7QT: Austin Adventures Cont'd

~1~

I never finished telling you about the rest of our Treeschooler's adventure. One of the deciding factors in making this commitment was that the day of the shoot was the day before my grandmother's 92 birthday… and in the same city! We hadn't seen Granny since Cupcake was about a year old. We surprised her by showing up at the restaurant where she thought she was just meeting her adult children. I think she was pleasantly surprised, don't you?

~2~

My aunt had displayed some family photos and I was so delighted to see this one. I don't think I've ever seen a picture of both of my grandparents looking so young before. That little guy is my dad, I think. I'm pretty sure because he looks just like my brother did as a kid. Although, it could also be my uncle.

I have always thought my oldest son looked an awful lot like my PawPaw, but also thought maybe that was just wishful thinking on my part since I loved my PawPaw so tremendously. (I'm tearing up just typing that.) This picture and the comments of some dear friends on IG made me believe that it wasn't just my imagination.

~3~

Afterwards, we headed to the Texas Memorial Museum because they promised DINOSAURS and a paleontology lab with a real, live paleontologist to talk to. Well, they delivered on the dinosaur bones part…

...and some really beautiful rocks and gems. But the Paleontology Lab was closed, much to BigBoy's dismay. :( Oh well. It was a pretty sparse museum, but it worked for us since we weren't trying to kill a lot of time there.

~4~

The next day, we headed over to Sean's sister's house to meet up with family and squeeze in a little baby cousin love.

This little guy was fussy with a capital F but so squishy and delicious to kiss!

It was a crazy busy kind of weekend but good. It made us think that we really need to plan a family vacation. I know summer's over, but we are thinking a nice fall vacation somewhere cold.

Anyone know anything about Missouri? ;)
{To clarify… this is not a reference of any kind to recent troubles in MO. We really and truly are planning a trip there to see some (we hope) beautiful fall colors!}

~5~

Now, it's back to grind of daily life. Some of the online classes the oldest two are signed up for start next week but The Professor's Latin 3 class has a translation due before the first class begins. (High school is hard!) I think we will be easing into the school year a little at a time instead of just jumping right in. Right before this picture was taken, The Professor walked through the kitchen, smiled and sighed saying, "It's good to be doing Latin homework again!" He's such a cute little classics nerd!

~6~

 On the feast of the Assumption, we attended the Ordination Mass of this young man, the newly minted Fr. Justin, O. Cist.. He was beaming!

We couldn't hang around for his reception so we waited to give him a gift at his first Mass.

Cupcake was so excited to give him a present. She insisted that she had to give it to him and watch him open it. I think she thought it was his birthday. It was so sweet and beautiful that even the professional photographer who was there came to take pictures of the scene. So I was only hugely slightly mortified when she asked why we gave Fr. Justin a necklace. It was a rosary. 

~7~

And speaking of rosaries… I was playing around with taking pictures "off auto" on my big camera the other day and thought this one turned out pretty good. This is a quote that I love (from the movie Shadowlands) that I had asked Kendra to go all "Picmonkey Crazy" on but knowing that she's got lots of little ones, I decided to play around and see what I could do with it. Of course, Kendra came through and even posted hers today. (I never should have doubted.) Thank you, Miss Kendra! Her printable prayers are really just amazing… all free and beautiful too. 

Whether it's the first of your school year or the last of your summer, have a great weekend!

Theme Thursday: Google Me

Cari is doing something fun for her link-up this week. Do a Google Image search for your name and post the first picture that comes up. Knowing that my married name is very common, I opted for my maiden name…

Yeah… that's not me. 

Cari said, "Bonus points for a screen shot of all the results."

OK then….

Nope… none of those are me either. Although it was fun to learn a little bit about that awesome lady there with the medals who is a bum-kicking Special Olympian! (I said "bum" because she's British.) She could run laps around me, that's for sure. And that formidable black and white lady in the corset (also British… apparently I had a very British name) was a Crimean War Nurse who Florence Nightingale once described as " a kind, active, useful nurse and a strictly sober woman."  I'm pretty sure that would sum me up too in most people's eyes. 

So, how about I try my first name and then my blog name? Is that cheating? I don't know. Only Miss Cari can decide. Her circus. Her monkeys.

Oh, that's better. Still not me but at least I recognize the faces and the pictures.

Except…

this guy.

BTW… in the interest of full disclosure, my married name brought up no pictures of me either. I guess I really am a behind the lens kind of girl. I'm good with that. If you feel like having a little fun, just google yourself and then head over to Cari's place.

My favorite treeschoolers!

