Definitely never was I a boy scout nor a girl scout, come to think of it, I am never really prepared for much of anything but this year I am prepared for the first day of school. Yes, even a month early! I finished up sister’s first day of school dress last night. While I am excited about the way that it turned out sister is still trying to convince herself that she likes it. She is not a huge fan of the bows although she loves the pink on it. Hopefully she will be excited about it in a month and hopefully I will iron it before then!

I get the privilege of walking with one of our neighbors twice a week. She is an amazing woman who has traveled all over the world, she is a great cook and she is a precious neighbor. She shares amazing stories with me of her travels, shares secret recipes and she always comes through when I am lacking that final ingredient to make cookies. Back to the story. . .we walk together. It was looking a bit rainy this morning so we were trying to decide if we should walk or not and I was really encouraging us not to walk because well, the clouds were a good bit dark! She really wanted to walk this morning though so off we went. I bundled the kiddos up in their rain jackets and just hoped that it would not rain. For some reason our children melt in the rain (a gift from their father although the whining that proceeds comes from me) so it does not make a wagon ride in the rain very fun. Off we headed into the unknown. Every few steps she would mention that it was not raining and I would just look up and hope that the bottom was not about to fall out of the clouds. We made it half way around the neighborhood so we were at the furthermost point from our house when the rain hit. She whipped out her umbrella and I looked back at the kiddos in the wagon and although they looked dejected they did not melt in the rain. I was SO proud of them (the wet lollipops could of helped). We made it back home very drippy but with happyish hearts intact. My neighbor shared that she loved to walk in the rain as a child so I am glad that we could share those memories that she had. It is good to know now that she likes to walk in the rain, maybe there will be a few more rainy walks in our future with more stories to share. The kiddos and I came in and dried off. I got the kiddos changed and started a load of laundry. I feel refreshed from our rainy walk and I love knowing a bit more of her story all because of a rainy walk that happened.

Yes, I still sew! There is so much on the sewing table waiting to be sewn that it is sad! I am not sure what is keeping me from sewing but alas I am anxious to snap out of it! Our dear friends were expecting their third little one and she finally arrived this morning just a few hours after her official due date. She has already received a few goodies but this little blanket will be accompanying us tomorrow as we head over to meet her. I still need to monogram it but I am excited about the silky trim and flower fabric. I found the fabric a few years ago on clearance at Joanns and knew that it would be perfect for a little baby girl someday so it has been waiting in the stash for a long time. It was fun to finally pull it out and sew away.

The Sunflowers have started to bloom this week. Our Sabbath morning started with seeing our first Sunflower fully open which was a sweet gift! Sister did laps around the downstairs screaming and dancing along the way. She was so excited!!! These seem to be a smaller variety but no matter they are bringing our household much joy! I love the process of watching them unfold and I love that they are all in process. They seem to be so much like us. . .we are all in process and we are all in different parts of the process.

The garden still amazes me! I mean food actually grows out there! It really does blow my mind sometimes! Saturday morning I went out to pick a few things and just check on the garden in general to see how everything was doing. 5 cucumbers, a pile of beans, several jalapenos, squash, okra and zucchini all went into the bucket to come back into the house. Food growing in my yard! Wild! Yes, it is work but it is still neat and exciting! I went back out to look around the garden one last time and I spied the baby watermelon! Watermelon growing in my yard! Amazing! I mean yes, I planted it but you always think, at least I always think, will it really grow!? There are so many things that have to work together to create little veggies and fruits that grow into big veggies and fruits. Who knows if they will make it to full size (maybe the large problem is that I am a negative thinker) but the baby watermelon was such a fun surprise! I went out again this evening to water and I found a honey dew growing as well! They are so cute when they are small! God is amazing in the way that He creates and grows things! Definitely amazing!

Our local Chick-fil-a had truck day today. I wondered how big it would be but decided to take the kiddos and just see what was there as the kids do love trucks. Chick-fil-a truly did an incredible job! There were so many different trucks including an armored truck, bus, firetruck, motor home, bucket truck, cement mixer, dump truck, etc. There were tons of trucks and they really did do a great job! The kiddos loved seeing the trucks although they were hesitant to climb into the big trucks. It was a really fun thing to just walk around and enjoy the trucks. We love trucks!!!

This dump truck tire was as tall as I am and I am average height!

I spent rest time yesterday outside in the front yard. We recently had our bushes torn out as they were growing very old and tired and I also was growing tired of them so out they went. I replaced the bushes a few weeks ago with a the smaller Firepower Nandina and I am really excited about that choice. It took me forever to decide but I think that overall we are happy with them. We also have a TON (understatement) of monkey grass in the front beds which was fine with the larger bushes but now that we have the small bushes it needed to come out. I have definitely been putting this job off but after finding some thyme on clearance (I cannot remember the name of it but it will have white blooms in the spring and fall) at Home Depot I knew that it was time to dived and conquer the monkey grass. I finished one side but still have more monkey grass to pull out on the other side. I think that I could of finished but a bee sting slowed me down. I have not been stung by a bee since I was little but it still hurts even when you are older!!! Brad actually took the day off yesterday so he came to my rescue with ice and baking soda. He is my hero! It did feel good to accomplish at least part of this huge project and play landscaping for a day. Playing pretend landscaper is so much cheaper than hiring a landscaper but it is a ton of work!

I wanted to give a thank you gift to a friend who has really invested herself in our family in extravagant ways lately. I thought for a long time and finally decided on a purse. Our friend has a gift of creativity and she is very stylish with her dress so I felt a little nervous picking out fabric for the purse but once I remembered the bird fabric I was excited. I stumbled upon the bird fabric one day at Joanns and bought a fair amount (40% off coupons are our friend) that I tucked away for such a time as this. I ended up using Amy Butler’s Frenchy Bag pattern which I really liked. It was quick and simple to put together especially if you leave the pockets off as I did. These pictures are iffy as I used my cell phone to take them but at least I remembered to get pictures at all!

We love flowers in this house! Especially sister who would be perfectly content if we lived in a field of nothing but flowers (minus the bugs mind you).

On the 4th while we were enjoying the pool we were also greatly enjoying our surroundings set in the midst of a beautiful garden.

I ran around and snapped some pictures trying to capture some of the beauty and wanted to share.

We did try a row of flowers in our garden this year with not a ton of luck.

We have had a few but I think that next year we will have a designated flower garden that sis and brother can get into and our of on their own (the garden has a fence) and pick the flowers until their hearts are content which means the garden will be empty but our flower vases will be full!

Happy 4th of July everyone! We spent the morning in the pool thanks to my mom and some of her wonderful friends. We all had a great time! Everyone is resting now and then we are headed to dinner with Brad’s Dad! Yummy!
I finished up the 4th of July outfits yesterday afternoon for the kiddos. I used this pattern which was on Martha Stewart a few weeks ago. You can also find the pattern in Heather Ross’s Weekend Sewing Book. It was simple to put together although I definitely altered it as sister requested a long dress (down to her feet). I also did not fold under the hem but used the serger to do a rolled edge for the hem. I am really happy with the way it turned out. I just used a normal little shorts pattern for brothers shorts which was super quick and easy.
I hope that everyone is having a wonderful day of togetherness and FREEDOM!