Opening Night!

Well, the day has finally arrived... Hayley's opening night performance in South Pacific at KLHS!  They kids have all been working so hard. Rehearsals have been going on everyday for the past two months which means that I was doing a lot of driving and sitting and waiting.  I shouldn't complain too much though because I got a lot of reading and crocheting done!  I know this is Hayley's gig, but I must mention how hard all of the drama parents work!  It's unbelievable the amount of hours they put in to help pull off these amazing productions!  They do everything from publicity, set-design & building sets, costume design, feeding the kids dinners on late rehearsal nights, etc., etc.  There are some talented parents out there!  I signed up to coordinate the concession stand because that's what I do best (bake, eat, and feed people).  This involved signing parents up to work the stand and soliciting for a lot of beverage and baked good donations!  Here is a photo of the outcome.  I think it turned out very cute, especially with the backdrop!

One of the parent volunteers is an artist and he designed all of the signs shown below.  What a talented man!

Here's a shot of some of the cast putting the finishing touches on hair and make-up just prior to the opening.

Headshots & bios are always posted in the lobby.  

A shot of Hayley's friends/classmates (Sarah and Maddy) who were also in the production.  The girls have so much fun and consider it quite the honor to be sixth graders performing in a a high school performance.  Cressey, the director, has been very good to them to give them this opportunity again!

Bloody Mary's Assistants!  The girls have a non-speaking role, but they are six scenes and they get to sing a couple of numbers and they also get to sign a song!

Well, one performance down... only NINE more to go!  Did I mention that show is running three hours long each night?  Yikes... Hayley's not getting to bed until 11!  She should be a joy by the end of the run... :)  Wish me luck!

Making Room for a Garden...

I've always wanted to try my hand at gardening.  Been talking about it for a few years now.  Problem is our soil is sooooo incredibly rocky that if I'm going to do this, I need man power, the right space and the right light.  Well, I've got all three of those things, but unfortunately the one perfect space that gets beautiful sunlight for most of the day is housing this...

so I decided to find a second best spot and to do raised beds...Wes laid out the boards and we left it like that for a couple of weeks.  Before we put in any actual labor, I wanted to really make sure that I was going to be happy with this second best spot.  I wasn't thrilled with it, but I was willing to try to make it work. 

Then one day, out of the blue, we were given access to a tractor (I think that's what this thing is called).  We had it for one day only... Wes was in HEAVEN!  He's always wanted a tractor (who knew?!).  Not sure if you can see the happiness on his face... it's there and it stayed there all day!  Wes had scoped out a pretty perfect place to move the big motorhome.  It was a spot in which we didn't have to take down a single tree!  Thank goodness 'cause we loves our trees.  :)

This is where the motorhome will be living now.  All we have to do now is to put down the Casaron (for weed control) and order the gravel and she's all set!

Well anyway, back to the garden... Around four o'clock it started really raining, but Wes kept moving dirt.  He moved on to the garden spot (the perfect one, not the second choice one) and leveled it a bit and removed weeds and surface rocks.

Then I set out the boards for where I want the raised beds to go.  I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm going to try three raised beds (4'x6') and then a narrower one (3'x8') for the peas.  Stay tuned for more updates (and hopefully progress!)...

Learning to Crochet

I have wanted to learn how to crochet and knit for years and years.  Well, the time has finally come!  I've signed up for a beginning crochet class at Renaissance Yarns at Kent Station with my girlfriend, Darlene.  It came about because we are trying to make sure that we stay in better contact.  Our lives have gotten busier and busier with kids, sports, husbands, housework and jobs that we deciced that we needed to try to make more of a conscious effort to schedule time together.  So, that's how the crochet lessons came to fruition!  We are both loving it and have become quite addicted.  Nancy, the owner of Renaissance Yarns, is our very patient and encouraging instructor.  

The yarn shop is absolutely gorgeous and filled with beautiful colors and textures...

I hesitated to post this photo... it's so unflattering, but it definitely shows the concentration that we need at this stage of the game!

A display of my first chain!

