My Favorite Things.....

Just for fun.......

Can you find the butterflies in this photo?

 It's like looking at one of those puzzles where you stare at a certain spot for a few seconds until an image appears. 

The butterflies are hard to spot.  This is a Claridendron tree that grows wild on top of our mountain.  In the summer it has blooms that are very fragrant and can be smelled throughout the house when the doors and windows are opened.  In the fall the flowers are replaced by a berry that is blue on the inside and petals of pink around the sides.  Very beautiful.  In the summertime, it is the main attraction for the butterflies.  Sometimes there are hundreds flying around the blossoms. 

In this photo, there are four butterflies.  Can you find them.  Hint:  they are all blue.  Look at the photo as you first see it, then click on it to enlarge and you'll see them better.   Have fun!

I thought lightning never struck in the same place twice?????

Well, it did here!!!!!  Just about an hour ago we had another huge electrical storm.  This time we were at home.  Very scary!!!!!  It hit the big fur tree again and made a deeper hole than the one before and also hit the rock wall and the generator that we just had fixed yesterday.  I don't know how many more strikes that tree will be able to take.  It's about 34 years old and huge.  It's taller than any of the other trees around the house.  It would be ashame to lose it.

Here is the "motherboard" from the hit last week.  Now its to do all over again :(

Oh, and to make matter worse------Max got back in the flower box this afternoon while I was making dinner and right before John's eyes, he dug up all the flowers and left a huge hole.  He was covered in black miricle grow potting soil.  He had to have a bath from head to toe.  Maybe all the soil he injested will make his hair stay soft and fluffy---wondered if it would ever be white again----- that dog!!!!!!!!!!

Mystery solved..........

and there's no denying who did it:

Doesn't he look so remorseful!!!!!  That's about the third time he's been in the planters.  Yesterday when I caught him I squirted him with the hose to try to keep him away, but--------he loved playing in the water!!!!!  What can I say!!!! ;)

  

Three strikes........

of lightning, that is.  In the last post, I mentioned that we were in pre-drought conditions around here.  Well, day before yesterday while we were out to dinner, we received a telephone call just as we were getting up from the table.  Evidently we had a horrific thunder storm while we were gone that set off the carbon monoxide and fire alarms which notified our answering service who, in turn, notified the fire department and the man that looks after the house for us when we are away (he's on our "to call in case of problems" list) with the burglar alarm answering service.  We hurried home only to find neighbors with washed out driveways---ours was also, but not very bad.  We got up to the house and Ted was waiting for us.  We had a lightning hit on our big fur tree beside the house which left a huge hole in the ground beside the tree.  Not sure if there was another hit or not, but there was about a 4' ditch in the ground beside our rock wall around the pool and a rock knocked out of the wall.  The generator was running and we had lights, so the generator was hit as well.  Also, on the inside of the house, the jolt was so hard that it knocked off the switch plates off the wall in the hall and damaged that particular light switch.

Poor Max was here by himself when it happened.  I'm sure it scared the "p-turkey" out of him.  Alicia went out and took some pictures of the damage:

Quite a powerful storm, wouldn't you say!!!

"Little" John came up to me while he was here and asked me if I would make him some finger puppets.  I had given both him and Maggie several "made in who knows where" puppets that I had bought for them at the SAFF festival last year.  I found a book some time back called "Knitted Finger Puppets" by Meg Leach.  There are 34 puppets to make and they are all theme-related----Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, Santa, Mrs. Santa and the Elves, Circus animals etc.  I started the Three Pigs for him.  I had hoped to finish at least one before he leaves in the morning, but I can't get it done in time.  I'll just have to get them all finished and have them here for him the next time he comes to visit.  It makes me feel good that he wants me to make them for him.  Need your help-----how do you make a twisted tail for a pig?

Slip n Slide in 3D.......

