Apron Party!

Our friends, the McPhollands, are moving away. We love them so. It will be crazy to not have them here. To remember my sweet friend, Kim, I threw her an apron party. We first met the McPhollands at our house for a small group/HFG/AMC (we called it the LMNOP). It was a small group from 3 different churches and it was wonderful.

Before the party, I had all of the ladies of the LMNOP pick out a material to represent them. The aprons we were making would have six ruffles, one for each of us. Tiffany sent us her fabric via a photo, because she forgot to mail it from Missouri, so Kim chose one for her from my stash. She also picked one for Kristy, who stopped by for a little while between other engagements and helped sew, because her fabric was dry clean only.

Kim, Shari, Crystal and I before the hours of cutting, ironing, sewing and pulling of ruffles begins. Here's our beginning picture at 2:30pm:

Crystal and Kim had never sewn before, so to make it easier, we ironed the hems.

They both did so great and were fast learners. It was quite an ambitious project, well, six ambitious projects because we made aprons for Kristy and Tiffany, too.

Crystal and Kim pulling ruffles!

We settled into a pattern after a while. Shari sewed ruffles, Crystal and Kim pulled the ruffles and pinned them on the aprons and I sewed them on. It was quite the assembly line. I have a ruffle fetish. Hopefully, I didn't scar my friends too much and they will still love them after this. 

We finally finished all the aprons at 11:50pm just as we were starting to fade. We don't stay up that late, we're mamas! This was a different party for sure, but totally Kim worthy! She's a different girl anyway who's always up for anything! It was a labor of love. Fun memories and cute aprons and deeper friendships were made! We love you, Kim! 

We will miss you Joe, Kim, Reagan and Pippa! Love, The Johnsons

Our Home in May

April showers bring May...ranaculas! One of my favorite flowers I've been trying to grow for years finally bloomed!

Jasper and Opal have been working on counting money. Counting by ones, fives and tens is way more fun when we get to play "store".

Time for Indian Stew Packets! Warm weather means we get to go outside more, have bonfires to burn all the fallen branches and get really dirty!

Berg and Mama by the lake eating our packet dinner.

The dining/home school room is finished! Well, it has been for a while except for a naughty little electrical outlet, but now that Peter fixed it we can finally say, "It's done!" Here's the finished product of a bedroom removal turned into a living room that officially turned our home from a three bedroom into a two bedroom home.

I would still like to replace the china hutch in the corner with something else. I just don't know what yet.

The garden is growing! Hee hee hee hee!

Awana Awards

Not only was Awana necessary for our family to be in a small group this year, but it really helped us step up learning our Bible verses. The kids worked really hard at memorizing verses this year at Awana. They love the Sparks and Cubbies programs.  Since it's the one extracurricular thing we are doing right now we can spend a lot of time working on verses and finishing our handbooks.

Kivi worked really hard this year and after finishing her review book she memorized tons of extra verses. She earned five special award pins and got a special mention at the ceremony and her name in the bulletin at church. 

Jasper finished his first year of Sparks, and even finished his review book and earned a special pin.

Eben finish his last year of Sparks, finishing his review book, earning 2 special award pins and received his Sparky plaque. I can't believe he'll be a TNTer next year!

Way to go kiddos! You did so well! Dada and I are so happy with all your hard work and determination memorizing those verses!