Summer Reminiscing

We had a great summer!  Since I haven't been posting regularly I thought I'd try to catch up on summer activities.  We enjoyed camping.....

Swimming.....

A llittle ice cream eating....

A lot of fun at the county fair....

A little gardening......

A little ball playing.....

  We had a great summer!  How about you???

Daytrippin' with Some Boys

Every summer I take the tree oldest grandsons on a day trip.  This year we headed to Moline, Il for the day.  The John Deere Pavillion was our first stop.

The boys enjoyed the simulators.

They enjoyed looking at and climbing on all of the machinery.

Nate especially enjoyed the play area.

We at lunch at T.G.I.Friday's which is grandpa's favorite place to eat, so they had to text him a picture to rub it in!

And we watched the water taxi on the river. That's on their wish list for another time.

They had a never ending list of wants at the toy store.

I hadn't planned to take them to Rock Island Arsenal, but Payton really wanted to go there.  They enjoyed it and got a bit of history along the way.

We all had a great time,

County Fair

Our kids were all in 4-H, so the county fair was a must every summer.  We actually had all four kids in 4-H at the same time of a while, is it could get CRAZY!  Then we went a few years without it, until the grandsons got involved.  

It is more enjoyable since we mostly go watch and support them, but don't have to be in charge.  😄

Nate is just a Cloverbud so he doesn't have much opportunity to do much yet.  He certainly LOVED showing his sheep!

Cael showed pigs, sheep, and had other projects.  He loves his sheep the best.

Payton shows hogs, cattle, and has other projects.  He enjoys showing his cattle the most.

We feel that 4-H is worth all of the work.  Here's hoping ALL of our Grandkids are in 4-H! 

Rain, Rain, and More Rain!

This spring we had quite a bit of rain. One afternoon we got between 5-9 inches depending on who was measuring and/or reporting. 😄. Anyway all of that water had to go somewhere, so we had lakefront property once again!












On a normal day we don't see water at all!!! It receded after about four days.

At the same time Coralville Lake was dealing with all of that water. We had camping reservations and were afraid they'd cancel us, but they didn't. They did close another campground across the river from us just next to the spillway as the road was covered. You can see the beginning of the road in the top left corner of the photo.



We watched the progression of the water which was anticipated to go over the spillway. We took pictures each day to record the progress. Look at the small brick building (bathroom) to gauge the depth.








The water didn't go over the spillway after all. We were glad to have been able to camp, and we had a great time!

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I have been doing a little sewing, although not as much as I'd like to! My daughter-in-law had a birthday in March so I made her an IPad case which she had requested.



Since she is a huge Hawkeye fan I used two kinds of Iowa Hawkeye fabric. It is big enough to hold her IPad with the cover on. And it has a pocket to hold the charging cord and earbuds.




As always I hope it is well used and well loved.

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Location:A Hawkeye iPad Case

Catching Up

My family has been complaining that I haven't been blogging. I complain that I'm not sure anyone reads it because of lack of comments. We'll see what comments happen. Truth be told I miss blogging because it seems to be a nice way to remember the highlights in our year.

In February we celebrated birthdays with a dress up party. I can't remember the exact theme, but it had something to do with kings, queens, princesses, and knights! We had a good time.




In April I spent the weekend getting reacquainted with some of the girls in my class. It was a fun time reminiscing and getting to know what has happened in each other's lives.








We spent Easter weekend in Kansas City having extended family photos taken. We had a great time and the photos turned out wonderful!



After attending classes for a week last summer and every Monday night all year, I am finally a certified Reading Recovery teacher! I was so lucky to have such a great group of women to spend this time with. We had a little ceremony then out for supper to celebrate.




And that is the real reason I haven't blogged much. With a new position, new building, new kids, class every week, and homework, my year was stressful! Looking forward to a less stressful year this year.

That's it for now!

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The Last of the Christmas Quilts

As I have mentioned before, each of our kids received a quilt for Christmas, as did Clara. Each quilt was made with their homes and tastes in mind.

Trilby's quilt was made with more traditional fabric in colors that I thought complemented her home.



It was the first one I started last summer, but the last one to actually be completed. Why, you ask? Well, in my usual fashion I didn't realize the size of the pattern when I started. The original pattern was the very center inside the first border. Well, that was too small to do anything but hang on the wall. So....I had to search for more fabric which took a while to find. When I finally found the fabric I had to figure out what I was going to do to make it larger. And this is the end result.



To quilt it I chose to do large meandering in the center and smaller meandering around the outside. I sewed straight lines 1/4" in from each cream colored border.


I am very fond of the backing which was also incorporated into the front.





I hope they enjoy it for many years, and pass it down to their kids.

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A Grandson's Birthday Quilt

Grayson is one of our "city slicker" grandsons.  That means he isn't into farm equipment, but he IS into garbage trucks and construction equipment.  That's what he sees in his world.  His parents painted a neighborhood along the bottom edge of one of his bedroom walls so he could drive along and pick up garbage.  Another wall has the garbage dump and the big equipment.  Sooooo, he needed a new blanket.  Nana to the rescue......

The center is a "cheater" panel.  For you non quilty people that means it is all one fabric.  No piecing to it.

I used three different quilting patterns....meandering, loops, and a stencil on the white.

I've been wanting to use a stencil for a while, and I thought this was the perfect pattern for the white.

The back is pieced out of the leftovers from the front.  The symmetrical me would have liked the top pieces to meet up, but the frugal me just couldn't waste that much fabric!  Now, if it were for a fancier quilt the symmetrical me may have won.  :)

As always, I hope Grayson loves it and uses it for many years!  Do you think it will look good in a dorm room? :)

Another Christmas Quilt

I'll get caught up one of these days, I'm sure!

For Trina and Tanner's quilt I used a pattern I had used before.
It is the same one as I used for my niece's birthday quilt a few years ago.



This is Trina and Tanner's quilt that I made them for Christmas.


This is the first time I've used the same pattern twice. I love the fabric on the back of the quilt too!



I straight line quilted this one.



I used a Moda layer cake, but I can't remember what fabric line it was! I hope they use the quilt for many years.


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Cinnamon Roll Cake

My name is Kim, and I am a Pinterestaholic!! I have soooooooo many pins there is no way I could ever make/do them all! But from time to time I do actually try one. This time I tried ..........

Cinnamon Roll Cake






Ingredients
3 cups flour (Or cup4cup if making this gluten free)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted

TOPPING
1 cup butter, soft
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. flour (or cup4cup if gluten free)
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

GLAZE
2 cups powdered sugar
5 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 glass baking pan with cooking spray or coconut oil spray. Set aside.
In a mixer, add the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Once combined well, slowly stir in the melted butter. Pour into pan.
For the topping, mix the butter, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon together until well combined and creamy. Drop evenly over the batter by the tablespoonfuls and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out nearly clean.
Glaze: Whisk the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Drizzle evenly over the warm cake.




Nate gave it a thumbs up! We Will be making it again!

(Recipe from Hugs & Cookies Blog)

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