Holy Smokes!

Seriously, where did the month go? But WHAT A MONTH!!!
This month was packed full of great things. First of all...

SPRING!!! No more frost and for the time being no mosquitoes. I noticed just yesterday that the mosquitoes are starting to get ravenous, but up until now, they have been mostly out of the picture. I have loved the tulips and daffodils, the green grass and the rain. I even managed to get my fish quite happily in their outdoor habitat for the summer and I love how it looks!

 So there it is. We put a planter over the water to give the fish a place to hide out of the sun. They are pretty happy out there !

 So far we haven't caught any unwanted critters. Last year we had a few mice and probably a dozen salamanders visit our water garden. We even had several frogs get caught in there too. The kids loved it!!!

 Of course the flowers that come with spring. Below are Grandpa Leavitt's tulips blooming, just getting ready to turn to a peach color before they are done for the year.

BIRTHDAY'S!!! Well, technically we only have two birthdays in  May to celebrate in our family, but it feels like it has been a month long celebration for lots of reasons! And to top it off, this month was a milestone birthday as our oldest teenager, is no longer a teenager any more - now she will have to grow up.... Actually she is very grown up, what a wonderful and beautiful daughter she is.

PARTY'S!!! Grad all happened on the same weekend, but... there were at least 2 parties in that one weekend. What a fun time we had celebrating a high school graduate. We got to meet new people, and visit with friends and family. It doesn't get much better than that!

Above the dry grad party group in Lethbridge -- Below the guests start to arrive after the banquet.

There was also a great candle party this month! I love those good smells!!!

Of course that is not all, because with the ending of the month we are gearing up for yet another party - a grade nine grad!!! More to come on that...

MOTHERS DAY!!! I have to add mothers day because it was a wonderful day. I love that they give out flowers! I can look at mine any time and feel the joy and awe that I always feel when I see a beautiful flower - which to me is similar to the joy of motherhood. There is nothing as wonderful as watching your children grow and blossom into beautiful flowers. Motherhood is great!!!

 My mothers day flower stand filled with flowers.

 My mothers day calla lilies - yellow and purple (below). I LOVE calla lilies!!! They are so beautiful and unique!

I actually got a wonderful mothers day gift from my husband that appeals to my crafty nature, but for now I'll just share my flowers.

ILLNESS??!!! Yup, that's been there too, but I won't get into it. Two weeks of being sick in a month is more than my fair share. But I am kicking this cold! There is really nothing wonderful or great about actually being sick, but it is wonderful to see my family pull together and take care of the things I can't. I am so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people.

RAIN!!! I love the rain (as I already briefly mentioned). I love how things turn so green and all my outdoor watering gets caught up. We've had lots of rain this month and it has been wonderful!!! Those cloudy days made for good picture taking and the house stays cool (sometimes too cool, but I love it!).

ART!!!  I was so lucky! I got to take an art class in Medicine Hat at the college and learn how to make paper. It was a lot of fun, made more fun because of the great company I had of friends who were also taking the class. I didn't take any photos of my papers, but I found a picture that is similar to what I learned to make (below)! I think I made about 30 sheets of paper and I even made some paper shapes using rubber clay molds. When I use them I'll have to do a blog post so you can see the fun things I learned to do. I can't wait to make them into something  - I just have to decide if I'm going to paint of them, stamp of them or what....

Of course the month was filled with more than just the above, I guess that is what made it go so fast! What a joy it is to fill my days with wonderful things! I wonder what June will bring....

The Biggest Bubble Nobody Wanted!

Well, now that grad is over, I can share some of the things that have been keeping us busy around here in preparation for such a big event. The big thing was the dress. We got the dress in March - 10 weeks before grad. That was an exciting day. Alisha tried it on immediately and we were surprised to find that the back of the skirt actually folded up on itself!  That wasn't right!!! Who wants a bubble at the base of their zipper?

 As you can see, she could have just about filled it up and carried stuff around in it. So... I contacted the company we got the dress from. They gave us an allowance for alterations, but I didn't want to have to take the skirt off to fix the problem. So I got thinking....

 First thing I did was take off the upper part of the beading that held the front of the skirt gathered together. (I took pictures so I would remember what it was supposed to look like with beads!) I found that it had enough extra fabric in the seam there that it helped fix the problem a little bit. But we still had a pocket in the back. So I went to pinning it down.... This is what I came up with.

By this time it was Easter vacation, leaving  only 6 weeks to fix up the dress. It took some time to decide how I was going to hold all those folds in place, but we finally decided on  beads and we were even lucky enough to find some that were a very close match.

 I didn't get a lot of good pictures from the back, but this one shows the finished look pretty good. We made fabric flowers to cover where the folds join in the back. They were simple yet elegant and finished the dress off beautifully. I even made an extra one for her to wear in her hair.

In this picture you can kind of see the beads that hold the pleats in place. Once the pleats were all tacked down I rebeaded the embroidery on the front. That took care of the pocket problem.

