Mary Beth's dance pictures

These were on instagram but I don't think I ever posted them here.  They are from MB's spring gala.

Fargo German Festival {Rheault Farm}

On July 21st(I'm a little behind with this one!!) we spent the afternoon at the German Festival.

Jeffrey discovered the blacksmith at German Festival.  And was going to stay put until the Fest was over.  We mentioned to the blacksmith Jeffrey's ambitions of becoming one himself someday and before we knew it:

He was putting on an apron and helping out!

They let him do everything... and he was in HEAVEN!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finished product...

His own iron hook!  He was so proud... and so were we!

Earlier that day we also made these beautiful ornaments from clay and antique German molds.

But sadly,

we ended up leaving that day without going back to get them.  I guess the blacksmith experience distracted us too much!  I'm so upset we left them but maybe they will do them again next summer.

Adoption Update: State Seals from Secretary of State... DONE!!!

YAY!!!!  Today we received our dossier documents back from the ND Secretary of State office.  They had to go there so that all of the notarizations could be certified.  I also had to send my birth certificate to the Wisconsin S. of S. because the documents have to be certified in the state where they came from.
So why are we so excited about this?  It means that now we can mail off all of this to Washington DC where a courier service(that we have to hire) will hand deliver our 13 certified dossier documents to first the US Department of State and then The Embassy of the People's Republic of China.  Once it is done at those two places the courier service(we are using The Assistant Stork) will pick them up and overnight everything to our agency in California.  Next step... it will all go to China!!! Which is a very good thing.

To celebrate we had everyone's favorite meal!
Happy Day around here!

Junk Market 2013 {adoption fundraising}

Today I spent the day in the Modern Textiles Booth At Junk Market in the Echo Chic parking lot which happens twice a year.  How did this come about, you ask?  Well, I met the fabulous gals of Modern Textiles on a few occasions and they so kindly and generously offered to let me sell my chandelier hoops and mini scrappy fabric garlands at their booth- keeping 100% of the profits for our adoption fund!  How lucky was I??  So I kicked it into high gear the week before(amongst all the crazy adoption paperwork and planning/throwing Mickey's birthday party) and produced enough product to participate without it looking too silly.

The morning started out great- no rain and a light breeze.  I was making sales right off the bat and everyone commented on how cute they were.  Plus, as an extra bonus, I got to hang out with Roxanne and Connie and get to know them better!  They are 2 of the nicest girls around by the way. :)

Across the way, The White House Boutique was very kindly displaying the rest of the costume jewelry that was donated to us during the yard sale... remember that story?
Look how cute she displayed it all!!!  I'm so happy I met Katie- she is another kind, generous soul and we definitely share a love for junk and painted furniture!  I got to peek in her house btw and it is SO GREAT!!  I felt so blessed to be given this opportunity by these wonderful ladies!

 

Unfortunately, about 1 hour or so in, it began to rain... and it only steadily got worse from there.  Despite the pouring rain, people still showed up and I ended up selling quite a few garlands and hoops. None of the jewelry sold, however, but I am confident that I will find an opportunity to make that happen in the future.  Anyone know of a place that would be interested in buying some and then reselling it??  I'm all ears!

scrappy garland for the teepee and found kids' chairs makeover

These pictures are from back in August... days before the big yard sale.  The kids and I began setting up their teepee in the front every day because there was no wind and sometimes it's fun to play in the front instead of the back!  I also did a spontaneous mini yard sale for 3 half days... trying desperately to sell some big things that were taking up a lot of space in the garage where I was trying to organize for the BIG sale.  It worked!

I wanted to add some cuteness over by the teepee and so I made a garland- consisting of bright colored scraps I had in my fabric stash.  We loved it!  I have since made many more of these and they are currently being sold at Unglued in downtown Fargo.  The ones there are about 3yds long.

My next project this particular day was recovering these adorable kids' chairs I found during junk week a couple years ago.  They were both covered with that red fabric when I found them.  (dirty)  I ripped the first one off that same night and found a fantastic 70s oilcloth underneath!  I was so excited until I ripped the 2nd one off and found a huge gash that someone then tried to fix with a lot of glue or something weird.  It was gross- it's had to describe...  You can kind of make it out in the picture below.

Well, I remembered that I had some cute pink oilcloth that I had bought last year and tried to make a booster cushion for MB with(didn't work so good) so I unscrewed the cushions, pried out the gross glue stuff, filled in the hole with some batting, and stapled on the new oilcloth.

We LOVED how they turned out!

This table(below) was also a junk week find on the side of the road.  It's a children's folding table.  The top is uncovered so I just throw on one of my vintage tablecloths for them.  They love to color and do projects on it.  And so do their friends!  Oh and don't worry, that silver can is not a beer- it's a Arnold Palmer(half lemonade/ half ice tea) and it was mine. :)

If you are wondering about the other cute little chairs... the pink one was yet another free find that I painted pink and kept the original contact paper on.  The other 2 fantastic chairs were only $2 at a yard sale a couple years ago!  They are my favorite.

I thought I'd close with this- 3 of the 5 gorgeous, vintage blankets my friends from Minot brought me on this particular weekend.  I will show you the other two soon!  The yellow doll one is now residing on Mary Beth's bed by the way.  She LOVES it.

science-y kinda day

 

 

 

 

 

Jeffrey wanted to do science experiments all day... so he did!  Isn't homeschool great??

backyard camping & zoo day {july 28}

These pictures are actually from July 28th but I forgot to post them back then!  I will put them here for now and then move them back where they belong later...(I like to keep things in chronological order).
The kids had Emma and Norah over for a backyard campout.  John made waffles in the morning and they lounged around and played until afternoon.

 

These kids have the best times together... never fight, love playing all the same things... they've been best buddies for 5 years now.  We are lucky to have them so close.  I hope we get to watch them all grow up together for a lot longer. :)

Boo got tired after all the excitement and snuggled in to the tent for a morning nap.  She's so cute when she isn't terrorizing people, isn't she?

 

Somehow they all ended up on the roof of the garage while John was working on something.  They were pretty pleased with themselves! :)

Meanwhile, I was busy spray painting this awesome wooden highchair I scored for only $5 at a yard sale the day before.  It is pretty big and very sturdy.  I think it will be perfect for the new baby!  I'll show you how it turns out.

That afternoon we went to the zoo.  The weather was perfect. 

This cow's tongue was crazy!!  Jeffrey kept wanting to feed him but didn't want it to touch him.

 

 

The other highlight of this zoo visit was that the sloth was moving around.  It is a rare sighting.  Sloths are one of Jeffrey's favorite animals and so he was ecstatic!