Here We Go...

It's finally the day!  Today is the day we start our journey to Arizona.  

Earlier in the year we discovered that we could fly out of Stuttgart a little bit cheaper than flying out of Zurich.  Since I have some family living in Stuttgart right now, we decided to do it.  We are driving up there today, staying the night and flying out in the morning.

It has been a LONG week for everyone in our house.   I'm ready for a vacation.  I've been doing the laundry, cleaning, doing the laundry, cleaning and doing the laundry.  During all of the preparations I decided I needed a new carry-on for the trip.  I looked and looked and couldn't really find anything I liked and then the thought came, "I'll just make something."  Really?  Make something?  It's Thursday night.  You leave on Saturday?  But that's not how my brain was working.  It was thinking, "Hey! It's only Thursday!  You can make something!"  Well, folks I did.  It's a bit rushed and I'm thinking I won't do that again (but let's be realistic, I probably will). 

Sorry for the crummy picture quality.  The good camera was already packed. Isn't it cute?  

I even made some smaller bags to stick inside.  Didn't get any pictures of those. I ran out of time (big surprise there).  

So now we just do the last minute things in the house, grab our 

passports...

and GO!!

See you in Arizona folks.  

Summer Time

The sun finally decided to make an appearance last week.  It's about time, is all I have to say.  The temperature went right up into the 90's.  So thankful.  I was starting to wonder if we were going to just swing past spring and summer and head right back into fall.  

Last week we had visitors from home.  It was great fun catching up with them.  Our kids are very similar in age and personality.  The visit was nice.  On a particularly sunny day we decided to grab some baskets and head to a local farm to pick strawberries.  The kids had a lot of fun and picked quite a few strawberries.  We finally cut them off and headed off to pay.  We really should have been paying more attention to how many they picked.  We quickly realized we would be needing to turn some of our 26 pounds of strawberries into jam.  Ha!  It was fun and we managed.  

I really wish we lived closer.  It was so nice catching up on our friendship.  I hope that we can have more of these pictures in our future.

Thanks for the visit friends.

Bowling Birthday

This past May Adrian turned 8 years old.  It's hard to believe he's so big.  For his birthday party he invited 3 of his friends for a bowling/pizza party.  They had a blast.  I was tired.

Here is Adrian in action.

He's a pretty good bowler and was even the winner at his party.

After bowling we headed over to our local pizza place - Vulcano Pizza.

I took this picture from inside (just incase you couldn't figure that one out). The weather was TERRIBLE for his birthday.  Thank goodness we picked indoor activities.

  

Adrian doesn't like cake.  But he does like watermelon.  

Thanks to Pinterest, I came up with this friend. 

The kids thought he was pretty cool.  

I think the party was a success.  Adrian enjoyed himself, got some very cool gifts and seemed happy.  

Happy Birthday Adrian!

Everybody Is Kung Fu Fighting...

A couple of weeks ago Adrian had his first Kung Fu test.  

We are so proud of him.

This particular test was a Swiss wide event.  Kids and adults from all over Switzerland came.  Altogether there was about 500 kids in attendance.  It was a bit of a mad house.  However I was very impressed how they managed to keep 500 kids in rows and in pretty good order.

Here is Adrian holding up his certificate for a group photo.

Hold up your certificate!

 Doing a little warm up.

 Looking good buddy!

 There were teachers everywhere helping out the kids and making sure the movements were correct.

Pow!

 After the group photo and all the warming up and practicing, each test level performed their test.  

Adrian did awesome!

 Here is Adrian receiving his certificate (now signed) and his Phoenix badge. 

Here's to a great day of Kung Fu.

Rivets

I finally finished a bag I've been working on for almost two months.  I had someone ask me if I made any bags with leather straps.  I had been thinking about it and went right to work.  I found a place that sells the straps I was looking for and ordered them.  The company wasn't very impressive and it took them 10 days to ship and then a couple of weeks before it finally reached my front door.  In the mean time I went looking for rivets to fasten on my straps.  I found some with a kit and brought them home.  I made the bag and prepared the straps.  When I got out the tools I knew something wasn't quite correct, but I just plunged ahead.  I hammered away and smashed those poor rivets to death.  After smashing three rivets I realized I needed to go and get the correct tools...shocking.  I ordered them and they came today.  

Here it finally is.  It's one of my favorites. 

 It's for sale in my Etsy shop.  

It was awfully tempting to keep it.

I like it.  I think I'll be making another.

New Bag Inspiration

I haven't sewn anything for a while.  I finally just went into the sewing room and got to work.  

Here is the result.

A cute canvas bag.

I'm pretty proud of this one.  It has an adjustable strap.  

That way you can wear it on your shoulder or -

 Across your body.  That part comes in handy when you need both hands to corral two rambunctious boys.

I think it would make a great diaper bag 

or just a fun bag to tote around.  

Check it out at the shop.

Plants

Spring has finally sprung.  

Thank goodness.  I was starting to wonder if it would ever come and if my tulips were ever going to bloom.  For some time, they were just sprouts of green leaves and nothing else.  I had to fight the snails off hoping that it would not be in vain and they would flower.  They did not disappoint.

Ryan and I planted a few more plants in some pots for the balcony today.

Not so sure about this set up.  The clouds were starting to roll in so that is where I plunked them down. The geraniums are the new plants.  That other one (not sure what it's called) managed to survive the winter and has sprung up from last year.

It was kind of an emergency planting session.  I realized my hydrangeas were looking a little wilted and need to be planted right away.  So here they are.  Probably one of my most favorite plants to have in the garden.

These next flowers are the last of the new ones for this spring.  I spotted them a couple of weeks ago at the nursery and scooped them up right away.  For one, I like the color and two, they remind me of a flower my grandma Davis used to have.  These are slightly different.  But I'm positive they are from the same family.  They filled a flower bed right off of her front  porch.  And when the flowers were closed the green foliage reminded me of green beans.  I used to wonder if they tasted the same...I never tried it though.  

Here they are in my garden, many miles away from Casa Grande.  Even so, when I look out at them I feel just a little bit closer to home and family.