Quiet week

I have been doing little bits and pieces of quick, fun knitting. Here is my Whimsey Kerchief
This is the best picture I could get of the back of my head so here it is layed flat. I like it.

I'm not really sure when I'll wear it but I like the idea of wearing it. I also made this little wrist band which is Perdita a Knitty pattern. I got the beads and thread in a kit from Earthfaire. I love that site. They have lots of nice things. You can't tell from the photo but it has little gold beads down the middle.

Today the three youngest kids went to water slides with their big brother and his fiancee. I have a ham in the oven for when they all get home. Until then I'm just enjoying the quiet and relaxing. Tomorrow I might take them to the library. Even though school is still 4 weeks away it feels like summer vacation is winding down. We got rain today! Lots of it too which is nice change. Its been so dry which is unusual for here. We really need it for the plants and the lawn. I wouldn't mind if it kept up for a couple more days. I have little tolerance for summer and after a few weeks of sun and dry weather I'm looking forward to Autumn (my favourite time of year). It takes months of wintery weather to get me down but only a few weeks of hot weather. Which is just as well really as I live the Pacific Northwest.

They're in the house!!!!!

Frogs!!! Ok they are tiny little thumb nail sized frogs but still they aren't welcome in the house. I found the first one on the stove late on Saturday night. We put up the tents to see if they were ok for the kids to take on a camping trip with their mother and we let the three youngest ones sleep in them that night. Well, 8 year old came in and left the door and the screen door open. We think that's how the first one got in. We assume the rest - which showed up on Saturday - came in on the camping equipment when they brought it in ready to go. Three were caught and put back outside where they belong but tragically three got dry and died and we only found the bodies which is pretty icky! So from now on outside stuff doesn't come inside without being checked for stowaways.

I have been watching the trailers for the Twilight movie. It looks good. I can't wait. It doesn't come out until December though.

Today I baked white chocolate chip cookies and brownies (the brownies I made from a packet mix) so I could have some yummy snacks and actually get to eat some before the kids scoff them all when they come home tomorrow. Yes, I have been enjoying a quiet house and no work without the kids. Back to reality tomorrow though. They will love having cookies waiting for them. Until then I making the most of the extra me time.

He thinks he's a cat

Simon is a bit of a climber and loves being on the back of the sofa......

sometimes I get a dog shaped pillowHe got the idea from his feline sister

Cozy days at home

Last night the kids and I watched Joseph and His Technicolour Dream Coat. This one was on DVD starring Donny Osmond and Richard Attenborough among others. I remember loving it as a teenager in the 80s when anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber was hugely popular. So I rented the DVD and was surprised that I still remembered all the words to the songs. Don't worry, I didn't sing along. The kids don't deserve that haha. Everyone really enjoyed it although I wasn't keen on a couple of the sets in this version and in the Egyptian parts there were lots of half or more than half naked women which seemed unnecessary.

It was a cooler day today with lots of cloud and even a bit of fog this morning. A perfect day for baking. So I made Creamcheese Banana Nut Bread which I found on There's No Place Like Home. It turned out really well. YUM! I also got out the crockpot and made Hot Ham Rolls which I also found on a blog. This time The Homespun Heart. They were really yummy. I served them with Swiss cheese and they turned out just fine. I love both of these blogs and highly recommend going and reading them. The house smelled great with the ham going and the banana bread baking.

I also spent a bit of time moving all my recipes into a nice new binder. I've had quite a productive day and its only lunchtime. I'm going to spend some time this afternoon with a nice cup of tea, some banana bread and my knitting.

Pipes and Drums

Yesterday was a really nice for us again. In the morning we relaxed and I finished knitting these
They are the Broadripple Socks from Knitty that I knit with Socks That Rock Socktopus mediumweight. I love these socks. Fun and easy to knit.

Later in the afternoon when hubby came we went to the Skagit Valley Highland Games and Celtic Festival. It was a lot of fun despite the heat and the lack of shade at the grounds. I got to have a Scotch Pie and and Irn Bru for lunch and I have another Irn Bru in the fridge for later.

