Adventure City 2008

This has quite a few photos, but I figured it was the best way to show off how much fun we had at Adventure City with Amber and her four girls - Sariah, Kailee, Tysie and Paige. At the end you even see a new little girl with whom Emilia and Kailee made friends with. It was a great little park. And I do mean little. They had a total of 10 rides and one wasn't even working that day. So the kids had fun running from ride to ride. We stopped for a lunch break and walked to a Denny's just a short distance from there and then headed back for more fun. At the end of the day we ended it with ice cream at Dairy Queen. It was so nice being able to see Amber and her girls. It has been two years (I believe) since we saw them last. It just seemed like two old friends picking up where we left off....It was great!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Smilebox

I discovered Smilebox on someone else's blog...can't remember who right now. But I am very impressed. It may not be a fabulous program yet, but it has awesome potential.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Boston and Concord Photoslide

Make a Smilebox photobook

Hannah Montana Wanna-be

Well Emilia is into Hannah Montana big time. In fact she just spent her money to buy a H.M. game for her new DS. Consequently Jordan just loves Hannah Montana.....not that she has ever seen the TV show or heard her songs. But because her cousin, that she adores, likes her it's good enough for her. Last night she requested curlers in her hair and then this morning she wanted to dress like Hannah Montana - and this is what she came up with....pretty good!

It's a Boy!!!

Margaret is having a Boy! Whoo-hoo. I am so excited for them. I do have a copy of one of the ultrasound photo's with his little profile, but have yet to scan it.....so just the news for now!

Now we have to think of a good first name to go in front of __________ Oscar Asselin! Any suggestions??

Father's Day

Although Steve was 3,000 miles away we called to say Happy Father's Day to him. We also called Jeff while he was on his way to FL to wish him a Happy Father's Day. Steve got his Father's day present when we got back to GA/SC. A new watch....he was excited. My mom had a T-shirt for the kid's to place hand prints for Grandpa. They had a lot of fun doing this.

Uncle Eric and the Ice Cream Truck

We have pictures of Uncle Eric with Nichlas and Jordan getting ice cream from a truck, so when I hear the familiar jingle, I told Eric he had one more child to do ice cream "duty" with and grabbed the camera.

Happy Birthday Emilia!

Last Sunday, July 13th was my daughter's 7th birthday. I can't believe how fast time has gone by and how much my baby has grown. I always tell her that no matter how old she gets she will always be my baby! Muah!

OAMC

So I am planning to start doing OAMC. What is that you ask? Well it is where you set aside a day cooking up a bunch of food to last an entire month or so. This way you just pull it out of the freezer, bake and eat. You don't waste your precious time cooking every evening. And with these meals you save on the "I am too tired" excuse for ordering pizza or going through the drive-thru. I have done a few meals before and have a few notes to adjust my recipes.....so we are planning ahead for the Month of August. This is when it gets crazy because Emilia will start the 2nd grade and because she goes to school so early, we have to get her into bed asap when we get home. I sometimes felt last year that we never got a chance to spend time together. We will have the menu soon. Thanks!

Menu Plan Monday

So it has been awhile since I have participated in Menu Plan Monday. Also I am at work so I am doing this out of my head.....

Monday: Grilled Chicken, Brocolli and Cheese Rice, Mixed Veggies

Tuesday:Turkey, Rice and Gravey, Corn/Brocoli

Wednesday: Waffles, Fruit, Homemade Chocolate Pudding

Thursday: Bacon wrapped Filet, potatoes, veggie

Friday: Pancakes and Eggs

Saturday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes & Gravey, Veggies

Sunday: Hamburgers, French Fries, Brocolli Salad, Green Salad

We are going to be making big batches of pancakes and waffles and other baked goods for the early mornings.

