What a Week!!

It has been a full and busy week with 4 different occurrences that deserve their own blog entry. By the way, Daniel just informed me that "Yesterday, Daddy was trying to set a piece of paper on fire using a magnifying glass." OH JOY!!! Make that 5 occurrences..... lol!!

Ok, strap on your seat belts, here we go on a whirlwind trip through our week.

Celeste has been doing a Horse Unit Study with a local lady once a week for 4 weeks and this last Tuesday, she finished up her course. She loved learning about horses and wants to get involved with them somehow. Mucking stalls is a good place to start, I think!! My cousin's girlfriend has horses so I think we will be spending time with Ashley this summer.
Here are the three girls that completed the course (all 8 years old). The one on the left with the red hair is Celeste's best friend, Mandy, then Celeste, then Emma a girl from out of town taking the course.
Here is Celeste with Ivan then Ivan being a goofball with Celeste.

After Celeste finished the course, we went out to lunch and surprised the kids with an overnight stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. It is 5 miles from our house and we watched it being built. My mom won an overnight stay through a local radio station and she gave it to us to use. The main attraction of the place is a H-U-G-E indoor water park. We had checked it out previously so the kids knew what it was all about so when my mom won, they went crazy. I had surreptitiously packed the bags and David put them in the car before we went to the horse class with Celeste. When we pulled in, the kids started going crazy. I video taped it but can't figure out how to download the videos off my camera into my computer. David will help with that one!! I did take a few pictures of the water park as we spent the majority of our time there. One night was not quite enough to do all that we wanted to do but we are thankful and grateful for our time there none the less.

This is the park from left to right. First the wave pool (with no waves going) and behind that, the "deep" pool at 3ft 6 inches. It had basketball hoops and balls, a lily pad crossing area and other floating things to climb on.

Next is the middle part where all the slides are. There are 6 slides ranging from medium to downright scary! The two older kids LOVED this section, and I don't mean David and Allison, though we enjoyed it too! It also has water fountains and such and if you notice the BIG bucket at the top of the picture, it dumps 1000 gallons of water every couple of minutes.

Then the area we spent most of our time, the kiddie pool. It starts from 1 inch to about knee length. It had two little slides and levers that turned water on and off, down at the bottom of the picture are jet skis (that don't move) and you turn the handles that are squirting water so you can get any one who happens to walk by. I wish I had taken pictures of our room, they upgraded us and it was a wonderful room. We were in the Grand Bear Suite and it was beautiful.


So that was Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday was also my birthday but I don't have any pictures of that. Thursday and Friday were spent with me in bed being sick - I suspect food poisoning but not for sure. Again, no pictures for that either - thank God!! Then today is Felix's 3rd birthday. We had a relaxed day with presents, cupcakes (his choice) and dinner that I haven't figured out yet, better get on that I guess!!


So here is Felix in all his 3 year old glory.

Whew!! What a week!! Celeste just informed me that Daddy is outside right now lighting a piece of paper on fire with a magnifying glass. Better go. Look for another post.....

Girly Girl

I finally have some pictures of Celeste's Easter dress. It was store bought instead of home made but it still is cute and she liked it.

Here is the front.
Here is the back




Yes, her hair is curly and no, we didn't get a perm. My mom has taught me the lost art of rag curls. They give you Shirley Temple curls and you can make them big or small. The ones from these pictures are small curls and I will show you the before, during and after.

Before

During - not combed out

After - all combed out

Personally, I like the curls a bit bigger, this just reminds me of a poodle perm!! It does relax and you can always wet your hair and start again if it is not to your liking. We do rag curls from time to time as Celeste likes the look of curls but isn't ready for a perm. She is such a girly girl and a wonderful one as well.

Home made

We have been working on some projects lately switching to home made rather than store bought. Some are working great, others not so well but still plugging away at making them great. Here they are in no particular order....


1) David is roasting coffee beans. He found a place locally where he could purchase green coffee beans and he has been roasting them with a hot air popcorn popper. He makes small batches at a time and then taste tests with David, Bob (my dad), Randy (a friend), Jessie (my mom), and myself. We are learning to assess the coffee with words such as "earthy" and "complex". I only like to drink coffee with a lot flavored creamer and I can't drink too much too often because my body can't handle the caffeine but I have been enjoying trying the different beans and different roasts. Next is learning how to flavor the beans.


2) My mom and I make our own laundry soap. We aren't necessarily doing this for money savings, though it does help. We mainly wanted to do to see if it would help with all of our skin problems. We, as a family, cannot do laundry soaps with colors, scents and all the extra stuff that is added to laundry soap. The worst for us however, is fabric softener. That will set all of our skin itching, red and very irritated. So after researching online for making soap, we went ahead and made a batch. It has turned out wonderful so far. Our skin is much better and the clothes smell cleaner. We also found that vinegar makes a good fabric softener and we have been using that. I pour in the vinegar in the area designated for fabric softener and the clothes come out soft and not smelling at all like vinegar. The vinegar helps to dissolve soap build up so that is an added bonus.


3) I have been trying to make our own yogurt in a crock pot. It hasn't been turning out very well, though my friend has had great success with hers. I will keep persevering because we all love yogurt, it is good for our health, and I miss the yogurt we could get in France. The yogurt here in the states is WAAAAAAY to sweet and filled with ingredients that our bodies just don't need. Plus it is expensive and time consuming to keep our fridge stocked with yogurt for 8 people who love to eat it!!


4) I have been sewing again and I LOVE it!! I am even getting out of my comfort zone and sewed a skirt for Celeste. It didn't come out the way I wanted it to but it still is cute. I sewed a bag (look for pictures in another post), I am up to 8 blocks on my $5 quilt club (one more to make this weekend), and I am working toward the goal of getting my quilt rack set up. I am planning on having a big stack of quilts ready to go by the fall. Don't know where they will go, that is up to God but they will be ready for when He calls.

If you want any more information about any of the above projects, I will be happy to share specific details. I just didn't want to bore anyone who might not be interested. If you have any projects that you would be happy to share with me, please let me know.