Autumn Lakes in the rain

Last weekend we went camping at Autumn Lakes Campground. We hadn't been to this campground before but it looked really fun (according to the website) so we ventured there. We had a fabulous time - rain and all!

On Friday, Erik went home to work while we went to tour the Velvet Ice Cream mill with the Masts. We couldn't really go into the factory but we could watch through the window. After the tour we all got ice cream (obviously!). I got Extreme Mousse Tracks - very chocolaty. Sarah had cookies and cream, Jenna had birthday cake and Matthew had raspberry cordial. It was all delicious - ice cream for lunch is always good. I forgot to get ice cream for Erik (oops!).

Jenna, Sarah and me in a canoe

 Autumn Lakes had canoes you could take out on their little pond. The kids LOVED the canoes. Jenna said it was her favorite part of the trip. The picture shows us canoeing in the rain - we are hard core canoers (canoe-ers? canoeing people?)

Our camper was right next to the lake and it was such a nice view. I loved sitting by the fire at night and looking out over the water.

Matthew loves ice cream

Maddie, Jenna, and Nicholas eating ice cream on tires

On Saturday night we had planned to cook hot dogs and corn on the fire. Tricia and family had come to visit us at the campsite as well. Unfortunately we were stuck in a downpour. So we went to a Chinese buffet. I love Chinese buffets so I wasn't complaining. As soon as we left the buffet the sun was shining. Apparently God wanted us to go to a Chinese buffet.

On Sunday afternoon we had a tornado watch.  Tornado sirens were blaring which scared Sarah such that she was hiding in the basement the whole time. After the rain, we saw beautiful double rainbows. I had a lot of pictures from this weekend and the rainbows but the SD card on my phone decided to die. I was able to salvage some pictures but mostly they are gone or corrupted. Bummer.

We really enjoyed this camping trip and definitely want to go back to Autumn Lakes. 

Girl Scout Camp

We sent the girls to their first overnight camp at the Girl Scouts Molly Lauman camp. This camp was about 2 hours away and they had a fabulous time. It was a 3 day 2 night camp (and they went alone!) and did really well. Some things they got to experience were: non-flushing toilets (Jenna said she does not like latrines), lots of crafts, slingshots, swimming, camp food, sleeping outdoors and watching a movie (the Lorax), sleeping in a cabin, and camp life. Jenna and Sarah also went with a set of sisters: Kate and Jill. We went camping with them last month. 

 While Jenna and Sarah went to Girl Scout camp, Matthew went to a day camp through the highbanks Metropark. 

We also recently finished the Letterbox adventure with the Delaware County Preservation Parks. One of our favorite parks was Shale Hollow Preserve. It is smaller and practically no one is there (really it's empty at most of these parks) and we could walk on the water and all around the trails through the woods.

Jenna at Shale Hollow Preserve

Matthew at camp - this is a spider hat

Kate, Jenna, Sarah, and Jill

This week the girls went to VBS at Linworth United Methodist Church. They have an excellent VBS with 250 kids in the elementary school session. The theme was Weird Animals this year.

Their cabin

The girl scout camp

Books I'm reading/read:

1. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. I loved the twists and turns in this book and I couldn't stop reading it. 
2. City of Fiends by Michael Jecks. This is our book club book. It is ok. Joel described it as "neat". I'm about halfway through but am not really into the book yet.
3. 7 by Jen Hatmaker. I just started this book and it is AMAZING. It is one of those books that will change your life. 
4. The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. I've heard so much good about this author I'm excited about this book. 
5. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollen. This books just makes you want to only buy food at farmers markets. It's good and somewhat scary.

83 points on Quiddler today

The Birthday of Cakes

My birthday was filled with cakes! The cakes I had were:

1. Giant Eagle chocolate cake with white frosting. This cake my Mom bought with a picture of Thomas on it. Now Matthew thinks all cakes should have Thomas on them.
2. A turtle ice cream cake at Jen's house. She bought me an ice cream cake - because she knows I love ice cream cakes. So when we went over to play board games I got more cake
3. A chocolate peanut butter cake that I can only describe to my fellow peanut butter lovers (Dan, Joel I'm talking to you) as taste perfection. I have actually achieved taste perfection with this cake. The chocolate cake was very moist. The peanut butter buttercream was not too sweet but very peanut buttery and I poured chocolate ganache on top just for extra yumminess. This cake is peerless. 

Birthday at my parents house with a "Thomas" cake

Turtle cake at Tim and Jen's house

Matthew <3 trains

The birthday cake I made for myself - taste perfection!

I got lots of great presents including macarons from Duane and Joy. This was to celebrate our time in France!

French Macarons from Duane and Joy!

Most importantly I got a new netbook. Erik bought me an Asus transformer with Windows 8.1. Ever since Matthew destroyed my Windows 8 tablet I've had difficulty finding someone to repair the screen. Honestly - I thought this would be big business! Nope. 

So instead my wonderful husband bought me a new machine. It is charging as I write this!

Sarah's cinnamon muffins

This week has been break week for me. In between sessions I have had no grading, no discussions, no nightly lectures, no students calling and emailing at all hours. It has been *somewhat* relaxing. Next session we roll out a new course and I'm one of the developers on the course. Actually for the next few sessions we will roll out courses I have been developing. It will be an interesting time and very busy! Then in September I will have my session off. Yay!

Me and Matthew from our camping trip - he looks so happy

 Now that Sarah can read I thought it was about time that she started cooking. Today Sarah made cinnamon muffins. She made a whole lot more than were pictured but we already ate them ;). I put them in the oven and took them out but she did everything else (well I had to reach the eggs in the refrigerator for her since she doesn't have my excessive height).

Sarah's muffins came out great - I see future iron chef competitions between her and Jenna and Matthew once he starts cooking too!

Sarah's muffins

 We finished cat-sitting Theo the fluffy, lovable, silver, pure-bred cat and now we are cat-sitting Six. She is sleek, black, and lithe and looks almost like a black panther. Six is my old college roommate Kathy's cat. She is 17 years old and the last time we cat-sit her it was in our old house with Scruffles. She is not terribly friendly. She hisses at Twinkles and Panda and really only likes Erik. She always sits on his desk.

Six pic 1

Six pic 2

The girls went to a science camp at Inventure science. They did a potions class and Jenna was hoping Snape would not be the teacher (he wasn't - it was Gilderoy Lockhart).
Here are two videos of some of the things they did:
http://youtu.be/KFFmUQtjw7w
http://youtu.be/ihhjHEHs0jU
I'm going to put them in more science camps. They really loved it and learned a lot.