time for tea

Every Spring the upper class Allred women get together for an elegant tea party.


We enjoy being outside in the beautiful Spring weather.

We enjoy a table full of dainty and delicious finger foods.

(Kara's favorite memory, the rose flavored jello!)

We enjoy visiting and visiting and visiting with the ladies.

We enjoy a little croquet.

We enjoy posing as if we lived in England in the early 1900's.

And of course, we enjoy our "tea."

It was a delightful day!

Cheerio!

This boys got talent

My cross eyed whistler.

And a good one at that.

Oh, and he's reading big ole chapter books.

Love him and all his amazing talents.

A Knight's Tale

"Mom, I need a costume for some Medieval thing we are doing in school.

And it needs to be good, because they are filming us for TV.

Oh, and I need it by tomorrow."

Now, I have a few costumes laying around, and I can usually throw something together, but this particular request warranted a call to Trevor's fabulous Aunt Anya who is the queen of costumes.(I mean come on, we are talking about TV here!) Seriously, her hobby is researching and gathering or making authentic costumes. Her collection is AMAZING and so is she! And so at 10:30 PM the night before the big festival Trevor, Brandon and I found ourselves being outfitted and educated on how a true Knight would dress for battle. We left with a trunk full of... well, you'll see.

The underclothes.

Brandon was particularly intrigued with the leggings. He was a little hesitant. And what 12 year old boy wouldn't be slightly nervous to wear leggings to school in front all of his peers. But, he slipped them on and continued to dress. The best was yet to come.


The chain mail.


Which was hand made painstakingly piece by piece by Aunt Anya's son. It took him a whole summer to make it and it weighs a ton. It took 2 of us to get it on him.


It was AWESOME!



Almost done.



My knight in shining chain mail.

I walked to school with him that day. Heads were turning as he clinked his way through the halls towards his classroom. He was a little nervous, a little embarrassed and a little proud because his was by far the best costume there. The 6th graders were all abuzz with excitement for the "Knights of Mayhem" program to begin.

The show consisted of this knight

Verses this knight.

They did several demonstrations. They even put a melon on top of the principals head and then sliced it in half with a sword as they rode by on a horse.

Impressive.

And of course, there was jousting!

There was lots of jousting.

(It only took about 15 shots to actually get both horses in the picture)

My knight did not joust, but did get his picture taken by the National Geographic photographer (no doubt due to his costume), and his picture taken with the jousting World Champion. After the show he insisted on wearing his costume for the rest of the day at school. I don't know how he did it, that chain mail weighed as much as he did.

When he got home and 2 of us helped him get all of the gear off, he literally collapsed from carrying around that weight all day. He was exhausted, happy and an absolute filthy mess from all of the metal. Tis the life of a Knight, I guess.

It was definitely a day and a "knight" to remember.

Thanks Aunt Anya.

4th of july

Once again we really liked stretching the 4th of July holiday over a nice long, jam packed weekend.

Here are a few of the things we filled that weekend with:

The traditional barbecue in Grandpa's backyard. I'm telling you, it is the best place for a barbecue. Add Grandma's famous potato salad and you've got yourself a perfect afternoon.

The Freedom Festival parade.

One of the highlights this year was the Star Wars entry and a little visit from Darth Maul.

Relaxing at the Cracker Barrel.

Rockers, checkers, blueberry pancakes and browsing through the country store.

Classic 4th of July.

A patriotic Sunday afternoon treat to cool off with.
And some patriotic hymns in church. My favorite.

Over the top shakes, a spectacular view and sipping lemonade on my parents balcony.

Heaven.

And obviously we had to satisfy the pyros in our family with a firework or two.

Happy 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th of July!

And Happy Birthday America.

I'm so glad you were born.

soaked

The annual 4th of July water fight.

It just wouldn't be the 4th without it.

We were well equipped and ready to go this year.


Water balloons, coolers, guns, hoses...and of coarse a little water.

We knew what we wanted.

We wanted victory.

We set up barricades.

Sometimes we turned on our own.

We got a little wet.

Soaked might be a better word.

But would it really be a water fight, if we weren't wet?

Not a very fun one.

This one was intense, but we prevailed.

Yep, Travis that's right.

My blog. My opinion. My conclusion.

We won!

We totally won!

Until next year Uncle Travis.

I would start preparing now if I were you.

We going for a "threepeat!"

Colonial Days

Our annual trip to Colonial Days over the 4th of July weekend.

It never fails to deliver.

Rich in history, steeped in tradition with a few new additions this year that I wanted to capture.

The firing of the cannon.

Not new this year, but always a favorite.

Covering of the ears is a must!

Piece by piece my kids put on the armor of a time long past, with an explanation for every article.

Of coarse, the swords were their favorites.



Alyssa carded a little wool, a skill she will undoubtedly be happy she has and will most likely be able to use in the future, don't ya think?

We locked up and left a few kids in the stockades.

And finally the most exciting "new" thing this year at good ole Colonial Days.

Introducing SAUSAGE ON A STICK!

My kids walked by this booth and HAD to have one.

And their dad, a big sausage fan, willingly obliged.

He, in fact, bought three.

Hopefully they will have more sausages hot and sizzlin next year because we will be back!

Family Motto 2011

Lets pretend it's January 1st and not July 1st.

Lets pretend I am not, oh, 6 months behind on some of my posts.