A shot of the first four rows of my practice piece.  For those of you who are crochet novices... it's not supposed to curl up like this.  This happens to be loaded with mistakes and wouldn't lay flat!

This next shot is the homework that we had for the first week.  I stopped when I ran out of yarn.  You can see that the sides of my sample are uneven.  All week long I didn't realize that I should've been counting my stitches!  :)

Another shot of the gorgeous yarn that's keeping me motivated to keep trying and learning!

Class #2:  more confidence, learning new stitches, and starting an "official" project... a scarf!

Just starting my scarf....

It's Sunday night and I finished the first half of my scarf.  I'm quite pleased with the outcome!  I only stopped because I ran out of yarn.  I'm kind of stuck at this point because I haven't learned how to incorporate another ball of yarn.  I may have to stop into the shop this week to have Nancy help me get going again!  I don't think I can wait until my Friday class.  :)

Mosaic Project

My friend, Stacy, and I are the art docents in Hayley's sixth grade class.  We were recently asked to coordinate a class project to be put into the school on-line auction.  Stacy and I have always wanted to try a mosaic project, so we decided to tackle a stained glass mosaic top coffee table with this group of sixth graders.  Wow... we had sooooo much fun with this and were so pleased with the final result, but we certainly did not know what we were getting in for!  It took about 7 hours alone of prep time (we cut up all of the stained glass) and Stacy drew the design on the table.

We had each of the 30 kids work on the table.  We did this over a period of four 2-hour sessions.  It was so neat to see how all of the kids got in to this project!  They were all very serious about puzzle piecing in just the right stained glass.  They definitely took a lot of pride in this project!  Some of the kids even gave up their recess time to continue the work!

Stacy and I did have to put in approximately 2 more hours of this on our own... there just wasn't enough time to get in another session with the kids.

It was so neat to see the progress made each day.  I think at this point, Stacy and I both knew that this was going to turn out beautifully!  In the photo below, you can see the how Stacy mapped out the pattern with lines and the names of what color goes where.

Stacy and I decided to leave the grouting to the grown-ups.  We were concerned about possible cuts happening with this process.

Aerial view of the completed table...

Side view of coffee table...

Close-up view of the pattern with the grouting...

Well, I think Stacy and I would both agree that this was a most enjoyable project.  Even when working with crazy sixth grade kids, this was a very relaxing craft!  We are both going to get together and do another project in the near future.

Easter Happenings...

The Deti Family had a fun-filled Easter weekend.... well, actually it was a fun-filled week leading up to Easter because we got Egged!  Fortunately I don't mean Egged in the traditional sense... no raw eggs were smashed up against our windows or house thank heavens!  The kids came home one afternoon and found this sign on our front door and discovered that candy-filled eggs had been left on our front porch in and around our front yard.  Thanks Lisa... it was too, too cute and the kids were just tickled! 

Saturday morning was spent volunteering at our church Easter Egg Hunt.  Hayley and her friends worked the event and got into the act as well.  During the week prior to Easter the youth spent a couple of hours stuffing plastic eggs with candy and helping to get the church ready well.

Saturday afternoon Luke had a soccer game, so Wes took him to that while I spent that time prepping all of my food for our Easter Brunch.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the food, but it all turned out delicious!  I made a Sausage and Apple Quiche and an Asparagus, Tomato, and Bacon Fritatta that were beautiful. 

Saturday evening we spent at Grandma and Grandpa Deti's house dyeing eggs....

Cousins Dylan, Cody, and Ashlie got into the act too...

Dylan's eggs turned out gorgeous...

This was the aftermath.  Did I say how much I enjoy this event being held at Grandma and Grandpa's house?

Sunday morning we made it to church and had a lovely (photoless) brunch and then we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house again for our annual Easter Egg hunt.

Happy to discover that Hayley doesn't think she's too grown up to hunt for eggs....

I had to include this photo of my cutie pie niece, Lauren.  Love those toofers and crazy, happy eyes!

Kickin' Up A Storm

Spring Soccer Season has begun and Luke's off to a good start!  He's playing a lot of defense and doing a great job protecting his goal.