Saturday....

I had posted these guys earlier this week. I caught this one in the morning after dropping off the kids to school and when I went out in the afternoon to get them it had turned into the second photo - in it's chrysalis! This will be a monarch butterfly when it emerges from it's cocoon. 

This morning Emily and I headed to our local girl scout camp for a Pioneer Holiday Feast. It was just Emily and I from our troop and a total of 10 girls there. The silver circle put on this event and it was great! The girls churned butter, made a cranberry apple relish, soda bread, chicken and dumplings and two deserts - cherry, apple dump cake and a gingerbread apple dessert. All cooking was done with fire! The old fire cook stove for the bread, a fire in the hearth for the chicken and dumpling and the outside coal fire for the dutch oven baking of the deserts. We all sat down to eat at the end. It was pretty good! A 25 minute hike back to the car and a 20 minute ride home finished up our morning! I think the bread and butter was my favorite part!

The view from Homestead out onto the Lake.

Found this hanging in the cabin =)

This quilt was on the little bed in there.

apple and cheery dump cake and a gingerbread apple cake.

The table set for all of us!

I am caught up on my Hexagons QAYG through the end of November! That is one per day all year. I did fall a little behind so I need to prep black and grey for this month. I seem to have a good variety of those colors for some reason....most are in sets of 4. I do have a few 'extras' from the months that are not divisible by 4. We will see how big it is once I start putting it together as to if I just combine different colors or just add the needed hexagons to get groups of 4. Linking up with the RSC.

 

Weekend wrap up!

 It sure has been a busy weekend! Saturday started off with horses and Emily's riding lesson. She did not ride last weekend as they were all at a show. She was happy to see Reba and get a workout.

We delivered lunch and then the boys pulled the lights to decorate the outside of the house while we packed for the Drive in Campout with girl scouts.

There were over 600 girls there for the night for an evening a tenting, movies and general fun. It did get a wee bit cool - down to 49 F and damp with fog.  This was a shot this morning around 7AM. I got a good 3 dust pans of sand out of the tent when I set it up in the yard late afternoon to let it dry and air out for a bit! My co-leader coined the term 'Sand is Florida's natural glitter' this morning. There was sand everywhere! I have opened and shook off amazing amounts of sand in the driveway from the tarp, moving blanket we had set out, 2 quilts and the mummy sleeping bags... oh, and the chairs! Very thankful for the tray in the back of the CRV that collected a nice amount of sand as well. The car is due for wash and vacuum this week I think. 

Emily was in there - in her mummy bag covered with the quilt laying out on the blanket watching the 3rd movie of the night. There were 5 =).

This is the back of the t-shirt for the event. I love that she organized it by service units. Joining Rivers and Land of the Silver Moon are both based in Ocala. I'm not sure on the rest.

After a couple hours of nap this afternoon (I was up all night Saturday and did not sleep well Friday night), opening and getting the sand out of everything and putting things away I'll relax with a few hand quilting stitches on my Endless Diamond quilt. I started quilting this one on Thursday but have not made much progress yet. 

Linking up with the other slow stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts.

Some hexagons in red

 I did a lot of prep work on Sunday. A slew of hexagon shapes were cut and prepped and last night I managed to stitch up the first 3 for the month.

We moved the girl scout meeting inside last night - it was feels like 96 (actual temp of 90) outside around 6:30 in the evening. The girls did go out and chase the chickens around before and after and I got one of the girls dropped off very early as the family was trying to get everyone where they needed to go. We were working on a jewelry badge and made wire rings last night. One of my Cadettes (grade 6) taught us how to do it! I think we will just have 2 more meetings this year - next week to finish our badge and plan bridging. Everyone is moving as we will do both last year and this year. I heard they want an actual bridge so we sill see what we can come up with. A few years ago we borrowed the boy scout one but we were meeting at the church then. They also want a water fight in the back yard! Should be a fun bridging =)

** Bridging is an end of year rite - every 2 years they advance to a higher level. We stopped meetings in March after spring break so did not last year so all of my girls will 'bridge' this year. Daisy is K-1, Brownie is 2-3, junior is 4-5, cadette is 6-7, ambasador is 8-9 and senior must be 10-12. Next year all my girls will be junior and cadette - ranging from grade 4-7.

