Come for a visit....

Good evening dear friends. Tonight, we are going for a short visit. We are going for a short walk out my back door a little ways to a sweet little playhouse built out of love.



A visit many of you have waited a long time for. It isn't finished all the way yet, but plenty done enough to play and enjoy. My mama is taking us on a tour on her blog tonight, so hop on over for a visit.

Find her blog at http://thrunanaswindow.blogspot.com

Until next time.....


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Staying Busy

Good afternoon! Can you believe July is almost over?  Where has this month gone?  I have even seen several posts on Facebook of kids already heading back to school! Oh my.  I'm sure not ready for that yet.  Let's slow down! 

We have been enjoying our summer and staying very busy.  Last week was an especially busy one as we had play dates nearly every day! 

On Monday, Papa came and worked a bit more on the playhouse.  I promise it is going to be done soon.  All of you have waited so patiently. You see miss priss decided she didn't like the regular walls with the studs showing.  We decided to paint them to help the look.  The walls were soaking up the paint.  It was going to take a gazillion gallons of paint to get it done. So we all decided it would be easier to put up paneling for walls.  On a trip to Lowe's to just look and get prices, miss D decides she wants bead board paneling.  Expensive taste huh?  We explained we would have to save for those kind of walls and so that has been the hold up.  We got the paneling last week and Papa was so sweet to devote a whole day of his off day to work and hang it.  I must admit, it is so pretty!  It looks like a real house!  We still have to hang curtains, decorate and make a few tweaks.  I promise not much longer though.

I will give you a preview of the outside so far.  Most of the trim is done except the part up top that I can't reach.  That will be done soon. 

Here is the counter/desk area inside before the walls were hung.  The white side is going to be the sink and stove area and the purplish pink side is going to be a desk.

Papa did surprise Darbee while he was working by putting her up a swing.
She was squealing with excitement.  It is so cute!

Monday also kicked off our week of VBS.  Darbee was so excited to go.  I taught crafts again this year.

Darbee had fun singing the songs and telling me what she learned each night.  

Here she is being the helper with the pledge to the Bible.

On Wednesday, we had a play date with a friend from Darbee's school.

We have not seen anyone from her class all summer and she was missing them.

We met Matthew and his mom and sister at Monkey Joe's to play.

They had a great time playing and jumping.  

We enjoyed lunch with them afterward.

The picture is a little blurry because they were jumping around and being silly. 

They enjoyed their afternoon.

Thursday afternoon, we met up with Mia who was also in Darbee's class this past year.

Darbee and Mia quickly became really good friends and Darbee has been asking all summer to see Mia.

Our schedules finally worked out and we were so proud!

We met them at a local art studio, Bubbles and Brushes.

They had so much fun creating their own masterpieces.

Darbee made a canvas for her baby doll to go in her playhouse.  How sweet.

We enjoyed Starbucks at the book store afterward and the girls had a fun time playing in the kids book section together.  We can't wait to get together again soon.

Friday, was mama's day. LOL.  Darbee and I met a group of teachers I use to work with at Olive Garden for lunch. It was so nice to see everyone and catch up.  I loved working with all of these ladies and miss seeing them everyday.  Most of them have since taken other paths so it is fun to get together and keep in touch with what is going on in everyone's lives.  I forgot to take a picture of all of us but there were 10 there!  Wow! 

Other than a birthday party, we had a rather lazy weekend which was welcome after our busy week.

We did squeeze in a little swimming time at Aunt Kate's pool in between showers. 

Another week of rain on and off each day. Ugh!

It has rained so hard it has looked white outside.  Darbee said it was snowing.  LOL.

I am so ready to see the sunshine for a while!

I hope all of you are enjoying your summer. 

Take care!

Until next time...

A surprise party that wasn't a surprise...

Good evening friends.  I must once again apologize for my lack of posts.  We have done a good job of staying busy this summer.  

We have enjoyed play dates with friends and countless shopping trips.  We have enjoyed spending lots of time with Nana and even had a few quick roadtrips.

I have to say we have had a great summer so far and since Darbee doesn't head back to school until September, we plan on spending what's  left of it having lots more fun.

One of the things I enjoy the most is getting people together and having a party.  I love finding cute ideas and decorating.  Any excuse for a party is a good excuse.  

Last Sunday night, Kathy called me over to her house and said we needed to talk.  She wanted to plan a party.  I was excited even before I knew who it was for.

Mama and daddy's anniversary was coming up and it was their 40th.  She wanted us to go in together and give them an anniversary party and she wanted it to be a surprise.  I was tickled.  I couldn't wait.  We started planning right away.  Keep in mind this was Sunday evening and their anniversary was the coming Saturday. We had to hurry and get busy quick.

First was finding a place.  We crossed our fingers and hoped for the best and asked hubby to see about renting the company cabin for us.  We knew deep down it was probably booked but hoped it would work out some how.

Monday afternoon, hubby called and let me know he had miraculously got the cabin for Friday night and part of the day Saturday.  I was ecstatic!

Once we knew we had the location, we came up with the story of how we would get them there and how we would try and keep it a secret all week.  We came up with every possible excuse she could give and came up with game plans for everything we could thing of.  We thought so anyway.

On Tuesday, Darbee Rae and I spent the day at Nana's.  I was so nervous Darbee would let it slip, but she didn't.  She did so good.  I managed to get Mama's wedding album out of her house by giving her the excuse that I was going to do a blog post about her anniversary.  I wanted to use the pictures for my blog post.  Ha! It sounded good and she believed me.  

