Peach Caramel Pecan Cake

It was delicious! 

I might need new dish towels...

I have had mine for six years now. I don't think about them much. But as I was folding the laundry this week it hit me, these are gross looking. 

A gift idea for my sisters and/or mom to give me at Christmas. :) 

Since the walls in the kitchen are now yellow, I would like blue and red ones as replacements. They can be solid or patterned or a combination. And there can be other colors mixed in... I don't care as much about the color as the material. They have to dry well!! 

Letters

I received three very sweet thank you notes last week. They were the kind that covered the notecard with writing, both top and bottom. I appreciate cards like that. They inspired me to write some letters. I finished two letters and posted them this weekend. Finding mail in my mailbox, that isn't junk, is so exciting!

All three boys are sick. Warren has had a snotty nose for 13 days now, but I think it is almost over. I have been saying that for a week... Martin is running about 8 days of snot. Today he had a fever. Jared is on day 4 of fever and sore throat. Weird. 

I woke him up from his nap and he fell back asleep on me. Sweet grumpy boy. 

Sometimes...

Sometimes It is just such a beautiful morning that you pack up the kids and walk (and run) around the local college campus for two hours. It was a gorgeous morning! 

We watched the crane truck again and visited the library too, but I didn't take pictures of those things. 

Mozzarella

I made Mozzarella again. 

It was definitely easier the second time. 

Weekend

It was a good weekend. On Friday Martin and I cleaned the house well. He helped me wash all the windows, which I hadn't done in three or four years. Jared finished a lot of yard work (he almost filled our whole dumpster with weeds). Martin trotted around and "helped" pull weeds. We had dinner with Grandma Cindy for her birthday and went to a special hymn sing at church. I am thankful for a relaxing weekend. 

Hope

His first written word. I am guessing it will be several more months before he writes anything again. Ha ha. 

Ham

He thinks he is funny. 

120 Backpacks

So, In case I start to blog once a week or every other week, I am running an English as a Second language school this coming fall and spring. I'll probably be a bit busy. :) To kick off the semester, I am collecting and giving out 120 backpacks to kids at a local elementary school that my church teams up with.  The school has a lot is immigrant families, who hopefully, will want to attend an ESL class. 

I just received the first shipment of backpacks!! So excited. These will go great with the 320 glue sticks we bought on Tuesday. 

Peaches, plums, and blueberries

This is my favorite part of summer. Add in some fresh corn and green beans and life is perfect. 

I buy half bushels of peaches at a time. People ask me, "what I do with them all."  I eat them. Sometimes I buy a whole bushel and eat all of those too. :) In that case, I would probably make Jared a pie or two. Peach pie is his favorite. 

Happy Friday!! 

Children's Lit Baby Shower Details

I know I said I wouldn't be posting about my sister's shower, but I found out that several people snapped a couple photos. So I have pieces them together into a post. It was lovely and by far my favorite shower that I have ever attended. And it was also quite simple!! Well, my part was simple; I just brought books. Anna put more work into her book decorations, games, and plates. :) She's a champion. 

Decorations 

For my sisters shower we decorated with garland that was made from little mini books. Here is a picture Anna sent me to show me hers as she made it. She ended up hanging hers across door ways with streamers above and below it. It looks amazing. 

I topped the cupcakes with mini books that i glued to toothpicks. 

I made them on the sewing machine. It was super easy. 

We used these plates and cups mixed with some light blue plates because more people RSVPed then we expected. 

I also set stacks of children's books around. I lined the counter behind the food with them. We lined the mantel downstairs with them. I had a mini lorax (The Lorax), Horton (Horton Hears a Who), and corduroy (Corduroy). We set them around with their books. Also, I set a cap on Caps for Sale and baby shoes in front of The Foot Book. And then we had a book for each food... More of that in the food section. 

Games

For games we found two free downloads online (which Anna printed on very fancy paper):

1. A children literature's quiz to see how much you knew about children's books. Example: which one of these is not a child in the Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe? Peter, Susan, Lucy, Edward. 

2. A games where book titled were written in other words and you had to  decipher what they were. 

Example: Farewell to the Celestial Orb. 

Food

Ham sandwiches (Green Eggs and Ham)

Meatballs (Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs)

Veggie Tray (Peter Rabbit)

Nuts (squirrel Nutkin)

Spinach Salad (The Little Engine that Could)

Pasta Salad (Strega Nonna)

Crab Dip (Harry the Horseshoe Crab)

Spinach Artichoke Dip 

Fruit Kabobs (The Hungry Caterpillar) 

Pink Lemonade (If Ran the Circus)

Water (Oh, The Things You Can Think)

Yellow cupcakes with strawberries and whipped cream (Jake Baked the Cake)

Invitations

I wish I had used library card invitations, but I was rushing to get them out and just printed them on white paper (I tried card stock, but it kept getting jammed). I did use a rhyme from Dr. Suess's ABCs, "Big B, Little b, what begins with B? Bird, Boy Baby, Bubbles, and a bumblebee. 

Fiesta Part Three

This didn't post last week. Oh well. Two posts today. 

I saved this picture from Facebook and didn't notice it had the tags across the face of each of us. So, I just cut all of us out because I really just wanted to show you the deer. Ha ha. We put sombreros on all the deer in the room. These are just two of them. 

And I made cupcakes. 

Beach and some more sewing...

We spent last weekend at the beach. I didn't take any pictures. We played a lot of board games, ate good food, and watched some fun fireworks. The boys slept well away from home. It was a relaxing weekend. 

Martin and I did a bit of sewing yesterday. I will quilt again someday. For now all I am doing is mending.  

1.  I mended a reusable bag. It seems as if I have to mend all my reusable bags once, usually along the seams.  They aren't made to last. 

2. I turned a tattered pair of pajama pants into pajama shorts. The bottoms were all frayed. I chopped them off and hemmed them up. 

3. I turned another pair of pajamas into a hanging laundry bag, maybe for the boys room or bathroom. We only have one laundry hamper currently. I sort of used this tutorial, but I sewed my wooden hoop into the top. I didn't have embroidery hoops big enough. 

http://makingniceinthemidwest.com/2012/09/20/diy-make-your-own-hanging-laundry-hamper/

4. One of my new dresses split open along the front bust seam at church on Sunday. Thankfully, it was a small split and the dress was lined. I hand sewed it back together today. It is as good as new. You would never be able to find where the split had been. 

Today I set out some squares for a table runner, but I am not sure if I will finish it in time for this weekend. We will see. 

Also, how does one sleep like this? Both my boys do this. 

One of these things is not like the other...