Back to blogging...life unscipted!

Well, I decided to give this blogging thing a try again. I really enjoyed it before, but I didn't know why I was doing it. I could never figure out if I was a craft blog, decorating blog or just a family blog. What I finally decided I am just going to blog about my life and whoever wants to read it, great!  I have seen where you can have your blog printed and I thought that would be an amazing record of our family life. So here I go again.

A little catch up of the last year.

Luke's 5th birthday at the YMCA

Celebrating Summer Solstice...Mid Summers Nights Dream...A party for the fairies!

I have been meaning to post this for the last week, but just haven't had the time. I got the idea of a fairy party from one of my favorite books called Mrs. Sharps traditions. It's a book about reviving Victorian family celebrations and is beautifully illustrated. It is one of those books I look at over and over. The author name is Sarah Ban Breathnach and also is the author of Simple Abundance. The book goes through each month and gives ideas of old fashioned traditions. I have been doing crafts with the littles several times a week so I thought this would be a fun one to work on. It started out much more simple than it turned out, but my teenage daughter got involved and it became a week long project. She made the large fairy house and the littles made the smaller ones. We started our prep by purchasing small bird houses, moss and flowers at Micheal's. I had paint and glue. We then out in the yard and gathered tree bark, sticks and other dried grass an leaves. We then proceeded to paint then and hot glue all the dry stuff on. Like I said it was a week in the making...we worked on them several days. On the day of the summer solstice I told the littles that the fairies come just before dark. We sat about setting things up for the party....we put out the fairy houses and covered the table with a table cloth. I got a chance to use my new snack trays that I got a garage sale for $2.00. I had told the littles that the fairies come and bring gifts in exchange for the use of the houses. While my daughter caught lighting bugs with them, I sat out a few dollar store items...a glow wand, beads, candy. When they came back it was waiting for them...they were so excited. It is all kind of silly, but they had so much fun preparing for it. We also talked about what the summer solstice is and how it has been celebrated in many countries for thousands of years. I figured that I may get to do this with them one more time, but since they are boys they may think it to girly to continue in the future. Here are some pics from our party.

Trip to Farmers Market

A little friend the boys found...

Today we took a trip over to our local Farmers market. It is about 10 minute from our house. I love going there. I think it is one of the pretties places ever. In the fall they do pumpkins and hay rides and during the summer months they have produce from about six different farmers. They also sell grass fed beef and eggs. They are open pretty much year round for one thing or another. They have the cutest little country store filled with jams, jellies, hand made soap, and fun country decor. They also have animals to pet and lots of open space for the Little's to run around.

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Our bounty...peaches, cherries, radishes and peas..

I plan to stop by every few days, they will have new stuff daily depending on the what crop are ready at the time.

Goodwill Hunting

Trip to the Goodwill store...
Movie motherload!!

OMG....Is that a TV/VCR

OMG...does that say only 2.99...it's so mine!!

Cute glass candle holder...only 99 cents!

Shoes...how cute are these? I don't usually buy used shoes, but these had never been worn. How could I pass up cute sandles for 3.99....again why do people get rid of such cute stuff??

No...not not the movie Good Will Hunting, but the store the goodwill...we always say we are "treasure hunting"....and did we ever hit the mother load yesterday. I ran in to kill some time while my son was at the ortho, I figured that would be enough time to scan the shelves and pick up a movie for the littles. I always buy my vhs tapes there, because they have the best selection. They are more expensive, but they have better choices. So anyway, when we walked in the first thing I spotted was a TV/VCR combination....price tag said 2.99. I couln't believe it...I grabbed it up and went directly to the check out to see if it worked. The nice girl behind the counter pluged it in and told me to go grab a tape. Sure enough it worked. I told her "I'll take it" At this point I am feeling pretty good and then the girl also mentioned that they decided to make all of their VHS tapes 99 cents. I was like REALLY...I rushed to the back and started grabbing tapes...of course I think I was the only one excited about this. Every since the littles have gotten old enough to watch TV I started collecting tapes. DVDs are terrable for toddlers, they scratch them within a few uses and they cost so much. Plus I love the older movies anyway. We found a stack that we hadn't seen yet and also some christmas and adult ones that I wanted. I think I spent about 20.00 all together. I had been planning on buying a new/old VCR and the ones I had found had been around 15 to 20 dollars, so this worked out perfect. I also found a few cute tops for my daughter, two pairs of shoes for me and some home decor stuff. The hardest thing about goodwill is not to buy stuff that you don't nee. I saw so many cute things, but I couldn't justify buying them. I am always amazed that people get rid of such nice things.

An old fashioned "Kids Day" and small town liven!

One of the great things about living in a small town is the types of activities that are available for families to do. We went to "Kids Day" on Saturday at our down town park. It had a cowboy theme with all kinds of activities. We only have about 1500 residents in the area but we have been blessed with three beautiful parks. All of them have been updated within the past 2 years. This park is in the middle of our down town area...walking distance from everything. It has a gazebo, an area to cook, and a play area. It is one of those places that just makes you feel happy and like you have stepped back in time. It's funny because the whole town feels that way...everything moves just a little slower. You have the time to take it all in and enjoy whats around you. I took that for granted when I was growing up. After living in the city for many years with neighbors who don't know me and with people who are always in a hurry, I feel so blessed to be home again!!!

Here is the gazebo where they did popcorn and crafts.

Pony Rides...

The Littles just won a prize and got tattoos...

The petting zoo area...

Bean bag toss....

Balloon animals...oops...some of them have popped

The bouncy house...

The ball toss...

It was a fun day...can't wait till next year!!

Night at the "Drive In" and Sonic...YUM!

Last weekend we went to the drive in, I had not been to the drive in since I was a kid and I had forgot how much fun it was. We packed our own popcorn, candy, a cooler of drinks, a blanket and our own chairs.
If you have never been before I highly recommend it.We got there a little early and we were able to relax and check out the stars. The littles thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. It was a beautiful night...only about 70 degrees, towards the end we were almost cold. The littles were able to run around and not be confined to a chair. Some people had brought small grills and were cooking out, other people had brought footballs and were tossing them around.
It was great fun for about 16 dollars...kids under 4 get in free...and this is for two movies. We will probably go again in the fall when it cools down again.

First stop was Sonic

Sonic is my guilty pleasure...the onion rings are my favorite...they are so bad for you but oh so good! We ate at the tables so the littles could run around. After 8pm they have half price shakes and 99 cent sundaes.

My brother and best buddy!!

Being silly!!

My tummy is full of ice cream!

Then it was off to the drive in...

We went to a "drive in" about an hour away from us. It is really neat...like steping back in time. They still have all the vintage lights and buildings. We went to see Shreak 3 and Iron man 2. both movies were really good