Skirts, Butterflies, and Sunglasses

Our week in review:
I picked up my two quilt tops and dropped two more off. I think I'm winding down and will take a break for a couple of months after August. I love making these quilts for such a special purpose, but it is a lot of time and work when I'm the only one making them. I'm immensely grateful, though, for the sweet lady who quilts them for me. That lifts a lot off of my plate💓

 

 

Myles is getting ready for boys camp for the 12-13 year old boys of our ward this next week. I think there are only 5 boys going, but it sounds like it is going to be tons of fun!! He is really excited. There will be boating, tubing, hikes (one inside lava tunnels), yummy food, etc. They will be about an hour up the road. Unfortunately, Chris won't be able to go for the whole week, because of his new job, but he is planning on going up Friday night to at least camp one night. We got some water shoes for Myles and a pair of sun glasses. We were laughing at the different ones he was trying on. Here are a few:

These remind me of ones Chris wore when he was a teenager:

Theses are the ones he ended up picking out. They were my favorite :)

  Elsa thought this pair looked pretty silly on her:


 On Saturday Myles had his date with Chris. They went to several Goodwill stores and Lewisville Park.The weather was beautiful. They had an opportunity to just sit on a big rock together and dip their feet in the water.

Myles's Gollum pose:

 

 Myles let his butterflies go this week:

 

Siblings being silly:

Elsa had Activity Days Camp. It went well for the most part. She said a prayer before I dropped her off Thursday morning that she'd have some friends in her group. She wound up with two girls from our ward and her violin teacher's daughter in her group. It was a really good group of girls. She just had one teacher, for making friendship bracelets, that was a bit grumpy and almost had Elsa in tears. There was also a girl that told her that the hat she was wearing (that she had decorated herself) looked weird. She took it off and put it her bag after that. It was a good opportunity to talk about how sometimes people have things going on in their life that we don't know about and not to take things personally, and also not to let the opinion of others affect how she feels about herself. 

We talked about all the fun, the kind girls, and the positives from the two days of camp and to focus on the good 😊

While at Walmart this week, Meg found a skirt she really liked. It looked very "kilt-ish." We tried two sizes on, and she picked out the most comfortable one. We had her move all around in the skirt, and she gave me the thumbs up on it being okay sensory-wise. Clothes are so hard for this girl with all her sensory issues. Good news....she wore it Tuesday, and she wanted her new shirt and skirt washed to wear for the next day. Two days in a row she wore it!! So, I decided to let her pick out three more skirts (of the five available) and shirts to match to make it easy on her (and me). Dressing most days leads to tears and meltdowns. This is one reason why all she wears 98% of the time for shoes are her "goggles" (knock off Crocks). Dressing this week was a snap for four days in a row!!! It was a win!! I'm half tempted to get the yellow plaid skirt just to make it five days of easy dressing :)

 

 Chris celebrated his birthday this week. Rhaevyn made him his birthday cake. It was light, not too sweet, and oh so delicious!!!

 Molly went to the groomers this week. She got pretty red bows in her hair.

Meg and I decorated notebooks:

 Chris reads books to the little girls on the nights they go to bed on time. Meg's favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear. I love this book so much because it brings back memories from my Kindergarten class. Anyway, she's had it read to her so much that she now has it memorized and reads it to Chris at night.

 Myles was back to cello lessons this last week. We were so happy to learn from his teacher that this cello is a keeper!! It looks good, it sounds good, and she was very glad that we opted for the full size cello because he's growing like a weed............and when I say "we" I really mean "me" because I lost the argument to get a full size cello the last two times. I think it was meant to be that those two cellos didn't work out. I had felt impressed to check Shar Music online to see if they had any full size cellos on sale or clearance. They just happened to have one full size cello that was a trade in for a good price; it was about half the price of a new one.  So, after texting Chris I placed the order for it😀 Sigh of relief that his teacher is happy with it and that he is too!
At his doctor appointment on Friday, Myles measured five foot four inches. He went from being in the 60th percentile to the 80th in a year. I'm wondering how tall he is going to end up being.

This next week Aeva and I are going to work on some sewing projects for Elsa and Meg. I'm quite excited about it. I'm hoping that this coming week will be less hectic than this past one was. I need a breather! Wishing you all a very happy and wonderful week!

A New Official Teenager and the Portland Highland Games

Greetings from the Lindsays:
Our two weeks in review.....

After washing her hair one evening, Elsa decided to make herself a beard. I told her if it was longer she could braid it into a goatee (ha ha) We had a good laugh over this look on her.

I took Elsa down to Portland for a Saturday dance lesson last week. Her teacher was going to be attending the USIR National Scottish Dance Championship in Las Vegas the week leading up to the Portland Highland Games. This would mean there wouldn't be a dance lesson right before the Portland competition. Elsa felt that she needed one more dance class to get ready for the Portland competition. I drove myself since Chris had to work. Normally, he is my copilot driving in Portland. I made it, but not after missing one of the streets I was supposed to turn on because it was closed due to road work. I tried to remain calm and not freak out. I really dislike driving in Portland. I was able to work my way back and find the correct street. We were only eight minutes late. Meg and I occupied ourselves for an hour and a half taking a walk, drawing a story, and taking funny pictures of her dolls. Getting back to the freeway to go home was a piece of cake!

