Summer Crafts

 

I'm kicking myself for the lighting in these photos but they are good enough to give you an idea of the quilts.  Earlier this year I shipped out eight, yep, you read that right, eight quilts to my long armer.  I got 4 back and quickly bound them all so they'd be done done done and ready for gifting.  All these need are labels and they are ready for wrapping.

Quilt 1: Lamb Jumping Over the Moon fabric - likely for a future baby girl.  Quilted in these adorable stars that felt fitting!

Quilt 2: A sea life quilt in neutral colors that could be for a boy or girl (or most importantly a "we're waiting to find out" baby.  Those ones are hard to plan for!).  Its quilted in these geometric bubbles and waves of sort which felt fitting for a sea life quilt.

Quilt 3: My favorite of this batch which probably doesn't surprise you.  I love these scrappy traditional patterns with modern looking color blocking and fabrics.  They are fun to make and fun to display.  I'm not sure who this one will go to yet, either a future wedding/birthday present or potentially a Christmas present.

We quilted this in a butterfly pattern which felt like it matched the little star points on some of the blocks.

(May 21)

I've been on the search for a great hat pattern that is universal for men and women.  It's easy to do a fun pattern and colors for women, but men's hats need to be more plain and Ryan has been asking me for a hat for a few years and I haven't landed the right pattern, until I found this one!  It is a super fast knit (I finished this in less than a week I think) and it uses one skein of bulky weight yarn.  I think it's just what I've been looking for. Because I know someday I'll be looking at this post for reference, this hat is the Purl Soho pattern called Chalet Hat and Hand Warmers and it's made out of Pouf.  It whips up quick and this will be a fun easy gift.

(May 22)

My project for the summer (and maybe the fall at the rate I'm knitting right now) is this Fringe As You Go scarf.  Its made out of this mohair-ish yarn and while I love the look of it, it's not my favorite thing to work with.  Its easy to split the yarn the "hair" gets tangled on the needles pretty easily.  That being said, the pattern is fun in that, as the name suggests, you knit the fringe right as you go instead of adding it as an afterthought.  Not sure where this one is headed yet, probably a Christmas present.

(June 14)

(July 19)

(July 26)

Just 2 months from start to finish on this scarf and it's packed away and ready for Christmas gifting.  Not too bad!  If I'm honest, this wasn't my favorite project to knit and I'm pretty glad it's finished and I can move onto something new.  The yarn was fiddly to work with, splitting often and not easy to slip between needles.  It's pretty now that it's finished, but I probably wont be ordering more of this yarn.

I'm not sure who'll be the recipient of this, potentially it'll go into one of our homemade/handmade gift exchanges, or maybe for my friend Jennifer.  We'll see!

(July 26)

And, as soon as one comes off the needles, another goes on!  I picked up three more balls of yarn to knit the grey hat pattern I posted earlier in this post.  These will come together quickly and will also go into my pile for gifting.  I'll have a nice little stash which always feels good!

(July 29)

I've also got 4 quilts back from the long armer so I'll be sewing on bindings and stocking these away as well.  I'll have lots of finishes in the next month here but it's only because most of these have been in the works for a year + and I'm finally getting to the last step on them.  I've got two of these headed out for gifting in the next month though!  One wedding quilt for Jess and Nick and one baby quilt for my co-worker Kaitlin who is having a baby in early October.

(Aug 3)

(Aug 3)

(Aug 3)

This stack is growing but it's just in time for the holidays to arrive!  Believe it or not, after all these years of quilting and knitting there are still core family members who haven't got a blanket yet.  This stack will put a dent in that list...and the holidays will put a dent in this pile.

(Aug 5)

(Aug 8)

I am really really happy with this hat pattern.  It's be a long process to get to a pattern and yarn that I like, but I think I've finally found it.  I've got two more of these to whip up in time for winter but they are fast knits and the perfect project for traveling.

(Aug 13)

And that's a wrap on the big quilt push of 2026.  I shipped out 8 quilts to Kristy (the long arm quilter I use) earlier this year and I told myself I'd bind them all before I started anything new.  This is the last one and it's done and dusted.  Fear not!  I've got three more quilt kits laid out on the pool table.  I can't wait to start cutting and quilting.  The summer and fall are WILD months for us.  We plan too much, and are never home...we make the most of every moment...but that means quilting waits until the cold dark winter months.  They are closer than anyone wants to think about!

And, with that, I'm going to call the Summer Crafts post complete and start loading them into my Fall post.  Mid August doesn't quite feel like Fall, but it's closer to Fall than Summer, and school starts next week...so onto Fall we go!

Hazel gets braces!!

