My 2 projects of the day

My girls make a lot of friendship bracelets and just tie them on their arm. Then we have to cut them off. A few weeks ago I bought little clamps, jump rings and lobster claws to make them more like "real" bracelets. It worked beautifully!





The second project was taking a bunch of IKEA frames that I had bought and re-cutting the mat from being 5x7 to being 5.25 x 8.25 so that I could frame the playbills we have collected over the years. My dad has a mat cutter and he brought it up from Houston for me to borrow.

I had to read the user manual (which I know sounds dumb, but is one of my favorite things to do -- read user manuals to learn something new).

I took these frames.



Removed the current mat, flipped it over and re-drew the new mat lines.



Used this cutting system.



Lined it all up.



and Voila!!! I did it. (8 times)



The first couple were good learning experiences, but probably no one but me will ever notice. I already hung them on the wall. I love them!!!

Sunday

We all got to sleep in a little today. It felt good. We all needed it. We went to church (and made it early since I had to play the organ). (For some reason if I'm not playing the organ we are always either right on time or a minute or two late). After Sacrament meeting, my Dad, Sally and Tyler started the drive back to Houston. It was fun having them visit!!! We will see them in 2 weeks at the wedding.

We came home and grilled and had a nice lunch / dinner. Then we all went to Adam's last baseball game together. He had team pictures, the trophy handing out ceremony and the cutest baseball game. There were also 2 of the funniest moments. One of the players at bat connected with the ball but it only went about 2 feet, he promptly ran the 2 feet up to the ball and swung again -- this time golfing the ball towards the short stop. His dad hollered, "I knew he was meant for golf!!!".

The second thing was one of the players was on second base -- as a base runner. The ball was hit right to second base and our player, the base runner, fielded the ball, threw it to first and ran into the dugout. It was a hoot. I figure he thought, the ball rarely gets hit right to you, so I'll just show them what I can do!!!

Just another crazy Saturday - and one giant spontaneous party

7:15 -- Get Madelyn and Catherine to Bob Jones field to warm up for their games which start at 8:00 (I coach Catherine's team)

8:00 -- 2 games on neighboring fields. Catherine lost, Madelyn won.

9:15 -- Madelyn's second game begins. Her team wins again. Madelyn is awarded the game ball for her great hit. I also got this nice note from her coach.

"Jamie,
I am not sure if you were out there today. Maddy played unbelievably well. She hit the ball hard, she stayed focused, she ran hard and kept her head in the game. I was very, very proud of her."

My dad came up and took a few pictures at their games.



At 10:30, the 2 girls and I returned home. I then got back into the car with Julianne and headed to her swim meet at the Keller ISD natatorium. She swam in the medley relay (50 fly) and the 50 free. By that time it was 1:20, and the meet was on event #13. Her next event wasn't until event #31 and we realized that the meet was moving too slow for her to do her last events so we packed up and were able to catch the last part of Adam's game (which started at 1:00).



After Adam's game, we all came home (for a second). Julianne, Madelyn, and I then headed to Julianne's softball game. She needed to be there at 2:30 for a start time of 3:00 and Trent took all the other kids up to Tyler's last water polo game which started at 2:35. Madelyn had the camera, and there were 7 nice photos of Julianne's team (and 117 not so great photos). I'll only show one taken while Julianne was at bat.



Julianne's game finished right at 4:15 and I was helping everyone get packed up and turning in the score book when I felt my phone vibrating. I glanced down and saw that it was Trent calling. I could also see that my Dad had called twice and left me a voicemail. I answered and Trent said, "are you done? hurry home?" Your Dad invited everyone to the house for burgers and hot dogs. I hope you're ready for this."

We raced to the car. Raced home. And we beat the bus there by 5 minutes.

A little background -- I did tell my Dad that if anyone wanted to come over and hang out that I had a lot of hamburgers and hot dogs in the freezer and that he was welcome to invite people over-- so this was not entirely "sprung" on me, but after our busy morning clearly that had been no other thought of that offer since it had been given.

But I do love chaos and I do love having parties so we just got busy. We got Volleyball set up and tables and chairs set up and meat thrown on the grill and soccer goals put out and drinks, and chips, and flying turtles and somehow or another and thanks to everyone for just pitching in we threw the best, most awesome, spontaneous celebration for the boys and girls varsity and junior varsity water polo teams and their parents and chaperones and of course . . . the bus driver.

Here are some photos from the party. We were fortunate to have beautiful weather!



When it was all over my kids swam in the hot tub and pool.