MUSHROOMS!!!!

Ok now for those of you who live here in Indiana this is like exciting but also no biggie. For the many folks who I love so much that are spanned out across this great nation, well they are going to be a bit surprised, confused maybe and just plain taken back.
The time is gearing up and I guess we have jumped in a bit early into mushroom hunting season. Yes, you read that right.....mushroom hunting. You see, after some good rain and some fabulous warm weather you can go trompin out in the woods and find (or try to find) these yummy specimens of fungus. They can be difficult to find if your not a pro (which I am not). I have been out now for 3 years attempting this and Rodney always claims first one who finds one gets a whopping dollar. He always finds them (but no one give him a buck). This year, I wasn't the first and I definitely didn't find the biggest ones, but I actually found some on my own. Quite a few. I probably found at least half of this "little" mess. Rodney says people can find a patch and actually fill a garbage bag with what they find.
Now for those of you who aren't familiar and think we are a bunch of crazy country people, well sure but trust me they are so yummy and you are more than welcome to Google them. They are called Morels and there are a few different types of them. We have 3 in the picture above that we found yesterday. We found, White (the biggest ones), Gray (the 3 in the top right) and Spikes (the rest of them). We cut them in half and soak in salt water for quite a while. Then Rodney always makes up a batter that is never the same but always guaranteed to be yummy. He dredges them in the batter and fries them up. They don't ever make it to the dinner table they are so good. All of our kids enjoy them and since we found out it's early I am sure we will be out many more times. It is hunting, so Colby is excited although he opted to stay home yesterday and missed out on finding them. Now that he has seen them he is ready to go back out as is Dakotah, but that's because he heard we saw a snake (YUCK).

If only......

• they could put this much thought into homework
• they would concentrate on chores this much
• they would give MOM this much attention when she is explaining something to them

You get the point!

Pioneer Club Closing Celebration and Talent Show

Last night was out Pioneer closing celebration. We also for the second year that I know of, had a talent show. I always enjoy these times because then not only are the kids there, but their families stick around and celebrate with us.
I had my camera man up in the balcony, thanks Rodney! This is us singing one of the songs we sang all club year.
This picture is hard to see, but I have to put every ones class on here so no ones is left out. This is Autumn's class. She is the one in the pink shirt, 3rd in from the left. Her class is the Scooters.
This is the boys class. D is the 4th in from the left and Cole is the 6th one. Their class is the Voyagers and Colby actually was promoted to the next class for next year.
This is some of my class and I am handing out their certificates. This class is the Pathfinders which is the class Colby will be in next year. Most of my students (all but 2 of the 10) were promoted to the next class as well.
This is Bre's class, the Trailblazers. Her class is 5th and 6th grader and the 6th graders like herself are promoted right out of Pioneer Club and into youth group next year. Now on to our talent show.
Bre sang a song by Natalie Grant.
Colby read a poem about spring that we found earlier that morning because over spring break he was having too much fun and forgot to actually write his poem. Goof!

This was soo funny. This is 2 kids (one I take to school the first 3 days of the week) from our church, Braden and Aliea. They were so cute. Their dad put bandannas over their eyes and nose, then put sunglasses on top of their chins so they would look like faces, but they were upside down. Then they sang to a song (mostly stuck out their tongue which made it even more funny). It was great and they have no idea how much attention they drew in because they couldn't see.

Easter Afternoon

Since we hunted and dyed on Saturday we were free on Sunday to enjoy what the kids received in their buckets. The kites were what we most wanted to play with. After lunch we headed back over to our church (since they don't have trees around to get in our way).

Here is Bre attempting to take out her dad with her kite. We had trouble getting hers to fly, but with a ton of persistance from her and her dad, they got it and it was cool. Her kite was a tree frog.
I know these pictures are hard to see since they are so far away, but I wanted to get their kites in the picture with them so they would see what they were doing. This one is of Autumn and her Barbie kite.
This is Colby and his Blue Angels airplanes kite. My boy loves his planes!
Ms. Madi had a Hanna Btanna kite (as she calls it). She did so well flying hers for a little while and them whined the rest of the time to go on the swings.
Dakotah got Spider Man. Madi and Dakotah actually had their kites chasing eachother at one point and another time he let go of his handle and him and his dad had the privledge of chasing it down. I had fun doing this and look forward to the next breezy, nice, sunny day that comes our way. Rodney and I want kites now too, what kids we are.

Color those eggs!!!

After hunting eggs and eating a bite of dinner, we cleared off the table, dropped the color tablets into the cups, added the vinegar and away they went.
The kids were not only excited to color eggs, but wear their aprons I had made them. They are funny about stuff like that. Here is Mr. D and Ms. Autumn having a good time together.
Colby and Brandon (he was too busy to look up for my picture. A camera is no biggie in his world, isn't that right mom (winter)).

I wish I had a better picture of Madi. She did a really good job. It's exciting to watch when they are still little, but have crossed over to where they really get whats going on and participate. She made my favorite egg, she left it in what the package calls purple (they need to take a color test) and it came out so deep, dark and blue.
I promise, despite what this picture shows, Bre did enjoy herself as well and does so well with and around so many little ones. She's awesome!

