The Big "I know I haven't posted in a while" Post--picture heavy

Well helloooo~ It's me again. I have good intentions and then the day is done and no blogging. But I'll at least catch you up. Starting August 6th, I finally pulled together some ideas of what to do for Derek for his birthday. We were trying to avoid spending money, and that coupled with the fact that Derek typically gets himself whatever he wants, it is difficult to buy gifts. (that sounds kind of bad-he doesn't spend if we're watching it well, he just sees stuff and gets it when we are able to buy ;) I want to thank the ladies at the Reclaiming the Home group on Ravelry, who helped point me in the right direction, and then Derek's friend Ryan personalized the ideas which are all related to World of Warcraft goodies. So, here:

The girls painted a Happy Birthday Daddy! banner:

I copied some WoW art and framed them:

More copies for decoupage on a box:

side

back

front

inside with some goodies

mana, health, gold and damage

healing potion, hearthstone and character stones

all in the box in pouches I made

Rune of Teleportation and Rune of Portals, in case he needs to bust out of work really fast

knitted, felted and needle felted zipper pouch with the Alliance symbol on it (not yet finished, needle broke!) (and, Alliance Lion or Cowardly Lion? You choose. He was happy though :)

And, um....green proto drake cake. Yes is it. Squint. See?

The girls also painted rocks for him and little figurines (a pig and a treasure chest) and got him WoW game cards. :) It was a very geeky birthday and he had tons of fun.

We've also been watching nature. We had gone to City Knitting and the girls saw this and wanted me to take a picture:

And, lastly, while we did not plant sunflowers this year, we still got one. We're keeping track of how it's growing and we're excited for it to bloom.

8/13/09

8/21/09

8/26/09

So that's where we're at. :) I have to go get the cream puffs out of the oven...mmmm!