Cross Country

Aidan has been on the school's cross country team for the last three years, and I don't know who he inherited it from, but he LOVES it. He definitely has a runners body - at a whopping 65 pounds he is almost up to my chin so he is basically all arms and legs. Last week we made the trip to Kemptville for the first meet. Aidan placed 133 out of 150, but he had fun and that's all that matters. This Monday we headed to their second meet (At the Iroquois Locks in the drizzling rain). This time Aidan placed 131 out of 190 runners!

Aidan and his best friend, Cole.

Cole's brother, Silas, and their mom. Beth. Silas' green mohawk was all about school spirit and great to pick him out of the group of 180 runners!

Stretching with the team and coach, Mr Crawford.

Coming into the finish line - "Go Aidan!"

You Can Machine Quilt! - Class #1

Today is the first day of the machine quilting class that I am teaching at Taylor Sewing Centre. My students all seem very eager - I have talked to many of them on the phone or in the quilt shop and they can't wait to get going! Here is what we are going to practice today.

Lego at 6:00 am!!

Yesterday morning, the day after the birthday party, the boys were up at 6:00 am to assemble all of the new Lego sets. The hit of the party was the Mindstorms NXT robotic set that Aidan got from Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa and Nana. Here he is with the new little robot - we still need to give him a name. I suggested Rob-E, but we'll see what Aidan decides.

Carson loved the "Agents - Mission 3" set that Aidan got.

Even Pugsley had to get in on the action. He dosen't like the little robot though when he get going!

Aidan is TEN!!!

Well, the day has finally arrived. My son is ten - and as my friend said "face it you are now OLD!!" How did that happen? Where did those 10 years go? At one minute it feels like just yesterday when we brought him home to meet Casey (our dog), and the next minute it feels like forever ago. Now I'm worried that the next 10 years will fly by in a flash as well and before I know it he'll be 20. (Wow - then I'll be really old).

Anyway, his birthday was yesterday, and for his party we had 6 boys over (to make a total of 8 boys ranging from 7 to 10) for Chinese food/cheese pizza and a movie. Boy, can 8 boys eat!! I thought we would have tons of leftovers but they ate almost everything. Afterwards we had ice cream cake and fireworks (left over from Canada Day).

All of his friends know him well - he got Lego from almost all of them! Just what we needed - more Lego.

Here they are launching air rockets on the backyard - I had to man the upper deck as the rockets kept getting stuck up there.

First Day of School

I've finally gotten around to downloading these pictures off of my camera. Here are the boys (and Pugsley) waiting for the school bus on the first day of school.

Ike strikes Mallorytown

Last night the remnants of Hurricane Ike passed through our area. We had one limb of a maple tree come down and our little cedar hedges that we had transplanted last weekend all need to be put back upright and tied to some of the bigger trees. My parents, however, had a shock this
morning to find their huge oak tree lying on top of their dock!! Luckily they had put their boat away for the season in a different place than usual (any other year it would be upside down on top of the dock). I guess mom won't have to worry about picking up all those pesky acorns next summer.

September Free Pattern of the Month

Happy Haunting - by Fairfield Road Designs, is our latest free pattern of the month with any purchase from http://www.fairfieldroaddesigns.com/ ! If you place an order through the website, send me a separate email and quote this coupon code: FPOTM02. I will then include this free pattern with your order shipment. Next month we will have another new free pattern available with a new coupon code, so check back regularly.

Back to school

The kids have been back to school for a week now and I am already sick of making lunches!!
But, now that the boys are at school and all the pharmacists are back from holidays, my time is finally freed up a bit, to do some actual QUILTING related activities (note that I didn't actually say quilting itself). I spent this last week getting ready for my presentation at the Common Threads Guild, so now that that is done, I'm moving on to my next task - getting ready for my fall line up of classes at Taylor Sewing Centre. Their Open House is this weekend, and classes start next week!! My "You CAN machine quilt" class is almost full and that's the first one on my roster, so now I need to work on my handouts for that class. It should be lots of fun, and since it is 6 weeks long, I'll really get to know my students (although I have a sneaking suspicion that I probably know most of them already).
Maybe once I'm done my class prep I'll get to do some actual quilting - hope so!

Common Threads Guild

I've just gotten home from Ottawa, where I spent the evening being the guest speaker at the Common Threads Guild. Nellie and I were supposed to be giving this lecture together, but she was organizing a lecture/workshop for the guild in Lindsay at the same time as I was organizing this lecture, and by the time we realized that the 9th of September was the SAME day as the second Tuesday in September, we had both finalized the arrangements. So my parents drove up to Ottawa with me, we did some shopping then went to a Garry and Susan Schultz's for dinner. Dad then stayed to spend the evening with his old friend Garry while us girls headed to the guild meeting.
My talk was entitled "Turning your hobby into a business" and the guild was very receptive and had lots of great questions afterwards. They also had a great time "shopping" after my talk, as I had brought along a selection of books and patterns to sell.
Donna Taylor, from Taylor Sewing Centre donated a Laurel Burch tote bag and we donated books and "A Needle Pulling Thread" magazines so the guild used these for raffle prizes.
It was a fun night, but now I should be heading to bed - thanks Common Threads!