Gourd Farm!

Monday was a wet day but in the brief interlude between showers we visited the Green Level Gourd Farm. It's only about 20 minutes away from our house, but seems very "country". For 4 dollars a piece the boys enjoyed a donkey ride (well, Jack did), chickens, gourds a'plenty, a corn maze,

mini golf, swings and slides and a tractor pulled hay ride, featuring spooky sights to look at. These were things like bats hanging from trees, spiders that drop down over the wagon and witches and pumpkins arranged in spooky ways. Jack loved that part! We had a great morning on the gourd farm and it got me in the mood for Fall. I even pulled out the box of Halloween decorations. It's not too early to dream of Oct 31st, is it?

A Sunday Off...

Thanks to Craig, I got to take this afternoon off and head on down to Ornamentea for a cool earring-making class. The class was 3 hours long and in those three hours we used various techniques to make seven pairs of earrings. Some I like and some aren't really my style but getting an intro to wire-wrapping and earring construction was cool. You never know, I might get good enough to gift some of these earrings someday!

I recommend this class, and this cool and funky shop, to anyone in the Raleigh area. Such fun!

Parent/teacher interview

We had our first teacher conference of the Grade one year this morning and Mia is doing wonderfully! She is at the very top of the class in writing; in fact, she is in a very small, specialized group that is advancing their skills. She reads at a high Grade two level and is above average in math. Of the 173 words she needs to remember and recognize by sight in Grade TWO, she knows 158 already. The teacher says she is bright, engaging and funny. We are super proud of her! Good job Mia! :D

Happy Birthday, Craig!

Yesterday was Craig's 39th birthday (hang on to those 30's, sweetheart!) and we celebrated by making him a pie, lemon-strawberry meringue, and going out for Mexican dinner. The kids got him a new video game and some headphones he can use when he play guitar at night. Mia made him a very cute drawing at school. See below:

Hope Craig had a great day! And thanks to all of you that called and wished him well. I know Craig was feeling the love! :)

Art time!

Yesterday, while the remnants of TS Lee rained down on us, I picked up some big drawing pads, pulled out the ol' pastels and let the kids have at it. Jack has never drawn a picture before, only colored them in. He was so excited, so liberated, with his drawing. He's hooked now. In fact, he announced that this morning he would "watch the Smurfs and then make a St. Patrick's Day picture." For some reason, holidays are a constant theme around here.

So here's a taste of some of their creations. I love kids; they are so imaginative, so funny and so weird. The world, through their eyes, must be a helluva place. ;)

Newest Creation

So my new sewing machine arrived last week and I was pretty excited. It's not the best machine in the world, and it's been refurbished, but it's machine a'plenty for a complete beginner like me. The last time I sewed anything was in Grade 7 or 8 home economics class. And somehow, during that class, I managed to sew my finger in the machine. :(

But! I am older and wiser now (right?) and I figured I better invest in a starter machine so I can feed these creative urges properly. I have spent the past week second guessing myself after reading a few sewing blogs and discovering that it is actually kind hard to sew. You have to be precise, for one, and I am rarely patient enough to achieve that. And you have to be sort of good at sewing before you can really make anything cool.

Or so I thought. Today, I manned up and pulled out the machine, threaded it up and went searching for a starter project, something to build my confidence and perhaps get this sewing snowball rollin'. I found a great tutorial for a simple skirt on Made and decided I would give it a bash. Behold! The first thing I have sewn in 20 years! A skirt for Mia.

I am really pleased with how it turned out, I learned quite a few things and got a better feel for my machine so I think I'll try a second one. There's a lot not quite right with it, but what could be better than seeing how excited Mia was when she saw the skirt that I had made just for her. Awesome!

I am still somewhat self-doubting about my sewing skill but I am determined to try and learn a little bit anyway. Craig says I can make curtains for the new downstairs. Yay!

Come on, Irene!

We've been keeping a close eye on Hurricane Irene all week. Most of the prediction models had her making landfall east of Raleigh, on the Outer Banks, but every now and again a model would show her rolling right over central NC and I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed not to see more of her. Not that I want a Category 3 hurricane tippy-tapping on my window, but there was (in the back of my mind) a tinge of excitement at the prospect of witnessing something so scary and different. Especially after experiencing my first earthquake on Tuesday. What a week!

As of now, Irene is roughly 250 miles from here, off the coast of NC, but we are seeing some bands of rain starting already. The sky is grey and black and looks ominous. We should be in for a soggy tomorrow, but hopefully a safe one. :)