here's what we did....

We went to Silver Dollar City in Branson with some of their cousins. However, it was a hot and sticky day... so although we had a blast, I took very few pictures. Their theme for KidsFest this year is Circus of the Century... so here are my kids (and Clara's new webkinz) as elephants...Then on Saturday... we had our fake Fourth of July. My mom hosts a big family shin dig each year for the fourth... but this year I had cousins coming in from out of state that don't usually get to make it so mom postponed the gathering until they were in town.

My kids LOVE fireworks (perhaps a bit too much)... although Clara isn't a fan of the noise part of the time....
Alex was so excited about this tank... fortunately, it did not disappoint...
Ummm... is this safe? Just my kids digging through a box of fireworks with a lit punk in Alex's hand....
A great big jumbo sparkler... how cool is that?
Alex watching some of the ground fireworks...
And then the next day, grandpa (my dad) let them loose with real tools...
Be afraid....
Very afraid....
What better plaything for a child than an air compressor and some accessories?
Okay... I need to stop procrastinating and do something productive!

back from mo!

We just got back from Missouri this evening. I *think* that's the last of our trips for at least a couple of weeks... LOL!

I have a ton of pictures to go through... but it's just not going to happen tonight... so here's one... I couldn't decide between the color and the black and white so I just posted them both...


More tomorrow!

'nite!

quick CHA report

Yikes... we leave for Missouri in about an hour and a half (maybe two hours) and I've done absolutely no packing and haven't showered yet. I promised a CHA report a couple of days ago and I've done nothing to actually get it done. So, here's the quick report... it was fabulous... it was so great to meet so many digi-girls! I only took one picture (which is still on Alex's p&s camera), so I'll be relying on the photos of others to prove that I was actually there... LOL!

From CD's blog on the Creating Keepsake's site, you can find a photo of my shoe(s) along with the shoes of some very impressive people (not sure how mine got included in the mix).

One of my first stops on Friday was the Digital Scrapbooking Magazine booth... it was during Renee Pearson's book signing (I'm in the third picture down).

Here's a group photo of our digi-girl lunch on Heather Ann Melzer's blog.

Here are a couple of photos from Jen Caputo's blog.

And one last one from Holly McCaig's blog.

Oh, do I have stories to tell (be afraid Deann)! But I'm out of time and my husband is glaring at me to start getting ready to go.

Okay.... I'm off to MO... back in a few!

want to see something cool???

Kissed Studio just released a line of templates based on my layouts!!!



They do fabulous templates and each is available in three formats (PSD, FotoFusion & PNG+) AND they're available in three different sizes (12x12, 10x8 and 11x8.5).

Here's the link directly to the pack above... Signature Series Templates. And here is the link to the freebie template based on one of my layouts!

Enjoy!!

two posts in one day... woo hoo!

Clara so graciously allowed me to take pictures of her today, so here's what I got...







Can you tell she was done???

Okay... I promise CHA stuff coming tomorrow (I hope!).

catching up - michigan

Whew... we have a couple days of breathing room between CHA and leaving for Missouri on Wednesday. I have a whole post's worth of stuff on CHA but I'll save that for tomorrow (or later today if I get bored... lol!). Right now I just wanted to catch up on some of our pics from our trip to Michigan last week. We stayed at the totally fabulous Crystal Mountain Resort in western Michigan. It was a perfect place to go with the kiddos!! Here are just a few of the things we did....

The kids climbed the ski hill (that's their 2 yo cousin in the middle)...
we played at the pool...

climbed a 110 foot high sand dune at Sleeping Bear Dunes...
And ran back down....
had some ice cream...
did some beading....
went geocaching...
climbed the rock wall...
made "build-a-buddies"...went to the top of the ski hill (mountain?)...
and rode the chairlift, over, and over, and over again (this is Jeff and his mom with them this time, trust me, I think I went up and down about six times over the course of an hour and a half, I earned the right to stay at the top and take pictures... LOL!)...

The kids went with my in-laws on to their house for a few more days and we just picked them up (at a half-way point) yesterday. We're just totally vegging out today which is nice.

