Anna’s 6th Birthday!

Our youngest daughter Anna celebrated her 6th birthday last week. Her choice for a birthday outing was a girl trip to McDonald’s for lunch and then to the American Girl doll store. Jeff took the day off of work, so that all of the girls could go – Laura, our oldest daughter is our resident babysitter, and she was included in the trip.

Our first stop was lunch at McDonald’s. The playground wasn’t very crowded so she had lots of room to play -

We took a minute to check out Ronald’s shoes – aren’t they great?

After she had her fill of the playground, we headed off to American Girl, stopping by to pick up my Mom, who made our girl party complete.

Once inside the store we spent the next hour running around following Anna and Sarah as they explored every nook and cranny of the store. Anna was choosing a new doll – her birthday present, and Sarah was choosing a new doll outfit. They finally decided on their purchases, we paid for them, and then decided to have a little snack at the Bistro inside the store. I pulled out my camera and took a few pictures while we relaxed and had a bite to eat (thanks, Mom!) -

Here is Anna with her new doll, Elizabeth, enjoying one of her favorite snacks – strawberries!

And here is Sarah with her doll, Mia, who is wearing the new doll outfit that Sarah picked out -

When we left, I took our traditional picture in front of the store -

Dinner that night was Anna’s favorite food – fried chicken (she calls it “bone chicken”), with mac and cheese, cole slaw, and biscuits. She chose chocolate meringue pies for dessert. I found these sweet glittery star candles to put in the pie -

As you can tell, something else was put into the pie, too – David’s fingers, I believe!

Anna is growing up so fast – it seems that she just turned four and now she’s six. She is such a sweet girl and is loved dearly by each and every one of us.

Thanks for visiting! Have a lovely day ~

Blessings,
Nancy

A Few Snapshots From Last Weekend . . .

Last weekend was a busy one for us, but thanks to a glitch with my computer and uploading pictures, I haven’t been able to post about it until now. But, I have managed to outsmart my computer for once in my life . . . heh, heh, heh (evil scientist laugh) . . . when even the resident tech go-to support people couldn’t solve the problem. It just goes to show you that if you fiddle around and have a little patience you can beat it at it’s (the computer’s) tricks – either that or completely crash it – in which case, the computer has the last laugh. But, not this time. Thank you for indulging me as I digress.

Anyway, like I was saying, it was a busy weekend for us last weekend. Friday night was our annual Reformation Day celebration at church. Costume opportunity #1. Everyone is invited to dress in medieval attire, which means six costumes around here. Thankfully many of these are worn and handed down year to year, and we only ended up having to purchase 2 new ones this year, which wasn’t too bad – especially since we waited until the last week and they were already marked down 30%. Here are a few snapshots we took before leaving home ~

We spent the evening enjoying a fellowship meal, hearing a short talk on the life of John Calvin, and, after the costume contest, the children ran around the church – attending various booths to play games that each, in some way, taught about Calvin’s life. Jeff and I ran the “Authority of the Bible” booth, where the children had to throw balls and knock down every book (cardboard reproductions) except the Bible. It was lots of fun, but I was so caught up in the events that I forgot to take pictures! So, these will have to suffice – and the older girls looked so lovely in their long medieval dresses, too! Oh, well, maybe I’ll do better next year!

Costume opportunity #2 -the next night we attended the Fall Festival that we have been going to for many years back in our old town. It is full of games, bounce houses, ponies, and candy. It seems to get bigger every year and is sometimes a lesson in patience as we wait in line with the crowds for each event. This night required 5 more costumes (now you know what I spent the previous week doing). I managed to get more pictures this night ~

Our group included three clowns, a cheerleader, and Elizabeth Swann -

We played Limbo . . .

Baseball (or should I say “air-ball”?) . . .

Decorated cupcakes . . .

And pet the animals in the petting zoo . . .

When we were sufficiently worn out, we headed to my mom’s house (an annual tradition) and the kids dumped and sorted their candy – always a highlight of the evening – especially since the rest of us can sit down and relax finally!

