...and chaos ensued

Unique Spa Visit

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 18:38:00 +0000

While watching television today, a fun little business card was placed in front of me and a live commercial for the Spectacular Salon and Spa occurred.

We were immediately prompted to schedule an appointment time. We chose an 11 o'clock time slot and arrived a few minutes early.

We were asked to wait in the hall until our exact appointment time. When we walked in, we were greeted by the lovely staff and informed that we had a couples massage and spa day arranged for us.

Here are the facilities.

The stuffed animal back massage table.

The spa services area (for couples)

Our unique spa experience included a polka-dot rub, a lotion application, a marble massage, a silly bandz massage, "silk screening" on our legs and arms, brushing our hair, putting in a headband, a check of our reflexes, a pinching butt massage and, to complete the full service package, a free teeth counting (I have 8 teeth)! The appointment was completed by serving us some ice cream and sandwiches. Wow. All that for the wonderful price of FREE. Just pretend that you don't hear the manager mention that she has never been trained in massage or make up application.

If you are ever in our area and are looking for a completely unique spa experience, you may want to drop by our second story (apparently located at 1897 Waterton St. - a completely made up address) and try the Spectacular Salon and Spa. You'll never experience anything like it ever again!

You Capture - Sweet

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 23:11:00 +0000

Sweet. As the holidays approach, it seems that sugar fairies are everywhere, leaving frosting smears and sprinkles in random, hard to clean locations. Bug managed to cover every last part of the top of her cookie with frosting and sprinkles during the cookie decorating portion of our Christmas "Advent"ure.

On a different sugar-high note, Boo attends a monthly event for 4th and 5th graders at our church called YUC (Youth Under Construction). This past week was their Christmas celebration and they got to create a gingerbread house to bring home.

It lasted about 30 minutes at home before pieces just fell right off into her mouth! Amazing! Now, less than a week later, all that remains are the crumbled ruins of a delicious treat.

Continuing on our sweet theme, our church staff Christmas luncheon is next week and I volunteered to make some centerpieces for the tables. I ~~coerced~~... ~~volun-told~~... asked my friend Jenni to help me make up some candy bouquets. Here are two of our creations.

Jenni made this Twizzler bouquet in about 3 minutes. Really cute, right?!

This one took a bit longer but has at least 9 different kinds of candy in it.

So we had plenty of sweetness in my house this week. (If only it would have rubbed off on my children...) My sweet tooth is starting to ache already but if you are a glutton for punishment, stop by I Should Be Folding Laundry and check out other You Capture - Sweet moments.

America's Thanksgiving Day Parade

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:17:00 +0000

My brother and his wife recently moved back to Michigan after living for several years on the East Coast. Now they live in "the D" - Detroit. Now you may have heard that Detroit is a dying city, that no one on earth would want to live there. Well, while there may be some who say that, many of the people who actually live there think that it's a great place to live! They are happy to be a part of the revitalization and rebuilding of the city.

My brother's new place is within easy walking distance of Ford Field (home of the Detroit Lions), Joe Louis Arena (home of the Detroit Red Wings), Eastern Market, Greektown, Cobo Hall, and most of downtown. They can catch the People Mover and get to most other key locations in the city within minutes.

During our recent Thanksgiving visit, we decided to go view the America's Thanksgiving Day Parade, one of the oldest and the 2nd largest Turkey day parade in the United States. We walked through Greektown and over to the Compuware Building to grab some Tim Hortons' Timbits. Inside the lobby, just across from the Hard Rock Cafe, was an amazing water sculpture.

We scouted our spot along the Campus Martius Park. While we were waiting for the parade to start, I ventured over to visit the Michigan Soldiers & Sailors Monument.

Then I spied this gem, just down the street. It's the former State Savings Bank building on the corner of West Fort & Shelby in Detroit. It sits about a block from the Penobscot. How could I not grab a shot?!
After my brief architectural detour, the parade began...

The Ford Motor Company float.

The General Motors Float

Pepsi Float, featuring R&B artist Dwele.

This float had high school kids doing the half pipe on bikes, roller blades & skateboards.

The Budweiser Clydsdales were present and thrilled my girls!

The Fred Hill Briefcase drill team marched along. Unfortunately we were not in the right spot to see them perform. My mom has been a huge fan of this drill team for many years.

Mother goose and friends

The Jazz Festival float

This marching band (I can't remember which one - sorry!) decorated their instruments in festive colors.