I also loaded up my car with some  a lot of her decor by giving her the excuse I wanted to use it for a get together at our house on Saturday for our town's fireworks. I was on a roll.  She was believing all of it and we were doing good.

I figured out how to create a secret board on Pinterest to pin ideas for the party and Mama couldn't see any of it. Hehe. On Wednesday night, we were sitting there finishing up the favors when the phone rang. On the other end was my very excited mama.  Oh no.  She was so happy.  They were planning a quick getaway vacation for their anniversary.  My heart sank. I was so upset.  We had gone all week and kept the surprise.  Now what were we to do? Kathy and I had to tell her. We had to keep them here! We had already invited nearly 30 people and already bought some of the decor and stuff we needed.

Thursday morning, I came up with the excuse to get her to Kathy's.  I told her Darbee had left her baby doll over there.  She was with us and had a day of shopping planned.  When we got to Kathy's guess what?  She refused to get out of the car!!!  She couldn't understand why we couldn't just run in and get the baby and be on our way.  Kathy had to finally come out to the car and we had to tell her.  We had to crash her vacation.  She was speechless.  There were tears of gratitude and a look of shock.  She had no idea.  She was so happy. There...it was done.  No more secrets.  She and I and Darbee Rae headed out for our day of shopping and I didn't have to hide the decorations I needed to get to finish up. :)

Finally, Friday was here.  The party day.  We headed over to the cabin around lunch time and got busy.  We couldn't wait for the party but we were also excited that our whole family was spending the night at the cabin together.  There was going to be 9 of us all staying together.  What fun.  

I won't bore you with much more writing.  I will share the party with you in pictures.  IT was a big success.  We had so much fun.  The weather was perfect.  There were friends and family there.  The food turned out great.  I was so thankful.

It was a country party.  The tables were covered in brown paper.  There were bandannas in the middle with a center piece and a wedding picture.  On each end of the tables were mason jars with burlap and red ribbon.  They had rocks in the bottom and floating candles. I love how everything turned out.

 

I used my old chicken and filled it with tall branches.  I used clothes pins and pinned small wedding pictures and pictures from early in their marriage on it.  It was a big hit.  It was on the cake table.

The cake table was my favorite.

I found the idea for the favors on Pinterest.  How did we ever live without that site?  I love the cute sayings.  The tags said, "We are still suckers for each other 40 years later."

I also made labels for cookie bags and made cookie favors.

Their stickers said either "Thank You" or "40th Anniversary."

Above the food tables we hung a banner we made that said, "We still do."

I loved that.

The food was simple but oh so yummy.

The menu was hot dogs, chips, 

velveeta sausage dip and tortilla chips

meatballs

potato salad

vegetable tray

baked beans

pickle roll ups

and a fruit bowl.

It was delicious!

The drinks were in my washtub that I found by the road.  Good find huh?  I think so.

I was so proud everyone came.  There were friends of theirs who were a part of their wedding 40 years ago.  It was so neat.

They even cut the cake just as they did at their wedding.  

It was sweet.

As they went up for us to take a picture some silly little girl named Darbee Rae decided to jump in the picture and show her best side. smile...

Their friends were so generous to bring gifts.  They were so grateful.

It was such a good party.

I am so happy to have such a good example before me.

After the party was over and everything was cleaned up, we headed in the cabin for a fun night of together time.  We stayed up waaayyyy to late.  We talked about times past. We planned for the future.  We just enjoyed being together.

There were pallets everywhere but it was so much fun.

Happy Anniversary you two!

Until next time....

Off the beaten path

Good evening friends!

Are you having a good weekend?

I hope each of you are.  We woke up this morning with no plans. Sometimes that is nice.  We spent the morning at home just being lazy.

After lunch, we headed to a nearby town for a small carnival benefiting Children's Miracle Network.  It was nice but oh so hot.

Darbee didn't let that hinder her fun though.  She loved it.

Home Depot had a booth where you could build something.

She built the cutest little heart basket.  

I see an evening with Papa in his workshop in the near future don't you?

That basket must be painted!

There was lots of games too!  Darbee popped balloons and picked up ducks.

That was a neat outing but one I was glad when it was over.  We were scorching!  

We did a little shopping and had a snack and we were off on another adventure.

Several weeks ago, a friend posted a picture on Facebook of the neatest walking trail.  

I immediately asked her where it was and found out it was very close to home.

We found it today and ended up finding a treasure. A place we will certainly visit many more times.

We turned off of a busy highway onto a dirt road that let way back in the woods.  That's a lot of fun sometimes huh?  Going somewhere when you really have no idea where you are going....that was us today.

At the end of the dirt road was a parking lot and an entrance to the walking trail.  Luckily, I brought along my camera.  It was a nice walking trail and we knew we were headed towards a creek.  As we neared the creek, this was what we saw.

Isn't it beautiful?

There were several families there wading and playing out in the water.  Oh how I immediately wish Darbee had worn her swim suit too.  I knew she wanted to wade out in the water so bad. 

She and I waded out a little but we had to be careful. The rocks were VERY slippery. 

After I was done wading, she played a long time.  It was so nice, we stayed quite a while.

I know you can guess what happened right? 

Sure enough...she slipped and fell right down on her bottom.  :)  She was fine but soaking wet.

So....what are we to do?  Just let her go ahead and have fun of course!

I guess we made a memory today huh?  She had a ball and thought it was so neat that she got to get wet in her clothes!

That's what summer is all about right?  Making memories and having fun.

Hehe...Love it!

We had such a fun day and can't wait to go back and head off the beaten path. 

Until next time....