Today, I felt productive

Good evening friends.  

I hope you all have had a great day and had something to make you smile.

How could I not smile when I am greeted with this in my kitchen...

Oh yea...my own personal chef.  

I am not a huge fan of cooking.  Now don't get me wrong.  I love to cook when I want to or when it's something I really want.  BUT...to cook dinner everyday...ugh.  Not for me.  Luckily, hubby was a bachelor for a long while before we married and was used to eating out.  He doesn't mind eating out a few nights a week.  Yes...I am a lucky girl.

Today was one of those days when I wanted to cook.  So...that's what we did.  ALL DAY.  

I started off with vegetable soup.  This sounded good and I always cook enough to freeze some, so it was a win win.  I had my little helper right by my side all day.  She poured in all of the veggies and helped mix everything up.

Just look at that yummy soup.  Oh yes...it smelled so good cooking all day.  It was a HUGE pot full.  I have supper for tomorrow night and froze 3 quarts.  Perfect.

Next, was rice.  I had a new recipe for the crockpot that called for rice.  Darbee Rae helped me prepare the rice too. 

Once that was done, we put the chicken in the crock pot.  Combine all of those smells cooking today and my house smelled heavenly.  

Darbee had been asking for several days to make suckers.  We had bought a kids chocolate sucker making kit and she wanted to make them. I figured today was the day.  

So...we made suckers.  I had a happy girl. (smile)

She helped every second. 

She picked out blue vanilla chips.

She also enjoyed tasting the melted chips.  

They were a little warm, but she had no trouble cooling it off....

and enjoying every bit of it!

They turned out great.

We invited Grandmother and Granddaddy over for supper. 

The chicken and rice crock pot dish turned out wonderful.  We also had black eyed peas and some of Granddaddy's homemade tomato ketchup.  It was delicious.  

What was for dessert?  Yes..suckers. :)  We also had a freshly baked chocolate cake with homemade chocolate icing.  Yes...we were BUSY today!  

I feel a sense of accomplishment today.  All of the clothes are clean and a lot was cooked today.

Wow...I am a little tired tonight!

Relaxed this evening and watched the olympics.  Wow..they are amazing. 

I hope all of you have had a wonderful day as well.

Until next time....

Play Date At Six Flags

What is there to do on a fun summer day?  A play date of course!

We have enjoyed many play dates with my good friend Stephanie and her daughter Bayleigh.

Darbee Rae and Bayleigh have become good buddies and I am so thankful. 

When they invited us to go to Six Flags with them, I was thrilled!  We planned a day but unfortunately, Ms. Stephanie got sick and had to have gall bladder surgery.  Poor thing!  

Luckily, she did great and recovered super fast.  When she wrote me a week or two ago to see if we wanted to reschedule, I couldn't believe she would be able to go.  Wow...super woman!

Darbee Rae asked me every day..."How much longer till we go to Six Flags?"  "When is Sunday?"  "How many more days till Sunday?"  

She was beyond excited because she had never been.  She was also a little nervous too....she had no idea what to expect.  She new she was going to get to ride the rides, but she was a little scared of the water rides that I told her about.  I had not been to the park in nearly 10 years, so I was excited too!

We headed out early yesterday morning with a very nervous little girl.  HOWEVER, it didn't take long for her worries to subside.  As soon as we got there, she was ready to ride.  

She and Bayleigh were so happy to see each other somewhere else besides each other's house!  Wow...what a cool play date huh?

We were so ready for a fun day, but certainly a HOT day.  One of Darbee Rae's favorite things was the cooling mist sprayers all through the park.

She would stand in front of those and get soaked!  They did feel pretty good!

Bugs Bunny Land was really cool for the kiddos.  

They drove a truck.....

They played in the fountain......

They rode lots of kiddie rides.  The cool part...they got to ride them all together!

Another cool part?  This mama is not the skinniest of folks.  I don't mind walking, but walking across the entire park in 95 degree weather on the hot asphalt with two kiddos was not my cup of tea. Luckily, Ms. Stephanie agreed!  The hubbies just followed along! :) Thank goodness for the sky buckets! They were a lifesaver!  Darbee Rae couldn't wait to get on these and ride "high in the air!" 

They loved it!

We quickly found a water ride.  The line was long, but it moved fast.  Thankfully, we didn't have to wait more than about 25 minutes!  

They were so cute.  They were peeping thru the holes in the wall to see the water ride. 

Thunder River was so much fun.  Darbee Rae wasn't too crazy about it.  She didn't like getting jerked around or getting splashed, but she survived.  

Back on the sky buckets and across the park again!  Hehe...

The Looney Tunes show offered a break to sit and rest.  No cooling off though.

The girls tried cooling off with wipes. Ha!

The coolest part of the show?

Getting to meet the characters afterward!

She was the happiest little girl when she got to drive her very own car!

Daddy rode the carousel right beside her!  We were having so much fun!

Darbee and Bayleigh had to ride everything together.  Sometimes with us, sometimes with Ms. Stephanie and Nick.

There were cool games that were guaranteed wins for kiddos. 

We gave those a try.

After finally popping a balloon, she won a purple puppy.

And the coolest game was trying to ring the bell.  

They got to pick any prize! 

Wow...what a deal!

They both picked out kitty cats on a leash.

Back to Bugs Bunny Land one more time.

Darbee RAe was very brave.  :)

Look..no hands!

We stayed until they closed.  Her favorite ride was the log ride. A water ride that splashes.  We rode it twice.

We were tired...very tired...but I had a very happy little girl and that's all that mattered.

Thanks Ms. Stephanie and Nick for a fun day!