We saw Pipes and Drum bands

They were all great. As we were there near the end we got to see them all together for The Mass Pipes and Drums. It sounded amazing.
It was really hard to get picture that really showed how many of them there were but trust me there were loads and they were loud. There are all age groups in those bands. We saw really young boys and girls with the drums. They are all very clever and talented. We all agreed that was our favourite part of the day.

Out and about

Today we all got out of the house. 17 year old was off with his friends and the rest of us went to the mall for a bit of shopping and lunch out. The three oldest kids all helped my Mother in Law move and she paid them each a nice chunk of money for their hard work. Last week we opened bank accounts and they got debit cards. It was all very exciting for them. So today, they got to spend a bit. I now have Baby Alive called Abigail crying and peeing non stop courtesy of 10 year old. She's been desperate for one. I'm told Abigails my "grandchild" so I suppose I should be patient with her. While at the mall we saw a huge queue for something. Of course we were curious about what it was and later realised it was the queue at Apple for the new iPhone. Who knew so many were ready for a new phone today haha. It was a very pleasant day. Even the drive was nice as its a beautiful clear day and the Cascades and Mount Rainier especially were visible in all their rugged, snow capped glory.This picture is from last year and gives an inferior impression of how this mountain looks but still here it is!

Once we were home we had just enough time to get Future Marine ready and dropped off for overnight Scout Camp. Then it was feet up on the sofa watching the Nancy Drew movie with the girls. I enjoyed it immensely. When hubby gets home we are having dinner at a local Chinese restaurant then for me its back to the sofa and these

Lovely!

Now that's a good day!

Summer

Meet my arch enemy - pollen. Aagh, I'm worn out and feeling crappy most of the day thanks to allergies. I wake up with a dry, scratchy throat, itchy eyes and sneezing. I have an antihistamine that works but that also knocks me out. So when I don't have allergy symptoms I'm tired and sleepy and just want to lie down. Sick...of .....it!

So , I'm staying indoors and knitting. I'm currently besotted with all Tweed Yarn. I want this book Tweed just because of the lovely yarn on the cover. Although I'm sure its a great book for other reasons. Since summer holidays are here I rarely get a minute to myself and am only getting to enjoy a clean house for about 2 minutes after its been cleaned. There's always someone to come along and rumple something or drop some crumbs. I also seem to spend an inordinate about of time driving people around. Why can't they make friends with kids who don't live miles from us? But I am grateful that the usual arguing and bickering that goes on when everyone is together at home has been kept to minimum and for the time being everyone is getting along and happy most of the time. I know from experience that things start to get tense around week 7 of summers holidays as everyone gets bored and sick of the sight of each other. There are lots of activities coming up to keep everyone occupied. Scout camp, day camp and a long list of movies we all want to see and hopefully some beach visits. We should be fine.

We've seen a few movies already. We loved Wall.E. Next up is Journey to the Centre of the Earth (3D, the kids are beside themselves), then The Dark Knight and the latest Mummy movie.

We are getting really nice weather. We had a nice, dry 4th of July so Hubby and the kids were able to do our annual mini display. I just on the porch and had a great view of not only ours but several really great ones going on around the neighbourhood. A few of our neighbours were up on their roof to see them all but our house it situated in such a way that I got to see everything without climbing up on ours (thankfully). I don't have pictures. I'm not that skilled at photography at the best of times so good shots of fireworks were out of the question. The only bad part was when I was covering the BBQ and a frog jumped off the cover onto my foot. Ok, it was tiny but still, it was a FROG!

The kids have gone to bed so I'm going to relax for a bit and watch Bram Stokers Dracula! Again.

Happy 4th of July!!!!

We relaxed and spent time together. We had our hot dogs and burgers. Everyone is off buying fireworks to let off after dark. We have Independence Day taped to watch later. The 4th of July celebrating doesn't get much better than that.


Another reason to celebrate is that we have had our little treasure Simon for exactly 1 year and 2 days.
I hope you all had a great day too!!!