Crafty Project

I saw an example of this project in a craft catalog. I fell in love and decided to make one for our house. I found the pitcher in April, have picked up felt stickers, felt flowers, rhinestone brads, etc. in my travels and grabbed the branches out of our yard after the fire last week. Voila'. I'm pretty pleased with it. I'm thinking of adding some Spanish moss to the mouth of the pitcher. Tell me what ya think.

More Yard Pics

Here are some gardeny pictures featuring.....Bill's new perennial bed, which shares space with my little garden, and one of the flower pots on our deck.

Park Fun

We had dinner in a local park yesterday. We had a nice time and even ran into Auntie Lisa, Kunkle Chris and L!

Strawberry Festival

We went to the strawberry festival up in a local orchard area last weekend. The kids had a lot of fun. Unfortunately due to our cool, wet spring the straws weren't so great, but I ended up buying a half-flat of awesome blackberries. I made 11 jars of jam and froze the rest. G ate a bowlful, too.

Fire!!

So we had a bit of excitement around here Thursday. I had flown to Seattle to work for the day and when I was leaving the airport to come home, I noticed a big cloud of smoke way off yonder in the distance. As I drove closer I realized it was definitely near our area. There was more and more smoke the closer I got. I reached the home stretch, the last looong road, and once I turned the corner saw flames and lots of people rushing around to try to put them out. Some embers had ignited a field directly beneath the burning hills. There was so much smoke it was hard to tell where the fire really was. Anyway, short story long, we weren't evacuated, but my parents were and they reside 3 blocks to the north of us. We were very lucky. I did pack up in case we needed to leave, but luckily didn't need to put any of it to use. It was an extremely stressful night full of Bill hosing down the roof and time spent on the corner watching the hillside burn in the dark. 13 families lost everything. Someone's backyard fire pit had a few hot ashes left from the night before and the strong winds we had ignited them and the rest, as they say, is history.

Here are some pictures G took using his phone, these show the vantage point from our house and the corner. The intersection that looks less smokey shows the Lutheran church where the fire dept. had a staging area and the checkpoint for all of the residents that were evacuated behind the church and to the south. I wish we would've taken some in the dark because you could see the actual flames lots better, but oh well.

Hike through the park and to the river

Around the 4th, we took the kids to a park we visit often. It's by our local YMCA and features great walking paths, a man-made waterfall, lots of picnic areas, and easy access to the river. It's a favorite destination because the park houses wild rabbits, ducks, turtles, snakes (ack!), squirrels, and many different types of birds.

4th of July

Almost every year we go to my aunt's farm to celebrate the 4th of July. We go to the small town parade that is held right in front of her property and then have an awesome barbeque. Here are some pictures of this year's adventure.