Arts and Culture Night

 For the second year, our church has held an Arts and Culture Night to benefit a school in Syria that is a special mission project for a few members in our church. The event is held in the Fellowship Hall in our church basement and this year we had nearly 20 tables that showcased the skills and history of members of our church. I did a Canada table last year and wanted to do something new so I decided to showcase my love of sewing/costumes and photography. I made a display board of all the costumes I've made for Allison and I, including all the family costumes and photos from Allison's first year. People had a good laugh.

 There was also a raffle table where people and business made donations. I've been working on a stuffed horse pattern (to post on the blog) so I made two horses, one in a Royals theme, the other a pink unicorn. April's daughter won the unicorn and it made me so happy!

 There were also performances by members of our church. Some read poems that they had written, others gave dramatic readings. Some same originals songs, others played an instrument. Nathan read haiku poems.

 

Roe Park

Today I met up with 3 friends at Roe Park. It's a new park with great landscape and fun climbing obstacles. Allison is just about at the age where she can do everything so she had a great time. It was very hot today and in the full sun, we were sweating in t-shirts and jeans. The park was busy, and when it got too congested we all took a break and had a picnic lunch before heading home.

 

 

Wacky Wednesday

Last week was Dr. Suess' birthday and Allison's teachers had so much fun celebrating (they even made green eggs for the kids), that they decided to extend the party to include a "Wacky Wednesday" based on the Dr. Suess book. Kids were encouraged to dress wacky, do their hair wacky, or just be strange.

The classroom had streamers over the doors, the windows had funny curtains, the furniture was moved around, and Miss Kelly was even wearing roller skates!

Allison picked out some fun clothes (and insisted on an inside out shirt), mismatched socks, and then let me style her hair. She was very excited to go to school. It was also the first day of show and tell, and Allison was the first student to be invited to bring in something special from home. Each day, a student takes home the show and tell bag. You put one item in it that you can show the class. Allison picked her camera, and it was perfect for this wonderful wacky Wednesday. She came home with 50 pictures of blurry, funny dressed kids.

 

 

These are pictures that Allison's teacher sent out. The last picture is the kid's reactions to Miss Kelly roller skating into class.

 

Barefoot Romper

 I follow a blog called Twig and Tale that has so many perfect patterns for moms who love to work with refashioned materials. The author works primarily in wool felt and has over a dozen unique patterns that she sells on her website. I have bought 4 of her patterns (so far). Her latest pattern is the barefoot romper. It came in sizes NB-6, and has several different style options to customize your look. I know rompers aren't the most flattering piece of clothing, but I thought for an active kid like Allison it could work. For the material I used a thick knit fabric that I obtained by cutting up a maxi skirt that I no longer wear. The fabric was perfect for this project and Allison seems to enjoy wearing it. 

 

  A neighbor of ours uses her house as a day care and last night I noticed that there was a speed sign put up. There are quite a few cars who speed down our road so it's probably not a bad idea (although I don't know how they really help).

This afternoon we decided to go for a walk and test our speeds. Allison decided she's the fastest.

 

Outdoor Fun

 The weather is still warm here in KC and Nathan and Allison got out the sand table this week and are spending a lot of time making mud pies.

Today was an exceptionally windy day (a storm in coming) and Allison wanted to fly her Elsa kite. She doesn't quite understand kite flying yet, but she loves to run in circles til the wind catches it.

 

 The storm eventually came and brought fierce winds, lighting, and hail! This is a picture from a friend's facebook page of the hail.

Nathan took Allison out to the front porch to see the storm, and she liked snacking on the hail.

Last Day

It was our pastor, Adam Mitchell's, last day as lead pastor of Wornall Road today. We decided to all meet on the steps for a group picture. I used my tripod and remote for the picture (which is why our family is in the front row) and we gave Adam a copy at our member's meeting this evening.

The transition will be tough, as it was when John Mark left two years ago, and it feels like we haven't even recovered from his exit, but the future is bright. We have a great interim pastor coming in, and a lot of changes taking place over the next few months.

Balloons in the Tub

Allison loves having water balloons to play with in the tub, but after a few days I like to change them out. Today I taught her how to pop them and she was very excited.

Sand Child