Family & Friends

My family is here!

Guess who’s visiting? It’s my family from Germany and I’m just in heaven!

My grand-daughter Lily just turned 3 and she chats away in both German and English. If she’s talking in German to me, I can say “Lily, tell Grandma in English” and she’ll translate.

It’s amazing to see what children can do when they are raised with two languages.  Mon always speaks German to her and Dad speaks English.  She goes to an American/German pre-school and one teacher speaks German and the other speaks English.  Because she’s learned both languages at the same time she thinks nothing of it.

Milkshake is such a gentle soul. She took to Lily right away.

 

Every morning Lily and I take the dogs for a walk.   I take the stroller just in case one of them gets tired.  Usually it’s Chelsea, my little short leg chunk.

Walking the dogs with grandma
Walking the dogs with grandma

It’s a little crazy around here now with family getting together.  Day trips are very involved and usually include a caravan of two cars.  A trip to the beach takes at least an hour to get ready.  We find ourselves cooking dinner for 9 to 10 people, running the dishwasher daily, and our grocery shopping has increased  by leaps and bounds.  Of course going out to eat is an event in itself.  Large tables are a highly prized commodity.

When I think about how normal this must sound to many of you I’m both amazed and a little jealous.  Today everyone went camping and the quiet around here is seems so strange.  Don’t you love it when your family visits?  Do your children all live close to you, or do they travel to see you?  Do you take trips together?

Behind the scenes, we’re still working to finalize our new website.  It’s into the testing stage and almost ready.  When the new site is up and running it will look the same, but we’ve added new products, a few pdf patterns (we’re starting with the Petite patterns and we’ll add more as we go along), you’ll be able to set up your own account to make check-out easy each time, or just check out as a guest.  I’ll let you know when it’s up so you can explore the new site and give me your feedback.  I expect there to be a few glitches but I hope our testing will have covered most of them.

We have another shipment from Valdani coming on July 7th and I hope to have all the floss kits for the punchneedle patterns in stock at that time.  Currently we have everything you need to make our Sweet Pea pocket, including the wool, trims and floss in stock.  You’ll find everything on our website.

"Sweet Pea" scalloped pocket from Bunny Hill Designs
“Sweet Pea” scalloped pocket from Bunny Hill Designs

We’re having a heat wave here for the next week and it’s just awful.  The fire danger is high with the 4th just around the corner.   I hope the 4th is fun and safe for you.  Keep those animals locked up inside.  The shelters here are already expecting to be on overload.  We have several cats who hate fireworks, and it’s our first 4th of July with Milkshake.  I don’t know how she’ll react but I’ll be ready.

I’ll be back soon.

Anne

 

35 Comments

  • sunny

    ~~sigh~~ I guess now I have to learn how to punchneedle. I don’t NEED another hobby, but a girl has to make certain sacrifices… Lily can’t possibly be 3! You just announced her birth a month or so ago. Didn’t you?? Enjoy all the lovely family time that you can.

  • DeAnna Dodson

    Awww, isn’t Lily beautiful! And I just love Milkshake. She looks so sweet and huggable. :D

    I’m jealous of Lily’s ability to speak two languages fluently. That’s such a wonderful thing to be able to do.

    I hope you all have a wonderful time and a fun, safe 4th of July!

  • Pam in Indiana

    Oh, Anne, I’m so happy for you! Our five kids are all out of state — but our son just moved back from Monterrey, Mexico after three years. He just arrived back at Notre Dame for a year so were really glad he’s back in the States. Our youngest is flying home tonight from Omaha with our first and only grandson, Henry, for his baptism on the 12th. Everyone will be home except for Molly who is a nanny in Oklahoma.

    Then I go to Michigan for my quilt week with my six BFFs at Kristen’s lake cottage.

    Love seeing sweet Lily — that is so wonderful that she is bilingual. Meredith is taking Mandarin and is teaching Henry — they’re such little sponges at this age.

    Enjoy your time with everyone. Our house is about to get wild for a few weeks but I love it. I miss the old days with all the kids!

    XO

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