Thanks for visiting! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend – ours is gearing up to be another busy one, but at least no costumes are involved this time!

Blessings,
Nancy

Candy Corn Day!

Today is National Candy Corn Day, so be sure and grab a handful before the day’s over!

While working on our Harvest lapbooks yesterday, we learned that candy corn was invented by the Wunderlee Candy Company in 1880. It was made in the shape of a corn kernel, and thus the name was born. The colors also were chosen to resemble corn. I was surprised to learn that one of the ingredients in candy corn is marshmallow.

My brother held a poll at last week’s family birthday party on which was the most favored candy corn – the yellow or the brown. I, of course, voted for the brown due to it’s close resemblance to chocolate. However, in the end, the yellows won by a narrow margin, with the result really being summed up by my nephew, Dylan, who said he voted for yellow because – “it’s classic”.

Which is your favorite color of candy corn?

Blessings,
Nancy

Keepers Cake Decorating

Last night was our monthly Keepers of the Faith meeting. The girls spent the evening in the church kitchen, decorating the cutest little pumpkin cakes I’d ever seen.

They were made in mini bundt pan molds and then the girls decorated them with orange, brown, and green icing. There were many different variations of pumpkins that resulted ~

The girls also made fruit kabobs which they used to decorate a pumpkin for a centerpiece, which turned out just lovely ~

It was a fun evening, but the best part of all, in David’s opinion, was eating the cakes at the end ~

Blessings,
Nancy

A Trip to the Pumpkin Farm

Monday found us with a beautiful Fall day just perfect for our trip to the Pumpkin Farm. After our morning studies and a quick lunch, we packed in the van and headed for the farm. It was a lovely drive, down country roads lined with farms and Autumn trees.

We arrived at the Pumpkin Farm and were greeted inside the front gate by many friendly (and hungry) goats. Thankfully, they were behind fences! We had been given cups of feed when we entered and the children started feeding them while I started taking pictures -

In addition to the many goats, there were also sheep to feed -

And a few Longhorn steer, too – in classic Texas style -

Next we took advantage of the abundance of Fall decorations and pumpkins around the property for a few posed pictures -

We spent some time climbing on the hay bale spider, one of several neat hay bales around -

The next part of our adventure was the hay ride, always lots of fun -

Finally, it was time to hit the pumpkin patch and pick pumpkins. Each person was allowed to pick one small pumpkin from the patch to take home (part of the entrance fee). It was fun wandering around the field looking for the ones we wanted -

We did a little more socializing with the animals before leaving -

And took this group picture – they really did have a good time, even if they don’t look like it! ( I told Jeff it looks like a mug shot!) I think they were just a bit tired by this point – I know David was -

And speaking of David – did you notice how many pictures of David are in this post? Can you tell he’s the baby of the family? Well, here’s one more, for the road, because I’m a mother and I just can’t help myself (again) -

Blessings,
Nancy

Remember this? . . .

بدلة العريس

Remember last week when I posted this?

Well, I should have known to go straight to the technological expert in the house for my answer. When I showed it to him (Matthew) this morning, he immediately copied it, and headed off to Google for an answer. When he pasted in this – بدلة العريس – he was rewarded with a screen full of pictures of tuxedoes. That was our first clue. Then he went to Google translate and pasted it in. Here was the result -

Translation: Arabic (automatically detected) » English
بدلة العريس The groom’s suit

So, I guess that answers my question.

Google obviously sent someone to my blog as a result of this post. Go ahead and check it out, because I’m a mother and I just can’t help myself!

Another mystery solved.

Blessings,
Nancy

3rd Annual Labor Day Cup!!