Survived the weekend and a girl turns 10 today!

I got home around 11AM from a weekend at Camp Wildwood with 12 girls from our troops (mine (9) and my co-leaders daisy troop with 3 ). I'm happy to say we returned with the same amount and all are alive! Heck, I think they were even the same girls!

Saturday morning - after staying the night Friday with silly poses.

Turns out some really don't like the bugs and critters (something about a wee mouse that had created a house by the mattress on my bed when we checked in .... and a nice black spider on the ceiling in one of the girls rooms.... and the need of lifting the seat to check for frogs in the bathroom... where the little green tree frogs are all over the place! and mosquitos.... we were in the woods after all!) .

Mid Afternoon after our last rotation with thunder in the distance.

It was a fun filled day at our Elf Boot Camp. Our service project was making 40 blankets (2 pieces of felt then the girls tied the edge strips together) to donate and the older girls in high school helped make the bunk beds for the new cabins they are currently building on the property overlooking the lake they are 'reclaiming'.

Showing how to tie the edges together.

We got 6 blankets made!

There was a snowball fight (yes, in Florida. This is photos of the second group as I was getting pelted by them from the first group - I was the only adult participating and boy did I pay!),

package relay, decorate the leader like a xmas tree and other reindeer games, candy cane pick up with a candy cane in the mouth and no hands, cookie decorating, and archery.  I missed Em shooting but Ms. Shelby got some great shots of her. A big thank you to my co leaders Sarah, Jill and Shelby for the 2 troops.

Since the daisy (K-1) could not do archery we went to a nearby field and did red light, green light and simon says... as I was shuttling the girls back and forth it seems a popular one was 'Simon says chase Ms. Sarah (one of my co-leaders)'! Lots of hiking in the woods - with me getting 23,000 steps in yesterday on my fitbit!

We weathered a fast moving t-storm that broke off and didn't end up hitting us with any rain for over an hour before dinner yesterday - 137 girls in a main lodge where we eat and they all were great!

We finished off the night with Smores by the campfire and then the walk back to our cabin with our flash lights through the trails in the woods.

Now settling the girls last night.... I seem to have read a first chapter of a book on dolphins one of the girls brought to all 6 girls with us around 11:15 last night to finally settle them down to sleep. Well, one room of 3 anyway. The other room was wound and started to let their imaginations go wild with night noises so Ms.Deb got to drag her mattress into their room on the floor to sleep after that. Getting them moving to finish packing, clean the cabins and bathroom this morning.... sigh. They are all home now and I took off tomorrows meeting for a 'RECOVERY' day..... cause boy do I need it!

I did get to wake Ms. Emily up with a Happy Birthday this morning. She wakes up with a smile.... unlike some others in the troop. I might have threatened tickle torture for one of them to get up and moving this morning =). She was giggling under her covers before I even started, silly L.  Emily got sung Happy Birthday by a couple of the troops out where our section of camp is - we had 4 troops- 23 girls and 9 adults in our area of 4 cabins. I just hope they don't make me unit leader ever again... not hard but just one more thing to be responsible for on leaving morning - all chores done by girls and units cleaned for ranger inspection - ours was at 8:30AM.

Another year of encampment done. Until next year... where I hear the theme might be Halloween related!

Tuesday....

Hearts! Sunday was red, orange was Monday and today is sage green! Life should get a little quieter now.... and hopefully I will be back to daily posting of the hearts. I have been keeping up. Thanks for playing along and bearing with me in this busy month of May.