Camping June 2008

During that first week we went camping with my parents and my Aunt Kathy. We went to a really nice "resort" type campground that had a pond for fishing, a pool and a kids area. The kids were so excited about the kids area because they had video games and movies. I let them go for a few hours in the afternoon on Thursday and then again on Friday while we packed up the camp.
My Aunt has a 23' travel trailer and I have to say that is the way to camp. All the fun of the outdoors without having to cook over a fire. And out in California most of the campgrounds now only have a grill for you to use....no open fires; which proposed a little difficulty when making smores. We tried using charcoal, but alas not enough flame, so we ended up stuffing Newspaper into the coals so we could get nice toasty marshmallows. Well we had so much fun camping that we talked about doing it again next year....after chatting back and forth and getting a few more opinions we are having a Honey-Burgin Family Reunion at the Grand Canyon. We are hoping to get everyone to come.

My Daughter

Just so ya know my daughter has her own blog it is called Princess E Speaks. When you get a chance drop on by.

Margaret's Peanut

Well, I am so excited. Margaret is going to hopefully find out what she is having tomorrow a.m., and since her hubs is out of town she has invited me to join her.....yea! So, anyone want to venture a guess....I am thinking boy!

Cash System

Well, even though I haven't as yet read the financial book that everyone raves about by Dave Ramsey. I do know through family and friends some of the things that it talks about. One of the things is to use a cash system. Once you are out of cash....you are out of luck. (kind-of) We have started doing cash this week and already I am realizing that we have forgotten some things. And we really need to have our gas money seperate from the other money. Although I don't think we will make it to the end of the week, it has been a good lesson. And even though we got bucked from the financial horse, we will climb up again....and again.... and again. I know that eventually we will get it down and I figure it is better to at least try than to not do any thing at all.

From The Freezer Thursday

Okay....so we ate it all before I remembered to take a picture of it. However, this is what we made when I took a gander into our freezer. I pulled out some cut up chicken and veggies that we got from Angel Food Ministries last month. I told my husband that they were for chicken kabob's to grill. Well yesterday, we switched off duties, I went to pick up the kids and he started dinner. When I got in the house I noticed he was cooking on the stove. When I asked him what he was doing he said that the chicken was in little pieces that it would have been an issue on the grill (falling between the cracks I guess) I explained to him that they were supposed to be kabobs...but he said that there wasn't enough veggies......??? Who knows....anyhoo... he made a very excellent chicken stirfry. He used some teryiaki sauce that had been sitting in the fridge. The only thing we had to purchase for this meal was the rice. He had bought it a few days back, but mostly was stuff we had on hand....yeah! Will do better to post pictures next time.

Recipe:
chicken
sauce
veggies
rice

Cook rice separatley. Stir fry the chicken in a little bit of oil, add veggies and sauce. Serve over rice. Enjoy.

For more From the Freezer ideas go to Frugal Homemaker Plus.

Boston and Concord - Part Two

So technically I don't know if it actually called Boston and Concord.....or if that is just what we called it as kids. I looked around and it had this statue of Paul Revere.

Emilia found this little concrete boat at the edge of the pond.

The kids had fun running around and playing on all the indoor playground equipment.....that is new....I don't remember it from when I was a kid.

They had this two story slide coming out of one of the buildings.

The only big thing that I remember that was missing is they use to have a "stock" there. You know....when they got in trouble it was a wooden thing that they locked their heads and hands into. For those of you with no imagination....

Maybe it will sound weird....but I was really looking forward to taking pictures of my kids in the stocks....lol.

Boston and Concord Park - Part One

I have previously written about Boston and Concord Park. It was one of my favorite places to go as a kid. Well my mom looked up where it was and we decided to visit right after church on the first full day we were there. There were alot of new features and some old ones. They still had the covered bridge leading to the island playground. This used to be the only entrance/exit onto the island. Now there is a wooden bridge leading off the back of the island to were the restrooms are.

The "pirate ship" that I remembered was actually a colonial ship and was a lot smaller than I remembered. Of course I was around my kid's ages when I was last here.