Blood and grass stained dress pants.  Justin graduated from 5th grade on Wed. afternoon.  Wed. morning the whole grade had there break outside on the playground.  The teacher told them not to get dirty and just hang out.  Well some of them decided to play soccer, Justin included.  He got tripped, down he went, knocked an old scab off his knee and it bled.  The inside of his pants took the brunt of blood, but the outside caught the grass stains.

Here he is receiving his diploma from our principal.

Shaking hands with our assistant principal.

Another event that was held for 5th graders was an autograph party.  They get an autograph book, have everyone sign it and eat.

This event was a week before school was out.  Here he is with his friend Jake.

I decided to go camping with my boys and their boyscout troop this weekend.  I’ve never been a big fan of camping because of the bugs, snakes, and all the work.  Growing up on a farm we always had plenty of bugs. 

I recently figured out when the boys go camping, they are seeing different parts of the state that I have wanted to see.    So I decided it was time to put away the fear of snakes, frustration of bugs, and get to work camping.  We went to Alabaster Caverns State Park near Freedom, OK.  It was about a 3 hour drive into NW Oklahoma from OKC.

I quickly found out that I didn’t have much work to do.  The boys had to put up the tent, unload the car and set up my cot.

All the boys are in charge of unloading all the equipment that was used while we were there.

The boy scouts are in charge of making their own food.  The adults cook their own food.  Justin is beating eggs for scrambled eggs.

Justin also cooked the scrambled eggs.

I also discovered that Justin knows how to wash dishes.  The boy scouts are responsible for washing all the dishes even for the adults.

Will is drying the dishes after they are washed.

They also worked on rope tying.

We also went on a cave tour.

I’m happy to report that the bugs stayed at bay because the wind blew hard all weekend, even at night.  The tents got whipped around pretty good by the wind.  Two different families had poles in their tents break.  It also kept waking me up at night.

They also played games.

I talked another mom into going to Woodward to the quilt store.  It was about 30 min. away.  Bill thought I’d gone to the store by myself.  He kept telling me that it wasn’t the Boy Scout way to to by myself, I needed a buddy.  I told him I did have a buddy.  He just didn’t want me going and spending money.  I did buy a pattern.

I’m going to try to go camping more because I want to see more of OK, spend time with my boys and watch them develop skills that will help them  become good men.   If we get another tent or a bigger one the whole family can go.  I just hope I can keep the snakes at bay.

Jemma had a great time with her dad by herself.

I recently lost one of my quilt idols.  Not only was she fantastic quilter, she was a terrific Christian woman.  I’ve gotten to know her through 2 different quilt groups we were both involved in at church.

Mary Ann Eggleston - She had wedding quilts made for unmarried grandchildren and quilts made for  unborn great-grandchildren.  Her signature block was a bear paw, which is the block above.

This quilt was made in 2005.  Ladies in the quilt group made blocks for each other following the requirements the recipient set.  I had the border fabric already, so I asked for blocks with black in it and a certain size.  I’m very grateful to have a block that she made just for me.

At her memorial service, the stage was covered with her favorite flowers and lots of quilts that she had made.  I loved the colors she put together in her quilts and the patterns she chose.

Walk the red carpet was the theme for Jemma’s birthday party in April.  One of the things we did was cover the entryway with a plastic red table clothes and rope lights.  The girls wrote introductions for themselves and then walked the read carpet.

We wrote each girls name on the side walk and then outlined it with a star.

Star shaped cake that I cut using a template.

Jemma asked the girls to wear sparkly clothes or their Sunday best.

The stars on the table were made by the girls.  I spray painted them black, the girls wrote their name on the middle of the star with a glitter pen and glued on craft jewels.  Then we added ribbon to the back so they could hang them.  The other craft we were going to do was cement their hand prints in the “Hollywood walk”.  Using pizza boxes with cement, have them make their hand impressions, then add more craft jewels.  The guy at the home improvement store talked Bill into using something different that didn’t work.  Bill says he should have gone with his gut instinct and used kwik crete.  The girls also played games that I found on the internet to go along with this theme.  I was pretty happy how it turned out.  I usually have a hard time finding ideas to go with a theme that are relatively easy to do, don’t cost a fortune and take a ton of time to prepare.

I learned a couple of years ago when your child has a summer birthday, it’s hard to schedule their birthday party around everything that goes on.  So I started having Will’s birthday parties in May.  It’s also a challenge to get them in because of graduation, etc. 

We had Will’s birthday party Sat. night.  We took them bowling.

They had a lot of fun giving each other a hard time about gutter balls and when they only knocked one pin down.

Jemma also bowled.  She could barely get the ball down the lane.

After looking at everyone’s scores I think we all need to do more Wii bowling to practice.

Justin was chosen student of the month in his class at school for March.   The hospital adopted our school this year, so when you are chosen you get to go eat and take a tour.  Justin was actually sick the day he was supposed to go in March.  The school counselor arranged it so he could go last week.  I volunteered to chaperone the kids to the hospital along with our school’s part time secretary.

The students could eat whatever they wanted.  They took that to mean as much as they wanted also.

They toured the emergency room, radiology, and the third floor that is closed because it is about to get a make over as a maternity ward.  They got to sit on a bed that went up and down, and play with somethings in the occupational therapy room.

They also got a complimentary pair of latex gloves and masks.

No he didn’t get a haircut, even though he needs one.

He got his braces off today.

He is very excited because he can now eat popcorn again.

Wagon-Thanks Dad.

Dress-Thanks Mimi.  I braided her hair for the day.  I think it took me 30 min. 

Making a cover wagon craft.

Learning to square dance.

Playing pioneer games.

Making butter.

Preparing to run for the land.

Running for the land.

Staking her land.

Jemma with her teacher Mrs. Blake.

Katie came to Jemma’s girl scout meeting last week and let the girls decorate cakes.  She is so patient and loves to share her special talent with others.

The girls had a lot of fun.  Katie also came last year.  When the girls found out she was coming this year, they requested that she not bring the fondant.

The cakes look like lady bugs.  I failed to get a closer picture.  They turned out really cute.  Thanks Katie.

Or at least the difference between Bill and I.

Last week we had ants in our mailbox.  I don’t know how they got there.  They tend to find new homes when it rains.  I didn’t think we had, had that much rain.  I thought okay, go buy $5 can of bug spray, spray down the mailbox and there gone. 

Bill decided to take the mailbox out completely Friday after he got home from work.  I asked him how the mailman would deliver mail, he proceeded to set the box up on end.  The mailman did leave the mail on Sat.  About noon on Sat. he started to make a new post for the new mailbox he bought Friday night at Home Depot.  The boys helped stain the post, dig a hole for the new post, and cement it in.

Sat. night Bill had an allergic reaction to working with the wood.  His hands swelled and the back of his neck also swelled.  He missed church Sunday morning because he was still feeling bad.

But here is the finished product.

Thanks to OK Chick for her concern about my missing mailbox.