Emily's Name....Forever in Ink

 Tim is no stranger to the tattoo gun.  He's got several....ok, he's bordering on "many"...but there is one consistent theme.. no names!  In the tattoo world, getting your girlfriend's name is insane, wife's name is completely idiotic, but kids' names are just fine.  Why?  Well, your kids are your kids forever.  Doesn't change.  Your girlfriend or wife?  Getting their name is the kiss of death for that relationship.  So while my name will never grace Timmy's body, our kids' names have been his goal since November 18, 2010.
He got Emily's name yesterday in a beautiful font called "featherography".  After this has healed, he will be adding some shading and making some additions that are specific to Emily.  For example, he wants to add a scorpion tail to the "Y" in Emily because she's a Scorpio and he might add a smoking gun in the background because she's such a pistol. (yes, pun intended). In a month or two, Jason Oliver will be added to his other side.  Jason's personal touches haven't been decided yet--we need to give him a little more time to develop a distinct personality.

Beginner Blankets

 Truth be told, I learned to crochet in possibly the worse "beginner way" possible--by making a huge blanket for my mom for Mother's Day back in my sophomore year of college.  I spent 3-5 hours almost nightly for three months doing row after row of shell patterns to create a striped jewel tone blanket big enough to be used a twin bed bedspread!  I'm much more likely to make hats now because I've been lucky enough to have pretty good business through my Etsy store (https://www.etsy.com/shop/HippityHoppityHats) .  In fact, when I go on Google and search for "baby boy visor hats", my shop is the third website that pulls up and under images, three of my hats are in the first row, including the first image to appear!  So exciting!  But I was starting to burn out a little on constant elf hats, baseball hats, and visor hats, so I took a break from the norm to learn the Granny Square.  Believe it or not, it's very simple, and I can't believe it took 14+ years before I even thought to tackle that stitch!  
So I have made 3 blankets so far.  The first was for Emily, because when she sees me crochet she says "Is that for me?  Or for a baby?".  And it's about time she got to benefit from my hobby!  So her blanket is yellow and pink and called "Pink Lemonade".  The next blanket I did was the one above and below.  The color combo is called "Aidan" and it's a combo of bright white, denim blue and chocolate brown.  I did the blanket as a basic giant Granny Square.  I think it turned out well for only my second Granny Square blanket!  (Third blanket is still a work in progress....)  There is something very soothing about a Granny Square with all the holes to poke little fingers and toes through!

School's Out!

 For our first official "Day out of school", I took Garrett, Caroline, LoLo and Emily on a short road trip to Busch Gardens!  Lots of schools in the area have to go through this week, so I figured the park might have less people than later on this summer.  Also, forecast was calling for 30% chance of isolated storms, which would lower the number of people at the park even more.  We have season passes, so it's not like a "make or break" thing for us if it rains.  We could just hang out in the funnel cake shop until a storm passed.  Luckily, we only had to put up with two five-minute sprinkles and that was it!  And with the cloudy weather came no sunburns and lower temps than usual.  Score!

I  LOVE all the stained glass in this place!  

Garrett was in trouble for an untidy chamber and Emily couldn't keep her mouth shut.

LoLo and Caroline....BFF

Yes, that is a very tall roller coaster.

Notice the complete lack of crowds in this place!

For the first hour, it honestly felt like we had snuck in the place!  There was only a dozen or so other people there!

Waiting so patiently for the older kids to get finished with the Griffin.

And we're spinning!  We're spinning baby!