Tuesday, September 27, 2011

family camping trip

We went on our 1st camping adventure as a family over labor day...it was fun, but a lot of work!  My list of items to pack (and then unpack of course) was a lot longer than I had expected.  I guess there are a lot of necessities to bring along when you're camping with little ones.  I remember camping as a child with my parents at Pla-Mor in Bremen...but in those days I got to just "show up".  This camping as a mom and wife thing is a whole other story!! 

I think the most memorable camping moment would have to be the five foot snake that was making it's way in and around our campground!  And of course this had to happen within the first 15 minutes of us even being there.  While we were putting up the tent (and by we I mean Derek) Derek calls out "look honey, a snake"...  It was right by the tent and only within a few feet from the kiddos who were riding their bikes back into a trail that went from our campsite into the woods.  Needless to say, my friend April and I started swooping up kids under our arms left and right!  Derek did his best to encourage the snake to head back into the woods and then things got back to normal for another 10 minutes or so.  But of course, I was still contemplating how I was going to survive this camping trip with the possibility of snakes lurking all around.  I was a little freaked to be honest.  And then all of the sudden, snake attack #2 is underway...that little sucker didn't go back into the woods at all...but rather around our tent, thru our campsite and right past the picnic table and kids and wrapped itself around a tree in the center of our campsite.  Ahhhh!  Well it became obvious at that point that the snake had to die.  Here we are in the middle of an Indiana State Park bashing in the brains of a harmless snake lol!  Derek did the honors of course.  And then we threw the snake into the woods and then visited him often :) The kids were really curious and I think most of us wanted to make sure it was really dead. 

We did other things on our camping adventure too...we hiked thru a creek, went on wagon rides, took the kids fishing, made tyedye t-shirts, cooked and snacked and roasted marshmallows...all the great camping musts.  All in all, it was a really great weekend.

potty break while on the road

campsite before tent pitching

setting up

satan himself

campsite...
the tree to the left is where the snake spent his final moments. 
you can see he had to slither right past the wagon and food to get there...
ewwwwwww

on our hike...rigby fell asleep before it even started. 
good thing daddy has big muscles :)

in indiana?  i guess so.
rig is still sleeping...lol


and he wakes!

mr. smores is not happy about getting a wipe down

making our tee shirts

someone got a little crazy with the spray paint

oh my goodness this kid is cute!

wagon ride

at the plaground



fishing with daddy...it's obviously rowan's pink pole

i think someone is having a hard time sharing



weee!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Rowan's 3rd Birthday Pics

getting ready for cake!

yay!

pretty pretty

crazy kiddos!

present opening is underway


a brief intermission to try on shoes (of course)...thanks mimi!

another brief intermission to try on her rapunzel costume...thanks aunt janel!

baby chase and baby julia



and finally, rowan's photo op with her new dolls (photo taken by ms. rowan mae)

Monday, September 19, 2011

Rowan's Birthday!

Well my little girl turned three last week...yes THREE!!  We had plans to have a big birthday party on Sunday, but decided instead to do a quick cake and ice cream thing on a weeknight with just family.  There are just so many birthdays this time of year for little ones and we've been a little overbooked timewise with everything we're involved in at church and with work, so we decided we needed a Sunday all to ourselves to just do nothing. Which we did by the way :)  It was a great day.  I cooked ribs and homemade bread (things I so enjoy but never have time to do) and the guys watched football.

But as usual, there's no such thing as a small party in our family!  We ended up having a big gang over anyway, and it turned out perfect.  I think we had over 20 people with all the cousins and kiddos...but I think that's easier to get thru than a party for 40.  The whole shabang was over in an hour and half and we had pizza (thanks to Nick!) and cake and ice cream...and lots of fun too.  We had kids running thru the house, kicking balls outside and swinging on the swingset...all free and unplanned entertainment which worked out well!

I asked Rowan what kind of birthday cake she wanted this year and she didn't bat an eye with an answer..."I want Barbie Mommy!"  So I decided I would make her one of those Wilton Barbie Cakes.  But time slipped away as usual and with the switching of the party to a weeknight, there was no way this working momma could whip out a cake.  So I zipped in to one of our local grocery stores and they actually had a similar Barbie bridal cake.  I asked them to change the white to purple and leave off the veil...and voila...a barbie cake made by someone else in 24 hours and it even came in a fabulous barbie box.  I think the only thing I would have changed was the flavor I chose...banana sounded good, tasted so so and looked gross!  But the kids didn't care.  They were all so excited about the cake and even kept opening the frig to admire it before cake time.  Rowan was sooooo pumped!  Here's a pic of the cake I took with my phone...

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Little Diva

my mom took rowan to get her nails done. so now my two year old (or should I say three yr old) keeps saying "I get my nails done, k?". thanks mom :) nothing like getting a head start on diva behavior.

I DO IT

Since Rowan insists on doing everything herself, Derek decided to let her try to get the milk out of the fridge and then to put it away at dinner last night.  It was pretty comical...but Rowan was so proud of herself ... lol. 

Here's two videos of her putting it away.  At first she couldn't figure out how to climb up on the chair while holding the milk, and then figured out that she had to put the milk on the chair, then stand on the chair and pick the milk up from there.  I was pretty sure we were going to have milk all over our floor, but even so, we didn't mind.  It was 5 minutes of entertainment for us :)


 
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