Morgan's 10th Birthday!

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY MORGAN!!

Today our oldest child, only daughter, turned 10. We aren't sure where the time has gone but somehow a decade has passed since she was born. We had some friends and family over for a little party for her. She helped make & frost her birthday cake. She had a good time and did well in the present department. LOL

She has grown so fast and is becoming a young woman right before our eyes. I am not sure we are ready for it at all. And I know it will be here before we know it. Heck, look how quickly the first 10 years have gone by. We are looking forward (for the most part) to the next 10 years, watching to see what kind of young adult she grows to become.

Here she is with her birthday cake. She did the flowers on top. :-) Happy birthday my sweet girl!

Handmade items, pictures

We have been working on creating handmade items lately. I am working on a project that my mom came up with...making totebags from cloth placemats. She read about it in a magazine and we thought we would give it a try since she has a huge supply of placemats. She was once obsessed with all things pertaining to entertaining. Corey has been working with my brother learning some woodworking. The first two projects are shelves for our living room...one low shelf unit to go under the window & has cubbies, one taller shelf unit for books.

Here is my first totebag. It doesn't have handles yet but I think it turned out pretty good. This is made from 3 cloth placemats.

Here is a side view, showing the squared off, flat bottom.

Here is the first shelf unit that Corey and my brother completed. Now I just need to cut & hem the curtains to fit above the shelf.

Tux and Bella just love hanging out on top of the shelf and looking out the front window, especially since it has cooled off and we have the windows open.

Chess

Alex has discovered chess. The other day we received a package for my brother from my dad. My brother asked me to go ahead and open it. In the package was this beautifully carved wooden chess set. Alex was very intrigued by it. Corey offered to show him how to play with his chess set. He's been playing as much as he can since then. He asks anyone that will listen if they will play a game of chess with him. Morgan has been shown how, by Corey, but didn't really do much after that. Well, now she's playing with Alex. :-) It is so neat to watch the two of them playing the game. On Tues I sat and watched them and decided to take some pictures. Here they are:

Here is Alex making his move.


Morgan makes her move.

Alex thinks about his next move.

Morgan seriously considers her next move.

A close up of the game.