Congrats!

Congratulations to the class of 2011!  Friday, May 27th was the last day of school here in New Mexico.  As always you could point out who the seniors graduating were just by looking at their cars.  All covered in shoe polish with some form of them being a senior written across the back window. 

And Cibola House Preschool joined in the festivities.  Although not every kid was moving on to kindergarten - Logan still has two more years of preschool - everyone still got to "graduate."

The graduates lining up.

Aw, my little boy and his pal, Emma.

Recital for parents.

The children put on a recital for us parents before receiving their diplomas.  The teachers and us were so thrilled that Logan joined in this time (read: holiday recital)  The recital consisted of all the children's favorite songs they sang throughout the year.  The first one being "Rainbow Train" followed by "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah," "On Top of Spaghetti," and "Five Dinosaurs Riding in a Car."

The kids were called up one by one to receive their diplomas. After which each kid went to their parents and we all filtered into the kitchen area for cake, cookies, and lemonade.

Though I wasn't with some of the actual graduates all day like the teachers were; I have to admit that I got attached to a few of them.  It will be so sad knowing they won't be at the school next Fall.  Seriously, I don't know how these teachers let go every year.

Just a Few Things - Nothing Really

Well, I have just been busy as can be in the office.  Tomorrow is our HFAC review - humane treatment of animals - and they want to look at all of the records on the cattle.  Luckily, most of what they want to see I keep track of in the computer and on paper for our NHTC (non-hormonal treatment of cattle) certification.  But still, I don't know how the two auditors or reviewers will vary.  We had our first NHTC audit back in November and our reviewer was just so easy to work with.  If anything was amiss she gave me a couple of days to straighten it out and then e-mail her with it.  I'm not sure what the HFAC people will be like so I will be spending today making sure everything is in order and caught up.

Last Sunday, after getting dressed in a pair of running pants, t-shirt, and light sweatshirt I planned to spend my day relaxing, working in the garden, sewing, etc.  However, JP came in and said we had to be at a graduation party at 2:00.  Well, so much for that!  The party was for our ranch hand Earl's grandson.  He just graduated from High School and was having a big bash with 6 other seniors from his class.

I have been wrapped up in the quilting/sewing online community lately!  I was wondering whether I should start a blog on that and focus mainly on my projects and share them with others, not just in this blog....

Logan's last day of school is this Friday!  And stupid me I didn't even think until this morning whether or not I am suppose to give the teacher's a gift.  Am I?  I'm new to all this and don't quite know the proper protocol.

Apparently, for Logan's graduation (he still has 2 more years of preschool but everyone gets to "graduate") the teachers will be wearing graduation robes.  Well, the kids decided they wanted some too!  So, since everyone knows I sew... I was asked if I could make graduation robes for the school.  Not for this year obviously since there is no way I could get 13 robes done by Friday!  But for future use.

I swear Aslyn is going to start talking just so she can yell at all of us.  She does it already in her baby babble.  Also, we've noticed that when she goes to crawl around, she takes her right sock off.  It has been pointed out by two people on why she seems to do this.  So she can get a better grip on the floor to move faster!  When I brought this up to JP, he looked at her and sighed.  What? I asked.  He returned with, "I don't want to have two kids smarter than us!  What will we do then?"  Hey we're still the parents right?

It's already 9:22 am.  I guess I've goofed off enough this morning.

Rio Grande Valley Celtic Festival & Highland Games

Our usual Saturday events (which  included taking Alexander (our newest arrival - came all the way from Germany to do an internship with Lone Mountain Ranch)) to the feedstore got a bit sidetracked this past Saturday.  Oh, we did take Alexander to the feedstore - come to think of it, we spend a lot of time at this particular feedstore.  I mean really we go there almost every Saturday...

Anyway, while at this feedstore, I got a call from Lily (one member of our Albuquerque family) asking me if we were going to be heading into town.  When I told here where we were, she said to meet her at Balloon Fiesta Park and she will get us in for free at the Celtic festival.  Lily works this festival every year as a Rugby staff. 

So we all loaded up in the car and headed out.  I'm one who likes spontaneity, however we were so unprepared to be out in the sun all day long.  No sunscreen for Alexander, myself, or the kids.  No large brimmed hats for any of us.  Needless to say our German friend is a little red this morning as is my nose and cheeks.  The kiddos look just fine.

There were numerous events going on such as a dog show - I saw a Scottie dog wearing a kilt which I found odd and quite humorous.  Strong man events (the weight throw, sheaf toss, Scottish hammer throw, etc.)  JP thought it would be more impressive if they were trying to toss a Volkswagen bug.  I told him he should go out there and do it then.

I quickly saw why Lily volunteers on the Rugby field every year - a bunch of attractive muscly, half naked guys running around...  That's all I'm saying. 

