Please Touch Museum

This past Summer I decided to cut my full time hours to part time (4 days a week) for the months of June, July, and August in order to spend more time with my family doing the things in life that matter. Because of that I was lucky enough to be able to go with Stephanie on a couple of the field trips that she attended with her Summer Camp. One of the places we went was the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. We had been there before when Steph was about 3 years old but that was before they moved to a nice new (and MUCH BIGGER) location, so this was a first for both of us. We had a great time playing together and can't wait to go back with Jennifer.

Just a few shots of our day....

You guessed it.....

Even more layouts.

:)

More layouts.....

Say what???

Jennifer came up to me yesterday and told me this:

"Johnny place cup 8 picked apples and made applesauce. Can we make our own applesauce too?"

I said..."Who?"

She said "Johnny place cup 8."

I was stumped. I had no idea what she was saying. I asked her to say it again.

She said it reallllllllly slow this time.

"Johnny. Place. Cup. 8. Mommy".

That's when I figured it out.

She was saying Jon and Kate plus 8.

Oh the money I would give to be inside of Jen's little world for just for 15 or 20 minutes......

Fruit salad

Jen's been a bit obsessed with fruit salad lately.

She doesn't watch the Wiggles so I have no idea where it came from.

She's asked me dozens of times over the last few weeks if we can make fruit salad (usually when we have no fruit in the house).

I was just putting her to bed and doing our nightly ritual of rocking her for a few minutes when she whispers in my ear:

"Mommy. We have apples and bananas in the kitchen. Can we make fruit salad for dinner tomorrow night with only fruit....not with salad or anything GROSS like that?"

:)

She makes me smile.

Layouts

I realize that I haven't posted any new layouts since.....*GASP*.....January!!!!

Dang I'm slippin'.

Prepare yourself. I'm gonna have to do a few catch up posts with nearly a full year of layouts. At least my subject matter's are cute. Of course, all of these layouts appeared in different issues of Scrapbook News and Review Magazine throughout the year, but you already knew that, didn't you?

:)

Enjoy.

Crystal Cave

In August we took a day trip to Crystal Cave in Kutztown, PA where you can take a walking tour of the beautiful caves and see all the stalagmites and stalactites that have been forming there for millions of years. It was an extremely hot summer day but since the cave stays a cool 54 degrees all year round lightweight jackets were worn while we were on the 45 minute tour. Afterwards we enjoyed some hand-dipped ice cream (yum), played a round of mini golf, and went on a little hike around the grounds before we headed home.

Of course...what's a post without the pics???










Amazed at how tall the trees were.....

Robin Hill

I'm still sooooo behind on posting summer pics. I have a bunch from July and August that I want to get posted soon, so I guess I better get crackin!

Here goes....

We went on another camping trip in July of this year to a campsite in PA named Robin Hill. This one was extra special because Grannie (aka my mom) flew out from Las Vegas and went with us.

Sounds like such a simple statement, doesn't it?

"Grannie went camping with us."

Well....before I go any further I wish to mention a few key facts that members outside of my immediate family may not know. Key facts that are imperative to understanding why this is a seriously BIG deal and why I expect that "Grannie going camping with us" was a once-in-a-lifetime occurance never to be seen again:

1.) When I was a kid camping was what we DID. We camped and rode motorcycles and then camped some more. And JUST when we thought we would go on some exotic vacation in the tropics or something....we wouldn't. We would just go camping.

2.) She SAYS she went once or twice with us but I swear it never happened. If it did she barricaded herself in a vehicle or a tent somewhere with curlers in her hair wishing SOMEONE would hurry up and invent a cordless curling iron already!!!!! I don't remember it. And if I don't remember it, well....it never happened.

3.) Grannie doesn't DO camping.

4.) Grannie had her very first smore EVER on this camping trip with us, which I say is FURTHER evidence that she never went camping before. I mean seriously....why would you even go to all the trouble of camping if you weren't at least gonna eat a smore????

OK...so now that we've established that we forced Grannie to suffer through a terrible 3 days of camping remember that we have a nice cushy camper with all the comforts of home and that she had a really good time. Or at least she said she did. She even did all sorts of camping related things like fishing, riding bikes, and sitting by the fire.

Here are a whole bunch of pics to enjoy!!!

The girls did some rolling in the grass (and so did Ron and Grannie....I passed.)











Steph and Jen both caught their very first fish on this trip!!!





We told Jen that she could start a fire by rubbing two sticks together. She tried and tried. No luck.






Thanks for looking!