Little Italy Festival

So I've decided that if you live in Indiana, the land of no craft shows, you have to do a festival to get out there. I have had a pretty big bust so far, so it was with lots of fear that I decided to do the Little Italy Festival.

Boy, was I suprised! It turned out to be a great show. I made lots of new contacts and did pretty well.

This show was inside, so I was trying to stand out by using lights on my tent structure. I think it definitly caught people's attention.

I really liked the use of the lattice for hanging the plaques. The brown sets off the white of the tiles.

Still need to find a good way to display the candy bars. Can't find anything that works quite right yet.

It's was good having the schools favors in the back. People were caught by the clocks (most of them sold right away) and stayed to look at the other school items and drifted around the booth buying.

School Starts 2009

So, school's been in session for over a month now. I guess I thought I would have more time to get things done. It hasn't happend yet. I'm still running 16 hours a day. I guess the fact that it's fall festival time, hasn't helped yet. But I'm trying....

Tori started 8th grade with high hopes and fears.

School's never been her best subject, but she enjoys it.

Henry loves school and is too good at it. Sometimes I wonder and worry that it's just too easy for him.

I'm sensing a theme here...Josh loves school too. When he can concentrate and sit still, he does great at it. We're a little concerned we need to think about ADD with him, but so far we're in a wait and see attitude.

Zach is excited that he finally gets to go to Kindergarten this year. Since he was really little, he's always had a facination for the school bus. This year he gets to ride it! He only rides it home since his school is only 1/2 day with Kindergarten (how dumb is that?) But he loves to be able to be a big kid and ride with Josh!

Where is Heaven?

Zachary goes to pre-school at the YMCA which is about 15 minutes from our house. Zachary is a a talker...he talks alot...about alot of things...all the time. So, as we drive to and from school every morning, as you can imagine, we have some interesting conversations.

On our way home from school last week, Zach asked me if heaven was in the clouds. As a wise mom, who of course knows everything, I told him I didn't know.

Well, my son's answer to everything is "I know." So he proceeded to answer his own question.

He told me, "I know where heaven is mom. It's at Grandma and Grandpa's house."

So out of the mouth's of babes, heaven is in Texas with his grandparents. Just so you know.

Okay, maybe there's something to this cold after all..

So Terre Haute has been hit pretty hard this week. We got 12 inches of snow in my driveway. It snowed us in and cancelled school, church, and all shopping excursions for the week. (Good thing I listened to some promptings and went shopping Monday!)

So, we've been inside shivering. It takes a lot to heat my house, and I haven't cranked up the heater past 70 all week. I've been hating this cold and never let my poor tolerant husband forget it.

Our good friends live on the prison reservation here and there is a huge "bowl" in the ground where they used to keep the trash long ago. Well, now it's just a huge hill perfect for sledding and since it's on the reservation grounds, there are no people. So Wednesday afternoon we decided to take advantage of the snow and go sledding. Now this really isn't my idea of fun--standing out in the cold with snow everywhere. But the kids were excited and there was this perfect snow hill we had to take advantage of.

We took the kids over there and they had a ball. I was a little worried about Zach since the hill was so big and the older kids had made paths with bumps and ramps and such. Then it was such a long climb up!

But, as usual, I was worried over nothing and he did wonderful. In fact, he was the one who didn't want to leave even though he was frozen through and through. And I admit, I did go a few times too, despite not being dressed appropriately at all. But I figured "what the heck? I'm going to be cold either way!"

Well, I was. But it almost made the snow and cold worth it. Almost.

A Sweet Way To Spend The Day

Okay, so I should have been doing a hundred different things yesterday. Everything from cleaning house to catching up on my blogs (I'm only 4 months behind) to starting taxes to catching up on tv this week, but I didn't. The kids were all home and inside yesterday. Which meant there wasn't an open computer or room anywhere in the house. And that is saying something since I have a pretty big house.

So instead, I moved all my stuff up into the kitchen and spent several hours making candy bouquets. It allowed me to be in the middle of my kids without being in the middle of them. It was nice. And I've got a few done for the Valentine holiday. And it turned what could have been a stressful day on top of my kids into a sweet, and productive, day.

Here are a few:

Christmas Violin Concerts

Henry's School Violin Christmas Concert. YOu can't see him because he's sitting behind the teacher, but he's there.

Tori's Violin Christmas concert. She's in the front room angled so you can't see her either.

Happy Birthday Josh!

My little ham certainly likes to be the center of attention, so he had a wonderful birthday!

Since Josh's birthday was on Sunday and it was Fall Break that weekend, Mom and Zach got to come and eat lunch with Josh at school on Thursday. He thought that was awesome, until it was time for after-lunch recess...then he took off running without a look back. But he did enjoy the cupcakes that we brought to share with his class.

Birthday night we invited our friends to come over after church for cake and ice cream (and a good card game.)

Josh had an awesome day and enjoyed all the gifts. He couldn't decide what he wanted most to do since he got so many fun gifts, but we found him camped out in a corner playing his Nintendo DS while all the rest of the kids were out and about.

He can't wait until he can get baptised now and is super excited that he gets to do it with his cousin and Texas family!