Summer Nights

Can you hear John Travolta and Olivia Newton John singing?  Ok so we watched the movie Grease recently and it's not unusual for one of us to break out in song.  Plus we recently got a karaoke machine for our summer nights entertainment.  :) 

What I really wanted to share was our deck!

So I know it's hard to convey in pictures but our deck was a catch all for a bit and Sugar Bug and I took two day's to clean it off and she helped me put up all the flowers and bird feeders. Now it is a sanctuary to enjoy nature! Plus the best part is .........

LIGHTS!! Our deck is now lit up "like noon in the dead of night" (apparently I'm on a song kick) We can't wait to enjoy this all with friends this summer!  We can sit outside even at night and play cards. Plus we will probably be belting out some tunes too. :) 

Happy 4th!

Hope you all had a great 4th of July!  We celebrated with a BIG bang!

We set off all these Fireworks! And had fun doing it.  We had good food including pies from all those blackberries...

I tried to get pictures of our fireworks  but our camera didn't cooperate so I really only have this pictures of Sugar Bug with the biggest sparkler ever!

That is one cool sword!  We had a blast and hope our friends will come out next year for the bash!

Happy 4th everyone!

Party Animals!

So we had a crazy weekend with a birthday and wedding back to back...
First Sugar Bug turned 12...

Yes my daughter picked a X-box game theme for her cake. She had a rather quiet birthday as everyone was preparing for the wedding the next day.  But we still had some fun and checked out the river, which is way up with all the rain we've had lately.

And of course you have to have balloons! 



Sugar bug was excited to get an easel from her aunt for all her artistic flares...

My two girlies checking out the Nintendo DS Sassafras got her sister.

Next we have wedding!! Super D's little sis got married beside the river in a beautiful service.  Hot but pretty...

Congratulations you two!

My pretty girls.  They were both bridesmaids..

The Cake... All the kids thought it was super cool that the butterflies were edible.  I guess there was something fun about eating a butterfly. 

It was a fun and busy weekend! I'm glad everything went smoothly and no rain this weekend.  We are all recuperating this week! 

Worms and Pirates...

Well, I hope you had a good Halloween if you celebrate.  As my family knows Halloween is not my favorite holiday.  For years we didn't hardly give it a passing nod but the kids got older and wanted to do more things changed a bit. Anyways, this year we were invited to a Halloween Bunco Bash.  It included a costume contest and creepy dish contest.  Well we had a good time and the costumes and food turned out great...

For the creepy yet edible dish I made a dirt cake with very real looking worms...

For the worms I used this recipe for Jello worms. I used the whole package of Knox Gelatin that's all 4 envelopes and it turned out great.   For the cake I used this recipe for Dirt cake Of course I used my jello worms instead of gummy worms. 
This dish grossed out my girls so much they barely tried it then said it didn't taste good but it was all in their head!  Everyone else loved it...

The brave party goers ate it up!

For our costumes Super D and I went as Pirates and the Sassafras was a Zebra and Sugar Bug Red Riding hood.  (Mostly it was an excuse for the girls to wear make up and dress up!)

We managed to get this decent picture with the timer on the camera right before we left.
But some of the best pictures were at the party.

Love the new addition!  They had a pet parrot and she actually flew over to me and climbed up on my shoulder! 

Our poor friend had a hole shot in her! But what an ingenious idea.

Sugar bug had a little competition with red riding hood.  But what a great couples costume.

We got all of us in front of the graveyard backdrop. And got Sassafras to put her hood up for this one.

Sugar bug and her silly faces!

My parrot friend even came with me to oblige a few more pictures. 

The nigh went great and my favorite was the wolf by the end of the night had a good representation of all our great costumes....

Thank you to our hosts for a great night.  Bunco (which is a dice game) was a lot of fun.  Especially since I won some good prizes.. :)  Hope to do it again next year!
Someone put a lot of planning and time into this and I am thankful we were included in the fun. 

 

16!

Sassafras had a good but somewhat quiet birthday.  On her special day we started out getting up at the crack of dawn (which is quite a feat for my girls) to go to town and meet Super D for breakfast.

See the sun isn't even fully up! But we had a good breakfast before Super D came home to sleep.

Then we made cake and had a family dinner with one of her friends over.
 She requested a Panda cake...




 We played games and watched a little TV.  But the big event was on the weekend we drove to
Springfield to go ice skating.

We got to eat pizza with Aunt M who hung around to take pictures for us.  Being due with a nephew for us in December she wasn't skating.

 Sugar Bug claimed ice skating is not her thing! She did really well though. 

 Here's the four of us on the ice. We had a great time and finished our day with ice cream at the mall. 
Happy Birthday Sassafras.  I am so proud of the woman you have become.  You are an amazing gal who shines bright everyday! Keep standing tall like the sunflower.
(enjoy the pictures but this techy challenged mama could not figure out why it is putting my typing on the side of the pictures!  Just as when I want to do that I can't do it! Go figure.. Sorry)

NOOOOOO! Come Back Please!!