Part of the Ilitch Holdings float featured Bert & Ernie.

This woman is part of the Big Head Corps who march every year with paper mache heads or bodies.

Center piece of the three part The Wiz float.

One third of the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Michigan float

My sister-in-law works for the Skillman Foundation and actually walked the parade alongside their float as an apple tree. Check out the float link above to read about how they made one Detroit boy's dream become reality.

This balloon, Elephante, was designed by an 8th grader in 2008 and brought to life by the Skillman Foundation and the Parade company. It was featured again in this year's parade.

What Thanksgiving parade would be complete without a visit from Santa?!

After the parade was complete, we wandered down Woodward to view the Spirit of Detroit sculpture in front of the municipal center. The quote behind the statue is from 2 Corinthians 3:17 and reads "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

As we made our way back to my brother's house, we passed several rose bushes in bloom... on the 25th of November! What a great image for this lovely city which, despite everything, continues to blossom.

You Capture - I Ate That

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 02:48:00 +0000

In preschool last week, Ebabe made a festive turkey using an apple, toothpicks, mini-marshmallows and cereal. She apparently kept eating the supplies as they were making them. Her teacher told me she didn't expect that Ebabe's turkey would survive, uneaten, through dinner time.

She was right.

It didn't even make through the 5 minute car ride home!

This post has been linked to the You Capture challenge: I Ate That hosted by Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

You Capture - Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 14:01:00 +0000

There were two themes for this week's You Capture - Halloween and Silence. Since silence is just not in the vocabulary of my household, you're going to get an overdose of Halloween.

We usually have a family theme but this year, everyone decided to go with their own ideas. From youngest to oldest...

Here's Strawberry Shortcake. Yes. She has wings. We were at the dollar store the day before and she found some pretty cool wings that were "perfect" for her costume. Why not?! So she became the Strawberry Shortcake fairy.

This was taken during the preschool costume parade. She's wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake since last Spring. We managed to put together the costume using our existing wardrobe of hand-me-downs and a borrowed hat.

Sitting with her jack-o-lantern.

Ebabe's jack-o-lantern all lit up. She drew the face by herself and helped me cut it out, although she wasn't overly fond of getting her hands too gooey at first.

Bug decided in the Spring that she wanted to be Jessie from Toy Story. About a month ago, when I was getting ready for a Children's clothing resale, she picked up the costume her sister had worn a few years ago and decided she just had to be a dragonfly.

Here's the back of the costume. Much nicer than my attempt at face painting...

Here she is. A dragonfly in flight!

Here's Bug's jack-o-lantern. She designed it and cut most of it herself this year.

Boo has just finished reading the Harry Potter series. She and her friends play Harry Potter at recess. It was only natural that she would want to be Hermione Granger, a character from Harry Potter for Halloween.

We were lucky enough to borrow the robe and scarf from some friends and pieced the rest of the outfit together from Goodwill purchases and broken tree limbs.

"Leviosa!"

Of course her jack-o-lantern had to be Harry Potter themed as well. I mean, it isn't as if the 7th movie is coming out in a little under 14 days or anything... Chip did most of the work but Boo did help a little bit.

This is my pumpkin. I made it using Chip's drill. It was very therapeutic drilling multiple holes into the pumpkin. I would totally recommend trying it! It turned out pretty fun too, in a disco-ball sort of way.

And finally, we get together every Halloween (just for a few minutes) with some close friends of ours. This year, they headed over to trick-or-treat at our house and I managed to capture their costumes and personalities all together... not an easy feat!

I hope you had an enjoyable Halloween! To check out other Halloween shots and maybe some silence, check out I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Happy Halloween!

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 01:26:00 +0000

Happy Halloween!

You Capture - Autumn

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:33:00 +0000

Autumn... is there anything better? The smells and textures; the crispness and the break from the heat; the crunching under your feet; the COLORS! It's college football season, pumpkin cookie time, raking & jumping in leaves time, time to be creative in costuming, time to make applesauce & chili (although not necessarily at the same time). Really nothing can beat this time of year.

After the wind that has been ravaging us for the last few days, this tree is bare and beautiful.

I did manage to find a few leaves left on the trees that were sheltered from the wind.

There were many leaves on the ground too.

Our fall harvest from our garden.

Pumpkin textures - so much character in each wrinkle and valley.

If I could capture the smells and pipe them through the internet to you, I totally would. But in lieu of that, check out other autumnal images over at I Should Be Folding Laundry's You Capture Challenge.