So… remember yesterday when I just casually mentioned that everyone loved Katherine's Blossom Tee that Sunshine made... even television costume designers? Here is the rest of the story…

It's no secret that we are huge fans of Signing Time. We've been buying their products supporting their efforts for years, but most specifically, supporting their latest project, Rachel and the Treeschoolers. We have enjoyed these shows deemed "too educational for TV" so much that when the opportunity came up to be a part of the show, we jumped at the chance. It happened that one of the filming locations was in the same city and on the same weekend that my grandmother would be celebrating her 92nd birthday. The perfect opportunity for some family fun! Since they only film ages 2-10, both Cupcake and BigBoy were able to participate.

 

First up, BigBoy played the piano for them and filmed quite a few lines. He was really good at delivering lines on the first take. He might end up in multiple episodes. While he was being filmed, they decided on an outfit for Cupcake. We brought the Blossom Tee that Sunshine made for her with a little skirt. They loved it! The costume designer even went upstairs to chat with Sunshine about it, she loved it so much. The crew had already filmed so much pink on other children earlier and they like to have a color variety in the show, so putting her little green dress over it was a perfect compromise. They tried to get some solo shots of the Cupcake, but the boom (mic) was really bothering her so I'm not sure how successful those were. Then they moved on to some brother/sister scenes. One of them was with a paper airplane. The one you see being filmed below was doing an experiment with oil and water.

 The tall guy is Rachel's husband, Aaron Coleman). He is really tall!

 That's Alex's mom in the white visor. She was the director for the shoot and such a nice lady. 

 The lights didn't bother Cupcake as much as the microphone. 

 And then came play time! Rachel put on her Signing Time gear so the little ones would recognize her. She talked to everyone and took pictures. It was such a great experience. These people are the nicest, most down to earth people! Everyone was so friendly and helpful. It couldn't have been a better experience. So exciting!

 

Just a little souvenir from the scenes he filmed.

 Exciting and exhausting...

We can't wait for these episodes to come out. I think they will make excellent Christmas presents, don't you? (Hope everyone in the family thinks so too!)

A Knitting Post from Sunshine

I'm turning this post over to my knitting girl, Sunshine. She has been working as a test knitter for Katherine, testing out this adorable Blossom Tee pattern. It is beloved by her littlest sister and just about everyone else who sees it including costume designers for television shows (more about that later). There were many adults at a family party yesterday wanting one in their size! Katherine is offering a giveaway on her blog for the pattern if you are a knitter or know someone who is.

Now, I'm going to let 15 year old Sunshine tell you about her experience with the pattern…

 I had been knitting for a little over six years when Miss Katherine asked me to test knit the Blossom Tee pattern for her. I had knit one of her other patterns before, the Martinmas Sweater, and I was thrilled to test this one as well. I tested size 4 in Cascade Yarn's Ultra Pima Fine in Primrose for my little sister, Cupcake.

 The pattern itself is very clear and precise, perfect for a beginner knitter who is ready to move on from scarves and such to their first sweater. The yoke increases and the flower detail at the bottom of the sweater also introduce the knitter to very basic lacework. Very simple, yet at the same time, pleasingly challenging. 

 It did take longer than I would have guessed to knit this sweater, but only because of my gauge. I cannot stress enough how important it is that every knitter knows how to check their gauge before knitting on a project they want to turn out well. A friend of mine commented on gauge once, “Gauge: the bane of a knitter’s existence that miraculously saves sweaters from turning into tents,” and I whole-heartedly agree. It is crucial to check your gauge before, and even during, your project, because your tension might not stay consistent throughout your work. Checking your gauge will keep your tension in check and prevent you ending up with a garment that’s too big or too small. (Need I tell you about my first sweater that was much too wide in the middle with the sleeves hanging way past my wrists? I thought not.:) So, it took me longer to finish this project because I had to start over and pay closer attention to my gauge throughout, but it was worth it to get it right.

Q & A Interview about Homeschooling

I'm slowly going to make my way back into blogging again. I figured an easy way to do that was to post on someone else's blog. What? Well, it makes sense in my head.

Actually, Micaela over at California to Korea was looking for homeschoolers with children who span the ages to interview for her How I Homeschool blog series so I answered her questions and figured, I should let people know about it.

If you'd like to read what I wrote (and what The Professor had to say, too) you can click over and read. It's long. Sorry about that. I can't shut up when I'm nervous and answering questions makes me kind of nervous. As I said in the interview, I don't like to give advice because what works for my family, won't necessarily work for someone else's, but I don't mind telling people about our specific experience so that they can decide for themselves what might work and what might not.

Check the bottom of the post for Micaela's links to all of her other interviews. I think it's a great idea to get a basic idea of what homeschooling looks like for all different kinds of homeschooling families including us older moms. Older moms? That sounded awful. Um… how about… "more experienced"? Still cringing. Oh well… I give up.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this big crazy blog world with all it's changes and what not and how to make my way through it. I need to sit down and start writing some of them. I admit that I'v enjoyed my time away. It has been enlightening. But I also miss recording the fun stuff that we've done.

So, check out Micaela's post for now and I'll be back later.