Keepers pinning ceremony

Today, friends and I celebrated 9 months of achievement for six precious girls.  We were able to recognize them for finishing projects in the following categories, rubber stamping, cookie baking, latchhooking (by far the most time intensive!!), and soapmaking.  For these projects, they received a gold pin. They also received a silver pin for work in learning sign language.  In addition to the pins, they earned the patch for learning the goal and purpose of this group, as well as memorizing the following verse.  To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps.  1 Peter 2:21 This all is part of the Keepers at Home  group we joined in October.  

The girls are anxious for the ceremony to begin!

I was blessed to have a turn to pin my girls.

Six precious girls, learning to be Keepers at Home.

It's been awhile...

Hmm, it's been almost a month since I've blogged.  We've had some wonderful family times and have been busy trying to finish school.  We will be DONE tomorrow, June 15th.  YAHOOOOO!  We are looking forward to a bit of R & R for a few weeks, before July hits!

The month of July is going to be a bit crazy, but good crazy.  We will be spending a week at Camp Good News.  I'm excited for this opportunity to volunteer in this ministry. Then comes VBS two days after we return from CGN.  I will be teaching bible to the 1-2 graders.  I love this age group! Our theme is Saddle Ridge Ranch, I'm sure it will be a great week! And somewhere in there we will try to squeeze in a few school days!  We need to keep up with math facts and handwriting at the very least.

A few pictures of what we've been busy doing:

Cousins having fun in the sun!

A short but sweet visit with Nana.

Grand-dad playing with his granddaughters.

We helped celebrate Tim and Laurie's anniversary.  We went to eat at the Sebago Brewing Company and played at Deering Oaks Park playground.

We finally got out the fishing poles and discovered there are fish in this lake...

a 13 inch largemouth and...

a 3 inch "snack"

I finally got a picture of the nesting loon!

I don't know if it's a male or female, they take turns on the nest.  And no, I didn't get as close as this picture suggests.  I have a great zoom on my camera!

And, Em and Rach finished their latch hooking projects!  They have worked diligently on them since January.  We will be finishing it to a rug this week, but I had to share the project with all the stitches finished.  They worked HARD!

Well, I guess I'll sign off for now...until next time.

Summer has arrived!

Our summertime home away from home was delivered today by Kit of Destinations RV! Soon, we'll be heading over to our seasonal site to get it set up! I'm ready for summer, how about you?

Happy Mother's Day from LPV on Vimeo.

Sewing Lessons

Sewing Lessons 101:

Today, my friend, Karen, taught me how to sew these pajama shorts for Rachel and Emily. It was great fun, AND I feel like I could replicate what we did! I also learned I have been threading my machine WRONG for the past 5 years! No wonder I had such a hard time using the darn thing! Anyway, the girls loved the final product and are wearing them to bed tonight. SUCCESS!

Happy Spring

Some of the things I love about this time of year:

Children playing OUTside

Creeping Phlox

Clusters of May Flowers on the lawn

Bleeding Heart, or "Lady in a Bathtub"

Budding trees

Bergenia

Viola

And, Yes, even dandelions on the lawn!

Ahhh, I love springtime!

Artistic Pursuits

We are using this book for Art:

One of the things I really like about this curriculum is that it introduces many media types. Today, we used gouache paint for the first time. I've never heard of it and never would have just picked it up on my own to try. But the colors are bright and vibrant.

Another reason I chose to use Artistic Pursuits, is that I can teach art! I'm not artistic or creative, but the girls really love to draw, paint, sculpt, etc. So, with each lesson, they are learning art history, learning about different artists, and methods of creating art.

Here are the artists and their creations: