I couldn’t resist posting this photo that my father-in-law sent me yesterday. He’s been telling us that Jeff’s picture is on a billboard at 235 & West Street. I was shocked when I opened the file because it really does look like him. He even has a pair of Ray-Ban’s that look just like this.
You be the judge . . .
To bad he didn’t REALLY win $37 million.
Jeff had to be in Michigan this week for work so it seemed like the perfect time for Grant and I to head south to Texas to visit my friend Kristen and her family. We loaded up the car and left early Sunday morning. The trip took a little longer than expected. I guess it wasn’t a good idea to let Grant get a Dr. Pepper slush first thing. It gave him quite the tummy ache. I think we managed to stop at just about every Stuckey’s between Wichita and Oklahoma City. Luckily after lunch he was feeling better and we made it the rest of the way in record time.
On Monday morning we headed to Arlington to the Pier One Clearance Store. After driving for nearly an hour we were shocked to find out that the store had closed. Of course when I looked online the day before there wasn’t any mention of this. That didn’t stop us from doing more shopping though. Our next stop was at Sam Moon’s. If you’ve never been to Sam Moon’s boy are you missing out. It is a jewelry and handbag paradise. They just built a new one north of Ft. Worth in Keller, TX that is right on I-35 so it was much more convenient than the Dallas location and not nearly as busy.
I only bought a few things this trip . . .I think I was most excited with my new white watch.
I never wear a watch but I’ve seen this style at several boutiques in Wichita and when we were in Michigan. You may even remember that Sandra Bullock wore one just like it in The Blind Side. Every one that I’ve seen has been between $20-$25 so you can imagine how excited I was when I found the exact same one for $9.95. Obviously I needed more than one so on our way home we stopped at Sam Moon’s again and I bought a black one!!! I also picked one up for my friend Diane as a little {belated} birthday treat.
On Tuesday we hit a few more shops and then Kristen and I took Grant and Gracie to the pool for the majority of the afternoon. Grant had a blast on the diving board. I bet he dove into the pool 50 times.
I know he’s an amazing kid . . . but I had NO idea he could walk on water!!!! 
It was also Maddie’s 12th birthday on Tuesday. She got several new accessories for her horse so late that evening we drove out to the ranch where they keep their horses and she tried them out. Grant also got to ride a horse for the first time. The only problem was I didn’t think to pack him any jeans so he {reluctantly} wore a pair of Maddie’s and a pair of her friends boots. It was pretty dark by the time they rounded up the horses and got them saddled up so my pictures didn’t turn out great.
Grant and Cabo
I have to admit I was a little nervous about him riding. I had a bad horse experience as a kid and it has kind of stuck with me. At first they led the horse around the arena with Grant on it and then once he had the hang of it he was all on his own. Luckily Cabo is a REALLY old horse and was more interested in walking over to get a drink of water than galloping.
On Wednesday we did a little more shopping and spent the afternoon relaxing and watching a movie. Then later that evening we drove back to Arlington to celebrate Maddie’s friends birthday at the Traildust Steakhouse. Grant had a great time. It didn’t hurt that he was the only boy in the group along with 5 very cute 12 year old girls!!! The restaurant has a 2-story metal slide right in the middle. The kids spent the majority of the night going down it. They also had fun on the dance floor. Again the lighting was bad so my pictures didn’t turn out great.
{The famous slide}
We had lots of fun and were sad when we had to leave Thursday morning. Neither one of us was looking forward to the long drive home.
Thanks again Wood’s family for a fun week!!! We really wish you guys lived closer. We can’t wait to see you in October when you come back for Arkalalah.
This weekend Grant’s baseball team had the opportunity to play ball for a good cause. Several weeks ago a Westurban coach {and former WSU baseball player} was injured in a car accident that has left him with severe spinal cord injuries. You can read more here. Several of his close friends put together the “Let’s Play Ball for Carl Hall” tournament in Derby to raise money to benefit his family. Teams from all over the Wichita area participated in the day long event. Besides collecting donations there were raffles going on throughout the day, t-shirts being sold and sports memorabilia that was auctioned off later that evening at a BBQ dinner.