It's been no more than 6 months since Abby got her braces off and I celebrated that we no longer needed monthly trips to the orthodontist, but I really should know better!  Hazel is getting braces slightly earlier than Abby did and will likely need them for slightly longer than she did, but we've officially started this process and I think she'll have them off before she starts 8th grade.

Dr. Darmon said that Hazel likely will need to get 4 teeth extracted (she's not pleased) because the adult teeth aren't correctly aligned to the baby teeth to push them out.  And, she'll need braces for longer than Abby did but we managed to avoid the expander which Hazel was most worried about.  Hazel's mouth is a little too tiny for her big giant adult teeth...so we've got some work to do, but the process is moving along and like most things, this will go by in the blink of an eye.

Haze choose pink and purple for her first rubber bands.  It took about 3 days before she was eating normally and had gotten use to the whole thing.  I'd told her that there was an Orthodontist Rule that said "by day 3 it's back to normal life".  LOLOL!  We'll see if that comes back to haunt me, or if it becomes family lore that gets repeated for generations.  One can really never be sure!

And, just like that, Hazel is becoming less and less a little kid and more and more like a teenager.  We aren't there yet, but...before I know it....

Summer with the Arts - Theater Program

 

I've had my eye on the summer theater program through our park district for the past few summers but we've never been able to participate because it seemed like we were always going to miss some important part of it - like be on vacation during the final show weekend or during the few tech weeks leading up to the performance.  But, this summer our vacation schedules aligned well enough and I signed the girls up.  I was motivated by the program being a k-12 age range meaning the girls would meet some local kids outside of Riley, specifically for Abby as she's entering into highschool.

The show was called Dare the Dream and it was essentially a Disney music review of sorts.  The kids had their first ever audition back at the end of May and while they were both very nervous they practiced before we went and I have to say they did a really good job auditioning considering they'd never done it before.  They both had to prepare a 30 second solo and a short monologue.  Hazel, who never seems nervous about anything and is the most go with the flow was so nervous she almost froze but with a little coaxing she turned on the charm and was able to land her audition.  Abby, also nervous, really stepped up and just whipped it out!

In the end both girls spent the majority of the time in the ensemble but both had solos!  Abby's was early on in the show, she sang a song from Moana and man...I gotta say, she had me in tears!!  She was SO GOOD!  So many people commented on her solo, it was a real boost of confidence for her.  Hazel had a short, few lines solo and she also nailed it!  

The kids all got to pick the characters they wanted to dress up as - well, they had to rank their top 3, but both girls got their top picks.  Abby was dressed as Princess Jasmine and Hazel was...can you guess it?  Thumper (a bunny, of course!).  The director had the kids do something called Disney Bounding (which is something Disney people know about, but it was new for us).  Essentially it means that they dress in the likeness of the characters, but not as the exact characters.  Each kid was tasked with finding their own outfit and they were told they shouldn't spend a ton of money on it.  No ordering things on Amazon or going to the Halloween stores....they needed to source their costumes from their closets or from their friends or from Goodwill etc.  What do you think?  Didn't they do a great job?

The practices ran three nights a week for 2 hours each night through all of June and most of July and it all ended with three shows at the high school theater.  We sent out the details to the family and SO MANY people showed up!  They came form far and wide to support the girls and to see their first ever musical.  We had about 8-10 people over each of the three nights.  It made for a busy week of hosting but also for a great chance for us to host smaller groups here in Marengo.  

I really wasn't prepared for how proud I felt of these two amazing girls.  For how much I wanted to brag on them and show them off and pump them up.  It has been such a good summer of realizing we're raising really great, cool, fun children and being able to stand beside them as they grow up and try new things and excel at them.  As we watch them find the things they love to do and the talents they have hidden inside of them.  I will never forget these moments.  The moments my heart swells with pride and love for these sweet girls.

We're so lucky to have so many family and friends to show up to cheer the girls on.  It makes them feel special and loved, and me too, honestly!

We had such a good experience with this theater program...I'll be angling for them to try out again next year.  Hopefully the schedules align and we can pull it off again - it sounds like the winter show is going to be Mary Poppins and the next summer show is Madagascar. 

Ritterbusch Family Reunion Part 4 - Red River Gorge (Activites)

I already shared about our hikes and the campground, but this post is dedicated to the activities we did on the family reunion.  Up first, ATVing.  The girls had so much fun doing this when we were in the Black Hills, they say it's one of their favorite vacation memories and Ryan LOVES an opportunity to drive something around in the mud, so we looked into it at Red River.  Originally we thought we could do it wih Liz and Bobby, but the kids were too short for the rental place's rules.  It's a bummer because the boys and Bobby would have loved it.  

