County Fair Kid Entries

On the seventh day, God rested. His grandchildren must have been out of town. Gene Perret

What a fabulous, fun day we had with Robert and Laurel yesterday! They are all atwitter with excitement about the upcoming county fair and the entries they are preparing.

Their enthusiasm and energy far exceed the energy and time that their grandfather and I have. I guess not making parents of people our age is further evidence of God’s wisdom. But then, there was Sarah and Abraham…I wonder how they managed!

Laurel will enter the knitted scarf she just finished for her American Girl doll as well as her AG sleeping bag. We worked all day on a cute little jumper, which she has nearly completed.

Laurel is so proud of her “little Brother.” This machine (PE 300S) and its newer versions (PE-350 and 400) are perfect in size and user friendliness for children as well as adults. It weighs just 15 pounds and is very compact.

The pattern, from Martha Pullen’s book, Martha’s Favorite Applique’s, is worth the cost of the book and a terrific project for junior sewists. The construction technique is so clever that Laurel called it “sewing magic.”

The pattern’s only disadvantage is that the largest size is 6. She wears a 6 now, but I enlarged the pattern a little so that it should still fit in the spring. I’m going to look for a similar pattern in larger sizes that is compatible with this technique.

Adrian Frame from Planet Applique (www.planetapplique.com)

A huge advantage to this pattern is its “blank canvas” property, making it suitable for any embellishment, from machine or hand embroidery to standard applique’ and more. Laurel chose to add an embroidered monogram, beginning with the Adrian Frame from Planet Applique, filled in with the “L” from one of the PE-Design alphabets.

Robert will be entering artisan bread, from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipe.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFJZPm-_2-M

We successfully made two loaves some time ago, but what an operation this latest effort was!

The recipe calls for 6-1/2 cups of flour, the first of which was dropped on the floor. Then, as I demonstrated measuring and leveling the filled cup with a table knife blade, flour was flying everywhere. While I cleaned up, Robert slipped off to the bathroom to wash the flour off his new shirt. Of course, it turned to paste!

In all that confusion, Laurel simply could not stop talking! We lost count of our flour measurement and apparently used just 5-1/2 cups. After the dough rose, it was obvious that its consistency was more like batter, so we kept adding more flour, attempting to firm it up. Robert still ended up with pancake shaped “loaves.”

But it wasn’t a total disaster. While drinking milk and munching on a piece of toasted bread, Laurel told her brother enthusiastically, “This is delicious, Robert. ‘Course, everything tastes better with Uncle Harvey’s homemade mayhaw jelly.”

It’s going to take a lot of flour and yeast to get an entry-worthy loaf baked. He is dying to get to the sewing machine to make a tote on my Brother Duetta 4500D. Earlier, Laurel smiled at him as she cleverly offered her little brother the use of her Little Brother.

He declined her generous offer. He wants to explore the embroidery edit feature, use the motorized needle threader and transfer a design to the machine from the memory stick through the USB port. We call him Technology boy. He just can’t wait to sit down with this amazing machine.

While I was making lunch and cleaning up some of the baking mess, Laurel “trained” for her second kiddie triathlon next month. In 90 degree mid-day heat, she biked 2 miles, ran 1/2 mile and swam 50 meters, in just under 24 minutes. The child is driven, often worrying that her competition is training harder than she is.

Robert, a boy after my own heart, wanted no part of this sweaty business and followed Laurel in the golf cart with his Granddad. But after Laurel’s 50 meter swim he joined his sister and Bob (Granddad) in the pool for water games and general splashing around.

While Laurel and I sewed, Robert finished a woodworking project in shop with Bob. Lowe’s has a really nice selection of kits for children. Grandson and Granddad do some major male bonding when they shop together at the big Man Cave. (Laurel prefers JoAnn’s.Yay!)

When Robert finished his woodworking, the batteries in my camera were dead because I had forgotten to turn it off.So we have no pictures of his little golf game. He wants to paint it next time, so I’ll get a photo then. The children love seeing their pictures in this blog.

Some time ago in this blog, I posted the below photo of Alee, my friend Suzanne’s granddaughter, modelling a crocheted hat that Suzanne had made for her, along with the matching doll hat.

Note the boy in the background, doing homework at the dining room table.

When Suzanne was showing this post to Alee, her brother (that would be the boy in the background) glanced at it as he walked by.”That’s me!!!! That’s me!!! I’m on the internet!!!!” he exclaimed. Suzanne hadn’t noticed. He immediately sent out a mass distribution e-mail to all of his friends and family members with a link to the post. Suzanne said that if this blog registers a lot of new 9 year-old readers, I can thank Carter.

Kids are wonderful! And exhausting.