.^.^. Candy Land .^.^.

Nothing spurs a child's imagination like primary colored gingerbread movers and destinations like Peppermint Stick Forest and Lollipop Woods...





This is my own childhood set... that would make it about 30 years old... I've noticed the new versions are quite different!


Self Portrait Challenge is all about "Games" this month - it's going to be fun!

funny faces

What to do when it's 106°F outside?

Pose for the camera, of course!

it's a dad's life

If you have a dad or a husband or a brother or a son, this video is for you. And him. Send it to him, make his day. I laughed to the point of tears!

can you feel the love tonight?

My big treat for the girls on this trip to Vegas was taking them to see The Lion King Musical! It is the big show at the hotel where we stayed, which made it easier to choose which show to see. There are so many great options to choose from in Vegas, but traveling between Strip hotels is somewhat of a pain with little people.

The other deciding factor was, interestingly, watching clips from the shows I was trying to decide from, on youtube, getting a better feel for how the girls would like it.

Here's one of the clips that helped me decide on The Lion King:




I did not show the girls the online clips, because I wanted them to be totally surprised. This paid off - their eyes were as big as saucers as they watched this opening live and in person, and they were captivated for the rest of the show.

Hands down the most creative, fun, enjoyable musical I've seen! If you ever have a chance to go for yourself, my review is - "Totally worth it!"

Self Portrait Challenge - { speech bubbles 3 }

For Self Portrait Challenge's "Speech Bubbles" June theme... so much fun!

Self Portrait Challenge - { breaking the rules 2 }

Wear your shoes if you're going to play outside.





I actually break this rule a lot!


This month's Self Portrait Challenge theme, Breaking All the Rules, has been lots of fun so far, come check it out.

Self Portrait Challenge - { square 3 }

I don't have a square to spare!

Inspired by this episode of Seinfeld... and Elaine's revenge!


(don't know what my thing is with TV inspiration lately!)

who knew cake could be so much fun?

Could you use a laugh? Every day?? I've found a site that gives me just that -

Cake Wrecks!

If you haven't visited this site before, let me tell you... it is a side-busting, tears-of-laughter-inducing blog showcasing an alarmingly high number of poorly or mistakenly decorated cakes.

I never would have thought there would be so many bad cakes out there for blogging material to begin with, but now I found myself compelled to look for them when I'm at the store, as do many of Cake Wrecks readers.

While we were in San Antonio last month, I found one which I sent in to Cake Wrecks' husband and wife writer team. Imagine my continued laughter when I found they had used it in a post this week!

Here's my find, which I hesitate to even mention the place it was found:



You can click here to read Cake Wreck's post that includes this cookie cake, and makes all of us wonder (again!) about the general public's ability to spell the English language...


4/21 update: I just have to add to the obviously misspelled flaw here, while shaking my head incredulously: lowercase "i" in the otherwise all-caps "DiPLOMA"???

:: radio tour ::

Thursday took us on a group field trip to our local Christian radio station, KLTY.

The kids met several staff, toured the facility, learned how commercials are made, and even got to be on the air with Bonnie Curry (the daytime DJ)!

When asked about what it takes to have a career on the radio, Bonnie told the kids that they should read a LOT, because it is continued learning that keeps her current and good at what she does.

San Jacinto

Last week we tagged along with Chad for a business trip, and spent the week with Melissa, her husband and her darling Sophia.






While there, I took advantage of our closeness to San Jacinto, and took the girls on an exciting field trip to this historic battleground where Texas won it's freedom from Mexico. We had literally just studied this battle the week before in our history studies. History came to life for us on this trip!


the San Jacinto Monument




view from the top of the monument, of the reflecting pool on the monument grounds and the Houston Ship Channel




Claire and a rifle that belonged to Sam Houston, as well as two US presidents, and was used in the battle at San Jacinto




Nicole... behind her on the red box is a handful of Spanish silver coins from the age of exploration - around 500 years old




Ever been to a Six Flags amusement park? Did you know that the original Six Flags park was named thus because of the six flags that have flown over Texas? Spain, France, Mexico, Republic of Texas, United States, and the Texas State Flag... here are the latter three:




On the same grounds as San Jacinto is the last remaining US battleship that served in World War I and II!

Battleship Texas

laugh break

If you haven't seen this sketch from SNL before, watch it first - it's funny in and of itself if you like SNL.
(FYI, there's a bad word or two in there, not necessarily kid friendly)





Our church youth department did a spoof sketch with the youth pastors...
(this one is clean)
This had me laughing at the end of a long day - I needed that.

A Christmas Carol

For nine shows this weekend, our church opened its doors to anyone who wanted to come for a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol. This was hands down the most amazing production I have ever been a part of in my life. I will cherish it in my heart forever.




A few years ago, I was faced with the ugly truth that I handled deadline pressure very poorly (very. nuf said.) I was so broken by my bad behavior that I asked God to change me, I knew it was the only way. Since that time, He has faithfully put a handful of women in my path for me to watch and learn from their example how it can be done.

As part of this journey, I was introduced to and worked with Michele Cohen, who was part of the director/writer team for A Christmas Carol. She is fun, smart, and was so gracious under pressure - I feel honored that God allowed me to learn from her example these last few months. Thank you, Michele, for being faithful - you touched my life.

