Wa- Freakin- Hoo !
I have 3 pieces of art in the Art Barn at the Grassroots Festival.
This is my first gallery showing since 1988. Wow. I am psyched!See the other pieces and read about it on my art blog...

http://handcraftedbyme.blogspot.com

Harvey cannot make up his mind

The other night we noticed Harvey was having a tough time choosing a movie to watch.LOL.

Funny Bunny.

Potty Training Nicholas

My brother and sister in law were having a slow go at potty training their son (my nephew) Nicholas so I offered to take on the job. I said give me the munchkin for 5 days and I will have the deed done.
Thats exactly what happened. Nick started coming here last Monday from 10-5ish. It must have been very odd for him when Aunt Carrie told him how "at Aunt Carries house we dont use diapers. We use underwear"... and proceeded to remove the pull up and introduce him to the potty seat I bought him. On day one he peed in the potty 16 min after he got here. Shortly after that he wet himself...to his great surprise! He had never experienced what happens when you pee but you dont have a pull up on. Wow. Wet to the feet. He peed one more time on the potty that day.
There is lots and lots of time to fill between potty stops so we did lots of fun stuff too. For lunch I laid out all kinds of options and let him pick.
Every day that he was here he spent at least some time in the sand box. He likes that.
There was time for outside water play of course.
And- all preschoolers are enchanted with time in the kitchen sink so he did lots of that too.
Day two brought 7 wet pairs of big boy underwear. Ugh for me but great for him. He learned that he didnt like being wet at all. Maya Rae spent a ton of time playing with Nick over these 5 days. She played bobble heads, Mr. Potato Head, dolls, cars, colored, played outside, ETC. Here she is encouraging Nick to play with our instruments.
Nick liked this.
Here he is marching along in his undies. Cute.
He enjoyed the guitar.

His favorite was the recorder. SQUEAKKKK!!! LOL.

By day three he stayed dry all day long! 3 days is all it takes. Days 4 & 5 were just practice for what he learned. His mom, dad and grandparents all did SOOO well as well. Everyone had to be consistent to help Nick succeed. AND HE DID! Congratulations Nicholas! You're a big boy now :)

Vayda has a little party

On a Monday evening after work Ravyn and Vayda invited a few friends over. They sat outside and enjoyed junk food and music. It was a very successful little gathering.

Biking in Rochester

Jody has been meaning to take me to this bike path in Rochester for about 2 yrs. Finally, on the 5th Maya, Jody and I headed out.
We biked along the Erie canal for about 12 miles. It was very scenic.
We got really close to a couple of deer and saw ground hogs close up.

We did lots of peddling and some exploring. Fun Stuff! Beautiful day!

Kids Leaving

The day after the Graduation party Ben and Elanee left with Daniel. Elanee was delivered to Grand-daddy and Grandma Rose's house where she is taking dance, voice and theater lessons and acting in their play. Ben went all the way to Virginia with Dan where he is taking it easy for the summer and figuring out what he is going to do in the fall. Hes got big plans to bike out to Lyndes in Indiana. We are rootin for him.

Day Star Ridge

On the 4th of July Jody, Vayda, Maya Rae and I went down to Day Star Ridge for a

day long visit.The kids played with old friends and the grown ups visited. There were about 25 people or so. Though it was July it was cooolddd. brrr. So we spent the day pretty bundled up.
I love this fire pit and at some point I intend to copy it. :)
The folks on the Day Star committee have worked hard to make the camp grounds beautiful. I noticed many new plantings and the guys were working hard, laying the ground for a prayer gazebo.

Aaron and Shelley came too. Nice to see them again so soon after the recent grad party. Jody borrowed Aarons bike and went for a spin.

We chose not to camp overnight because I didnt feel like packing up all the gear but we did stay late into the evening. We got to see several fire work shows in varied directions around the hill. We had a great day.

Graduation Party for 2

The day after Bens graduation we held a duel grad party for Ben and Elanee.
We had lots of people come out to support the kids' accomplishments.
Helen, Judy, Carrie and her boys Trevor and Jace were here.

JoJo, Ravyn, Emily, Molly, Westly, Abby came too.

Jody got lots of help barbecue-in.

The VanVleets, Meads, Brinn-Beers, Vests & Bauders (and many more) came and visited.

Everyone left words of wisdom for Elanee and Ben along with generous gifts.

Greg and Nick had fun.
A nice bonus was having the 3 boys all together.

Tina Vest took the pictures. Thanks Tina :)

After we ate it started to rain so we moved inside for cake and more chatting.

Good times!