Christmas in July....YAY! Oh yea....and a first...

Good evening friends and Merry Christmas!  Ha!  No, I am not crazy.  BUT-we did have a little Christmas in our house today.

When I was small, my mom kept up a pencil tree year round and it was decorated for each season/holiday. I remember being so excited when she would decorate it.  Now that I have my own home and Darbee Rae, I have kept up a small tree the past few years.

This year, my baby will start her school journey.  She will start pre-k. I wanted to do a little more for back to school since she will start this year....it's a little more special.

I usually used a 5ft. pencil tree that I kept up all the time.  After Christmas last year, I decided it was time for it to retire.  It had seen its better days.  When I decided to decorate my back to school tree, I wanted another tall one.  I was thrilled when I found a Vienna Twig tree at a steal!  I ordered it and couldn't wait for it to come.

I looked for it yesterday, but it didn't come.  All day today, I had high hopes....no tree.  Nana came and we went to lunch and ran a few errands around town.  We came home and about an hour later, what pulled up out front?  The FED-EX truck!  I nearly ran out the door to meet him.

I was so happy!

It looked so small in the box!  I couldn't believe there was a 5ft. tree in there!

It is pre-lit too!  An added bonus.

I quickly got to work spreading out the branches.  Whooo...that was rough...those things were scratchy!

Miss Priss had to jump in front of the camera too.  

Silly girl.

I love it!  It looks so cute and cozy! 

I am going to decorate it with back to school stuff for now.  It won't be too primitive, but that's okay.  I am going to get busy making me some primitive ornaments for fall and Christmas.  I am thrilled.  It's just what I wanted!

Now...for the first.  My baby is growing up!

She has been wanting to learn how to tie shoes for a long time.  I bought her a learn to tie book and we worked on it for a bit.  The other night, she learned how to do the first step all by herself.  She came to me and said, "Mommy, look I can tie."  She had a long leash that she was playing with her stuffed animal puppy and she had learned to do the first step.  

Today, she had to show off to Nana that she could "tie."  Nana sat with her and showed her the other steps again and it clicked!  She practiced a few times with Nana and then wanted to do it by herself.

She did it!!!

My girl can tie now!  

I am so proud of her...chocolate mouth and all! (Smile)

Hope all of you have had a great day and done something to make you smile!

Until next time....

Fun on a whim...

Do you ever wake up in the morning with no plans for the day and then something comes along and you end up having a great day?
Today was one of those days.  Darbee Rae and I got up this morning with absolutely no plans. I had figured we would stay home today and do nothing. I was browsing on Facebook and saw an ad for the bowling ally here in town advertising $1.99 bowling today!  Yahoo!  That sounded like fun.
I called Zack, went and picked him up and off we went for an afternoon of fun and that we did.  We had a blast!

I love my camera.  It has so many cool options.  I love the sketch mode!

I wish they had these cool ball racks when I was little.  They help so much!  Darbee was awesome!

She came within 10 points of beating me!  Wow.

Zack was such a good helper to Darbee!  

He cheered her on!

We had such a good time!

Of course, Darbee has fun anywhere she goes!

After bowling two games, our trip was not complete without a trip to the arcade.

Darbee LOVES arcades.  

She put one token into this game and won 75 tickets!  Lucky girl.

How convenient is it that an awesome ice cream shop is in the parking lot of the bowling ally?

We had to have some on the way home.

They have "baby cones" that are free for the little ones that are 40" or smaller.  She was just right!

Do you think she enjoyed it?  

Oh yea!

It was a fun day!

I hope all of you have had a great day.  

Until next time!

The Giant Pumpkin

Good evening everyone!  Hope all of you are doing well and have had a happy Sunday.  

It has been another hot one here in the south.  Ugh...I am sooooo ready for cooler weather. 

A friend of mine posted on Facebook the other day, "Is it wrong... that I am so ready for fall? Apple cider, pumpkin spice lattes, falling leaves, pumpkins, apple cinnamon candles, crafts for the kids, candy corn?"

Doesn't that sound great?  I too am ready.  Not only is fall one of my favorite times of the year, it comes with lots of birthday celebrations.  Each person in our family ( my mom, my dad, myself and Darbee Rae) all have birthday's in October.  Hubby is the odd ball with his being in June.  So...I al already busy planning a fun birthday celebration for my sweet girl.  It's so much fun. 

Several weeks ago, Granddaddy called Darbee Rae to come over.  He had something special he wanted to show her.  When we got there, she was very excited to see he had planted a few pumpkin seeds just for her.  He promised he would grow her a pumpkin of her very own for them to carve at Halloween.

Each time since then when we go down there, she would check on her pumpkin vines.  They grew sooo fast and soon this is what we saw when we went to "check" on them.   

Wow!  The pumpkin vines nearly took over the entire yard!  It was crazy.  There were tiny pumpkins everywhere and the "patch" was growing by the day

When we went down to check on them about two weeks ago, we were so surprised.  

The pumpkins were GIGANTIC! 

Darbee Rae had picked out her own pumpkin and it was enormous!  It was nearly as big as she was!  There was no way she could pick it up!  BUT...keep in mind this was near the end of June.  The pumpkins were ready WAY too early.  

Just last week, Granddaddy had to pick them to keep them from rotting.  :(

I have no idea how long pumpkins will keep inside.  Do you?  

I have a feeling they won't keep until October...but we can wish and hope.

Here are the three giant ones.  If you make the picture larger, you can see the name tag that Darbee Rae made for hers.  (Smile)

A perfect chair huh?  

See why I am wishing fall would hurry up?  These would make GREAT decorations at a hoedown birthday party!  

Until next time....