This past weekend, Alicia, John, Maggie, Angela, Seth and Nathan came home for a fun filled weekend of birthday celebrations.  Alicia's birthday was Friday, July 16 and Angela's birthday was Saturday, July 17.  When they were younger, we celebrated their birthdays together.  What wonderful parties we had.  One year, we piled all their friends into the back of my father's camper truck and took them to Santaland.  Other parties were themed around "Strawberry Shortcake" (remember those little dolls?), clowns (my OB/GYN doctor's wife dressed up like a clown and came to the party), roller skating rink, McDonalds, etc.  Later there were cook-outs and then the together party's sort of died out and each girl celebrated in their own way.  What fun we had.  This weekend, however, it was more or less centered around their children instead of themselves.  The main event was the Toy Story 3D slip n slide.  John, Nathan and Maggie wore us all out just watching them.  

Seth had the honor of seeing that each one took his turn, but we still had a collision on a couple of occasions.  Good thing Max was inside or he would have been in the middle of the whole thing.

 

The 3D part of the slide is to wear 3D goggles to see the Toy Story characters appear on the flaps of the tunnel that you have to go through to get to the little puddle of water at the end:

Maggie decided to try her own version of going down the slide (backwards---)

As you can probably tell from the photos, we set the slide up on a slope in the yard so they would have a better ride.  Nathan seemed to go the fastest because he is heavier than John and Maggie.  He had also been on a slide before and knew how to get going.  It was no time at all before John and Maggie got the hang of it and were going almost as fast as Nathan.  Needless to say, they did have fun.

Look how brown our grass is.  We are in a pre-drought condition around here.  The slip n slide was a good thing for our grass!!!!

Saturday night, we all dressed up and went to dinner at the club for an official celebration of the birthdays.  Angela had to get back to work, so she went home yesterday.  Alicia, John, and Maggie are staying on until Friday when they will head up to Richmond to celebrate another birthday----Ryan's grandfather will be celebrating his 90th birthday and the family is giving him a party.

Oh, and I have been knitting during all this.  I'm working on a sweater that I found on Ravelry (thanks to Diana, who seems to be able to find the cutest sweaters and link to them).  This one is called the "Bellevue Cardigan" by Laura Chau.  It is made using a fingering weight yarn.  I'm using Paton's Grace for mine.  This is a light-weight summer cardigan.  It has a lace patterns called "Lotus" on the bottom.  The pattern is 16 rows long which is repeated three times.  The rest of the sweater is stockinette except for the set-in sleeves which have the lace pattern at the bottom.  It is knit from the bottom up from front edge to front edge to the underarm. 

It's an easy lace pattern to remember and just puts that little extra to a basic sweater to make it a classic.  So far, I love the construction.  We'll see how it progresses.
  

Campfire and smores......

Alicia, Ryan, John and Maggie came up for the weekend.  Ryan wanted to take John and Maggie on their first camping trip.  He was going to take them on the "back 40" so we had the men that work for us on the weekend cut a place out of one of the pastures for them to set up the tent.  Ryan wanted to build a campfire and roast marshmallows for smores.  However, our weather has been very dry lately and we are in a pre-drought condition.  The grass is very dry.  We were fearful of escaping ashes setting the top of the mountain on fire.  So--------- He settled on an area that is close by the house where water is readily available and the three of them starting setting up camp:

Even Max got in on the fun!!!

Ah...............

Frisbee:

Catching fireflies:

Playing catch:

Building a fire to roast marshmallows:

Using the GPS to identify stars:

It was a fun day and John and Maggie had a wonderful time on their first over-night camping trip.  They actually stayed through the whole night.  Next weekend we will have a re-run of all the fun when both Alicia and Angela celebrate their birthdays here at home and the camping will resume.
 
  
 
 
 
  
 

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!

 

  

...and, so......

John and Maggie were so excited that their Mommy was coming home on Sunday.  I don't know if it was because she was coming home or that she told them she had surprises for them if they had been good.  Just kidding ;)  They really missed her and asked just about every day when she was coming home.

We decided to take them to Santaland on Monday since they had never been.  What fun!!!

 

It was a fun day.   They all went home on Tuesday and the house is so quiet!!!!  Before they left I made a bow holder for Maggie to take home with her to hold all the bows she has (which is a lot as she wears them every day and a girl can't have too many bows, you know!!!)  They just clip onto the ribbon.  Keeps them from getting all smashed up.