Yesterday was a wee bit hectic with the last meeting of girl scouts - bridging (I completely missed 2 girls so an afternoon trip to the Wildwood store to get things), year end party and organizing and coordinating things. I am so blessed that the families share their daughters with me. We have a wonderful group of girls (14) and parents. Two parents who help out a lot got together and created a shutterfly photo album of our year with the girls for me and my co-leader this year. It was awesome! They even had the girls sign it for us without us knowing. Wish I could share photo's of it on here... but I keep my girls private to respect their parents wishes. 

I took my walk this morning...... it was not raining when I left but 7 minutes from home the sky opened up and I got soaked! Oh well, it rained all day yesterday and I figured it might hold off for the full 30 minutes of my walk this morning. I'm also still figuring out my new phone and how it works. Very different from my iPhone.... just a learning curve right now to figure things out but I did manage to send the photo to my e-mail to get it on here. Now to figure out the google cloud sharing so I can skip that step I hope! 

Sunday... Happy Mothers Day!

I seem to have missed Saturday. I spent 5.5 hours in a first aid and CPR class but am now certified for another 2 years. I needed this for scouts..... and another Mom took it with me so 3 of us are certified now.

I was greeted in bed this morning with breakfast (2 slices of cinnamon toast with fresh raspberry faces on them and coffee). Then the presents. They are always so proud of themselves and they did good again this year. It included a yard of a cat face fabric and 24 little spools of threads for hand work. My kids know me so well!

I finished the binding on the churn dash quilt yesterday. It just needs a wash and dry and a label and then it can be shipped off for the Hands2Help charity this week. It finished off at 50x60 with a soft blue checked flannel backing. I have another stack of these churn dashes... so there might be another one made this year.

I'll be doing lots of prep today for girl scout bridging tomorrow, printing certificates and organizing all the badges and pins for the ceremony. I have 2 girls bridging up to brownies (grade2+3) and 4 girls bridging up to Juniors (grade 4+5). Next year will be a daisy/brownie/junior troop (grades 1-4)!  The girls chose a pizza/ice cream sunday making party after with a few pot luck sides to supplement. One of the Dad's is in charge of blowing up a watermelon for us - his wife is a sheriff so all safety precautions will be taken!  Did I mention my girls like to blow things up and get messy? If they have time then they get to visit the playground at the church. This will be our last meeting of this school year.  Hard to believe they are out of school next week on the 24th! They do have a roller skating party planned in June and we'll probably do a scrapbooking party sometime in July before starting up again mid August. I've got 3 years of photos to start them with some memory albums of scouts.

I had a green heart for Saturday and just prepped a red heart for today with my A Heart a Day in the Month of May Challenge. I need to make a few more 9 patches today while I am adding the final border to the graduation quilt.

Maybe some stitches will be added to the maroon Dresden plate. It got moved to the side to get the binding done this week. Not too bad for a busy week in May with 2 kids and a school year winding down - braces coming off and eye appointments for kids indicating no glasses are needed anymore for either of them! Aidan had a couple of friends over on Friday after school to hang out. Just the standard this week for me - scouts Monday, guitar Tuesday, gymnastics Wednesday, Thursday is dentist cleaning for the kids after school and Friday is horse lesson for Emily. I'll need my slow stitching to keep me slightly sane!

Linking up with Kathy and the other slow Stitchers.

Wishing my Mom Arlene a very Happy Mothers Day. I don't know what I would do without you! Can't wait to see you next month up in Vermont.

Mom and me summer 2016. Lake Elmore Vermont.

Monday....

I think I need another weekend already!
Great progress yesterday although it didn't seem like it. I had to do the kid drop to Grandma yesterday as hubby was under the weather. He is still holed up in the bedroom today... day 3 of a possible flu bug. He is quarantined from the rest of the house =)

After dropping kids off and a little visit with Grandma - I headed to the girl scout store to pick up a few things and get Emily's Jr vest and necessary decals for it. Home for a bite to eat and then it was sewing time! I saw this beautiful field of flocks and had to snap a photo.

The 18 blocks needed for the graduation quilt got completed. Now onto the second block. I got everything cut and sewn and pressed to parts. I have a bunch of HST's to make again.... but the other parts of the block are ready to cut from their sewn together strips and should go together quickly.