You Capture - Orange

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 16:29:00 +0000

This weeks You Capture assignment was orange - my favorite color and perfect for my favorite time of year!

Last weekend we went hiking over at Starved Rock and Matthiessen State Parks (along with what seemed to be half of the Chicagoland area).

Orange, yellow, red and brown leaves were in abundance! It was marvelous. The only thing that would have made the views better was if the waterfalls had actually had water flowing. Maybe next year...

On Sunday, we headed over to Goebbert's Pumpkin Patch in Hampshire, IL. I knew I should have changed the batteries in the camera before we left but I forgot. Therefore, this is the only shot I got before the batteries ran out.

This is the pumpkin eating dinosaur. He drew huge crowds of children and young at heart. Bug told him he needed to brush his teeth and he thanked her. Too fun!

Here's a shot taken with Chip's cell phone, because we can't not have a pumpkin patch picture...

Finally, to end the weekend, we headed over to celebrate a friend of Ebabe's birthday. They have much larger trees at their house and a nice pile of leaves to play in!

For more orange images, check out Beth's You Capture challenge.

You Capture - Catch Up!

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 21:10:00 +0000

No excuses. I took the pictures but kept putting off blogging about them. Since the pictures were already on the computer, just waiting for me to do something with them, I figured I'd play catch up and get them posted. Better late than never, right?

YOU CAPTURE - FACES
Almost two weeks ago, the You Capture topic was Faces.

It was "nerd day" at CYT rehearsal.

She found some Gaucho glasses and we removed the nose so she'd have just frames.

Ebabe couldn't be left out either.

This is my sick puppy... well, not so much a puppy (he's 12 1/2) anymore. At the time of this photo, he had a nasty cough and just wasn't himself. I am happy to report that he is feeling better and continues to recover from his cough.

YOU CAPTURE - ANIMALS
Yep, the picture of Mozie would have been appropriate for the Animals You Capture challenge but since he was still not feeling himself, I chose to let him rest.

Most of the animals we have around the house are of the plush variety.

You Capture - Togetherness

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 21:21:00 +0000

This past weekend we had some family "togetherness" time. On Saturday, we went to the Harvest Pow Wow at the Naper Settlement.

These gentlemen were the epitome of togetherness as they played the drum and chanted in perfect unison.

My girls wanted to participate in the all tribe dancing, but wouldn't do it without doing it together.

This may be my favorite shot. It's a perfect portrayal of how they pretend together. This wagon proved a great prop for an imaginary scenario of the wagon about to tip over. Boo was pretending to scream while Bug attempted a look of horror. Ebabe just looked bored.

The next day after church, we ventured over to the Jonamac Orchard in Malta to pick some apples. Ebabe enjoyed picking and gathering up the apples with Bug's help.

It was Apple Festival weekend which meant live music. These musicians sounded incredible together!

Finally, our group of apple pickers enjoyed sitting in the gigantic rocking chair at the front of the orchard.

For more shots of togetherness, visit the You Capture Challenge.

Chalk Drawing

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 02:35:00 +0000

My Boo is a Junior Girl Scout. She has been working on earning some of her badges this week. One of the things she's been working on is to use three different mediums to create the same image. Today she worked on a chalk version of a sunset.

She started out with this drawing. I showed her how to blend the colors with her fingers and she added a bit more shading.

This was her final product. Pretty cool for a quick driveway art session.

You Capture - Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:10:00 +0000

After skipping last week's challenge, I'm back (mostly) for the Flowers themed You Capture.

We've had an art-filled week and some crazy weather here this week so you get flowers designed by Ebabe (top) and Bug (bottom).

For more flowers (and probably some real ones), check out Beth's You Capture challenge at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

You Capture - Signs

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:17:00 +0000

Do you know what these two pictures are?

Signs of change! The first image is easily recognizable. The weather is getting cooler, the days shorter and the seasons are beginning to change.

The second is the internal sign for Ebabe's preschool. Today was her first day and the first day I have had all three children in school. Big changes for me (and for her).

As I was thinking about the assignment for You Capture this week (signs) and reflecting on the changes that are beginning around here, I was realizing how quickly the girls' childhood has been flying by. Too many times, in the thick of all the arguing, hitting, screaming and roughhousing that goes on, I feel like I need to post this sign for them.

