ahhh nooo

oh my goodness, you'll never guess what happened!!! we finally finished all the bird feeders we're making to raise money for Lunches of Love & when we woke up sunday morning they were ALL covered with mold!!! we had been planning on delivering all the bird feeders today & tomorrow so we could turn in our money on wednesday. we had to start over from scratch because the last thing we wanted to do was poison the sweet birds & not give out the best product we could make. to say the least we were devastated, we couldn't believe over 75 feeders were gone.  mommy emailed everybody to tell them their deliveries were going to be delayed & everyone understood which we were so grateful for. we switched bird foods when we started over & that solved the problem & now they are all looking wonderful. we've been staying up extra late to get them all done & we're making good progress... thank goodness!

we still have a bit more to go.

mabank rodeo

last night we went to the mabank rodeo was in town & it's been 3 years since we've last gone & it was even better than we remembered. one of daddy's favorite things is going to the rodeo every year & he's been wanting to go to this one for the last 3 years since he didn't get to go with us the 1st time. you should have seen his face when we walked in, he had the biggest smile on his face! he couldn't believe how close we were to the action, you could put your hand through the guard rail & touch the horses!

they had calf roping, barrel racing, a dancing contest, horse formations, buckin' broncos & this year they even had bull riding!!!

the bulls were a little wimpy, but there was one really good ride & we screamed like crazy for him.

my favorite was when the cowboys & cowgirls did the barrel racing, they were super fast! they even had a really funny clown out there to distract those crazy horses (he only got charged at once) & bulls... thank goodness he did a really good job.

i don't know if you remember but the last time we were at the mabank rodeo livi really wanted to do the calf scramble & she's been talking about it for the last 3 years. in the middle of the rodeo they had a 6 & under calf chase in the arena & it was finally time for livi to take the field. she also dragged daddy down there with her & off they went trying to catch a calf. livi was running so fast she ran right out of her boot & kept going. after some really really really uneven step she ran back to go get her boot & then kept after the calf.

if you look closely you'll see livi only has one boot on

then a little while later it was time for the 7-12 to go down for the calk scramble so down i went& of course i dragged daddy down there with me too. we had the best time running like crazy after those calfs, laughing the whole time. neither livi & i caught a calf, but we'll be back next year to try again!

of course after all that running we talked daddy into getting us cotton candy. because of the heat the cotton candy was melting (who knew that could happen) we were covered in one big sticky mess, but it was so good!

all in all we had the best time ever & can't wait for next year to do it all over again!

up up up & away

bb gun fun

this weekend we went to our nonie's house & boy did she have a surprise for us!!! she had bought a bb gun & we were going to learn how to shoot it! see nonie lives in gun barrel city & their town motto is "we shoot straight with you" & it was time we learned how since we visit so much! of course daddy was super excited when he heard this & we knew we were going to have to be prying the bb gun out of his hands so we could have our turns. helpa gave us a run down on how to cock, aim & shoot the bb gun at the target. nonie made us a big shiny target for us to shoot at out of the way from windows, cars, pets & people! we got that part down pretty good,  we just kept forgetting that when we're not aiming at the target to aim the bb gun at the sky & not at people... oops.

we had so much fun & loved shooting the bb gun! livi & i had pretty good aim also & we even hit the target several times. we loved hearing the sound of the ping when the bb hit the foil pan!

 sometimes daddy would help us get lined up with the target if we were having trouble, but for the most part we were in control!

after we had been shooting for a while we even got to shoot at the same time... the adults were feeling pretty comfortable with our shooting skills!

of course daddy, helpa & nonie had to get some shooting time in also, i think they were shooting for bragging rights more than anything. i have to say every time they shot it was followed by a ping & they would have ruled the wild west!

of course when we were all done shooting, livi & i raced to the target to see how many dents we could count in the target... they were everywhere! we can't wait till we're back at monies for some more target practice!

4 generations

bird feeders

ok, remember we told you in our last post about how we came up with an idea on how to raise money so we can sponsor 2 children for the Lunches of Love summer sponsorship? well we're making the cutest homemade bird feeders for $2 a piece. they come in all different types of shapes for people to choose from (like a heart, star, daisy, butterfly, tulip, tractor, guitar, a fluffy cloud, mustache, cross & our biggest seller the awesome state of texas) & they're about 2 inches thick, plus birds looooove them! so far we have 72 orders that we're working on! let me tell you we had no idea that people were going to like them this much & we are eating, sleeping, breathing bird food right now! but we are so happy that so many people want to help us reach our goal & hopefully we'll be deleviring everyone's order on monday & tuesday so we can turn in our money on wednesday... whoo hoo! don't worry if you still want to order one we will be more than happy to make it for you!

