A Pepperman Day

Today my dear friend, Helen and her awesomely cool kids, Hazel, Ray and Dashiell came to play at our house. These are the type of friends that you can pick up where you left off any time and any where. I love when they come to visit, no stress. The kids all play great and the moms can just hang out and talk about anything. Just what I needed after coming home from vacation (you know the blues you get from returning home from a trip?) and from the sadness that winter is here. They were the perfect pick-me-up. After Helen and talk for the day I am totally ready to tackle a new project...what first? planting, crocheting, baking, sewing, or * ? Return and see what I decided to start? Helen brought a bucket of basil for us to work on. I usually have a sink full of dirty dishes but today I had a sink for of basil. Made some wonderful pesto. Which Shannon loves, especially pesto sandwiches in the summer. Take 1 cup a fresh pesto and mix with 8 oz cream cheese. Spread on slices of bread and top with slices of tomato and cucumbers. She totally flips for this.
Also today, Jack made a special sandwich (mix 4 oz cream cheese with 1/2 cup peanut butter, spread on slice of bread, top with thin apple slices, and carmel and another slice of bread..I added cinnamon on mine) for his 4-H project and the boys tried it for him. And to every one's surprise it was good.
Thanks Peppermans for a fun day.

My Baby Turned Six

Kyle turned 6 on October the 11th. A happy day but also sad, this is my baby. He is turning out to be a real goofy boy, wonder where he gets it? He is such a fun kid to be around. I like that he still enjoys to sleep and snuggle with his mom, he says he will move into his own room when he is 16, I'm starting to believe him. Here's a small clip of what has been happening in Kyle's life for the past six years.

Happy Birthday Kyle!
We LOVE you!!

Red Belt Success

Jack past his Tae Kwon Do testing last Wednesday. Poor guy, we arrived home at 3am form Florida, which he only practiced his form twice on our trip, and then he had to get up and perform his trumpet for a 4-H function and then go test for his belt. He did it! And we are proud parents.

4-H News

Well Shannon did it again. Her 4-H team won first place at the Challenge Bowl competition in Perry, GA. She studied for almost 3 months on several different subjects:
4-H Knowledge and History
Diabetes
Stinging Bugs and Pest
Internet Terms and Bullying
They all studied hard. The other Madison County team won second place. They lost only to their co-team...very exciting.
We are very proud of her and was happy to have a homeschooler on the team.

Necktie Skirt

I finally made one. Each year this sweet elderly man (in photo) brings his old ties to our church trip and the men can take them. Then on a certain day at our church trip they have a Lonnie (man's name in photo) tie day. Well my girls said they wanted to take part in the day but did not want to wear a necktie. So I made a skirt from all the extra ties for Shannon with a matching bag, and another purse for Kelly Belle. I plan to make Kelly a skirt too. I also made all the other girls a small purse from one tie. It was simple and really did not hold much except a sucker.
I found a great skirt pattern online.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Skirt-from-Neckties
It was fun and easy to make. The most time was in the prep work of the ties before sewing. I plan to make some more purses..those were my favorite to make.