Some crochet got added to the new afghan... until the kittens discovered the yarn moving.

So I switched to something I keep putting off - adding badges to the brownie vest. I know - I still have some from LAST year that need to get put on but I am running out of room! I added 7 fun patches yesterday to the back and the 2 journey's, a first aid badge and a camper badge that were earned this year to the front. I still have a bunch to add (at least 10 and some more she is getting..... arrrgghhhh). Hopefully I can add another  3-4 today in a rainy day car line without poking my fingertips too much.

Clorox wipes will be used a lot this week to try and keep the rest of the house from getting whatever Greg has.

Sunday...

It has been a busy last couple of days! Perfect time to relax today with a nice walk before the storms roll in (right after I post this!) and then a day of sewing and 'me time'! The kids are on their way to Grandma's for the day - the first time in a month since Papa Andy fell and broke a few ribs. He is home and doing much better.

Friday - a busy day. I had lunch with Ms. Emily at school - a little late for her special birthday lunch. Then the afternoon was a drum initial lesson for 15 minutes - which she loved! Then it was off to..... her one request for her birthday - ride a horse! I found a groupon with another Mom's help for 5 private lessons for 30 minutes each.... for around $70! Nice. Emily absolutely loved it.

Emily and Liz

Emily and Belle - her ride for the lesson.

Saturday I helped out at a girl scout recruitment booth at a festival. It was a bust - a wee bit high price to get in but we had a nice shady spot under a tree and it was bearable until mid afternoon. I got a few patches hand sewn onto Emily's brownie vest and we got the rest of our year planned. Seems the kids were in the pool while I was away as it was around 87 degrees outside.

Today - looks like a rainy afternoon as the cold front goes through Florida.... so I'm off to take my walk and then will find my way to the sewing room and work on the graduation quilt parts. This afternoon or evening I expect to add some more badges onto Emily's vest.... and add more stitches into the pink dresden plate. Three blades to go then I can start the cross hatching. Just brown, dark blue and maroon to go on these!

Linking up with the other Slow Sunday Stitchers. Remember to take some time to do something for you today! A sunset photo from a walk a couple of nights ago.

Weekend at Camp Indian Echo in Hudson Florida.

It was quite a weekend! The girls did great and had a wonderful time. I'm a little biased but I think I have the best girls in my troop and am blessed that their parents allow me to be in their lives. 

We stopped at Publix (local grocery chain) and had each girl order her sub for dinner. Some had never done that (girls aged 7-9)! I thanked the young lady making their subs for being so patient and she was just so pleasant. Love that. Then we headed to check in at camp and had some food at the pavilion area near our sleeping quarters. There were 10 of us so we did 5 in each tee pee. 2 adults and 3 girls each. Lets just say that opening at the bottom was a wee bit chilly as it got down to 39 degrees on Friday night and 55 on Saturday. Next time I will bring quilts so everyone is warm... but there was NO room in the vehicle with 4 girls and 2 adults and our gear.

Tee pee!

View of pond from tee pee

 This was gorgeous in the morning with it all fogged in and the sun starting to hit it. 

View of tee pee from the pavilion and fire pit area.

Lots of my pictures are of the girls and I don't share those on public media but... here is one of my daughter Emily learning to shoot a bow and arrow with our instructor! 

She even hit the target twice. A first for the three brownies (grade 2+3). The Daisy's (grade K+1) have to wait since our instructor was only trained for brownie and up age levels. We had a time slot of 1.5 hours each for STEM activities, archery and outdoor games, lunch, cupcake decorating and free time to play around our area, then team building where we tied them together with handkerchiefs and the 6 of them had to do a scavenger hunt around the camp to find things and get photo's of them with the object. The were very happy to go back to the buddy system after being tied together. =). 

