Avery Turns Two

 I really am behind, so here goes.

It was Avery's birthday last month.

He loves "Dinys" so his party was dino themed.

Here are a few of my favorite pics from the party.

Picked up a used Cozy Coupe and brought it with us all the way from MI!

He LOVED it

Playing trucks with papa.

With both grandmas and one of his great grandma's on the left.

Gigi and Papa picked up the balloons.

I had the get the "Diny" bundle.

With his mama and dad.

Probably my favorite photo from all that I took.

He had a blue ring pop and this was when he realized his tongue had turned blue, LOL.

It was such a fun day and I wish I could slow down time.

He is my favorite and my heart.

Gigi loves you Bubba!

~XOP~

Quilt Retreat

 Every year, to celebrate my birthday and my friend, 

Cori's birthday, we go to a retreat at Creative Passions.  

This year was no exception. 

 I went with my friend, Cori, my sister in law, Mary and our friend from WI, Traci. 

 We had a blast, as usual AND we were all super productive! 

 Win-Win! 

One of my goals was to finish making my Ocean Waves blocks. 

 I think I needed 36 blocks total and was down to my last 4.  

These blocks have a LOT of pieces so take me a long time to sew, but I got them finished.  

The quilt will be too large to try to lay out at retreat so I just opted to finish the blocks.

Here is one of the blocks.

I did finish an entire top but it was a super secret project so I can't share it just yet.

Trust me when I say you are totally going to want this new pattern!

It was a pattern test for Apples and Beavers.

We all took a trip to Seven Sister's Quilt shop as we usually do. 

 I bought a kit for the cutest Coo by Art East Quilting

Me and my sweet SIL

The people that own the retreat now have a new quilt shop.

We, of course, had to go visit that too.

It was a cute little shop!

I found some adorable fabric to use for lining a mondo bag!

Of course I brought Jack with me.

He so loves to hang out with us ladies!

We ended up in the basement of the house this summer.

Usually we are in the back side of the church but we had a date glitch.

The basement is where we usually go in February.

This is the set up we have there.

We had to try out the new Mexican place.

Check out that Margarita!

Since that following Monday was my birthday, this was the gift from Cori.

I use SO much white thread she gave me a whole pack, plus some pretty teals.

Also, that adorable bunny fabric!

Traci gave me this cute kit to make a hanging pod.

She knows me too well.

Look at that Heather Ross fabric!!

Traci brought us all a kit and me an extra kit.

I made mine, and Mary's and Cori's for them too.  

Then I made one out of the cutest cat fabric too, once I got home!

I am so far behind on my postings.

I hope to catch up soon though.

So much to share

~XOP~,

Quilt Retreat

Jack and I got all packed up for our "Up North" retreat.

He was pretty excited to go even thought it was just going to be me and my SIL.

I did not take many pictures this time though

We went to Seven Sisters quilt shop and I fell in love with this pixilated map of Michigan

I bought the pattern.

I am hoping to make this for our camper.

This weekend we called the Baby Edition of our quilt retreat.

We mostly worked on baby things for my daughter and Mary's grandchildren.

I did make one crib sheet.  I have fabric for 2 more.

Do you remember all those paper pieced letters and numbers I was making?  

Well I am using them to make a baby's Milestone Mat for GB1.  

I don't want to show you the entire mat as I want it to be a surprise for my daughter at her shower next month, but here is a sneak peek.  

The mat is my own design but the letters, and numbers are from other designers 

(at Quiet Play and From Blank Pages).

I also finished sewing the lines and cutting them on a chenille blanket.  

Also, not going to show it until it is gifted next month.  

I used the Tula Pink all stars blue and green owls for the back.  It is SO adorable!

It was my birthday on Saturday (yes 7/11), I'm so lucky, LOL.  

We got all crazy and did a few snap chat pics together.

We got so busy we never even made it out for dinner either night and stayed up WAY too late!

We had a bridal shower to attend on Sunday for a niece so had to leave early.  

Which was a bummer but the shower was great!

My eldest daughter gave me the coolest gift.  It is a hand painted peacock egg (from one of her birds).

The scene is from my favorite childhood (and adult) places to go.  

We went there every weekend from April 15-October 15 from the time I was born 

until I left home for college. 

 I love Hardy Dam!  

Such fond memories of growing up on the water.  

Met my best childhood friend there.  

Got my first visit from Aunt Flo there.  

Fell in love for the for the first time there (one of many, LOL). 

 Learned all about nature there.  

Many of my best memories occurred there.  