Last week we celebrated Labor Day with our annual Labor Day Cup competition. We spent several hours running silly races and competitions with the kids, who were divided into teams of two members each. It all culminated in the winning of the Labor Day Cup by one of the teams (who will be announced below). This year’s games consisted of the following:

Egg Toss
Jarts Throw
Hockey Shot
Horseapple Gallop and Roll (this was a riot, as Jeff made each of them whinny and gallop before they rolled the horseapple!)
Sack Race
Water Balloon Launch
Oreo Stack
Car Race (no, not real cars)

I won’t go into detail about each event like I did last year. If you want to read about most of the events, read last year’s post - but we switched some of the games out for new ones this year, so you’ll just have to imagine the one’s that are missing!

I do want to share some of the highlights of our day, however, so here we go ~

Egg Toss -

Unfortunately, the eggs are the real losers here -

Horseapple Gallop and Roll – this was Anna’s favorite game . . . she loved pretending to be a horse!

David did great in the Sack Race – even if he did come in last -

Anna shooting a water balloon with the launcher -

Of course with water balloons, things usually get a bit out of hand – the kids started chasing each other with the leftover balloons. I think Ryan has already been hit at this point -

Jeff, who is really just a big kid himself, got in on the fun and dumped the water filled cooler all over Michael -

Inside for a break and the Oreo Stacking Contest – such concentration -

The always popular Car Race, which ends our competition in an exciting way and usually decides our winners -

And the winner this year was the team of Laura and Anna (I was forbidden to show the picture I took of Laura) – better known as the AFC team, which stands for the “Albert Fan Club” (if you watch the old Little House series, you’ll know who “Albert” is) -

When we were all finished awarding the trophies and candy, Jeff fired up the grill and roasted some hot dogs for dinner -

And a dip in the pool makes a great ending to a fun event -

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,
Nancy

Because I’m a mother and I just can’t help myself . . .

Ryan and Matthew were in a friend’s wedding last weekend, and being their mother, I was snapping pictures of them the whole time. But then, how often do you get to see your sons dressed in a tuxedo and a new black suit – not often enough, I say, so I rest my case.

So, please humor me by allowing me to share my pride in my two boys, who just yesterday, it seems, were little guys running around the house, and now are all grown up and wearing suits.

Mattie leaving the house for the wedding ~

Ready to begin ushering ~

I didn’t see Ryan until the ceremony, as he was hiding out with the groom somewhere (probably hiding from my camera!). There are a few fuzzy pictures of him during the ceremony, which I won’t force upon you (remember I’m still learning with my new camera). At the reception, he spent some time dancing around with David on his feet – so cute ~

Mattie having a quick snack from the reception table ~

And I just have to share this one – I think it is so lovely of Laura (don’t tell her I posted it!) ~

And I really love this one, even if it is a little blurry ~

There was dancing, too, but I won’t share those as there are a lot of others in the pictures that I haven’t cleared it with, but I can share these two little ones, who enjoyed the music immensely ~

Oh, and the cake was wonderful, too ~

Okay, one last picture . . . because I’m a mother and I just can’t help myself ~

Blessings,
Nancy

Perseids Tonight!

photo courtesy of Corbis

Tonight and tomorrow the Perseids Meteor Shower will be at its peak. They say that you may be able to spot 50-80 meteors per hour! We were getting all excited about it around here, but, sadly, it looks like we will be socked in under clouds and possible rain, so I guess we’re going to be missing it this year.

Hope you’ll get to see it where you are!

Blessings,
Nancy

Hungry Kitty?

The other day I sat down on my bed (my favorite quiet spot) to eat lunch. A few seconds later Macey jumped up on the bed ~ her nose had picked up the scent of my chicken sandwich ~ and proceeded to stare at me, licking her chops in anticipation of a feast. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures of her in action, all the while protecting my lunch from the beast.

Please, may I have some of your chicken sandwich?

Yes, I mean that one . . .

I reeeealllly want some . . .

What’s this? Do I hear my girl coming? She’ll give me some.

Yay! My girl is the best!

Yum, yum, yum . . .

But I still want your chicken sandwich . . .

(She never did get any of mine, though ~ I have to share my food with little people, I gave up a long time ago sharing it with the animals!)

Blessings,
Nancy