Okay... it's quickly approaching 11 am and I haven't showered yet, so I'm off!

update on Clara and a PSA

Okay, first of all, Clara is doing fine (thank you for your concern). She was violently ill all Thursday night and most of Friday. We were finally able to get on the road to Michigan at about 3:00 pm. She still wasn't feeling very well, but she was semi-mobile. She was able to keep down some dinner and by the next morning she was doing remarkably better. And this was her on Sunday after climbing the dune at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park...Now, here's where the PSA comes in.... please be aware of what your children are eating and what is in it. We have no "proof" that this was the culprit but it's our best guess.... the one odd thing that Clara ate on Thursday was a handful of Fat Free Pringles in the car on the way home from Wisconsin... I didn't have any and neither did Alex. When I remembered this I did a google search on them while we were at dinner Friday night. These Pringles are made with Olestra/Olean which according to the websites I found, have terrible side effects in some people. Clara's symptoms fit the possible side effects to a "T". Clara has a tendency to throw up... but she usually tells us that her "tummy doesn't feel good" but Thursday night she cried all night in pain and kept telling us that her "tummy hurt". Clara never cries when she throws up (she has a tendency to get motion sickness), but that night she wouldn't stop crying. She was doubled over in pain. At one point I was thinking that she was having an appendicitis attack but she never ran a fever. Severe stomach cramps is listed as one of the side effects... this was what she had. She had some of the other issues as well... but the stomach cramps were by far the worst of it. Maybe she's just overly sensitive to Olean/Olestra but I'm not going to take that chance... it was just too intense to ever put her through it again just to see.

Okay... PSA over.

I have tons of pics to edit and I hope to get to them soon. However, CHA is this weekend and this time I get to go!! Woo hoo! I can't wait to meet a bunch of the digi girls in person! I will be taking a camera, but just the little point and shoot.... I'm not messing with my big camera this time.

Okay... I'm going to run... I have a big day tomorrow... a pedicure, lunch with friends, a cut and color AND then I get to hang out downtown with Deann from DiSc Talk Radio (and maybe some other digi gals). Fun stuff!

'nite!

ETA - THANK YOU KRISTEN!!!! I'll have to check it out closer once my chaotic weekend is over. :-)

delayed

Should be well on our way to Michigan by now, but we're not. Clara was up all last night throwing up. She's passed out on the couch right now... not sure when we'll make it to Michigan.

a few from door county

Just a few pics from our trip to Wisconsin. We got home tonight around 8:00 and we leave again tomorrow morning for our trip to Michigan. I just thought before I got completely behind and overloaded with photos I would quickly post a few from our trip...

What we did on our trip...

watched the sun set...
went cherry picking....

visited a dairy (and had ice cream)....
watched the weather from our balcony....

played in the indoor pool....
and visited The Farm....

I'm exhausted - Clara crashed early last night in my bed so Alex and I shared the pull out bed... needless to say I did not get much sleep.

Soooo.... see you next Wednesday when we get back!

'nite!

we're off....

... to Wisconsin... back in a couple of day! Hopefully with some new pics!

Oh... we got Clara's test results today and everything came back normal! No diabetes and no high cholesterol!!! Yay!

garden walk

It was a hot one today!!! We went to the beach again first thing this morning, but it was even miserably hot there. We splashed around for a couple of hours before giving up and coming home. After everyone showered and we had lunch, we decided to venture out again and check out the Lakeview Garden Walk. It was so cool! All of these hidden green oasis's here in the city. Alex enjoyed them so much that he is on a mission to have a garden and be part of the walk next year.

Here he is running the model train in one of the gardens... The train...Can you believe that this urn was on display at the World's Fair here in Chicago in 1893??

A couple of fun plantings...

Alex's buddy... he loved his fish... and he thought the fish loved him too... I didn't have the heart to tell him that he probably just thought Alex was going to feed him! :-)
The last garden we went to was shutting down for the day so they gave Alex the balloons they had tied up front to identify that they were part of the garden walk.
I got yelled at shortly after this to "stop taking pictures!!". Most of the gardens has refreshments and Alex had partaken in one too many glasses of lemonade and was making a mad dash for our house (and the bathroom) but I kept getting in front of him with the camera! LOL!

Nothing much else to report... I'm out of here on Tuesday so I'm desperately trying to tie up some loose ends.

Oh... Clara's blood test went perfectly on Friday. They got her on the first stick and she was a brave girl. Results should be in tomorrow!

Okay... I'm off to bed!

'nite!