Saturday continued

Buddy's 16th birthday party was Saturday night. It had been postponed due to Mrs. Miller's memorial service.

I counted over 50 kids but it was like counting cats so I wasn't real sure what the number was.


They played guitar hero and ping pong.

DDR and basketball.



There was an impromptu marshmallow stuffing contest.


The evening ended with Tyler being pushed in the pool.
Several kids had asked me if they could throughout the night. He a was a great sport


and went around hugging everyone still dripping wet.



boys and mom included









After it had mostly cleared out a small group went TPing getting a girls house about two blocks away. They were only gone about half an hour but came back to find someone had TPed us! Silly kids.

Saturday is a Special Day

The Young Women went up to our cabin for a Book of Mormon reading challenge reward. I tagged along to do some pre-camp certification. We were pleasantly surprised that the snowfall from three weeks ago was still on the ground.

We made the foil dinners I had practiced with the kids earlier in the week. My kids had no trouble with the activity. But we had a few minor glitches with some of the girl's dinners. Only a couple of them had ever heard of a foil dinner I had to explain in great detail over and over how to make one. Luckily they had no trouble with the hot dogs and smores we ate for dinner. So no one had to go home hungry.
My favorite part of the day was working with the second year girls who had to start a fire. Not really the dealing with them part, this group is definitely cityfied. But after trying to prod them along and listening to things like "lets quit", "I wish my dad was here he can make a fire", "can't we just use the oven?" and "I can't do this." they did it! It took at least half and hour for the fire to get going but they were so proud of themselves when it was finally successful.


They had a great time playing in the snow and doing all kinds of silly things these pics are just a sampling.




And of course this little tag along had a great time. I just love the chocolate lip liner!

Wrestling

So we have a wrestler in the family. He has only had two matches that he participated in because our Junior High team is so big compared to the other schools in the district. The first match he won with a pin. The second one the other day he lost by one point in the third round. He was moved up to varsity for this match and it was a rough, tough match with three rounds. Mr M is one scrappy kid. Ooh maybe that can be his nick name here, scrappy.
I hounded him a little to join. Funny I know me anti-violent sport mom but this kid needs sports. He kept "forgetting" his permission slip. Finally, one day at the dinner table when it was just Mr M (scrappy), The Big man and I left, Mr M said "I think Buddy will tease me if I wear that outfit." I said "Of course he will, we will all tease you, but we have gotten use to Buddy's speedo I am sure we can get use to your stretchy uniform. At that The Big Man hung his head and quietly said, "I still haven't gotten use to that speedo."

So you can catch me in the stands next week. Screaming for my boy to beat up another boy while they are both wearing lycra. Scary.

Camping out

Well not quite camping out but we made tin foil dinners for dinner tonight. It was fun and I wish I had taken pics of the kids or at least of the dog. We had to leave one man on guard because Charlie or dog kept trying to pull someones dinner out of the coals with his paw!
A very fun meal for the little kids because they got to choose exactly what went in but even my boy scouts who do it on camp outs all the time enjoyed it. Buddy got very creative and added sauces to his meals (yes he had two or three). Worchestire sauce is surprisingly yummy addition.






The brownies were an after thought. The meals only took about 20 minutes to cook and I had a lot of live coals when they were done. It seemed such a waste not to make a cobbler. But it was getting late and I was too tired to hunt in the garage for the dutch ovens or do anything more than mix something (lazy I know). So a little experimentation. I just used the cast iron skillet that lives on my stove top and brownie mix. The only tricky part was balancing the coals on top of the lid, it is rounded. And then making sure to tap off as much ash as possible before taking off the lid. It worked great.

Upcycled Basketball Jersey

I am unable to upcycle anything that still makes a great hand me down. We have been very blessed to have received hand me downs from others and I feel morally obligated to pass it forward instead of cut it up.
I had to really talk myself into this project. This was a basketball jersey in the give away box. One layer of cream and one layer of white fabric. Basically two jerseys sewn together at the shoulder and armhole seams to make one reversible jersey.
There were no rips or stains that would make it crafting fair game. So I justified it by the ugly factor. On the back was the number but on the front was the city of phoenix logo along with parks and recreation department ramblings. Who would want to wear that if they weren't on the team. Right?
I just cut under the armholes straight across to make the skirt pieces. Sewed the two layers together and turned the numbers into pockets.
All the girls loved it and were disappointed it only fit Boo Boo. But Buddy (the jersey's original owner) thinks it is a fashion abomination.

Estate Sale Fun

I don't go out looking for estate sales but every now and then they find me. Saturday was such a day. I desperately needed some retail therapy but had no time to spare. Lucky for me the estate sale fairies dropped one in my neighborhood and I took the time to stop.

The top item on the left is a child's apron. Underneath are two yummy vintage fabrics each a yard in length. The children's sewing book was printed in 1964 and the illustrations on the inside are just as darling as the outside. And the icing on this little cake...the string porcelain poodle lamp. It is so super cute. The shade is hideous and needs to be recovered and I took this pic before I cleaned up the doggy. But I am a antique lamp junkie and did I mention it is pink! My grand total, wait for it....$17.00!
Yeah I know you are saying "But Laurel, there are other 1950's string porcelain poodle lamps in worse shape than yours on ebay going for 50 bucks!" And all I can say is I KNOW!

Happy New Year!

We went to a couple of kickin' parties last night. The first one kids were invited. We left early to drop the kids off at home and headed to a grown-ups only party. I must say I like the family party the best. I guess that says a bit about my maturity level.
We came home from the grown-up party to ring in the New Year with the kiddies. We had missed most of the excitement. They thought it would be fun to celebrate by jumping in the pool. It was 44 degrees out side and our pool is not heated. It must have been freezing. Crazy kids but they thought they were very cool.