Chocolate and Nutella weekend

School starts in a week and a half. Say what?? Yes I don't know how this happened but summer has not just flown by, it has broken the sound barrier with its speed. To jam as much fun in as possible in our remaining time we went to the zoo and Entertrainment junction last week then went camping this weekend to Buckeye Lake. Every year we go for chocolate weekend and this year did not disappoint. 

Matthew and Sarah on the Merry Go Round at the zoo

Entertrainment Junction

 This year we went camping with Joe, Lauren and Jacob. When we went two years ago Lynn was still with us. So this weekend definitely brought back memories. I'm glad Joe, Lauren and Jacob could go. The kids played on the jumping pillow and rode pedal carts. Sarah, as usual is dressed for Christmas. I think she is permanently boycotting summer weather.

Jumping Pillow at Buckeye Lake

Matthew and Mommy jumping. Look at the smile on his face!

Snoozing on the pillow

 As usual we ate chocolate chip pancakes and dipped goodies in the chocolate fountain but we also tried something new. Joe had an idea to put nutella between two pieces of bread and then put it in a pie iron to get the nutella all warm and gooey. Excellent idea Joe! I kicked it up a notch with nutella + peanut butter since you can't have too much peanut butter. It was so good. I ate lots of nutella pb sandwiches and smores with reeses cups. I just wanted to be sure to stay with the chocolate weekend theme.

Riding the pedal carts

 One new thing Buckeye Lake added was gem mining. At every campground we have gone to this summer there has been gem mining and the girls have done gem mining. For $10 you get a bag of dirt that you sift through to find some gemstones. The markup must be huge but the kids love it.

C'mon pedal cart!

Our treasures

In other news:

1. I am halfway through this semester. It is going really well actually and I'm loving all my classes. 
2. Our coo* book club is reading the Path of Stone by Jon Cook. He has published this book on Kindle (super exciting!) so we are reading through it.
3. I picked up the Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I can't remember if I've read this book or not (this happens to me all the time) but if not I'd like to read it. 
4. Our garden has been doing really well. Again we haven't gotten any corn. We have lots of tall corn plants but no corn (just corn silk). Something must be eating it. We've eaten lots of zucchini cakes though and plenty of beans, tomatoes, peppers and herbs. 
5. Next session is my session off. I have a list of about a million things I want to do, but I'm not sure what I'll actually get accomplished. I certainly won't do more cleaning. That is never on my bucket list.
6. 71 points today in Quiddler. Not a great showing.