I took two pieces of 2" pink polka dot ribbon 36" long and fused them together with wonder-under.  Before fusing them, I added a green rick-rack to each side between the layers and then top stitched them together.  I left about 1 1/2" at the top to thread through a "D" ring and sewed it down.  I then topped the holder with a bow that has a little heart button sewn in the middle.  Fun little project.

This week I have been cleaning out the girls rooms---closets, etc.  I had the furniture in both rooms refinished and now everything looks brand new.  The furniture belonged to John's mother.  I can't tell you how old it must be,  but my guess would be about 70 +/- years old.  Beautiful  solid mahogony pieces.  The ones in the "now" boys room (which use to be Angela's) is a set of twin beds, vanity, dresser, bedside table and desk.  It is  very masculine looking with details that look like rope.  Very nautical looking to me.   Maggie's room (Alicia's old room) got the high four-poster bed, vanity, dresser, night stand, and an old cedar chest  (Mr. Briggs took the chest with him today to refinish).  Her furniture is also solid mahogony and very feminine. It's so nice to be able to use Gommy Lemler's (as the girls called her) furniture instead of letting it stay in the basement unused.  You can't buy that kind of good solid furniture now.  I have to get some drapes (I was thinking, navy)  for the boys room and a couple of throw rugs for each room (the floors are all wood).  I'm using the embroidered sheers for Maggie's room with thin venitian blinds.  I love plantation shutters; however, I don't know how they would work with the roll-out Pella windows that I have.    I think I got the cart before the horse, however.  I need to paint both rooms.  One will be pink and the other one will be blue---I just can't decide on the shades. Maybe I'll get the girls to help me decide when they come home for their birthdays the weekend of July 16, 17 &18.

Enough chit-chat.  Back to work!!!

  

  

Croquet anyone?

Two weeks ago John and I went to Hershey, PA for a cousin's graduation from high school and his sister's graduation from Penn State.  Big reasons to celebrate, and celebrate we did!!!!!!  Got to bed every night after midnight and ate so much we still feel stuffed.  We had such a good time with John's cousins.  We don't get to see them very often, so we made up for lost time ;) 

Now we are home and are babysitting John and Maggie while Alicia and Ryan are in Germany.  It hasn't been very good outdoor weather for them as we have been having off and on rain/thunder/lightning storms every day.  But Tuesday, we got outside before the rains and played a little croquet.  It started off pretty good:

 

 
 Shortly, however, the tides turned.  John decided to change the game.  He wanted to play "Army Croquet"---his game, his rules.  He started pulling up the hoops and re-positioning them:

 
Maggie didn't like to play his game, so she started pulling up the hoops and running with them---John close behind.

 
John got it back and it started all over:

 
The game ended when Maggie got mad and threw her mallet.  At this point, Grandma stepped in and called "time out", ended the game, and put everyone to bed for an afternoon nap.

Wednesday was much better and brought us to McDonalds, Happy Meals with Shrek watches (which really work---for a little while, anyway), and the playground.  They had so much fun.  They talked to each other via the "phone", ran up the tree and down the slide, over from one cubbie to the other, ending up in the fire truck.  I got more pictures of Maggie because John was all over the place.  Again, they had so much fun!!!!

Here's John calling to Maggie on the "phone" 

and Maggie answering:

Tomorrow I'll show you the rest of the week.  Stay tuned........
 

 
 
 

The proof is in the pudding.....

or, in this case---the photos.  Alicia sent me these of their trip to Disney. 

Here are photos of John and Maggie with characters from the Cinderella dinner they attended.  You can certainly tell that Maggie loved it and John, well, not so much.  Isn't this typical of little boys?  I had to laugh when I first saw them.  I assume this first one is the prince:

Maggie and Cinderella:

as apposed to John and Cinderella:

Maggie with the old step-mother.  I don't think I would have been too happy with her.   She looks wicked:

John and Maggie with one of the step-sisters.  Doesn't John look excited to be there? ;)

 
 John and Maggie with the other step-sister.  He really looks like he is having a wonderful time!!!!!  So funny!
  
 

But, John had his fun time as well.  I have no clue who this character is, but John loved him:

John and Maggie in their Mickey outfits that Alicia had made for them:

 
 
Despite John's lack of enthusiasm for Cinderella and the gang, it was a fun trip for them.  They are back home now and the summer routine will begin this week.