Despite the hot temperatures it was a fun day.
Here are a few pictures I took . . . believe it or not, it was our last baseball tournament of the season. 
We tried to keep Grant cooled off between games with a wet rag around his neck.
Good thing it was the last game of the season . . . check out how dirty his pants were. This is one stain I probably won’t be able to get out . . . yikes!!!
Even though I do not know Carl or his family personally, not a day has gone by that I haven’t thought about them multiple times. My heart goes out to each one of them during this difficult time. It was truly amazing to see how many people turned up at the ballpark to show their support.
Several other activities have been planned to raise additional funds for Carl and his family. You can check out this website to get information about upcoming events in the area.
So what does the Bumgardner family do on a night where we don’t have any baseball practices or games of our own . . . go to a baseball game of course!!!
On Friday when I took Grant to get his hair cut they were giving away free tickets to tonight’s Wichita Wingnuts game. We picked up 3 tickets thinking it would be a fun family outing. Then over the weekend while we were in Manhattan I mentioned we had tickets and a few other families thought it would be fun to go too. So I called Great Clips on Sunday evening when we got home and asked if they had any extra tickets left and they told me to come on down and pick up as many as I wanted. They ended up giving me a handful so with 29 tickets in hand we made it a fun night at the ballpark with several families from our baseball team.
Here’s Grant showing his support . . . 
It wouldn’t be a baseball game without hotdogs, soda and a few beers.
The guys weren’t nearly as excited about holding up their signs.
{Photo Attempt #1)
{Photo Attempt #2) Jeff seems to be the most uncooperative one of the group . . . go figure!!! 
This past weekend we traveled to Manhattan to the 9 year old state baseball tournament. As always, we had a great time hanging out with everyone and got to enjoy watching the boys play in 3 games on Saturday and 2 games on Sunday. They played hard and made it all way to the semi-finals where they ended up losing {4-2} to the Manhattan Titans.
We got off to a little bit of a later start than we initially planned on Friday afternoon. We met up at the local Kwik Shop to carpool to Manhattan and found out they were giving away free milkshakes inside so everyone had to make one before we could hit the road. The only problem was you could only make ONE at a time.
As usual, I took TONS of pictures . . .
{The Mom’s} Angie, Sadonna, Kelly, Lisa, Coco & Dawn
{The Dad’s} Shawn, Chad #1, Chad #2, Jeff & Greg . . . where’s Chad #3???
{The Cardinal’s} Looking sharp in their red jersey’s!!!
What an exhausting weekend . . . this is how we all felt when we made it back home late Sunday afternoon!!!
I have been hard at work all week making my very first quilt.
It was a very easy project that required very little sewing experience . . . which is great for me!!!
A friend of mine {Dawn} made a rag quilt of her own and always brings it to baseball games. For the past two years I have admired her quilt and she has always told me how easy it was to make.
So on Monday, afternoon I did a little research online and found some directions, I headed to the fabric store with Grant. He was such a little trooper!!! I ended up choosing a denim material as well as three other flannel prints because they don’t fray much and are easy to work with. I also got my grandma to come stay with me for a few days and she was a big help . . . plus we had lots of fun working on the project. It also makes my quilt that much more special knowing that she helped me!!!
Here’s grandma hard at work. She had a little trouble with my machine so she ended up doing most of the work pinning the blocks together while I did the sewing.
After we finished making all of the blocks I arranged them on the floor to create a pattern . . . you wouldn’t believe how tricky this part was!!! I ended up being a few blocks short so we had to make a run to the fabric store to buy an 1/4 of a yard of the denim fabric.
The hardest part was keeping my grandma’s little dog Tiger off the blocks.
After two straight days of sewing I finally got it all finished today. Grant and Tiger enjoyed snuggling up with it on the couch.
Here’s a peek at the final project . . . I am really happy with the way it turned out. As you can see from the pictures it required several hours of trimming around all the blocks once all the sewing was done. 
