Smurfs & Camping

This past Friday, the new Smurfs movie opened in theaters.  We have been anticpating this day for a year now.  And, to sweeten the deal, Friday was also the first day that McDonald's offered Smurf characters in their Happy Meals.  We were in line for our Happy Meals at 11:00 sharp, with hopes of getting a Smurfette with our chicken mcnuggets.  When we walked into our local McDonald's, we were greeted by the staff singing "la la la la la la," the Smurf theme song, behind the counter.  And, as luck would have it, they had a Smurfette for Sydney.

(notice that gap in her mouth?  this photo was taken about an hour after her tooth fell out!)

Briana got a Papa Smurf in her Happy Meal, which she happily gave up to her sister (she's too cool for Smurfs.).

After we ate our nutritious Happy Meals, we headed over to the movie theater to snack on delicious buttery popcorn. 

But, some of us were too excited to eat any of it!

The movie turned out to be awesome.  All the kids in the audience laughed at the right parts, and there was even some applause as Gargamel was beaten! 

After the movie, we rushed home and got packed up to go camping!  On the hottest weekend of the year!  Thank goodness Mike installed an air conditioner in the camper or I wouldn't have made it.  We spent our first evening enjoying said air conditioning. 

We did manage to make it out to the lake once it cooled off a bit, and the girls found themselves a caterpillar.  It was a very exciting find and they named it Tiger. 

(Is it just me or is that caterpillar really weird looking?)

And, we couldn't go camping without s'mores. 

Day two of camping started off with a visit from the tooth fairy!

Guess what?  The tooth fairy left the money and FORGOT TO TAKE THE TOOTH!!!  Which resulted in a second visit from the tooth fairy the next night, still in the camper. 

After Sydney counted her money, we made trip back home so I could shower (thank you, Mike).  And then we took the girls fishing.  I don't remember the name of the lake we were at, but it was a really pretty set up.

Briana caught a fish right off the bat!

We were using canned corn as bait, and it attracted something else too.

Mike thinks it was a muskrat.  I thought it was horrid.  Briana thought it was adorable and wanted to bring it home with us.  And it kept coming back to us for more corn!

We spent the rest of the day sweating, and most of Sunday morning was spent sweating as well, as we packed up the camper to come home.  Sunday afternoon, we went out to Shannon's house for the Washington County parade, which I stood outside and sweated during.  The kids got a ton of candy and had a blast, despite the heat.

We also walked around the fairgrounds, and saw lots of smelly animals.  I'm not quite over the smell of the pigs yet, and I'm not at a place where I'm able to talk about it without getting a stomach ache.  I will say that it might be awhile before I'm able to eat pork chops again.

Today's agenda: air conditioning.

Something exciting happened today!!

Look who else is swimming!

Guess who else learned how to swim this week?  Sydney!!  She just took off swimming all on her own! 

And, check out this awesome cannonball Briana can do!  This is just one of the 1,000,000,000 cannonballs she has done so far this summer (yes, each one splashed me!).





Look who's swimming!

Once every summer, our next door neighbors go out of town and ask us to cat-sit for their cat.  In return, we get to swim in their pool.  It is a much anticipated week of every summer, and this year was no exception.  We swam daily, morning, noon and night.  We even took Ellie for her first swim (in a big pool).  Guess what?  She can swim!

Isn't that the cutest thing ever!  And, if you hold her just above the water, she instictively swims above water.  So funny!

My Garden

I went out to check on my vegetable garden this morning, despite the 115 degree heat index, and guess what?  Things are happening in there!  I've got about four carrots growing (one for each of us!).
A tiny pepper is growing on my bell pepper plant.

I've got two tiny cucumbers growing on my cucumber plant.

And, I have lots of fresh basil!

For the grand finale.....my tomatillo plant!!

Isn't it huge?  There is the small problem that it doesn't seem to be producing any tomatillos.  But, I'm sure they are going to start growing any day now! 
If only I had some popcorn growing in there, my garden would be complete.

We've Been Smurfed!

Baked potatoes & Fireworks

Yesterday was a full day.  The girls and I started off by seeing a 3D imax movie at the zoo.  It was Born To Be Wild, and it was so good. 

The girls even kept their glasses on for most of the movie! 

After the movie, we spent ALL DAY at the pool.  Seriously, ALL DAY.  It was hot, and the pool was cool.  The perfect pool weather for me.  Briana did 2001 cannon balls, and Sydney practiced swimming and dunking her head.  We even got in the lap pool and swam about 542 laps!  By the time we got home, we were exhausted.  And my hair was looking very, very scary.  But, I had laundry to do.  No rest for the weary.  I have been battling some strange staining on all my white clothes since we got back from California.  After many, many applications of stain removers and bleach (and a panicky email to my mom for help), I think most of the staining is finally gone.  Yay!  So, I had all of my clothes hanging outside on the clothesline to dry while the girls and I were swimming yesterday.  I went out to my freshly cleaned clothes, and guess what I discovered? 

See those two brown spots about two inches from the pocket?  It's bird poop!!  Crap!!  Oh, and did I mention that we were planning to go to the Memorial Park free concert and fireworks last night?  Yep.  So, I have hair resembling medusa (or Bozo the clown, you pick), bird poop on my shorts, a dinner to prepare, kids to get ready, a cooler to pack for the concert and zero energy. 

"Let me know what I can do to help," Mike hollered after me as I was getting dinner ready. 

"Can you make the beans and potatoes for dinner?" He agreed.  However, the potatoes had already been in the oven baking for about a half an hour.  I checked on them and discovered they were nowhere near being ready. 

"Well, just take them out of the oven and microwave them instead," I told Mike "They'll be fine!"  He did as I told him, and a few seconds later I heard "OH CRAP!!" coming from the kitchen. 

What I learned from this experience is that you cannot bake potatoes in the oven and then microwave them.  Because they will explode.

And then you have another thing to clean up before you can go to the fireworks. 

As Mike was cleaning up the potatoes, the girls found something awesome in the back yard. 

Finally, our very own Smurf village! 

We did finally make it down to the concert.  38 Special and Cheap Trick were performing.  So I actually knew a couple of the songs! 

And, the fireworks were worth the wait!

The end.