We ate, we walked around and looked at all the different vendors, we listened to the bagpipers - a nice little change of pace.

Music

Music has always been a staple in my life.  Can you imagine a world without music?  I surely can't.  Music helps you run farther, move faster, and in some people's case, concentrate better on the task at hand.

The guys here figured that last one out not too long ago.  We took Logan's boom box out to the working facility so we can listen to music as we work.  Stan (the manager) works better without music and shut the boom box off.  However, once this happened, JP was scattered all over the place.  He didn't know what he was doing. The cattle were not being brought in (JP's job), the syringes were not being refilled with vaccinations.  So Stan turned the music back on, and JP was able to focus and get the job done.

On days filled with mundane entering data in the computer, I bring my MP3 player along to listen too.  Otherwise I can so easily get off task.  While doing homework throughout high school and college, there was always a CD running in the stereo.

The first half marathon I ever ran, I had a music player with me and the miles just flew by.  My second half marathon I did not have any music, and let me tell you, my thoughts are not that interesting for 13+ miles!  I even began getting quite cranky.  For the last 3 miles there were inspirational signs posted to help you keep going; I wanted to kick them all down.

I always thought playing in an orchestra for movie soundtracks would be an incredibly awesome career.  However, though I can play numerous instruments, I never had the confidence to go that far.  Have you ever watched a movie with no music.  Laaaame.  Even silent movies at least had music to them.

It's a shame that our educators feel it is more important for our children to learn how to take a ridiculous, meaningless test rather than learning things that actually matter.  With budget cuts in so many districts these days our children are losing out on some of  most valuable skills that will make them more rounded human beings - art, music...  We will have generations of kids with no creativity, no imagination.  Generations of robots.

I aim to always instill art and music in both my children's lives.  Music is one of those things that toys with your emotions.  Music gets in your soul.

Impersonations

Logan: Impersonating Bernie from "Weekend at Bernie's"

 Aslyn: Impersonating her candid self.

Mother's Day Tea

For Mother's Day, Logan's preschool hosted a Mother's Day Tea Picnic.  Quilts were laid outside on the sidewalk for us Moms to sit on.  Each child was to bring his or her Mom a menu in which we circled the items we would like to have.

My menu


Yep, that's right, I circled everything!  Actually most of the mom's did.  Anyhow, Mom's were sent a memo earlier in the week stating that we were to do nothing, but sit back and have our child wait on us.  The children made everything on the menu themselves and had been practicing all week long being good waiters and waitresses.

We were to give our child our menu and they were to go inside and fix our plate and tea according to our menu choices and serve us. 

I gave Logan my menu....

Out came Eric with his Mom's plate....

Logan took this picture of Maizy getting her Mom ice tea....

And here is Logan, standing in the doorway watching and playing with his trains.  HEY!!!

He eventually got back on track and I received the plate I ordered plus another, then more ice tea.  Logan went in to get me a third plate (I never asked for the second) but I told him that he should come sit by me and eat too.  So he did.

Since I'm rarely without Aslyn on my hip, JP and I worked it out so that the tea would just be a special time for Logan and me.  Aslyn stayed at the ranch and ran molasses with her Dad.

Back to the tea.  I know I have mentioned before that there are donkeys who live right next door to the school, they roam around and get the fruit peelings (banana peels, orange rinds, etc) from the kids' lunchboxes. 

Well, the Mom and daughter donkeys (I forgot their names) came to join the picnic...

Daughter donkey - Logan took this picture.

Mom donkey - Logan took this picture too.

All of us Mom's ordering our tea



At the end of the tea picnic, each child presented their Mom with a potted plant as a gift.  I don't remember what the name of the plant is; I do remember that it is good for both sun and shade.

A gorgeous day and a wonderful time with my little boy!

My Quilt for Logan

It was started January 23, 2011 and I finished it last night.

For almost three years, I had different ideas and fabrics roaming in and out of my head on what kind of quilt to make my little boy. And then I found this fabric collection called "Dozers and Diggers" by Richard Neuman and knew instantly! This is the fabric for Logan's quilt.

Throughout the process of piecing it, Logan would sit on my lap.  He would admire and make comments on the fabric.  Every strip would be scrutinized and when it passed his inspection, I would get it back and continue piecing.

Matching pillowcase.

This is the back - sooo cute!

Last night, Logan curled up underneath it.  His pillow, he hauls around the house and points out different trucks and tells us all about them.  I am rather pleased with how the whole thing turned out.

Other sewing projects I completed:

Remember these quilts?  Well, I still have quite a bit of fabric left over from them that I don't know what to do with.  Not enough of each for pillowcases but enough to do something.  So I made these little zippered pouches, one for each Montano grand kid to match their quilt.

Even after making these, I still have quite a bit of fabric left from each.  Just more to keep in my stash for another project.