Sending Natasha off to college wrapped up in love.

When I was in college in the early 90’s a friend of mine- Karin- taught me and several other friends- Melissa, Dawn,… and I can’t remember who else- to crochet. As a practical process of all of us being able to learn a variety of stitches and still having something of actual use at the end I bought a bunch of yarn and suggested that we make squares to be attached together into a crazy quilt of sorts, and that is exactly what happened. The emphasis being on the word crazy of course. I have since crocheted dozens and dozens of scarves and  blankets in every shape, size, color,and type of stitch. My friends and I completed college and spread from FL to CA but this blanket continued to live with me, keeping me warm while reading books on chilly winter afternoons. That is until now. My God-Daughter Natasha just graduated from high school this past June and is embarking on her own college adventure At Baker. Baker has apartments rather than the more traditional dorms and you need to equip them just like you would if you were living in any other apartment. Knowing this to be the case we started amassing things for her and in that process I came across this blanket. I thought what better way to keep her warm and send her some love and luck from other college students who walked in her shoes. I had her hold it up and we took a picture before loading it up with the silverware, towels, and pots and pans. Love you dear- study hard and stay warm.

Tomato Thyme

The tomatoes in our garden exploded. We made spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, pizza sauce, and sun dried tomatoes. Not only did we have an abundance of tomatoes ,we had some absolutely HUGE ones this year and I have nothing to attribute it to. I didn’t fertilize or even really water very much. I guess it is just our chocolate cake dirt. It is either that or magic. My bet is on the dirt.

All the makings for what we call ‘garden sauce’

   

This one is 13.4 oz.

And this one …

…yep you are reading that correctly.

1.02 pounds. Clint and Caelun thought we needed the horse in the picture for perspective (wink)

Caelun agreed the tomato was BIG.

Now to weigh the horse.

This one time at band camp…

Summer brought a week of band camp for our daughter Abbi. She is a freshman in the marching band playing the flute. The week of band camp was hot. She practiced -for in some cases- 12 hours a day. It was baking, sticky, difficult, and with a sun burn – painful but at the end of the week they had the basics of the Celtic Celebration patterns down for the audience to admire. Hard work pays off. Go Red Hawk Marching Band and go Abbi!

There is our Abbi in the middle with the shades and the flute.

Meagen

Caelun and Cole watch in the bleachers.

Emily joins them to calm the dynamic duo’s chaos.

Turmos and bubbles

Surprise! Surprise! Our dear college friends, Joel and Melissa Turmo and their wonderful boys, who now reside in the sunny state of FL, popped in unannounced. Melissa and I danced in the same dance company in high school and then again in college at CMU. Joel, Clint and I all went to the same community college. Joel, Melissa and I all graduated from CMU. As you can see we have a long history with connections on several levels. We boring adults sat and talked while our boy and their boys played with bubbles. It was fabulous to catch up even if it was just for a few hours. Yeah for unexpected surprises!

 

The bubble gun shot in the air.

 

Caelun loves the bubbles the big boys make.

 

Way to represent Central Michigan University for a room full of CMU grads.- and we didn’t even know they were coming.

    

Clint helps retrieve toys from under the couch.

Yeah for old friends from out of town dropping by.

A summer trip to Meijer Botanic Gardens

We have a family membership plus one to the Frederik Meijer Botanic Gardens in Grand Rapids and we do our best to make good use of that membership. They have a children’s garden complete with several water features so a hot summer afternoon is a good time to avail ourselves of the membership. Caelun LOVES the children’s garden and particularly the water features. Come have a splash and cool of.- we have extra entrance on our membership.

There is a sensory garden- dedicated to the 5 senses as a portion of the children’s garden. This is the part dedicated to touch- or there is a giant alien hand reaching out to bring one of their own back home.

On to the water features!

Bring on the water!

And where there is water there are …

 

…boats!

That boat is clearly in trouble.

 

Maybe it is a submarine.

   

Let’s go for a walk to see the dragons. OOO look at his teeth!

 

Those are some BIG teeth.