Just a little preview of my Senior

Last weekend, we traveled to Ga to get Griffin's senior pictures made. A really good friend of ours took his picture. I can't wait to see all of them! I was able to see a few of them and they were amazing!

  I will let you see a few of the behind the scene photos taken by ......the ...not .....so .....talented.....photographer(yours truly)!

Rodeo

Last weekend, Carmel took the girls on a daddy daughters date to the rodeo. Each daughter was supposed to have her own special date. Since both of them wanted to go to the rodeo, we opted( mainly cost reasons) for them to go together. He promised separate dates next time. Ella loves animals but both of them have become very interested in horses. They were so excited about going to the rodeo especially when they heard John Luke Robertson was going to be there! Laney loves anything Duck Dynasty but her favorite is definitely Sadie. Sadie came here for a speaking engagement not to long ago but we were not able to go.

Much to their surprise, Sadie came with John Luke to the rodeo. 

I wish I could have seen Laney's face when Sadie walked  past where they were sitting.

I think it's funny  the people in the picture below do not even turn their heads as she walks by.  I guess they came more for the rodeo.

I am sure both of the girls were excited to see her that close to them. I know they were at their peak of excitement when they were just a few feet away from her while watching John Luke ride the mechanical bull. 

How do I know about this excitement? 

I was able to see all 20 pictures and videos that Laney captured!

She told me how they were going to get a picture together but ran out of time. Sadie and John Luke both had an event later that evening. 

Carmel being the wonderful husband that he is took pictures(without being asked) for me. I think he probably knew the wrath he would have to endure later on for coming home empty handed! Don't ask me how he knows this! 

Remember... 

this is the same man that likes to take 50 million pictures of cars....graves.....historical sights and only one(if I'm lucky) of our children!

Much to my amazement, he took several of their day! Maybe after many years of marriage......I have him trained by now( wink..smile...wink)!

 Here are just a few from the afternoon.

 As you can see, they all came home with a souvenir........a cowboy hat.

I love the fact that my girls have a daddy that will take them out on dates!

Recipes from around the world

We are almost finished with our study on countries and cultures. We have enjoyed traveling the world while in the comforts of home. Since I last posted, we have traveled to Europe, Africa and Asia. For those of you that have kept up with this blog, know that we conclude each continent with a special dinner. Here are the last 3 crammed into 1 post.

Africa

We made Pilau which is a rice and meat mixture. Maybe it was the recipe I chose but the picture looked a lot better than the taste. The women thought it was okay but the men in the family did not care for it AT ALL! 

We also made Irio. We all liked this dish. It was basically potatoes, peas, corn and a few other ingredients all mashed together. 

Europe

When you study many different places, sometimes it is hard to decide which recipes to choose. This was the case with Europe. Since I have a grandmother who is German and a father who loves German food, we decided to prepare a German meal.

We made kraut and many different types of wurst. Unfortunately, my moms crock pot gets very hot very quickly. The food in the first picture cooked a little to long. 

The Garlic Schnitzel was definitely a favorite to prepare and eat! You can find the recipe here.

We also had German pancakes.

For dessert, we opted for something from France. 

We made French Beignet for dessert. How many of you have ever been to New Orleans and had the Beignets  from Cafe Du Monde? They are soooo delicious!!!!! I tried to make them once before but they turned out nothing like the real thing. I came across this recipe and decided to try them again. These were absolutely delicious! Almost like sitting in the cafe.......except missing the frozen coffee! It was hard to control myself  from  popping one in my mouth when they were warm and recently dunked in powder sugar!

Asia

Our most recent stop was Asia. We knew this would be a favorite because we all like Asian food. Since we were talking about nutrition in science, the girls tried to incorporate every food group into this meal. During this chapter, one of the projects was creating a menu. They made menus for our special Asian dinner.

The menu consisted of egg drop soup, sesame chicken with fried rice and egg rolls.

I was very surprised about the egg drop soup recipe. It was delicious and very easy to make!

Here is the egg drop soup recipe I used.

We had a couple of hungry boys join us at the last minute. Thankfully, we made plenty!

We will finish our tour with Australia and Antarctica this week.

Awaiting the arrival of........

Baby Easton!