if you want to make these fun bird feeders to here's how you do it. it's super easy, but it gets sticky really fast! also if you have a dog be prepared for them to go crazy drooling over the smell... we had to really watch our bird feeders while they dried so sadie wouldn't get to them.
you'll need:
~3/4 bird food (we got the seed for small birds)
~1/4 cup water~`1 small envelope of knox gelatin
~twine or string
~any shape cookie cutters (the smaller the parts on it, the harder to get out)
~wax paper

what you'll do:
~ mix together the envelopes of gelatin with 1/4 of water & bring to a simmer while stirring. continue stirring until the gelatin is dissolved.
~ remove from heat & let cool for a minute.
~ stir in the 3/4 cup birdseed, adding a little more if there is still liquid in the bottom of the pan.
~ lay your cookie cutters out on the wax paper & fill half way with the birdseed mixture.

~ cut your twine, knot the end & push the knot down into your birdseed.

~ continue filling  with birdseed, covering the end of your twine & knot.

~ push the birdseed evenly into the cookie cutter until it's full.

~ allow them to dry overnight. turning them over every now & then.

~ remove from cookie cutters & hang them in your trees

~ then wait by the window to watch for your very first guest.

lunches of love

for a few weeks now we've been serving at Lunches of Love & it's amazing. "LoL is a non-profit organization that is designed to help end childhood hunger in richmond-rosenberg by providing children in need a free nutritious sack lunch during extended school holidays & weekends. many children living in families facing food insecurity rely on school lunch as their only meal of the day. Lunches of Love helps fill the gas during extended school holidays (christmas break, spring break & summer vacation). LoL offers children in need a nutritious sack lunch & snack. in addition, the also sends home child friendly, non-perishable, vitamin fortified food for the weekend to those in need."  every monday -friday there are 2 shifts you can volunteer for. shift one: consists of sack bag decorators, making sandwiches & assembling lunches. shift two: travels to pre-determined sites to distribute the lunches. at least once a week if there is opening we sign up to help because we love being there & the shifts fill up  super fast! so far we've only been bag decorators which means we decorate as many brown paper lunch sacks as we can in 2 hours. we take this job very seriously because it's the first thing the children see & we want it to light up there face with a smile when they see all the love put in it just for them. we decorate the bags with stickers, stamps, crayons & markers. you can draw pictures, write silly jokes, put down an inspiring quote or whatever you like as long as it's something you'd like to see on a package if you were getting it! next week we're on the schedule to be part of the assembly line... whoo hoo, we can't wait! if you'd like to check out more about this amazing organization just click here!

we love being able to help out in any way we can & we want be a part of their summer sponsorship which is donating $50 to feed a child for the entire summer. so of course right now we're trying to raise $100 so can feed 2 children!!! we'll tell you more about how we're raising money in our next post, but we know we will do it! remember as we always say any little bit helps in your community as long as you're doing something that's all that matters!

art lesson: eggs & mushrooms

during the summer my awesome art teacher at school teaches art lessons at her house & today was livi & i's first lesson. it was cool going over to her house, there's art everywhere & she even has her own art studio!!! i decided i wanted to try another ukrainian egg since my last one cracked. ukrainian eggs are amazing, beautiful & very delicate! you decorate the eggs using a wax-resist method, you don't paint on the designs you write them on with beeswax. you heat up the wax in a small bowl then you use a stylus to write your designs any part of the egg shell covered with wax will stay white. then you dip your egg in the first color you choose, after the dye is set you cover that color in with the stylus dipped in wax to keep that color & then dip again. the most important part is you always tip lightest to darkest. after you've dipped all your colors you put the egg in a stove for a few minutes to heat up the wax so you wipe it all off easily. it's a very long but rewarding process & i love the way my egg turned out!

my sketch

livi has been wanting to take lessons with me for a while now & instead of waiting for school to begin we decided to try it now & she loved it. she woke up at 7:00 am  because she was so excited & couldn't wait to start her lesson... she already knew what she wanted to paint a mushroom painting. ms marine & livi surfed the internet before livi found the exact thing she was thinking of & off to work she went. she made a sketch first & then drew it again with marker on canvas & after that it was time to start painting. livi's favorite part of the painting was the lightening bugs after she finished painting everything she got to go back with glow in the dark paint to go over her dots that were her lightening bugs so they'd really light up at night.  we can't believe how awesome her pairing is & we all love, we can't wait for daddy to hang it up! 

livi's sketch

we are so excited for next week's lesson because they last about 3 hrs & it's so wonderful getting to create whatever you want!