Alan's 9th Birthday

For Alan's 9th Birthday we took 5 little boys + Alan and Sarah to see the animated starwars movie "The Clone Wars". They met at our house at 3:00pm, and we drove them all to the theater. Then we got 7 little children popcorn and drinks, then filed all 7 into see the movie. They had alot of fun. The movie was pretty decent. Lot's of action, which is just what a bunch of little boys want to see. William didn't want to sit on my lap for most of the movie, so I was in the back watching with my wiggly little one, while Tom sat with all the kids. After the movie we drove them back to our house for presents cake and ice cream.

Notice the light saber cake? It is a chocolate cake I made from scratch since I had no chocolate cake mixes in the house. It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

I also made wooden light sabers for each of the boys as party favors. I bought a thick wooden dowel and cut and sanded it down into light sabers. I painted the "blade" part with glow in the dark paint. The boys loved those too.I made the boys go out in the yard to play with them so that I wouldn't have any thing broken in the house.

Little Piano Man

I found this little piano at the GoodWill store for $5.95. That was so cheap that just couldn't resist buying it. It has two octaves and it sounds like a little tinkling music box when played. William loves to stand at it and bang on it.

Preparing for the winter....

I've been working on my puzzles for the Christmas season all summer, but I haven't been able to really get going until the kids went back to school. I have a goal of having 50 ready by October 15. Last year I made them as people bought them, and it was quite stressful at times, especially when I had orders for multiples. And of course, I did have a baby last November, one puzzle even sold the day he was born. (I just love ebay)
Here's my stack of 10 freshly cut still needing alot of attention.
Here's my scroll saw after I've cut a few puzzles. Look at all that sawdust!! You can also see my protective glasses, ear plugs, wood mineral oil, and plans for new puzzles on the bulletin board behind it.

Yesterday I was able to get 6 painted, now I have to lacquer them.. But two of them have already sold this week, so technically I only have 4 toward my goal of 50... I have a long way to go.

Watching Hurricane Fay...

William loves to sit and play at our front door and look outside through the glass. (We have an all glass storm door). He will pull himself up on the glass and tap on the glass and laugh. Today it was particularly interesting outside because we're getting some serious rain from Hurricane Fay. We're so far inland that we hopefully won't get anything too terrible. But we are on a "tornado watch" all day today. You can't tell, but on the ground outside the front door there's around an inch of rain already, and it only just started raining about 5 mins before I took this picture. Do you see how dark it is out there? I took this picture this morning at 11:30 am.

Bath time fun...

William says, "I just love bath time!"

" There's just so much to taste!"
"Gimme that camera!"