Happy 4th!

 I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July.  We certainly did. We made these cool hand and foot print flags on the third in the daycare.  This is my eight year old's flag.

 And this is the 1 year old's.  I used extra large paper for the older kids and regular computer paper for the 1 year olds'.

 Here are the daycare kids' flags.  My three year old refused.  He didn't want to stick his hands or feet in the paint, but crawled into the tub of water I had set out for washing up :)

 (My eight year old took these pictures) This was me helping the 1 year old do his footprints.

 The daycare was closed for the Fourth, so we headed out on the boat for a day of fishing.

 I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but there is a tree about a third of the way over from the right side with a large nest in the top.

 It is an osprey nest, and the bird was in it.  There are many of these nests all around the lake, and the birds are usually close by.  They're pretty cool.

 The three year old is all about watching the water.  He's a little too brave, and will lean out over the edge of the boat.  That's why he has a life jacket though.  If he ever does fall in, he'll learn not to lean over the edge so far :)

 We put a cooler between the front and back sections of the boat, and made the front a baby playpen.  The baby loved it.  He could crawl around up there, and had a few toys too.  The eight year old enjoyed keeping him company.

 Of course what would the Fourth be without fireworks?  The town had considered not doing them this year - with all the fires burning, but ultimately decided to go ahead.  The three year old has always been terrified of them - too loud and scary, and it looked like he was going to continue that feeling.  He refused to even look at them for more than halfway through.  Finally he started peeking because I was asking him what colors they were, and saying, "ooh, pretty red" and stuff like that.  I knew he was peeking when he said they looked like stars and flowers.  He still didn't really like them, but we definitely made progress.  Anyway, here are a few of my favorite pictures from the fireworks show...

Quilt is at the Quilter's!

 Saturday I finally had a chance to finish my Kaleidoscope quilt top.  This is the finished top.  I added borders to it Monday and dropped it off to be quilted.  After it's quilted, the borders will come off.  My daughter liked it better without any. 

It's so hard to get a good picture of these colors.  They seem muddy in the photo, but they're really vibrant in person.  And it doesn't all blend together like it seems to in the photos.  Maybe once it's finished I'll take it outside for some pictures.  That might help.

 When I dropped off the quilt at the quilt shop, I saw this one on the wall.  They sell kits for a bed runner or queen size, but it's just half square triangles.  I know I could put this together without a problem.  I really like how graphic it is.  I love half square triangle quilts - there are so many variations to play with.  I think I'll tackle one of these for my next project.  I've been thinking of making the three year old a zigzag version as he'll be moving up to a bigger bed soon.  We'll see.

 I also saw this book that I thought looked interesting.  It was displayed right below the quilt I took a picture of.  I'm going to have to go back and thumb through that one.  It looks interesting, and I really liked the square within a square pattern on the front - especially the way they did the shams too.  I don't think I would do it as a runner, but maybe as a whole quilt ... in the same colors they have shown.  What a fun kids' quilt that would be!

 Anyway, while I was finishing the quilt, my husband took his boys out fishing on the boat.  I joined them at 6, when it had cooled down some.

 It was actually very nice weather because the smoke was providing a lot of shade.  See the sun in the top right?  The smoke was high enough that we didn't even smell it, but thick enough to provide good shade until nearly sunset.

 The moon was out at the same time, so it was a neat thing.  My eight year old took this picture.  I had to laugh when I saw it.  I had told him to get the moon, as well as the lake and trees.  He said it wouldn't fit.  So this was his solution to that.  Creative at least :)

 The sunset was gorgeous, and the lake was perfectly calm.

 Now could someone please explain to me how a three year old can get his face this dirty on a boat?  Must have had something to do with all the chips and juice he had...

 When I went through the papers that we had piled up from the week I was gone, I found this picture of the kids' fishing day.

 Our three year old made the paper :)

His dad did too.  He's standing in the background on the top right side of the photo.

Guess Who's One?

 Even the baby knows how old he is.  The eight year old taught him how to show how old he is.  Pretty cute, eh?

I know, baby, I can't believe it's already been a year either!

 I also can't believe I managed to take pictures with the month cards every month!  And I can't even begin to tell you how glad I am this is the last month ... very challenging with a mobile baby :)

 It was a pretty low-key party.  Papa and Bugga came over for gluten-free-egg-free-dairy-free cake.  And they say it was actually pretty good.  Good enough my husband approved it for all the birthday cakes in the future (so the little guy can have some too.)  It was very moist, baked up perfectly, and came out of the pan beautifully, so it has my vote too.  And it was a mix - Pamela's something or other.  Sorry I should have kept the package so I could tell you for sure.

 We did the presents first, figuring the mess would come with the cake.

 He was very interested in the sparkly, shimmery bag.  It was the hit of the party.  And those little ribbon handles - loved those!  I had to dump the goodies out for him because he wouldn't quit playing with the bag.

 He loved his new toys.

 And had to show them off to Daddy right away.

 Papa and Bugga got him a toy garbage truck, a tag blankie with a dog on it, and a some new clothes.

 Grandpa sent him a squeaky card, which he played with forever, and some cash so we can pick out something fun.

 He wasn't sure what to make of the fire on the cake ... or the cake for that matter.  He has only ever eaten fruits and veggies, cereal bars and rice chex, so this was a new experience.

 And then when we all started singing, he was really confused.

 We let him feel it.

 He was a little concerned about it sticking to his fingers.

 But he really liked squishing it with his hand.

 But eating it?

 Well, he decided it was more fun just to play with it.  In fact he didn't like it at all.  He ever shivered twice while tasting it.

It was a really fun birthday party though, even if it was only a few of us.