I don't want them to loiter in those not-so-fun crazy and hectic moments of childhood. I want to erase the bickering; delete the discord that seems to happen when they are acting so immature. I want to fast forward until they are older and more mature and I won't have to deal with all the craziness.

Then I get a reality check. I remember that childhood is definitely a

street. You can't go back and re-live your childhood no matter how hard you try. So no matter how much I wish they were would act like older children, I wouldn't want them to lose out on the magic that is childhood. This is the time of in their lives when they don't have to carry around the burdens of the world; where a few minutes of unfettered laughter and silliness is the best medicine for any ailment. I hope I remember that the next time the sibling spats begin.

On a much lighter note, I came across this sign this week and couldn't help but laugh at the bizarre cloud reaching out to jab at the person. I'm not sure why I find it so amusing but I do.

Check out some other You Capture signs over at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Bristol Renaissance Faire

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:42:00 +0000

We had a chance (finally!) to head up to the Bristol Renaissance Faire in Kenosha, Wisconsin for Scout Weekend a few weeks ago. We had a blast. This was the first time the girls had been to a renaissance festival and it was fun to experience it again for the first time through their eyes.

We practiced archery...

watched the joust...

pretended to be in jail...

used the map to figure out where we were...

posed under appropriate signs... (edited to take out the inappropriate parts!)

and enjoyed the shows, particularly the Barely Balanced show which we caught twice! Their skill is amazing. He's juggling knives up there, by the way.

And fire in this one!

We also saw all sorts of characters...

and had a great day! Ebabe even got to use her daddy stilts :)

Tall Ships Chicago 2010

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 14:47:00 +0000

Last week we had a chance to head downtown to Navy Pier to see the visiting tall ships at Tall Ships Chicago 2010. I had invited my parents a while back since my dad is an avid ship fan. It was a great day for it!

Various tall ship masts and the clear, blue sky.

Boo walking with grandpa down the pier, enjoying the views.

This is the Lynx out in Chicago Harbor. No that is not Nessie trailing behind her.

Tall ship Roseway out by the Chicago Harbor Light.

The girls out by the anchor at the end of Navy Pier.

The Bounty, the ship used most recently for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. My parents fondly remembered visiting the Bounty in the early 1970s in Florida.

Looking up from the galley to the deck.

Having fun on the deck of the Bounty.

After a nice dinner at Capi's Italian Kitchen, we headed back to the lot where we parked and discovered this giant piece of macaroni & cheese art. How could we not stop and get a photo?!

And this delightful piece of architecture is part of a set for the film Transformers 3 which has been filming in Chicago for a few months now. This was directly across from the lot where we parked and when I saw it in the daylight, I just assumed it was some grand old building that had been recently torn down. I wanted to get some shots of the architectural detail so stopped to take some pictures on the way back and realized that this is in fact made out of wood and foam. It was a relief to know that a beautiful building hadn't been destroyed and kind of fun to have seen a piece of movie history.

You Capture - Mornings

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:41:00 +0000

Again, I had grand plans in my head for this weeks assignment: Mornings. Unfortunately, as with many of my ideas, it didn't come to fruition. We had seven very non routine mornings this week and darned if I didn't remember to take the pictures I wanted when the small moments arose. Ah well.

So, here's a quick glimpse into our morning.

Cereal for the kiddos for breakfast. Yep, it's got too much sugar and artificial sweeteners but they will eat it and can serve it for themselves!

A peanut butter and honey sandwich for Bug. I'm including this one because I love the different textures in the picture.

Making lunches is definitely a part of our school morning routine. Woo-hoo, right?!

Lastly, every morning on the walk to and from her sisters' school, Ebabe picks me a bouquet of flowers.

What are some parts of your morning routine?

Check out other morning photos at I Should Be Folding Laundry's You Capture Challenge.

Cool Snacks

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:36:00 +0000

I am really appreciating the cooler weather that we've been experiencing the last few days! I love summer but it's nice to have a break from the heat. The kids love to play outside but when the temps are in the 90s or higher, they have to keep cool somehow.

We've had fun making all sorts of cool snack creations this summer. I know, I know. I should have posted about them as we made them. I tried but time just gets away from me. Now that my eldest two are in school again, I find that I have a few moments to post about a couple of them. So, if it interests you, file these ideas away for the next blazing hot day.

Frozen Grapes! According to Boo, these taste like little bursts of cool sugar. They have been a hit all summer long, both for the kids and for me. Nothing better than a sweet healthy snack instead of that bowl of ice cream I keep craving at night.

