Singing and Dancing and the bag factory

 

The girls have been really interested in singing songs from The Sound of Music, especially Maria.  Although it was Anna this day that was obsessed with "So Long, Farewell."  So, they do get the words a bit muddled, but pretty good for a 2 and 4 year old.  And of course Anna has to add some "Twinkle, Twinkle."

 For the last part of our vacation we spent some time in Goshen.  We visited the Old Bag Factory.  And it is just that...an old bag factory that has been converted into shops.  They had a small historical part, and this was a cart they used in the factory.  At the factory they made bags for items such as cabbage, onions, animal feed, popcorn, and they were the original makers of the Hershey Kiss flags, for about 50 years. 
We also went to a wonderful park, which the girls thoroughly enjoyed playing at for at least an hour.  Times flies at the park!

  We came back today just in time for Maria's first dance class.  She was pretty excited and wanted to pick our her own outfit.  She said "I really like the teacher, she's nice."

We have plenty to praise God for; singing and dancing.

being gone and a race

 We picked a few apples

 and may have eaten a few also.

 Our taste tester!

 While Daddy was running the Fort4Fitness half marathon, the girls and I got donuts at a gas station and then spent some time at the playground at Lawton Park.  We had the place to ourselves as it was only 8am!

 All aboard the choo-choo train.  I remember taking my "sister" Katie here, probably at least 10 years ago, considering she just turned 20 this month! 

 Checking out the bridge across the street.

 I remember going here as a college student with some friends and some of us may have walked on the cement wall down in the water, although I will never tell if I was a part of that or not!

 It was a bit chilly and misty still,

 but the sun was shining brightly.

Great job Daddy, we are so proud of you and your PR for the race.

Date night and cousins

 Thanks to my mom and grandma, Larry and I were able to head out for a date night.  We went out for dinner, and took a lovely walk down by the lake.  We had reservations for the Black Horse B&B just outside of town here, so we headed back to watch a movie as Final Destination 5 didn't appeal to us(it's some horror movie I heard!)  So, we were able to relax, watch the movie, sleep in late, enjoy a truly wonderful breakfast, and then spend some time walking around the property there.  It was nice not having to worry about the girls, and enjoy our time away, it was LONG overdue!  Thanks mom and grandma!

 Saturday, Larry's sister came into town to check out, and eventually purchase a new bike!  Yippee for her.  So the cousins got to spend some more time together.

 It's too bad they have absolutely NO fun when they are together!

 Love the staggered look here.

buddies
We have plenty to praise God for; amazing family.

Lafayette

Last weekend we spent time in Lafayette to celebrate Larry's birthday with his family.  We decided to visit

Tippecanoe Battlefield, in Battle Ground while we were there.  A couple weeks ago we read a book about Tecumseh with Maria and she showed some interest in learning more, so we thought it would be the perfect opportunity while it was still fresh in her mind.

 The girls wanted a picture with General Harrison above them.

 cute sisters!

 We took a short hike on the Wabash Heritage Trail.

 We also enjoyed the nature center they had there.  It had lots of taxidermied(is that a real word?) animals and a bird viewing window. 

 The original Daniel Boone sisters!

 We spent part of Saturday at the Columbian Park Zoo, which is free, and has recently had some nice improvements.  Maria was getting friendly with the pigs.

 Our beautiful butterfly.

A real butterfly inside the enclosed butterfly garden.

The farm girls.
We have plenty to praise God for; a few more warm days to enjoy this summer.

celebrate

It's Larry birthday, so we had a fun day spoiling him with yummy birthday food.  Here is the delicious lemon cake I made. 

Here is a video of the girls doing a great job singing Happy Birthday.

 

The birthday "boy"
We have plenty to praise God for; an amazing husband and daddy!  We love you!

Family and fruit snacks

 Larry had a meeting in Ft. Wayne, so we spent several days at my parents house last weekend.

 Can you tell it was hot?  Hence Anna in only her pull-up!  I think she had already used up at least one set of clothes for the day through an accident, so it was straight to the bedtime pull-up for her.

 Push us Grandpa!

 Do you think that they had a fun time with Grandpa pushing them on the swing?

 Our adorable niece Everly...moving and trying to crawl.

 Uncle Ryan had to lay with them to watch the movie...Cinderella of all things too!

yummy fruit snacks
We have plenty to praise God for; family, fun and fruit snacks! ;)

exploring new places

 This little bunny has been hanging around our house lately...so cute, good thing our garden is at the end stages, or I wouldn't think he's such a cutie!

 Now this cutie, she was having so much fun at the playground today in Rochester.  It was a huge playground.

 We spent about an hour there and then hit the library, which has a great play house in the children's area.

After the library we ate lunch at McD's and of course had to play there too.  I had to do a bit of birthday present shopping for daddy with the girls, and then we headed home.  The girls were tired, and bedtime at 7 was great!
We have plenty to praise God for; outings to new places.

time away

Two weekends ago I spent a sister's weekend with my big sis, Michele.  It was some much needed away/together time!  Larry had a fun time with the girls and my sister and I really enjoyed having some sister time.  I got there Thurs. afternoon and hung out that evening.  On Friday we headed downtown Indy and enjoyed the Etiljorg museum.  Neither of us had been there before.  After, we hopped across the street to Friday's for a lunch.  The weather was clear and perfectly warm.  On Saturday we spent time around the house, doing crazy things like hanging pictures(that have been collecting dust under her bed for several years since their remodel) purging closets of dressy business attire that she wore over 10 years ago when she worked in Indy.  I left that evening and made it home in time to hit the hay.  I loved my time away and time I spent with my big sister, I love her!
I have plenty to praise God for; big sisters.

matchy, matchy

 Is Hello Kitty everywhere or what these days.  I remember when she was first cool...way back when.  Well, at Kohl's the other day Maria spied a HK purse that she wanted, but for $15 I talked her into making our own version.  I had seen this skirt at the thrift store.  So for $.50 and a little ingenuity we had our purse, and she didn't have to save her allowance for months!

 I simply sewed the legs closed on the inner pair of shorts.  I attached a ribbon, which just happened to match perfectly on either side for the strap.  Then I twisted a loop of embroidery thread and attached it behind the button closure.  And a bonus, the purse already has built in outer pockets.  Maria already used it for church with her new dress below.

The girls ready to head to church in their new matchy, matchy outfits.  My mom got this adorable fabric and had a pattern to make the dress.  I had just enough left after making the dress to do this bow top for Anna.  They both just happened to have matching capri/pants.  Aren't they adorable, and the pigtails, too much!

grandpa's boat

Waiting for grandpa...on the wrong pier, oops...long story!

Not too sure about that water yet.

Maria trying Grandpa's glasses "you looked funny Mommy"(due to the prescription).  Anna was wearing Daddy's sunglasses.

Do you like our leash, she was pretty fearless about the water once she got used to it.

Boy, how Maria's changed!  This was 3 years ago, when we first moved to Culver.

Ha, just noticed Grandpa is wearing the same shirt.  That's pretty funny!

love this one!