This is a doll that Aeva made for Meg. She named it Lily, but I think we are now on name number six... it keeps changing 😃. Rhaevyn made the ladybug doll and the Cat Noir doll.

Meg is very good to make sure her dolly is safely seatbelted in for a car ride:

 

I made Meg a sensory number board. I'm hoping this will help her with her numbers.
 

 

Myles turned 13!! I cannot believe he's a teenager!! My little guy isn't so little anymore!

He is certainly taller than me now. He's growing like a weed!

 

 He asked for Southern Banana Pudding for his birthday dessert. I think he's asked for it the last two birthdays. Elsa cut the bananas for it. She and Meg helped arrange the vanilla wafers. Then Meg finished up by sprinkling crushed vanilla wafers on the top.

 Three time's the charm. Myles third cello in three months has arrived. This time I opted for the fill size. I don't want to have to purchase another cello for him and he is growing. It has a nice sound, looks good, and he is happy. Yay!!

 He bought himself a hat and embroidered it.

I was deweeding another section of the front. Myles wanted a flower that was growing in that section, so I pulled on my boots, grabbed a shovel, and dug it up for him. Then he went and planted it where he wanted it. He thought I was pretty funny not to change out of my dress.

 

 I finished another quilt top. I, unfortunately, miscalculated two squares. It was a little late to re-cut, so I just tried to fix it as best I could.

The lady who does the quilting for me sent pictures of the one she just finished for me. I think she did a gorgeous job on it!

 We had the opportunity to get together with my best friend, her children, and her sister-in-law and children. We had not seen them in seven years. It was fun to reunite. Their daughter Haley and Elsa have been pen pals off and on for the last two years. We went and played at Lewisville Park.

 

 The water was just a wee bit cold.

 

Haley came over in the evening to do some fun crafts with Elsa and Meg. I made a bracelet for myself and Meg.

 .

 We decorated composition books with paper and headbands.

 We decorated letters and put magnets on them.

 Elsa made a bracelet

The next morning Myles made a bracelet for Elsa. I thought that was sweet.

 

 Meg made a necklace for herself.

Oma and Opa got Myles a butterfly kit for his birthday. He has absolutely loved watching the caterpillars grow, make cocoons, and now hatch into butterflies. At least one had some problems with one of its legs, its proboscis, and wing. Myles and the older girls did some reading and are trying to help it. We shall see what becomes of that one.

This past Saturday Chris, Meg, and I went to the Portland Highland Games with Elsa. Here we are arriving at the front gate:

 She's ready to dance her heart out and spring up like a rocket on her jumps!

 Chris ended up dropping us off at the gate and then parking out in Timbuktu. We borrowed a pop up canopy from a family at church (which was a life saver since it was sooo hot!). I had found a wagon on sale recently and purchased that which was worth every penny. We piled the chairs, cooler, canopy, and blanket in that.

I love the costumes of the Drum Majors. Here they are getting the inspection:

 Nessy?

Her costume is on and now it's time to put on her ghillies:

 Pinning on her number... #944

 We're ready for the competition to start. Canopy up, chairs out, blanket, and lunch:

 Meg sported the Lindsay tartan:

 Highland cows:

We got a Scotch Egg and shared it. Meg loved it!

 

 

 

At this competition all age groups of the Beginner dancers were combined. There was quite a big group. At the last competition, in Tacoma, the Beginners were split up by age group.
Here are some of my favorite pictures. I wish they were of better quality. Sorry for the blurriness.
Here she is in her national costume for the Lilt:

 

 

 

 The Fling:

 

 The Seann Truibhas:
I love seeing the height she got on this jump. This is one step that she practices a lot at home.

 This is the video of the Fling:

The video of the Lilt was too big to upload, but if you click on the link below you can watch it:

https://youtu.be/azbqgsVxZ-k

She did so well. It was pretty hot, and we tried to keep her well hydrated. After two of the dances she said she felt pretty sick. She was a trooper, though, and powered through. After her last dance, the Lilt, she came bouncing over with a huge smile and yelled out "I'm done!!!" She was ready to change into some cooler clothes and get out of the wool costumes. Unfortunately, she still had to wait for the rest of the dancers to dance their last dance, the scores to be calculated, and awards to be handed out before she could change. The Beginners were last for awards. 

 

She placed 2nd in Fling and 1st in the Sword, Seann Truibhas, and Lilt. She was the overall winner for the Beginner group. She was very excited and surprised!

Time to head home. The walk to the car was very, very long and very, very hot. We were tired and Meg had a blister. She got a free ride to the car. 

That's all folks!