We use our jelly bean Jello mold to freeze the grapes. You can just put them in a bowl and freeze them that way too, just make sure that the grapes aren't still damp when you put them in or they will get frozen to each other. Leave them in for a few hours and then enjoy. They will keep in the freezer for about two weeks.

Here's what the inside of a frozen grape looks like. Yum! Easiest frozen snack ever!

Another cool treat is to make fruity ice cubes. We served these in lemonade, water and, on the rare special occasion, in Sprite!

To make these, just fill your ice cube tray with water and add some clean, freshly cut fruit. Here we used strawberries, blueberries, red grapes and green grapes but you could use pineapple or kiwi or whatever you'd like. Freeze them until solid and enjoy!

Finally, Chip and I have been making orange strawberry slushies since I was pregnant with Boo. This summer I made some popscicles out of some for the kids. They've repeatedly asked me for them so they must have been a hit!

To make these, use 1/2 quart of fresh strawberries (or frozen if you must), 1/2 a can of frozen orange juice concentrate, some sugar (to taste - I usually use about 2 TBSP) and a cup of water. Put them all in the blender and blend.

If you are going to drink it as a slush, add more water to get the consistency you prefer. I like mine very thick so I sometimes add ice. If you are making popscicles, just pour it into the mold and freeze.

I hope these concoctions are helpful for you. They are nice healthy snacks to keep cool in the hot summer sun.

You Capture - Outside

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:12:00 +0000

Our outside time this week has mostly been spent doing yard work and heading back to school!!!!! What a great week for the You Capture Challenge to be outside shots.

The first two shots are of the girls ready for their meet and greet time. We brought potted plants with pots adorned with school supplies!

Here's Boo in her first day of school outfit that I managed to finish on Saturday! I'm not sure I like the skirt too much but she was thrilled with the whole outfit. (For those interested, I used free tutorials from Sew, Momma ,Sew. For the shirt I used this tutorial and for the skirt, this one.)

Here's Boo's first day dress, made out of a man's dress shirt.

On the walk to school, Bug asked me to take a picture of their shadows. I really liked this idea and think I will try to take one every year to see how they've grown!

Here's a shot of the girls at the end of the first day running to see daddy and tell him about school.

Now that her sisters are in school again, Ebabe is back in collection mode. Here's her find on the first day of school.

On the second day, she collected a large flower bouquet!

And finally, on our walk home from school the other day, we noticed a tree that had a lot of personality. Here's a shot of our new deciduous friend!

Can you see the face there? Two eyes and a green mustache...

Check out more outside photos taken for the You Capture Challenge hosted by I Should Be Folding Laundry.
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You Capture - In the Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 03:09:00 +0000

When I saw that the You Capture challenge for the week was in the kitchen, I cringed. I don't particularly like to cook and my kitchen is almost always a disaster. We have very little counter space and what we do have is usually littered with the girls' drawings, mail, recycling, fruit, veggies and other random items that have no good place to go. So after much trepidation, I decided I'd show you a few of our garden/farm fresh counter toppings.

The cherry & grape tomatoes are from our garden, the larger tomatoes are from the next door neighbor's garden. The cucumber is from one of my good friend's gardens. The peppers, corn & potatoes are from the local farm stand. We love fresh produce!

Now, I will admit none of the fruit is from our garden but much of it is from the local farm stand. I wish we had a local berry picking place but the nearest one is over an hour drive.

This is the burner on our stove... a bit messy but still a pretty ring of fire!

And finally, water running in our sink.

For more In the Kitchen, check out You Capture over at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Update to Sun Prints

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:53:00 +0000

I mentioned that we were doing a different kind of sun print in my recent post about sun printing. So, here's what we did. We simply used construction paper and put various interestingly shaped items on them and set them in the sun for a few hours.

Here's what happened.

I had to bring them in because it was getting a bit too windy outside and the items were blowing off. The yellow paper worked the fastest but then didn't get any lighter over time. The red paper took the longest but ended up being the boldest change (I'm not sure it comes through as vividly in the photo).

All in all, a fun, easy and pretty cool experiment. The girls are talking about doing it with some smaller varieties of shapes to make stationary.

You Capture - Everyday

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:18:00 +0000

Welcome to my 200th post! I can't believe there have been that many, especially since I've been a major slacker as far as crafting or family posts. Oh well. I don't suppose that it will get much better as fall rolls around and the kids activities start up again.