Somewhat last minute we were able to convince a big group to go.  It's not an inexpensive activity.  I think we spent around $400 per vehicle, but in contrast we looked at a ziplining activity that was $100 per person for 2 hours and that seemed crazy.  Our group included, Mom and Dad, Joey and Andy, Jeff and the kids, and Uncle Rusty in his own vehicle.  I think Mom and Dad were skeptical but Dad said afterwards it was one of the most fun things he'd ever done.  (I'm glad they were willing to try!).

The tour was guided which originally we weren't as excited about, but in the end it was way better that way.  Ryan said they took us places and had him driving in ways that he'd have never done if someone wasn't leading us there.  Ryan and the girls had the time of their lives.  By the end, I personally was ready for it to be over - lol!  For the first half of the trip Ryan was a reasonable driver.  Sure, we splashed through some mud and got wet and muddy, but when we stopped for the break Joey and Andy challenged him to be more extreme, more water, more mud, more speed....which I knew as it came out of their mouths he'd never be able to resist and I was going to be sad about.  LOL!  I did pretty well having a good attitude for most of the trip, but by the time we were 3 hours in, I was went, muddy and ready to be out of the vehicle.  The kids and Ryan though? I think they would have stayed out for 3 more hours if they had the chance.  

(Blurry because of the mud.....but I think you can tell I was over it at this point).

The second organized big group activity we did was a cave kayak that Dad found in researching things to do in the area.  I have to say, we've kayaked plenty and this was a very unique, interesting, different experience.  

Back 50+ years ago this location was a limestone mine and while they were mining the area they accidently hit an aquafer and flooded the mine site.  As you can imagine, the mine was no longer operational and it was condemned.  Fast forward to about 20 years ago and someone had a vision and they created an activity I've never seen anywhere else.  They bought out the mine site and turned it into a cave kayak tour.  They invested in clear kayaks and added neon light bars into the kayaks so you could have light to see without needing to put electricity in the whole cave system.  

The tour company was amazing to work with.  They originally had time slots with maybe 15 spots available.  We'll our group filled the first time slot up quickly and then we started filling up the slot 2 hours later.  At some point the company realized, "hey, there are a lot of people here with the last name Ritterbusch, I wonder if they are all together" and they called Dad.  We were able to combine the two tours into one and do this event as a large group.  The we were only missing 5 people.  3 didn't feel comfortable kayaking so they went on a boat version of the same trip, and then Jayden stayed back with Haze (the baby) because he was too young to do either option.  

The three guides we had with our group were great too!  They were patient and able to keep our huge floating mass of humans together and organized.  Dad even upgraded the package to include access to the photos they took during the tour which was amazing because they really didn't allow you to take phones in (obvious reason...if you drop it in the water it's gone forever).  They also didn't allow shoes because they could scratch the clear kayaks.  But, maybe the best part of the whole tour that day was that the caves are a consistent 55ish degrees.  You'll remember that I said the heat index was 100+ for the entire week.  Having 2 hours in a 55 degree cave was a real treat!  Had we known, we might have opted for an afternoon time slot to really get out of the heat during the worst part of the day...but hindsight is 20/20 and who would have guessed we'd be in a heat dome?!?

I think the whole group liked this activity and truly I think it's one of a kind.  At one point I thought it was going to be "lit" because of bioluminescence - a tour we've seen before on the ocean - but this was of course not that. 

We booked both of these tours through the same company, or maybe sister companies.  The UTV tour was through Out The Top Adventures and the kayaking was through Red Rive Gorge Underground.  If you are planning a trip, ask about bundle discounts because we were able to save a little money that way.

Oh!  One quick funny story about Kayden on the kayak tour.  A few times during the tour they stop the group, bunch everyone up and tell a story about the caves or the fish etc.  Then when you try to restart paddling we're all bunched up and some people are facing the wrong way and some are at the periphery etc.  At one point like that we started paddling again and Kayden thought she'd swing wide, turn around and rejoin the group.  Well, just about everyone in the group started hollering "Kayden, wrong way...not that way...Kayden, Kayden...Kayden we're going this way".  It was hilarious, but it made her anxious because everyone was looking at her and causing a scene so she started paddling faster (in the wrong direction) which only made more people call out.  Andy was laughing so hard because she was so flustered that she almost tipped her kayak.  That wouldn't have been ideal since the water was so cold.  We'd gotten a whole speech about hypothermia and the importance of staying in your vessel etc.  It was pretty funny though and definitely a story I want to remember for retelling in the future :)

The tour guides told us a few years back they decided to see if they could stock the caves with fish.  They started with a small group of trout just to see how they did and apparently they thrived down there.  With no predators and a never ending food source (the company feeds the fish food) the fish are doing great and they've added more.  If nothing it adds to the visual excitement of the tour and gives you something else to try and spot as you paddle.  

Red River Gorge was the perfect central location for this large family and I'm so glad we had a chance to go back and explore it some more.  I think it's safe to say that we'll return again at some point!