Summer Lovin!

This summer has been full of fun! Jenna's girl scout troop went Zip lining at the Hocking Hills Dragonfly zipline tour. This is a zip line for kids only. Jenna and Sarah both went but Matthew had no desire to zipline. Sarah was a little nervous citing her fear of heights but she overcame that quickly. Shelly also came with Grace, John, and Regan. Sarah is good friends with John and Regan so they zipped together. 

Kids waiting to zipline

Jenna on the zipline

Sarah on the zipline

Sarah and John holding a rock

Matthew and a girl from Jenna's troop hanging on a rock

Jenna's previous bike was small and since she is a really good biker, we got her a new bike. We love to go on family bike rides! Her new bike is fantastic and she is pretty speedy! Actually Erik rides with Matthew on the trail bike and Jenna rides with him then Sarah and I follow (much, much later). Still Sarah has ridden quite well. She has ridden to church - a 6 mile round trip!

Jenna's new bike

These are some old pics from the Origins gaming conference. We had a great time! We bought a few games and spent quite a bit of time just playing games. Sarah played a kids game with a game developer. There was a big room for kids games with several boxes that Matthew loved playing with. This summer we've played several games as a family: Castle Panic, Ticket to Ride, SetGame, Five Crowns, Flashpoint, Carcassone, Blokus, etc. It's been a fun summer.

Sarah playing a game with a group of kids and the game developer!

Matthew playing with the boxes

Origins

Jenna wanted to have some friends over for cupcake wars! Campbell made a lemon cupcake with chocolate frosting, Jenna made strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting, Sarah and her friends Layla and Sydney made smores cupcakes with marshmallow frosting. Lauren was a judge. It was hard to decide. They were all delicious!! We gave the leftovers to the firemen too.

Cupcake wars

Cupcake tasting

I made 10 Ohio Home signs and put them up for sale on our local facebook site. They were sold within 48 minutes and I have orders for 18 more. Yikes! So I'll be busy. Joy said this is my little cottage industry and maybe it is. Erik is even going to help me with sanding because I have so many orders! I have some more ideas I can't wait to share too.

Signs

Camping Lazy River 2015

For the past few years we have gone on a camping trip with the Mast family, Mabry family, and Brubaker family. We went last weekend to the Lazy River campground and had a blast! We went Thursday - Sunday which meant Jenna missed her last day of girl scout camp.. She was okay with it since they were all bouncing off the walls with excitement to come camping. Lazy River is one of our favorite spots too.

Jenna at the playground

 We arrived on Thursday to camp and Erik went home Friday to work. This arrangement has been working out well so that we get an extra day of camping and Erik doesn't have to take a vacation day. He's already going negative this year with our two trips.

The pool water was actually nice and warm so we were in the pool on Friday, played miniature golf, and drank slushies. It was a great day. The Masts and Mabrys arrived on Friday evening and it unfortunately rained so we couldn't cook out for dinner. We did play a fun game called Avalon. It is a group game involving bluffing so obviously I'm not good at it. We had fun though!

Sarah ziplining

Jenna ziplining

 One of my favorite parts of our camping trip was watching Sarah stand up to some older boys. Sarah had been playing in the water with this clump of grass she called her island. She left to go to the bathroom and while she was gone some older boys (maybe 12?) came by and started playing with her "island". A few of us were sitting in our camp chairs watching this unfold and were wondering what she would do when she got back. Do you know Sarah stood up to those kids, grabbed the "island" out of their hands and told them to go away. It was HILARIOUS to watch little Sarah yelling at those big boys to leave her island alone.

Sarah putting her island back after telling the boys off

Playing in the river

 We had to get our obligatory kid shot. They have all grown so much. Except Duane. He's pretty much stayed the same.

All the kids

 Even though it was a little chilly for July and it rained some, we had a great time on our camping trip.

I generally make bread a few times a week for our family. But lately instead of bread I've been making biscuits. I wanted to have a biscuit taste off. The two funny shaped biscuits are mine. One is a buttermilk recipe and the other is a baking powder biscuit recipe. The third is a pillsbury biscuit and is perfectly shaped. No one liked it. In fact no one wanted to eat the rest of them. It was amazing the difference in taste. The homemade biscuits were amazing compared to the flat, tasteless pillsbury biscuits.