I am not ready for August!! Can someone tell me what happened to June and July??  We've had a busy summer working hard and trying to take advantage of all the moments we can to play.  So here is a recap of the fun stuff...
June means a Birthday for Sugar Bug and as usual she wanted to spend it at the river.

This year we did go to a new location.  Sugar bug wanted a bridge to jump off of.  As seen above. 
We had a blast and just as we all were about ready to leave it started to storm which cooled it off perfectly for hotdogs and cake at home.  We were all excited to have Grammy be able to visit us twice this summer.  The first time being for Sugar bug's birthday.

We managed to get this family picture while out showing Grammy the Ozarks.

Then in July my sister and baby niece got to visit.  We had fun showing off the area and playing.

 Which means a trip to Dawt mill for ice cream and to play in the water a little...

In July we put on out own fireworks show and had a blast.  But I was so busy enjoying it all I didn't get any good pictures. We managed to go on several float trips too.  As August is here we are in the mist of planning school for the next year and will be starting to harvest and put up stuff from the garden.  Despite my failures I haven't given up on canning yet.  I'll try to get an update on all the garden goods soon..  Hope you all had a good summer!

10 Years Old!

Sugar Bug, 10 years went by way too fast!  I still see you as my little 3 year old quite often and have to remind myself you are growing up!  At her request we went to her favorite spot to have a birthday party. 

Blue springs..

 
This was taken about a month before our party.  In the summer it's hard to get a picture with out people in it as it is a popular site.  The water is so clear and cold!

     It was a beautiful day for a picnic. Super D spiked his hair for the occasion.

         Sugar Bug wanted a dirt cake complete with pigs and worms.
We had blast swimming in the springs and challenging each other to jump in. 
We got a pretty good group jump here. 

       Except the guy in the white hat on the rocks everyone else was with us.  From the left we have Super D, Sweet Ma (me), Sassafras, Mr. R, Aunt M, and Uncle W.  

   Super D of course found a snake to play with.  This is a water snake they are pretty common here.

  Happy Birthday Sugar Bug! (a little late)

1 Year!

It's a little hard to believe but we have been here 1 year.  It feels like we still just got here!  As I look back at the last year I do so with good memories.  I don't think we are as established as we wanted to be a year after getting here but we are well on our way.  We have had some discouragements like our well taking so long to get, the cost of some things being more than we expected and being low on funds at times, and weather not cooperating with our plans to get things done.  But on the whole we have been very blessed also!  Super D has work that he enjoys with flexibility, we did get our well in, we have friends and family supporting us, and we have been well fed and cared for.  As a family we are less stressed, more relaxed and happier. We certainly have less as the world may measure but that just means we have less to worry about. 
We still have along way to go but that is half the fun :)  We are still dreaming and making plans.
As I sit here writing this I am listening to the chickens crow outside which means we will have eggs and meat soon, the rain is on it's way which bodes well for a good garden this year, and my fire is stocked so we are warm.  I really could not ask for more.  Well, OK I admit I still want running, hot water but I can be patient as I know it will come.  

So again I am looking forward to spring as it brings the promise of hope for good to come!  Hope for a good garden, hope for a fun summer, hope for running water, and hope for unexpected blessings that amaze me continually.

We had a blessed Easter and I hope you did too.  Here are some highlights from our weekend. 

Sugar Bug dying eggs with the cousins.  They dyed 3 doz eggs and wanted more. The little one ended up with blue hands but they had fun!

  Cousin S here is Sugar Bugs little shadow.   The Go-Kart is the newest addition to our fun toys.  They have had a blast driving it around.  We were blessed with a beautiful Easter day in the 70's so we could picnic outside!

 This was the cousin's first Easter egg hunt.  They caught on quick and had a blast! 

The men have to gather around a car to chat right.  In this case the go kart to talk cars and of course how to make the go kart go faster! LOL.

And of course there is the test of strength.  :)  We had a great Easter with family and friends. Sassafras helped me out and made a wonderful Peach Cherry pie for dessert.

Looking forward to more fun times this summer!  Lot's of projects on the to do list.  :) 

Family Time = Fun, Fun, Fun

          Family is important to us.  Sadly not all of our family is close by but we do have a good chunk here.  We tend to get together as often as we all can.  Give us any reason to have a party and we will. :)  We had a blast this weekend hanging out with family and friends.  We made it to a church meeting that was by a beautiful lake and got a great family picture.

 

Then home to let the Party begin.

A party at our place means a big fire will be involved.  Above you have the Aunt and Uncle and kiddos.

 

Mother and kids hanging out. Some how I caught both Grandma S and Aunt S with thier eyes closed.

Of course we have to have target practice.  You'll notice kids in the background playing ball. 

We had a blast with shooting of all guns and bows, games of kickball, volleyball, and tag.  Everyone had a great time and we will miss being able to do these much more as the weather really starts to cool off. 

Our next big party is yet to come though, Sassafras has a birthday next week so we will have at least one more big brawl.  :)