Camping

Now that fall is almost here, we will be embarking on many camping trips.  As much as I love camping, I am slightly more willing to go in the fall time than in the hot summer months.  This past weekend, we took a one night camping trip in Iowa.  I got a little concerned on the drive there (with no air conditioning) (and the sun beating down on me) when we took a wrong turn and ended up on this road. 

Doesn't look like much of a road, does it?  I tried not to think of all the horror movies I've seen where the family gets lost in the middle of nowhere and the car breaks down and they are all eaten by aliens.  We somehow came across a little lake with two nice looking horses drinking from it. 

"Girls!" I yelled, "look at the horses!" 

Briana rolled down her window and called out to them, "Hey, fellas!"

And guess what?  Those horses came trotting right over to us!

They couldn't come all the way over to the car because there was a fence up, but I'm pretty sure they would have otherwise.  At least we knew we could escape our murderers via horseback if necessary. 

We did finally find our way to the campground, and we set up camp for the night.

And there's Mike's new grill!  It worked out perfectly.  Mike grilled up dinner for us, and it was delicious!







After dinner, we drove over to the lake that's at the campground. 

The girls discovered that there were hundreds of teeny, tiny toads hopping around everywhere!  Of course, we had to catch some.



The rest of the night was pretty calm.  We ate smores.  The girls played in the camper and Mike and I gazed at the stars while we were sitting around the campfire.  We woke up the next morning to rain, so we had to pack up pretty early.  All in all, a good, easy (did I just say that?) camping trip.  I suppose I'd be willing to go on a few more before winter gets here.  Maybe.

Hot Air Balloon

Last night Mike came tearing in the house after work and told me he just saw the hot air balloon van with a trailer pulling into Lake Zorinsky.  "They're going to be taking off soon!  Let's go watch!"  He told me.  We threw on our shoes, got into the car and sped over to Lake Zorinsky.  It took forever for them to set it up, but we got to see the balloon take off right in front of us (and in the middle of a few football practices). 

Baby Blanket Love

Some friends of Mike's from work had a baby a couple months ago, and being the awesome wife that I am, I crocheted them a little baby blanket.  It's my first baby blanket, and I will be a little sad to part with it! 

I'm just going to have to make another one for myself.

I asked Briana to be my model while I was taking pictures of my beloved baby blanket, and as it turns out, she's too big to fit under a baby blanket anymore!

She's still just as cute though! 

The blanket turned out great.  It's really dense and thick and lovely.  That is one lucky baby! 

P.S.  We crackled our nails after school today!  They turned out awesome!







A Smurfin' Good Time

Last night, Mike took Briana on a catfishing/camping trip.  In a tent.  He offered to take both girls, but Sydney decided she would rather stay home with me and the air conditioning and the indoor plumbing.  Briana knew a couple of Mike's friends' kids that were going, so she decided to rough it for a night.  And, from the texts I've gotten from Mike, it sounds like they are both having a fantastic time! 
Sydney and I decided to have some Mommy/Sydney time last night.  We went to Archivers, where Sydney made an adorable bottle cap necklace. 

Cute, huh?  She loves it and hasn't taken it off since!  After that, we thought we'd go out to eat.  I told Sydney she could pick the cuisine.  Guess where we ended up?

Yep.  McDonalds.  But, she got some more Smurfs to add to her collection.  Then I told her we could come home and watch a movie if she wanted. 

"Ok!"  she said, "How about Smurfs?"

I'm starting to notice a theme here...

After several episodes of Smurfs, we decided to do a little crafting.  Here's what we came up with.

How cool is that!  It's made out of those melty bead things.  And, it's now hanging up in Sydney's room. 

I told Sydney she could sleep with me last night (just like I used to do with my mom when my dad was out of town!).  She loves sleeping in my bed, and Smurfette (her build a bear one) got to sleep with us too! 

This morning, we attended a wedding.  Sydney planned the entire wedding, and you can imagine my shock as a guest when I arrived to find the bride and the groom dressed like this:

"Don't worry, Mom," she told me, "they already had the wedding.  They just put on each other's clothes after it was over."

Ha ha!! 

We're planning on spending our afternoon cleaning and baking.  Two activities that are always more fun with a helper! 

And, I'm counting down the minutes till Briana comes home!!

Briana, the viola-ist

Look who's all ready to play the viola at school this year!

Ta Dah!!!!

I finished my blanket last night!!  I love, love, love how it turned out. 

When I was picking out the yarn for this blanket, the girls were with me and Briana actually picked all the colors.  I love them!
Now, what to crochet next? 

In other news, when I went outside to water my flowers this morning, this was waiting to greet me.

Yikes!  I don't know if it's a black widow or brown recluse or what, all I know is that it is scary. 
Oh, and then I spotted this.

You better watch your backs, squirrels.  

First Day of School!

My second grader!



My fourth grader!

The girls were soooo excited to go this morning!  They lined up with their classes, and that was it!  No tears at all, not that I was expecting any (well except for me). 

They get out in about an hour, and I am counting down the minutes!!