 Time for problem number 2... the dickie for the back of the dress was not wide enough. I made a new one - that fortunately didn't take too long. I sewed on the snaps and we had that done. Then I made a dickie for the front of the dress so Alisha wouldn't have to worry about bending over during the evening. I know it is important to be comfortable in what we wear, and Alisha needed the confidence that comes in knowing she wouldn't have to worry about her attire betraying her in any way!

With the front dickie done, I whipped up a necklace for her to wear that completed her outfit. Craig provided her with a lovely corsage on the day of the banquet.

The last problem I had to deal with was of course the hem. There were about 3 layers of skirt in the front that had to be fixed - with all the pleating, we found that one side of the skirt hung shorter than the other. Thursday morning we got that all measured properly and cut off the excess. I had to lift the embroidered portion of the skirt so that the new hem would not go through it. Then I hemmed the remaining portions of the skirt that needed shortened. With that done, we discovered that the dress looked too short with the heels she had planned to wear, there were a few last minute changes in the shoe department and the project was complete!!! Alisha absolutely radiated in her dress. She was comfortable and happy and very, very beautiful.

Before the banquet began I whipped up two white rose boutonnieres. One for Craig and one for Chad. With time to spare, the dress was done and everything was in readiness. What a wonderful feeling. I love the feeling of accomplishment, and while I normally don't like to be doing things like this the day before - or in this case the day of the event, it worked out just fine with little or no stress at all. What a joy it is to be able to do these kinds of things for my children. It is a joy to be there for them and serve them. It is also a joy to be served - I got sick for about a week and a half earlier this month, and my children stepped right up and did the things that I could not do. What a joy and a blessing they are.

Grad 2012 - The Banquet

Friday night we attended the graduation banquet honoring our Alisha. Friday morning I completed the finishing touches on Alisha's dress (just the hem) and then we proceeded to help her get ready for the evening. Shylah did her hair for her and once that was done, we went out and took photos in the back yard. Let me share...

 So this dress has a story, which I will share in a separate blog post. It took a long time to get it just so and ready for grad. At one point Alisha was a little stressed because it wasn't done yet and she wasn't sure I could manage it. But it all worked out just fine and the weekend went off without a hitch.

 Above is a photo of the 2012 Sentator Gershaw graduating class.

 A random shot, courtesy of Naomi where Alisha and Shylah are heading back home after the photo session at the school.

 The grand march. I had a hard time getting any good photo's of this part of the evening. It seemed like every time I was ready to take a photo my subjects had either moved or someone had stepped between them and my camera....

 But in the end, they all stood together and I even lucked out enough to be standing right in front of where Alisha and her dad ended up!!! A great photo opportunity!

 Following the grand march Alisha got to dance the first dance with her dad. A momentous occasion and you can see they joy shining in both of their eyes.

 Following the parent dance, was the escort dance. This is Craig - Alisha asked him a few weeks back to be her escort. I had a hard time getting a good picture of them, but I know there are some good ones out there because there were a number of camera's focused in on this cute couple.

 And of course we had to take a photo of Alisha with both of her parents.

Following all the excitement at the school we returned to our place where family and friends greeted Alisha during the evening and into the night. The party wound down in the early morning hours with everyone in attendance seeming to have had a good time. I don't need to say much about joy in the form of words as you can see it radiated in nearly every one of the photos in this post. What a glorious evening! Thanks to all who came to support Alisha in the celebration of her graduation!

Grad 2012 - The Ceremonies

Thursday night we attended the 2012 Graduation ceremonies for Alisha. Yup, she is our second child to graduate, and it was a wonderful evening to celebrate with her. One of the highlights of the evening was the quote she had specifically found for grad which was printed nice and big on the program.

I loved going to grad and finding a quote from one of the apostles on the program - and well worth quoting too.
There were 29 grads honored during the evening, but of course, most of my photos center on my girl. So here they are...

Being introduced to the assembly.

 Checking out her diploma/certificate that she just received.

 During the ceremonies.

Just for fun, cap and gown photo shoot (minus the cap) - place: our back yard:

 In the tulips

Golden rays of sunshine...

Standing in the apple tree branches, we couldn't help but tease Alisha about the possibility of a bee mistaking her for a radiant blossom....

The full ensemble. Love that smile!!!

 

You would never know it, but Alisha was suffering from a nasty sunburn during these photos. She had only a few days before helped to shingle the roof of her grandparents home getting pretty burned in the process. In the outdoor photos above, she was hurting, but by Thursday night the burn was all but gone.

Gorgeous girl!

And one last random shot of our graduate!

What a joy it is to have a daughter that is as good as she is lovely. She is a joy to have in our home and such an important part of our family. We love her smile and her laugh. We love her humor, her successes and her friends. She is a shining example to all who know her. Congratulations to you Alisha on your high school achievements! You are awesome!!!

Too Much Fun

That's what my daughters called it and it fits - Too Much Fun!!! We had another birthday at our house and it was great to have everyone together to celebrate! They say a picture tells a thousand words, so read away...

Adding to the fun, the older girls took a walk and toted the camera along...

What a beautiful day for a birthday. The rains we have been having have turned the grass a rich green, flowers are blooming and the birds are singing. What a glorious time of year made all the better for me as I am surrounded with my wonderful children and loving husband. What a joy life is!