, including the Pleasant Valley High School Marching Band. Kurt and Sarah get a little upset when I stand up and clap and sing for my Alma Mater. Hey I marched with that band for 4 years and I am proud of it. So many people had out (throw) candy, beads, necklaces, frisbees, cup holders, t-shirts, flags, and many other things as well. I really think that is one of the reason my girls love the parade is all of the stuff that they bring home. We split the candy with my sister this year and still brought home a grocery bag full of candy. Candy or no candy, I think everyone loves a good parade. Of course we also love a day off and a reason to celebrate. Hope everyone has a great 4th.

Dance Recital 2008

Pictures from this years Dance Recital. The Children's Ballet was Saturday in The Park. Kristen was in this one. The Advanced Ballet was Degas. This was Sarah's final ballet, notice that she is not on pointe, her shoes fell apart just before the show. The Tap and Jazz show was Godspell and included both girls. Sarah actually had a solo spot in this show.

Dad with his girls

 
I took this picture as we were leaving the Arch. I then played around with the settings on Picasa and came up with this look. I am really happy with this. What do you think?

check out this project

Do you want to see a darling layout using acrylic base? If so then head over to Paper Fashions for a cute layout of a little princess. If you like what you see, then please leave a comment and mention my name. Thanks