Lets pretend its the beginning of the year and we are just introducing our family's motto for 2011.

All pretending aside, here is our motto or theme for the year. We talked about this in January. I made the signs. I hung them on the fridge and on every bathroom mirror. We had a big Family Home Evening on our goal.

And now 6 months later I am finally returning and reporting on it.

This motto or theme had been floating around in my head for a long time. The more I thought about it the more I realized how much returning and reporting we do in this church.

We talked to our kids about how we return and report our home and visiting teaching each month.

How we return and report on how we feel we fulfilled each calling when we are released.

*How we return and report our tithing to our Bishop at the end of each year.

How missionaries return and report daily on their missions and then one final return and report when they have completed their missions.

We talked a little about how there is quite a bit of returning and reporting done in the temple.

We discussed how at the close of each day we personally return and report to our Heavenly Father in prayer on the events of the day.

And we emphasized how every single soul will have one final return and report at the feet of their Maker, where they will be ultimately accountable for every single action in their lives.

And from there we then laid out our "return and report" expectations.
Along with all the above returning and reporting we told our kids that they need to return and report to us in all of the following situations. Our kids now know they are expected to return and report:

*after school

*after dates

*after parties they attend

*after playing at a friends house (did you play a game system the whole time?)

*after church or at Sunday dinner (what did you learn at church today?)

We also told them we expect them to return and report about:

*bullying

*pornography

*bad choices made by friends

*inappropriate things on TV or in books

*any problems or questions

*any fears they might have

*positive experiences

*spiritual experiences

*how their lives in general are going

Yes, there is a lot of returning and reporting going on around here for not only our kids, but for all of us. And that's just the way it should be, not only for 2011, but forever!

Courage

I had the privilege of attending the Activity Day Girl's Talent Show. It was a very anticipated Mother/Daughter date that did not disappoint.

There were about 30 girls.

Twenty seven of them plinked out a song on the piano.

Two of them sang.

And then there was Alyssa.

Alyssa decided right when she heard about the talent show that she was going to dance. I thought (and hoped) she would perform a dance she was learning in her dance class (you know, one choreographed by a professional dancer). Nope. "I want to make up a dance by myself" she proudly stated. And make up a dance she did. She picked the song "Bad Day" by Daniel Powder. She made up some moves. She practiced. The night of the big performance she introduced herself and her talent and then she began to dance.

She danced with feeling.

She danced with passion.

She said she was so nervous.

It didn't show.

After the show one of the moms came up to me and said, "You know, courage is also a talent." I totally agree. Never in a million years would I have done that when I was a little girl.

But my Alyssa is confident.

She has courage.

And she's definitely got talent.

She was the perfect date.

And for the record it wasn't a "bad day" at all.

family reunion

My surgeon strongly advised against it.

After all, I was just 4 days post emergency appendectomy.

The risk for blood clots increased the longer you sat (think 9 hours in a car.)

I really shouldn't have gone.

BUT

We kind of have this rule in our house.

You just don't miss an Allred Reunion.

Especially when that reunion is on the beach.

And so, I packed up my pain pills, put on my comfy pajama pants and hopped in the car.

Growing up in an extremely small family, I never really had a concept of extended family.

Now, thanks to the amazing Allred extended family, I have a concept and a very good one at that.

There is not a better group of people in all the world.

We had a glorious 4 days reuniting with the ones we love.

Due to my medical condition, my sweet husband rented me a big motor home so I could rest, be comfortable and sleep well.

Okay, in reality he got this before I even had my surgery, because he knows I don't do tents.

I love him for that.

We so enjoyed early morning walks on the beach.

And being with cousins and second cousins and possibly third cousins that we don't get the opportunity to see very often.

We so enjoyed playing in the sand and the water ALL day...

...every day!

We really enjoyed creating sandcastles for the big sand castle contest.

The winner.

It wasn't ours.

We flew kites.

We played games. We sang around the campfire. We had contests. We did crafts. We learned family history. We crooned tunes.

We were dirty and sandy and tired.

And we were happy.

Really happy that we had thrown caution (and my health) to the wind and had come.

I enjoyed all of these activities from the comfort of my lounge chair. I was well taken care of. At one point, as I sat lounging, I looked around at this tremendous site. I saw my kids, and all the other kids running around from grown up to grown up. Getting some sunblock here, some crackers there, a little treat here, a quick hug there. I imagined that this would be what heaven is like. Surrounded by your great extended family. Connected. Eternal. No worries about not being accepted. No cares about what you're wearing or who you know or if you will fit in. Just acceptance and love. They could go to anyone and they knew they would be listened to. They knew they would be loved

.

And I soaked it all in.

These are the Aunts and Uncles I never had.

These are the cousins I had always longed for.

They are my friends. They are my family.

You just don't miss an Allred reunion.

And now you know why!

I feel...

I feel sore, so sore.

I feel tired.

I feel bruised.

I feel bloated.

I feel overwhelmed.

I feel a little cranky.

I feel like I have hardly seen my kids.

I feel stressed as I watch Trevor play mom and dad.

I also feel grateful.

I feel the human body is pretty amazing.

I feel happy to live in a day with modern medicine and competent surgeons.

I feel so thankful for my sister and her husband.

I feel so very loved and cared for.

I just really feel blessed.

Basically, I feel like I had an emergency appendectomy 3 days ago.

I wish I felt different.

But I don't!