Saturday before Easter...Egg Hunt

Saturday we were blessed with nice weather. It was a bit chilly, but the sun was shining. Perfect for hunting eggs. We all gathered over at Winter's parents house who have a large yard with lots of trees, rocks and stumps all perfect for hiding eggs. Now Winter and I forgot to actually count the eggs before we started, but we think we had around 145-160. I can't remember how many the kids actually found. They had fun! Tons of candy and a dollar for everyone.
Here they are ready to run.
Ms. Rachel did a great job finding lots of eggs in the wheel of her parents durango as well as our van. Before we left, she checked again hoping the wheels produced more. She also was very proud of her finds.
Here is Ms. Madi peeking out from a tree and putting her egg into her bag.
Dakotah couldn't find them if they weren't in front of his face. Too much trouble to actually have to hunt for them. I had to take a picture of his "special dollar" egg and show him where it was so he would find it. It was comical.
Autumn did very well on her own for the most part. I had to step in and help with her "special dollar" egg as well, but all that took was walking her past the area it was in. It was fun to watch them and they enjoyed them selves too. After wards we headed off to our house for some Easter egg dying.

More & more Quilts

I have so many more quilts I wanted to share. Now this still doesn't show my entire collection of creations, but I would never be able to do that. This is just a collection of some more that I enjoyed doing or have meaning with them.

This is a sunflower that my Oma (grandma) made. She then sent it to me to quilt for her. We have tended to push out quite a few of these "team" projects over the last couple years. This was fun though because she gave me free reign. The back looks fun too.

This quilt is so full of life, it brightened up the room as I made it. It was tedious, but fun at the same time. This is one I would consider doing again.

Ok, my very first quilt top I ever started, made but not finish until 5 years later. I started this in Alaska to keep myself sane from the constant darkness and a sense of feeling alone since family was sooooo far away. It started off simple and for the most part stayed so but they would add more month by month. I finished it and hung it in our hall way in the house we live in, about 2.5 years ago. It is also the first and only quilt I have attempted to quilt it by hand. I actually quilted all of it by hand except the brick boarder, that is where I first attempted to free motion quilt with my machine. This (needless to say) it a quilt of firsts! This is one of my babies!

Now this quilt and the one below are a pattern my Oma brought to me with all her fabric asking me to make them for her. I went to Shipshewanna with some fabulous gal friends (love you guys) and started it there as well as started to pull out my hair. This pattern threw me for a loop. I called my Oma asked her if I could do it my own way and as I expected, she gave me free reign here as well. I stayed very close to the pattern and just switched up a small part. The top is all fruit fabric and the bottom is veggies. These fabrics are so realistic it is amazing what they can do with fabric.

I just cut out 18 quilt tops yesterday and I'm getting ready to embark on a journey. I have wanted to use my gift God has blessed me with to serve Him and I wanted to do something related to making quilts for babies or kids. Rodney worked at our local LIFE center painting this past Saturday and I asked him to enquire if they could use quilts. He came back with a yes and that they are expecting them. WOW, get my chance! I am making quilts for babies/toddlers. I have so much fabric that can be used, so I'm going to put my pedal to the floor (literally) and sew away on some quilts. I am very excited about this and thankful for the opportunity I am being blessed with. Oh yes, and I am working on quilting a quilt for a special lady in my life as well as a surprise quilt that I just finished the top today for a special man in my life, so be on the look out for those quilts to come.

Quilts Quilts Quilts

So, as promised I am posting an all exclusive quilt post. I love this hobby! These are quite a few quilts I have done over the last two years or so.

This is my stocking for Christmas that I made and have enjoyed for 2 Christmas' now.


Here is another dog on my quilt made special for my mom when she was going through her treatments for her breast cancer a couple years ago. Her and I aren't that big into pink, but given the situation, we came to embrace the color well. The dog on her quilt was made to resemble her beagle "Chili Dog" that she has.

This quilt is Bre's quilt. She loves horses and I really enjoyed being able to make her a more grown up quilt (the last one I had made before this one was Care Bears).

I love this quilt!!!! I made it for Madi as an excuse I think to keep it. This quilt is so vibrant that it just makes you happy looking at it.

These sail boats were made for my cousin's baby. This was my first time doing this pattern and actually only time. It was ok, but the quilt did turn out really cute.
I enjoyed making this one because it was for my dad. Theresa gave me left over fabric from when my brother was little and she made his bedding. Well, she gave it to me and told me to make my dad a quilt. How cool, I actually got to make my dad something! The backing was fabric that had different major city sky lines on it and I thought this quilt was perfect because my dad loves the city as well as race cars.
This is a quilt I made for another cousin's baby. This pattern is fun. Originally I bought this pattern, used the air plane and designed my own twin size quilt for Colby which was the first quilt of that size I actually finished.
This is so cool. This pattern in it's original form is so hard, I would have never done it. I found an easy "cheater" way in a sense of doing it and what a piece of cake. It turned out so pretty.


This is a quilt that serves two purposes. First it's a quilt, second if you look below the back fabric is a road like the play rugs they make. Well, if your not using your quilt to nap, you can use it to drive your cars all over. I thought this was a neat idea and so convenient for travel. I made this for my dear friend Winter's son fro his 4th birthday. I think my boys were eyeballing it.
Well, this is just some of the many I have made. I will have to make another post at another time to share a bit more. I hope you enjoyed looking at them as much as I have enjoyed making them.