Cowboy Daryl

Last year the ambition of Daryl was to be a politician. These days he is leaning more toward Bull Rider. With Daryl you just have to enjoy the ride of his passions. Because when something interests him he digs in and learns as much as he can. It is fun to watch!

As his mom, I'm trying to push the cowboy over the bull rider. If I think football is bad for his body, there is no justifying bull riding! He got a taste of cowboy life on Saturday. Our dear friend Natalie let him borrow her horse butter and gave him a very thorough horse riding lesson. He loved every minute of it! He had a smile plastered on him for two days.

I love that I got to feed his passion, again more horses, less bull riding! LOL

Alex took a turn riding Butter, he also found a trampoline. So it was a good Saturday for all of us! (I got a donut and coffee in the car, momma was pretty happy too!)

The saddle was a little heavy! But now he knows!

Alex says Trampolines over Horses!

My Baby is 10! Freaking 10!

Yesterday was Daryl's 10th birthday. We will celebrate this weekend but I tried to make the day special in little ways.

I let him wear his cowboy boots to school, and take his cowboy hat in his backpack. He was hopeful he would be able to wear it on his birthday, but that didn't happen. They have hat days every now and again at school, so he will try again on one of those. Papa Mike got him a cool belt and belt buckle, so he had to wear that too!

I woke up early and made him a big breakfast. He didn't even eat half of it, and because he was the birthday boy I didn't say a word! Needless to say, Purl likes Daryl's birthday too! After school I told him he could pick the ice cream place for dessert. This is actually a big deal, because most of the time Alex insists we go to Orange Leaf. Daryl picked DQ, Alex cried, but then he got over it!

It was a calm but great day. My baby is ten years old, and time marches on. He is turning into a handsom young man, and he makes me proud. Now if he could just find a way to get along with his brother!

10 years old and 1 day!

Alex closed his eyes and Daryl took a taste!

Alex was not pleased!

King's breakfast

What the king actually ate! 

One fun day!

On Monday I had the boys home before they started school today. They had some requests for our last day of summer break. Alex wanted to go skating and Daryl wanted a steak. Check and Check!

We also played at a new park and cruised Target before calling it a day. They still fight with each other, when Alex is tired he still whines. Those things aside, they are growing up too fast!

New Projects

So I finally finished a knitting project! The pattern for these mitts was Piitu by Heidi Alander. The yarn was Wollmeise sock yarn. I liked the way they turned out, they are longer than the picture of the pattern looks so I might skip a lace repeat if I make again. Haha, that's funny considering I have so many things to knit, that I would repeat a pattern. That is RARE. 

I busied myself yesterday to find the next thing I want to knit. My friend Karen gifted me the Veera Calimaki pattern of Contemporary. I have some amazing malabrigo yarn that would be perfect! So I think that will be next on the needles!

I've been cleaning out the basement and I finally gave into Alex's request to sew something on Monday. He found a KU fabric that he wanted to turn into a pillow. It was actually the second fabric he picked up. I went with it because I have four boxes of fabric and I really didn't want to have him go through all of it!

We started with him running the pedal. He actually did really good at that. Then I let him "steer" the fabric. That was trickier, but we only broke one needle by hitting a pin! He then stuffed his pillow and I closed it up for him.

You have never seen a more content boy. When it was done he immediately asked, "When do I get to take it on stage!" He is already thinking Fashion Revue. LOL.

This morning taking the boys to camp Alex took a banana in the car with him. We were all talking (mostly about the primary election results) when I hear Daryl say, "Alex you may be a monkey, but you are a monkey with manners. Please don't chew with your mouth open."

I reaffirmed that being a monkey with manners is good! I think Alex only chews with his mouth open to bother his brother but it is a terrible habit to get started. :-)

Finished Mitts (Not cat sweaters!) 

Stuffing his pillow

Already wants to make another one! 

Have you ever seen a kid more happy to go to bed? 

My yarn for my new hat project. 

Last Week of Summer

Grandma left today. :-( So, the boys and I are going to get a dose of reality in the morning!! I sent them to bed early because they are going to have to get up before 7 tomorrow so I can get them to camp before work. It will be good practice for school.

Speaking of school this is our last week before school starts! Where did the summer go? No, really, I have no idea how this time is already up? We will try and make the most of this week, if the boys work with me we can have a lot of fun! The bikes need to be ridden, and the pool needs to be visited before we can call it good on summer 2018.

I'm happy to say I finished my summer knitting project. It shouldn't take an entire summer to knit fingerless mitts, but I did finish them. So that is something! After I weave in the ends on this pair I think I will start a pair of socks. Alex, did tell me he would like some mitts for winter too. So that is going on the list. I'm confident I can make that happen by the first snow. (Good Thing it doesn't usually snow until after Christmas these days.)

Everyone enjoy what little bit of summer you have left! Teachers, I hope you are ready for these crazy kids! ;-)

A finished thing! Bad night time lighting. They are very pretty orange. 

She seems to leave with more than she brings.....

I got a hot air balloon ride at the fair too!