. . . . And They're Gone

Tuesday was a big day - we said good-bye to two things that have seemed permanent fixtures.

One - the Protege: our first and only new, off-the-lot vehicle that has gives 16 1/2 years of driving and was finally not worth the money needed to keep it running.

Off it went to a salvage company.

I didn't want the guy to think I was weird, trying to take pictures of the car as it was being hauled away,

so I sneaked pictures through the window, garage door, and front porch - feeling a little silly, not getting great pictures, but oh well.

We only wish it would have been drivable enough to really teach Alyssa how to drive a standard before it got towed away.
It was a good car.

The other - braces! Always seeming like a permanent fixture and on FOREVER, until one day  . . .

they are off!!

Those won't be missed.

Alterations

Alyssa was asked to Homecoming and that means a dress . . . a nice formal, shorter dress, but not too short . . . modest and not amazingly expensive.

After looking on line at many options, I found a couple of dresses at the local thrift store. One was $8 and one was $5!! They were both too long and strapless, but alterable - with my minimal sewing skills I remember my mom teaching me. (I can sew a straight line really well and a couple of other things.)

After looking around at more options, to no avail, Alyssa chose the cream with black lace. 

Here is what we started with.

 A good friend, who is great seamstress, showed me a hemming trick to get that little rolled-over hem easily and smoothly. It worked wonderfully.

First I hemmed up the lining. 

Then the lace.

 (The blue dress in the picture is the other one I found at the thrift store.  I can't wait to alter that one - for a later date and with adjustments to the process I learned doing the black one. I'll do a similar wide shoulder strap again.)

Then I took some fabric and made a pattern for doing some wide shoulder straps and used the skirt material, I cut off, to make them.

 A little bit of gathering and deciding were to attach them.

And voila! . . . Well, not quite yet.

I did have to fix the hem a bit and I still need to tack in the sides of the straps in the back that are bulging out a bit . . .

but I'm so excited it turned out!!

 Look for Alyssa in the dress, for real, next week when I post pictures of Homecoming!

Court of Honor

Since his birthday, Jacob has been in the Boy Scouts of America program as an 11 year old scout.

A couple of weeks ago, he participated in his first Court of Honor and received his Tenderfoot ranking!

He'll quickly grow into that shirt.

Logan is now in Cub Scouts. He's looking forward to his first Pack Meeting in a couple of weeks.

Why Wait for April 1st

Natalie came up with a great April Fool's joke.

She was so excited about it, she couldn't wait until April.

She took it to school to eat during classes.

It went over perfectly. Two girls in 1st period almost gagged.

A friend asked, "IS THAT MAYONNAISE?!" When Natalie said yes, her friend shrugged her shoulders and said, "I guess that's normal for you."

Now she's planning for the real April 1st!

Logan's Friend Party

Logan had a busy few weeks, turning 8. Celebrating with family - getting baptized - and having a party with his friends.

After going through many ideas, he decided on a swim party at the river.

So he wanted swimming cake. I found a cool idea and then found out it was an ice cream cake.

 

I made it look like the river with the sand bar and rock. Logan added "tubes" and lego people as the swimmers and even one fishing.

 Swimming and ice cream cake were perfect for a hot summer Saturday.

 They swam and went up and down the river with the tubes.

 The water was perfect.

They hardly wanted to leave, but ice cream cake was a good lure. 

I think I want to do an ice cream cake for every birthday now. 

There was just time for gifts before the guests started going home. 

Each of Logan's friends know him so well and he loved each gift he received. 

Logan's Baptism

Logan has been looking forward to turning 8, so he can get baptized!

He had me speak and the girls sing.

It's a big day when the youngest of the family finally gets baptized.

 We are all so excited for him and this decision he made. 

 And it was so great to have so many friends there to share in the day.

We love you Logan!

My Baby is 8!

Logan has been so looking forward to his birthday. If you happened to cross his path over the last couple of weeks, you would be sure to find out that he was going to be turning 8.

I've never seen a Christmas gift wish list as detailed as Logan's birthday gift wish list.

On thing he's been wanting, since he saw it, is this recycle bin mug. For someone who has hot chocolate almost every morning, you can never have to many mugs - for his mother, you can, so the recycle mug was a no.

He took that 'no' pretty well and asked for a recycle bin cake for his birthday, with stuff in it. I found a pretty simple way to make the cake and, with bits of fondant left over from Jacob's birthday cake, made some recyclables - it bothers me a bit that I didn't have enough leftover bits of fondant to make them to the same scale as the bin, but I'll leave that for next time.

Logan loved it!

 With activities going on on a Thursday evening we had an early dinner of Logan's Roadhouse copycat, with peanuts in their shells, hamburgers, fries, and rolls.

Then quick cake and presents before going in different directions for the evening.

Here Logan is drinking from the 2L "Sprite" before eating it.

 He had a fun day from bringing donuts into class to opening presents (he got a couple of things on his list and a couple he didn't expect).

It was fun seeing him so excited for his birthday. Now he gets to go to cub scouts, he'll be getting baptized on Saturday, and we'll need to plan his friend party for next week!

Happy Birthday, Logan!!