Anyway, the You Capture topic for the week was Everyday. So, here are some of the things I encounter everyday this summer.

Grass on the sidewalks.

Sunscreen.

Water bottles (incidentally, that strap on the bottle came from Disney World and was the best practical investment we've made!).

Flowers & dragonflies, the latter being incredibly prevalent in our area this summer.

And finally, though we hear more than see these little buggers everyday, a cicada.

Other participants in the You Capture challenge took a slightly different approach to the topic.

Check them out over at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Sun Painting

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:23:00 +0000

For her birthday, Bug got a Klutz sun painting book. I put it aside at the time, knowing that it would be great fun to pull out this summer. This week, after realizing that summer (as far as the kids are concerned) is only two more weeks, I grabbed the book and we set out to make some sun prints.

First we had to wet the lightweight cotton items we were going to use. Bug used one of the bandanas that came with the kit while Boo used one of Chip's old t-shirts. Then we used the fabric paint to paint an area to do the sun print.

Once the paint was applied, the kids layed out various objects of interesting shapes on the painted area. Then we let the material dry in the sun.

It was a hot, sunny day so it took about an hour max for them to dry. Here's the end result.

I was a bit disappointed with how the cut-outs that were included in the book turned out. They didn't lay well on the bandana and therefore didn't print well.

Suprisingly, since it was a thicker cotton than was suggested, Boo's shirt turned out rather well.

They were pleased with their artwork and that's what counts, right?! Today we are experimenting with using the sun to "print" on regular construction paper. I'll let you know if it worked out.

Popsicles... or not

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:25:00 +0000

Well, file this one under cooking misadventures. I attempted to make fruity jello popsicles with the girls the other day. We used a box of jello, followed the directions adding a bit more water than required then poured the mixture into our popsicle molds and paper cups. We added a few blueberries for fun and put them in the freezer. After about 5 hours of freezing, we took them out for snack.

Um, yeah. They were very twisty!

We ended up eating them with a spoon.

Boo decided they should be named Slushie-O pops. They were very tasty, even if they not what we had hoped for.

You Capture - Summer

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 20:16:00 +0000

The theme this week was summer and it was a very difficult topic for me. I wasn't anywhere near a campfire or a campground this week. We weren't home so there are no BBQ photos, pool pictures or even crazy rain storm photos this week. Luckily, there are so many wonderful things about summer, I snapped a few of my favorite summer things from our vacation.

First, summer is nothing without gardens. While I couldn't get any shots of my own (certainly by now - weedfilled garden), you'll have to settle for this beautiful flower garden next to Cotswold Cottage at Greenfield Village.

And what's summer without having to mow the lawn?! I'm just glad that I have a modern lawn mower to get the work done faster and with a bit less smell.

How about going for a bike ride? That's summer fun!

Baseball games just scream summertime to me. My season is just about over and I always anticipate the beginning of the new season each May. I'm happy my kids have learned to love it as well.

Another sure sign of summer is a child who is just so exhausted from playing that she'll fall asleep anywhere!

Learning the yo-yo and spending time with Uncle Matt (and other family members) is summer!

And finally, what summer is complete without some kind of fountain? This is the Cascades in Jackson, MI. The lights dance to the music every night! Beautiful.

I hope you have had a marvelous summer! For more summer fun, check out I Should Be Folding Laundry.

You Capture - Play

noreply@blogger.com (sdwaard) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:56:00 +0000

We're on vacation this week and the theme for You Capture was PLAY! You can't get much better than that on vacation!

We spent our first evening away at a Lansing Lugnuts baseball game with Chip's sister's family. We got to sit in a suite courtesy of my brother-in-law. It was great fun and ended with fireworks!

Our next stop was a family reunion in Brantford, Ontario, Canada where even the dog was involved in the water balloon fight!

Badminton was played (sort of).

Even adult cousins played together...

because bubbles are great fun for all ages!

The next day we went hiking at the Elora Gorge Conservation Area and caught sight of some kayakers braving the high waters of the gorge.

After a long day of hiking, we stopped in the town of Elora for dinner. Ebabe kept herself busy playing on the rails while the adults decided where to eat.

Yesterday we were back in the states and visiting with my parents and grandmother. Here my mom and Bug play. There's nothing better than playing with grandma...

...except maybe playing with Great-grandma!

To experience more play, (and really, who doesn't want to do that?!) visit I Should Be Folding Laundry's You Capture challenge.