Biscuit taste off

 This past week Sarah went to Game U camp. This camp involves creating video games using Project Spark. Sarah LOVED it! She's a gamer at heart. She was the youngest and the only girl in the class. It was interesting to see everyone else's games too. The other kids' games all involved fighting bosses and killing all kinds of trolls. Sarah's game centered around a fox picking up three apples (that was the main quest). She did great!

Sarah at Game U

 I have been wanting my Mom to come to zumba with me. She is 67 and can run circles around many people half her age. She came to my zumba class and liked it. She's also really good at zumba since she's been doing aerobics her whole life. We had fun! The next day we took the kids to the zoo and culvers. They loved going to the zoo with Nana!

Nana and the kids at the zoo

Matthew helping me cook

 As I mentioned before I've taken up a hobby creating signs from distressed wood. Below are 4 of my designs although I have ideas for a few more. Some that require a router but we do not have one. It's been a fun hobby.

My signs

In other news:

1. I finished a three book series by Laura Resnick called the Chronicles of Sirkara. I have a few more books on my to read list but am still not sure what I'm going to read next.
2. Our book club has decided to read the Magician by Lev Grossman. I may have read this before but sometimes I can't remember ;). I think it should be good.
3. Sarah has had lice and three ticks in the past few weeks. I think she is a bug magnet.
4. My friend Renee has started doing bootcamp classes at the elementary school the kids go to. She is Lizzie's (Sarah's friend) mom. Last night I went to the bootcamp and the kids played on the playground - it was a perfect arrangement!
5. Matthew and Sarah are taking gymnastics at the Y. They are really enjoying it and I'm glad they can be in class together (and that it doesn't cost that much!)

Sacramento and I've crossed the threshold to old age now

We left rainy Ohio to fly to sunny Sacramento last week. It was beautiful with temperatures above 100°F (HOT!) but definitely sunny and nice. We tried to bring some of our rain to CA since they are having a drought but that didn't work out so well (darn TSA!).

The kids at the Everest VBS at St. Joan Of Arc. I love the huge cut out of the Pope in the background

 Matthew's favorite part of the plane ride was turning on and off the reading lights. This was the longest plane ride we took the kids on. Both ways we had a layover. They did great though!

Turning off the lights

 We were in Sacramento from June 29th to July 4th. It was a fabulous trip! All of us plus Joel and Megan squished into Dave, Becca, and Charlotte's house. We had a blast!

Monday: We arrived late and the kids went to bed. Of course we stayed up and played a game!

Tuesday: In the morning we drove to the Jelly Belly factory and went on the tour. At different points on the tour you can try jelly beans at each stage of development.We had quite a bit of sugar that day. Of course we had to buy some jelly beans after the tour. Jenna was in heaven since there were individual jelly beans of the Harry Potter flavors. She also bought several boxes of Harry Potter Jelly beans and chocolate frogs. Sarah bought sparkly Elsa jelly beans and Matthew just got some regular jelly beans. For lunch we went to In-and-Out burger. Yum!

After lunch we swam in Dave and Becca's pool. I love their pool! The water is nice and warm and we really enjoyed having the pool to ourselves. It led to some rather interesting acrobatics in the water. This video captures Joel doing a somersault off of a rock into the pool. It is a little grainy but hopefully you can see the graceful way Joel glides into the water......
Tuesday night we played Madeira. It is a fun game with the added bonus that David let us take it home with us!

Joel and Sarah. Not sure what face David is making

 Wednesday: We drove to San Francisco for the day. Erik, me, Joel,and Megan all bought tickets for the bay cruise. This boat cruised around the bay and Alcatraz. We even went under the Golden Gate Bridge. The cruise was incredibly windy and chilly. I brought sweaters but I think I actually needed a fleece! Dave and Becca took all the kids to the Exploratorium. It is a science center the kids really loved. Before the cruise we went to lunch at a rather fancy restaurant. Not somewhere we generally take our three munchkins. They lunch was beautiful including the kids meals. They ate every bite too!

