Bucket List #24 and #25

It's time for another bucket list update! Immediately after my graduation party two weeks ago, we got bored. We checked the list and decided to try #25 - building a house of cards. 

For some it worked better than others. Depending upon slippery-ness of cards and all that. We found that licking cards worked better. Gross, but effective. 

Drew was a boss at card house building. Check out that look of pure glee! 

Kyle was not having much luck... Ha! I'm sure it was cause his cards were slippery-er than Drew's. Maybe. 

The rest of us had moderate luck with the cards. It's harder than it looks! 

We all had a good time laughing at each other's attempts whether or not they were successful. 

A few weeks later, we crossed another off the list - #24. 

Old-fashioned popcorn! 

Emma poured the oil...

And put in a kernel to test the heat. We did this very specifically. 

Next we poured in just enough kernels to cover the bottom of the pan in one layer. Not a single kernel more. We made sure. 

Then we waited. 

And waited... 

Finally, it was done! And delicious! 

A great topping for homemade popcorn is garlic salt and oregano. 

All credit to the Chrisman family - it's super yummy! 

We still have 33 more items to finish on the list... We better get busy! 

Our First Homeschool Graduate!

 

 

We did it!  We held Glynne's graduation ceremony/dinner on the evening of May 18th.  To be honest, I had been dreading this night for months - actually years.  (On one occasion, when Glynne was two years old, I actually teared up talking about her high school graduation with Bryan - yyyep.)  With that said, I started watching the video we had made of her about a week before, so I wouldn't just break down and sob in front of everyone.

 

 

 

It worked.  That night we ate dinner and called the kids (from youngest to oldest) to promote them to the next grade.  

At last, it was Glynne's turn.  First we watched her video, then we brought her up to the front where Bryan and I helped her don her cap and gown (garage sale find $2.75).  Her dad spoke about how proud he was of her and how much God had blessed us. I reminisced about all the school we had done together, the adventures we had gone on through read-aloud books, and the costumes we had made with dear friends to represent different time periods we had studied.  The mantle was lined with many books she had completed over the course of her education.  I ended with the point that even though she had covered massive amounts of material, it was just the tip of the iceberg.  That receiving her diploma isn't the end of her educational journey, but really just the beginning.  With that, we presented her with her high school diploma!

    

Then it was time for us to sit down and for Glynne to do the talking.  She read through lots of  "words of wisdom" cards on which everyone had written serious life advice.  Actually, some were serious such as Landon's that said ...share Christ whenever you get a chance.  Others provided great comical relief  - Never pet a burning dog.  And Jackson's (our 5 year old) just cracked me up - Try not to lose your keys. So true.

 

 

 

 

To wrap things up, my dad and Bryan's dad prayed for Glynne.  They prayed about her future and thanked God for her life.  It was a perfect way to end our first homeschool graduation!! 

Jonah Turns 18 Months!

While I wait to collect all of Glynne's graduation pictures from different sources, I decided to throw in another quick blog on Jonah.  Tomorrow he turns 18 months.  He is such a crack-up.  Emma took these pictures a few days ago while he was in such a good mood.  Animals are so interesting to him.  He loves petting our cats and you can tell they love it too! ;)

 

 

 

         Ally just brought home her new kitten, Lacey.  Jonah loves to pet her too.  It appears Lacey isn't too sure about her new family!

Later that day, Jonah and I (Julie) were hanging out just waiting for Dad to come home.  He was making truck noises.  He doesn't say much except Emmmmaaa, Momma, Dada, and shakes his head for no, but he can make the best truck sounds.  Oh yeah, he grunts...and smiles when he means yes.

                                           Oh wait, I hear something.  Yay.  Dad's home!!

                                                                    
                                                                    You love your dad!

 

Back to your truck.

 

I must add that you give the best kisses.  You get this look in your eyes and I can tell exactly what you're going to do.  (For the record, they are with an open mouth and very wet!)  We love you so much Jonah Boy!

Bucket List #23

It is time for the next summer bucket list  post! On Mother's Day, we tackled #23 (choose an outfit from a magazine/pinterest and recreate it from Goodwill). Don't worry... we made sure it was alright with our mom. In fact, she wanted to come along! 

This is the outfit Emma picked. 

Here's my choice. 

And last, but not least, this is Ally's. 

With a little help from Mom and Aunt Lauren, we began the long and arduous search. 

Stylin'!

Anyway... We ended up finding some good pieces. With a little work, we knew we could turn them into the look we were going for. 

Here's what I found. Not totally awful... But not great either. Mine obviously needs help. 

Emma's wasn't too far off from the original, but some fitting changes had to be made! 

Ally mainly had to cut her shirt into a vest and then accessorize.

First things first. I cut off the sleeves and the collar of my shirt. Then I quickly sewed a seam along the edges to prevent too much fraying, and began to distress my new vest. 

Emma's t-shirt is supposed to be oversized... but not so much that the sleeves won't fit under the red shirt. We decided to turn it into a loose tank and also cut some length off of the bottom. 

The shorts on her inspiration outfit were super frayed at the bottom. Unfortunately, the shorts she picked out didn't fray easily at all. Oh, well. Go with the flow. 

My vest was really dull and boring after I distressed it. It just need a little something more. The original vest had some whitish splotches on it, and I've been dying to try some bleaching techniques. 

Funny story - we didn't have bleach so I tried squirting some bleach bath cleaning stuff on it. That was a failure. Accepting my defeat, I went to the store and bought actual bleach. 

It worked so much better! My vest was bleached and looked awesome! 

And part of Jonah's shirt by accident... Whoopsie. 

Ally also distressed her shirt after cutting the sleeves off to make a vest. It was way too big around the middle, so I quickly took it in about an inch. 

It took us several hours to complete our looks. We had a blast! Our outfits turned out pretty great if I do say so myself. You may see us wearing them around. 

Pretty cute, huh?! This was such a fun one. 

 Thanks for reading and let us know what you think in the comments!