Me & Michele



This group of 25+ women were in a room the size of a living room (as our dressing room) for 3 days straight, and we had so much fun, I cannot even begin to tell you! Olde English dancing townspeople know how to enjoy our downtime...
Love you, girls!!! (I wish I had pictures of you all!)

Rachael, Me & Katie


Kathy, Jennifer, Holly, Lauren A., Lauren B., Aimee


Kathy & I


The most powerful part of the production was the scene where Scrooge is faced with the future if he does not change his ways. Add "The Carol of the Bells", dry ice, angels and demons battling for his soul, fire exploding from the stage - we ladies in hoods with bells were humbled to be part of that scene!

There will come
An inescapable day
When rods of shepherds
And kings' scepters
Side by side will lay


Me & Holly


Dance Revolution - they look scary but their hearts are gold!


Crazy chicks in the hood...


I've heard it said that when you serve, you are changed as much as the ones you are serving. I know this is true, because I'll never be the same after this weekend.

the bells

I just have a few moments to write a post, life has been crazy here! I have a pile of pictures to edit and share from New York, but haven't had the time to sit here to do it. I have new designs I want to put in my etsy shop for Christmas, hopefully soon!

One of the things keeping me busy is the rehearsals for our church's Christmas program - an adaptation of The Christmas Carol. I'm a dancing townsperson in Christmas Past. Oh, and just last week, our group of dancers was told we also get to play another part later in the production with these:




We got all excited - another part, yippee!
Playing with the music for "The Carol of the Bells" for the Christmas Future scene!

Then they told us the church rented these bells, and due to the rarity of the set, they were flown in from Pennsylvania. When they started telling us how much it would be to replace each bell... yikes! By the time we started practicing with them, we were treating them like glass!

"My" bell is huge (the bell is 7" tall without the handle), it's like the one on the right in the above picture, and it is so heavy, my arm was sore the first night. But, oh, it is so fun.

{ fair day }

The State Fair - an iconic fall outing!




This year, I tried very hard to keep it within a budget. Our tickets were free through the Texas State Fair Homeschool Ticket program - woohoo! I packed our lunches and put them in my backpack with bottled water. I never took the girls through the midway, we were so busy the whole time that they never noticed we didn't get to it.

There are so many activites, shows, and educational demonstrations at the Texas State fair that don't require extra money. We treated it like a trip to a museum (learning!) and we had a marvelous time!


Here's "Big Tex" - he truly is huge, see the tree down in the right bottom corner of the photo (that is not a bush!)




In the huge pavilion where they show all the fair contest entries, we saw so much talent, including paintings, quilting, woodworking, and knitting (like the American Girl sweater below, that my girls are hoping Gramma can figure out how to replicate **wink**) We were also reminded that there are still people who make and can jellies and vegetables and beans in hopes of winning a blue ribbon!




Also in that pavillion, the enormous annual butter sculpure... this year, it was an entire saloon scene made of butter!







We saw a cow milking machine demonstration,
the junior competition for Brahmas,
a dog talent show,
a bee colony with honey tasting,
(my personal favorite) The Birds of the World Show,
and the ever-popular petting zoo:





Yes, a baby giraffe at the petting zoo!




After 6 hours of walking around, the girls spent some time sitting on the Footsie Wootsie foot massagers... it didn't seem to matter to them that the machines weren't on!




When all was seen and done, we spent $15: $10 for parking, $5 for a funnel cake we shared. Proof that you don't have to spend a lot to have a lot of fun at the state fair!

the fun theory

Question - are you more likely to do something that requires effort, like climbing stairs,
if it's fun?

Saturday....

Our town festival was Saturday, and yes, we look forward to this all year. Despite the uncharacteristically cold and cloudy weather for Texas in early October, it was a great day for us for sure, with lots to see and do, lots of fun and prizes and even a coloring contest!

Have I mentioned before how this girl is really brave??







The festival has a distinct Old West twist to it, since we have historic buildings and a spot along a famous cattle trail out of Ft. Worth, and of course, my husband's brainchild - a reenactment of the shootout between the Texas Rangers & outlaws Sam Bass & Seaborn Barnes. My husband has so much fun with this reenactment, even though he gets shot, seven times yesterday in fact (since there were seven performances, of course). I'm always glad to get him home in one piece in real life!




Sam's last stand, just before he's mortally wounded by the Texas Rangers...





Flying high...

:: fun festival day ::

We had a fun day over the weekend at a local festival, even though it rained a bit (thank goodness we took an umbrella!)



Claire was fascinated with the exhibit set up by the US Marines! We spent a while there so she could climb in the Hummers and look at all the weapons.



Both the girls also really enjoyed the petting zoo's cute and friendly animals...




Another really fun highlight of the day was meeting Lisa of ellembee, she is a graphic designer with a hand printed clothing shop on etsy! She travelled all the way here from Michigan! I already had a hoodie from her from last fall, which I just love, and I ended up with a new tee from her beautiful booth in the craft booth section of the festival.



Go check out her shop, you might find something to freshen up your fall wardrobe!

Julie & Julia

If this movie is half as funny as the preview, I'm going to really enjoy it!

:: pool party! ::

We had lots of fun on Sunday,
at a friend's home who just put in a new pool!


Claire had lots of fun balancing on several noodles at once...



Nicole set up shop in the pool's fountain...



and she asked me afterward why her toes were so sore!



Another couple who came brought their 9-week old Shih Tzu puppy, Howie - adorable! The girls had so much fun with him, they completely wore him out, so he took a nap in a pile of stuffed animals......