We walked all around San Francisco looking for the entrance to the trolley cars. Just walking around the city was fun. Unfortunately we didn't get to ride them since Dave and Becca had all the kids and the Exploratorium closed early. The line was really long to ride the trolley cars. So we left the city, and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge then walked on it for a short way. The kids were exhausted by the time we got home. We still played games that night though.

lunch at Butterfly cafe in San Francisco

Bay cruise! Just a tad windy

Golden Gate Bridge

Thursday: We went to Old Sacramento Thursday morning and the train museum. It really was a nice museum with several trains including one that simulated the movement of an actual train. Jenna and Matthew went through that train with Jenna declaring it was like the Hogwarts Express! Megan, Jenna and I all wore our Harry Potter t-shirts so we could match.
For lunch we went to Dim Sum. This is something I really love! In fact, I requested that we could go to this restaurant. The kids seemed to really like it especially Sarah. There were several shrimp dishes and she loves shrimp.

We went swimming in the afternoon in the pool. Then had make your own pizzas for dinner. Delicious! Dave and Becca surprised me with a tiramisu cake for my birthday. Another surprise!!! What a treat! Obviously we still played games in the evening.

Matching Marauder's map shirts

Matthew in the engineer's seat

I was surprised by Dave and Becca with a tiramisu cake for my birthday!

 Friday: David, Joel, and Erik went golfing early Friday morning. Apparently they did well even though Erik hasn't golfed in about 10 years. After that, Joel and Megan had to leave since they were driving all the way back to Minnesota. It was a long road trip but they did some sightseeing and had a good time. Friday evening Charlotte had her birthday party. Becca's family was there and we had chow mein and barbecued chicken. The chow main noodles are not supposed to be cut. This is to ensure long life. Luckily my kids have no manners and are not opposed to shoving long noodles in their faces rather than eat them delicately.

Charlotte had a great third birthday with lots of wonderful gifts and family with her. An amazing gift came from Becca's father. He created a carousel out of an erector set that lights up and moves. It was beautiful craftsmanship. I was so impressed!

While we had a wonderful trip, we did have one snag in the trip. We found out Sarah and Jenna had lice. Yuck! I ran out to rite aid and bought a comb and nix creme rinse. I gave Sarah 3 treatments and Jenna two treatments. We also combed through both girls hair every day for a few days to ensure there were no more nits. My that was a nightmare! I felt terrible for bringing lice to Dave and Becca's house.  I can't imagine we will be invited back!

I've taken up a new hobby of creating signs out of re-purposed wood. We had some old plywood and pallet boards that I have created a few signs with. I gave one to Becca and Megan as gifts. I have several more I'll be giving as gifts too. It's been a fun project.

Megan and her sign

Becca and her sign

Happy Birthday Charlotte

Carousel

Saturday: We flew back Saturday exhausted yet blessed to see our family for such a great trip!

Sunday was my actual 40th birthday. This was a birthday full of great surprises and I loved it. Even though I've crossed the threshold into old age, it's been a great birthday. Hey - where's my cane!

On Sunday I washed everything, everything, EVERYTHING in the house with hot water and vacuumed all the carpet. If there is any more lice, I'm getting it!  While I was doing that, Erik made me lasagna (my favorite food) for dinner and a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting for dessert. The lasagna and cake were divine!!

Erik bought me a Henrietta Hen egg cooker. It makes hard boiled eggs in only 7 minutes. And they are perfectly cooked!! This shows he loves me since he hates unitaskers and the Henrietta hen is certainly a unitasker. He also bought me an induction cooktop so I can use it for canning. My electric stove top takes a long time to heat up but the induction cooktop is much faster. I canned 26 jars of jam in 4 hours with it!

Then on Monday Jen took me out to the Cheesecake Factory. That is my favorite restaurant but I haven't been there in years. This really was a fantastic birthday!  I'm so thankful for my friends and family who made this birthday wonderful.

My 40 cake!

My gifts

Great job cooktop!

Besides the lice, this was a perfect trip to Sacramento. Hopefully we will be invited back or we will have to crash their house!