My sister will be having a baby very soon and I am so excited!! It has been over 4 years since we have had a little one in the family. I am so ready to hold him!! 

We traveled a few weeks ago to help get his room ready. Since my granny is half way, we made time for a quick visit.

Once we arrived at my sisters, it was go time! We only had 2 days to work on the room so we were on a strict  schedule! 

The room had already been painted by my brother in law. He did a fantastic job....I might add! We were there to help add the touches. My brother in law is a huge Cardinals fan so that theme was a given! We did not have to make much because he already had several pieces. Here is the almost finished room.

 I was put on the ...name...over...bed...project. This was the idea we came up with. I thought the finished product came out looking great!

I just love this fan! It adds such a great touch to this baseball themed room.

 

 My mom is making a valance and Cardinal bedding has been added since we were there. Besides a few other touches, his room is complete. 

He is going to be one cool kid in a cool baseball themed room. 

While we were there, we did manage to take a break and walk to the park. Trying to keep 3 kids indoors all day is torture!

We enjoyed our visit even though we did not get to relax much!

The Montgomery Zoo

After discussing several animals from different countries, we took a trip to our local zoo. Now I have been to this zoo many times but it has been a while. When I was teaching, we would take our first graders here each year. When Laney was little and we lived in Al, I used to take her all the time. The zoo was not very big but interesting. 

They have added quite a bit since the last time we were there! A few of our favorite new things were definitely the........

 Parakeets

You can walk into this cage and these pretty little birds are everywhere! The zoo has vending machines inside the cage. You can purchase a stick with bird seed attached to it. The birds flock to these vending machines once they realize a purchase is about to be  made. You barely have the stick pulled out before they fly to your arm. I had a few fighting on my arm over the seeds.

Sky Lift

The girls loved this! I was very impressed with the amount of time spent on this ride. It takes you all the way across the zoo and back. I was enjoying myself until I realized we were right over the open cage that held the cheetahs. I kept replaying in my mind.......what would I do if we fell? Other than that quick moment of fear, I loved it!

These are not new but had a new member of the family. It's hard to see in the picture but this momma has a  tiny little baby attached to her. I can't remember what they are called but are related to the chimpanzees. We stayed close to this exhibit for a while. The baby was so cute to watch!

Here are a few other pictures from our day.

Locks of Love

About a year and a half ago, my daughter mentions how she wants to grow her hair out and donate it. I was proud of her for wanting to do it, but assumed it was just a thought at the time. When she started mentioning it on a regular basis, I knew she was serious about donating. I figured I better do my part and get the information needed for donating.  I found out the donation length had to be 10 in. At that point, she would not have to wait much longer if she wanted a cute bob afterwards. She was adamant about wanting her hair coming to her shoulders after the cut. After a year of measuring, massive knots, many ponytail days, tears, brushes getting stuck, she finally arrived to the desired length!

Since I needed to get my hair done.........

I scheduled Ella's at the same time.

This is the before pictures. I don't think her hair has ever been this long.

I like to go get my hair done by myself. It's my quiet relaxing me time and it only happens once every 3 months! I don't even like for my hairdresser to be chatty. She just needs to fondle, message, scrub and fix my hair and I AM ONE HAPPY LADY! Sometimes it doesn't work out that way and my girls have to go with me. They like to go, especially Ella. She likes to watch, touch, talk and follow me everywhere( hence... why I like to go by myself....this mom doesn't relax with all that going on!). 

Ella was so excited to have her hair cut, wash and styled! However, I did capture a moment of question. You can see the look of ......

I am not sure I want to do this!

Would if it is too short?

Even though I hate brushing it....I kinda like it long!

After the lady cut it, Ella said, "It's uneven!"

She had to explain that she was not finished. She would wash her hair, finish cutting it and then style it.

This was definitely her favorite part! 

Now.......  when I am in the washing phase, I don't talk and enjoy the messaging moment....usually with my eyes closed(I may or may not doze off sometimes???).

This is where my daughter and I differ. She talked nonstop while in THE chair!

We are definitely going to have to talk about how to get the most out of  THE chair!

The final results......

She loves her hair!

We lover her hair and kind heart!

If you haven't already and are interested in donating, here is the website with all of the information.....

Locks of Love