I instilled that same love for HD in my kids but I think especially in this daughter.  

I think some of their favorite childhood memories included Hardy Dam too even though they didn't go nearly as much as I did.

As you can see there is a string to hand it.  

I need to find a small thing to hand it from.  I knew immediately what the scene was.  

I was quietly looking at it and she said, excitedly, "It's Hardy Dam!"  

I said, "I know!"  

I don't think she thought I knew where it was.  

I knew immediately.

This is a very cherished gift, so thoughtful on her part.  

~XOP~

Happy 60th To My Dear Sweet Hubby

I don't talk about my hubby a lot on my blog but today I am going to celebrate him. 

 His 60th birthday was Wednesday.  

We have been married almost 35 years.  

I don't know how I would get along without him by my side.  

He is not only my husband but truly my best friend.  

I wanted to do something special for his big birthday, as I knew we would be away on his actual day.  I tired to plan a trip but he was NOT having that, haha.  

So I conspired with his uncle to plan a surprise birthday party!  

He is pretty quiet and keeps to himself except where his family is concerned.  

He loves to hang out with his family.  He is the oldest of 7 kids.  

I invited his entire, gigantic family.  

Almost everyone made the effort to show up too.  

I could NOT have done it without his sister, Mary's help.  

Also his aunt and uncle who offered up their house for the party.  

My sweet SIL, Jackie, also had her sister make the most amazing cake too.

So the plan was that everyone would be to the farm at a specific time.  

I flew our daughter in from NC so on Saturday morning I went to the airport to pick her up.  

He was at our church doing landscaping work with others for the day so I had the day to myself.  

My daughter and I went out for breakfast then I dropped her with the eldest daughter.  

I had gone shopping with the eldest on Friday to get fruit and veggies to make for the party.  Everything was in place.

Surprisingly everyone showed up on time!  

I was texting with my eldest the entire drive to the party (an hour away).  

We pulled up and got out and his uncle came over to greet us.  

He turned Chris away from the garage door and tried to put the door up.  

His son was trying to do the same thing from inside so the door kept going up and down in the space of about a foot for a bit.  

Hubby turned and asked what was going on with the door. 

 We could hear giggling inside, which he thought was his uncle's grand kids.  

Then...the door went up and everyone yelled SURPRISE!!!  

Hubby just stood there like, "wait...what?"  

He was so confused and had no idea what was happening. 

 HAHA it could not have been more PERFECT!

We went inside and it was an amazing party.  

I had BBQ catered in and my SIL Mary made potato salad and coleslaw (I still need that recipe).  

I also had the BBQ place bring mac and cheese, OMG you guys, it was so good!

This is the cake.  It was an old man of the sea theme.  

My SIL got him a top hat that had "60" on it.  That is my younger daughter next to him.

Around the table, me, hubby, middle daughter, eldest daughter and BIL.

 Hubby with his middle brother, Mark.

Hubby and me

His uncle gave him this walker.  HILARIOUS.

Blowing out the candles

Family!

Chris's uncle explaining how to work the walker.  Notice the fishing pole, LOL.

 My daughter and me.

My daughter and us.

I could NOT have done this without the help of so many other people.  

It was so nice to be able to celebrate such a special day with our entire family (almost).  

Thank you to everyone that made this such a special day.  

As we were falling asleep that night, he turned to me and said, "Thank you for today". 

 I know it meant so much to him.

~XOP~

My Son's Birthday

Birthdays are great except when they happen around the holidays. 

 Well, they are still great, but it is more difficult to make them special.  

My son's is the day after Christmas!  

This year we drove to GR to see my sister and her boyfriend and exchange gifts.  

We all went out for dinner and my son got to have steak for his birthday dinner.

He had asked me to make him a Samoa cheesecake for his birthday cake.  

I gave it a try and it was AMAZING!  

Just let me tell you how much I wanted to face plant right in that cheesecake!!!

This is supposed to mimic the Girl Scout Samoa cookies. 

So amazing!

He thought I had forgotten him as I had a handmade gift for everyone but him on Christmas.

 I think he knew as soon as he lifted it out of the box what it was.

He had asked me to make him a Detroit Sports Quilt.  

The very first thing he said was "Why did you put Michigan in there?" 

 I laughed and reminded him that when he originally asked me to make the quilt he asked me to include both Michigan and Michigan State.  

I put gray Minky on the back and it was so soft.  He loved it.

 Happy birthday to my son.  

You are an amazing young man and I can't wait to see what the future holds for you!

Love, Mom xoxo

~XOP~