Then swaps, dinner and of course we need to end with a campfire, songs and smores. The girls were wound up and were playing around between the tee pees for a couple of hours before we settled them down a little after 10. It was up early to pack, load the car - good thing I love puzzles!, and clean our area for inspection by the ranger  at 7:30 who gave the girls a thumbs up on doing their kapers to clean up. Closing ceremony and I remembered to get my form signed for travel before we headed out. The girls are going to Disney on Ice next weekend in Tampa and the travel papers are for build a bear in Gainesville next month (outside of our immediate travel area but closer to us than Tampa!) so the girls can make girl scout smores bears. This was their choices to spend their money from cookie sales on - they will also get re registered for next year and I am looking into a skating party, lots of badges, end of year party and if $ left we'll plan to go ride horses in the fall. 

We splurged and stopped at McDonalds for breakfast this morning and one last time to chat and have the girls together before the two vehicles headed home to return them to their parents. Our car had a side trip - as there looked like a slow down 10 miles from out exit.... so we took the alternate route that just happened to take us by the Wildwood Girl Scout camp we normally go to which has a little store. I was able to pick up the 13 Yoga fun badges I needed (we did a yoga lesson the Monday before  break) and Emily saw an archery patch so we got 3 of them for the girls that got to shoot this weekend. I also got book 2+3 of a mouse mystery book I sent around this year with our penny the pig so they have something to read to her next year!.

After a shower (boy did that feel good!), unloading of the car and a 2 hour nap I felt human again. A quick trip to my co-leaders to grab a few things of mine I popped into her vehicle (you know, things never go back into the container they started in!), and a clean of the borrowed vehicle from Papa Andy (Big thanks to my FIL) I was done for the day. Greg picked up Chinese for dinner and everyone is now showered and in bed. An exhausting weekend but so worth it to see these girls grow more confident, learn some new skills and make some awesome memories together.

Long weekend.....

I was to be at the girl scout Camp Wildwood all weekend.... but opted to just spend a nice long day there in the heat and humidity for a sisters retreat. Lot of great ideas, networking and resources for leading my troop of girls (daisy, brownie and then it will be some juniors next year!).  I do have to say, it was sad and surprising to see all the tree damage to the trails from hurricane Irma, but thankfully no damage to the buildings.

We did have a power outage due to a branch falling on the power lines and knocking out a transformer. SECO was great and had power restored in a couple of hours so the fans could be working again (and toilets could flush!). Did I mention it was hot and humid.... in October. Mother nature forgot the humidity should be gone by now.... We had a few people with the beginning of heat stroke but thankfully I was not one of them.
 I have to make a quick trip back today to pick up a few things at the store since their internet didn't come back up for a credit card payment.

That led me to come home and have the surprise of Greg and the kids removed the carpet from Aidan's room yesterday... and they went into the pool as well! Aidan said he slept great and was able to breath this morning in his room. No mold on the back of the carpet (my worry) but I guess  we need to order the new flooring now! He has terrible allergies to dust and mold... so carpet is a no no for him.

I looked into the disaster of a garage this morning - where my office and sewing area is.... and everything gets thrown in there (yes, the pulled up carpet is in there now too) . I think today will be a clean/organize day in there.... it needs an intervention, big time. I think that is why I have not been going in there to sew - too messy even for me!

After all that... I will finally relax with some slow stitching. I have 'fixed' the last row of hexie flowers on my springtime little quilt top.... and with another in process needing a black surround, I splurged and purchased the 1 inch Inklingo hexagon pattern. This will allow me to print off hexagons with sewing lines on the back of fabric to make quick work of prepping to finish this quilt. It comes with half and 1/3 shapes as well to get that square edge. If I can find more of the white dot fabric I hope to print off a few today. I started with the free diamonds from the inklingo site and made a bunch of lemoyne stars and I must say - this is a wonderful tool to quickly get you stitching.

If I can't find more of that white dot fabric in my cleaning... I will be adding purple quarter triangles to make a square edge on the trip around the world quilt. It decided it was done and I listened! I have started adding them and have 4 in... with lots to go.

Linking up with the other slow stitchers and Oh scrap.