Boone in a Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a day out of our vacation to make a quick trip to Boone.  I had watched the weather and aimed for a day when there would be snow.  We stopped by Dan'l Boone Inn for lunch and then over to the Mast General store.  We went and found some snowy areas on the Parkway so the kids could sled a little while.  The high temperature for the day was 27 degrees and Brandon's truck has no heat!  Hahaha!  What were we thinking?  We had the heat off the engine, but there was no warm blowing air to thaw us out when we got back in.  We all had snow bibs and blankets so all was good.  We played till we were all exhausted and we made it back home before 9pm. 

Christmas Time!

 

Ready for Christmas

 

This is what Santa did for us.  I bet he was up till 2am doing this!

Silly girls on Christmas morning

Papa John with the girls and Brandon's cousin little boy

Me and my little Zombie girl

 

Birthday Party! WOO HOO!

 We had Emily's birthday party today.  We had a great time with our friends that were able to come out to the skating rink.  Here are a few pictures from Wayne's World.  We went over to Pizza Hut afterwards and had pizza and cupcakes.  Emily's friend Sam came home with her and we had a weinie roast and made smores. 

Last week I went on a soap making spree in preparation for Christmas.  I am trying to make gift baskets for several people and I needed to get the soap made so it would have time to cure and dry out before gift giving time.  I thought the cops were going to be called last weekend when I purchased every bit of lye on Tractor Supply's shelf!  Here are a few of the results.

This is what I call the Christmas soap, it is peppermint scented and colored with powder algae and red jojoba beads.

Bergamot!  I colored the orange with paprika that I soaked in olive oil and the strained through a coffee filter.  My intentions were to swirl this orange up and down into the white, but after I already had the log wrapped and covered up I realized I had forgot to swirl the colors, so I just left it the way it was.  Kind of disappointed with myself, but the soap is still going to be fabulous to use.
 

 I also did a run of spiced mahogany scented, pumice soap.  I colored it with turmeric and put it in a silicone mold that was shaped like leaves and pumpkins.  Brandon needed an abrasive soap for getting grease off his hands and I wanted to experiment with this mold.  The color came out perfect! It has the look of pumpkin pie.  I don't have a picture of these yet. Now I need to think about what creative ways I can package the soaps.  I went to Mitchael's and Hobby Lobby to try to get some ideas and basic items to start with.  We will see how that turns out.


Here are some other things we have been up to:

Emily with her science fair project.  It is not due until November 19, but we didn't want to be burdened with it over her birthday week, so we set a goal to have it done by Friday of this week, and ta-da, here we have it!

Never I thought I would Allow this in My House!!

We have had a very productive weekend!  All 3 of us girls had our hair cut Thursday evening and then we got ready for the 3 day weekend!  I cleaned up most of the aftermath from the Halloween party on Friday and started doing my 8 hours of continuing education so I can keep my mortgage origination license.  I opted for a self-paced online course this year so I can get it in whenever I have a few extra minutes here and there.  I also rescued my 3 beautiful pineapple plants from the raised beds and relocated them to the basement for the winter.  I have 1 that is almost 2 years old and I would hate to kill it!  I may try to "force" it to bloom, but I think that may be impossible in this climate, but I may research it more and find out.  I have read somewhere about putting a bag over it with a rotting apple and the fumes it gives off with trick it into blooming.  We will see..

Brandon and I got over to the Community college and did our early voting so we don't have to wait in line on Tuesday.  The kids went with us and watched the whole process.  Abigail gave us a blow by blow comparison of the presidential candidates at supper the night before.  I guess this is what happens when one of her best friends is a kid out of a very politically involved family.  A family where the kids have to watch the debates and any presidential speech and then have a quiz on it!   I was surprized at what all Abigail knew about them, but we had to straighten her out about some things!
We also made some progress with Emily's science project.  We had the experiment part done on October 28, but we had to do all the materials, hypothesis, procedure, conclusions, results, and all the graphs to go along with it.  We got these written, got pictures printed, and now we need to get everything organized and fixed onto the board.  We are trying to get this out of the way so it doesn't interfere with our birthday party next weekend and her birthday week won't be spent trying to hurry and get it finished.  It is due November 19, but I hope it is ready to turn in by this Friday.  I hate procrastination and it will not happen on my watch!

I organized my supplies for soapmaking and made a 6 pound batch of peppermint "Christmas" soap.  I also tried to mold some candycane special molds, but I think it may have to be rebatched.  We will see how the 6 pound batch turned out tomorrow morning after it cools for a while.  As many pictures that I take of other things, I can't believe that I have never took pictures of the homemade soap stuff.  I guess it is just because during the process it is nerve racking to just get done what you need to do, let alone document it with pictures!  Here again is something dangerous that I am allowing in my house!


My soap making station.  Hope no one was looking in the basement window-it looks like a drug lab!

Here is my "Christmas" soap.  It should have a green bottom layer and you can actually see some of the green that I swirled up into the top layer at the far end of mold. 

Saturday night we had some friends over for dinner.  I like it when one friend calls to come over and I can call another friend to take care of the menu and I just supply the meeting place!  Hahha!  Thanks Kelly for supper and thanks Debbie for thinking about us while you were in town!  

Emily's birthday is coming up and we went to Old Navy and bought her a few new shirts. The poor child has only a few shirts that she like to wear and she wears them over and over. Honestly, I am tired of seeing her in the same stuff all the time. We went through her closet Saturday morning and took out EVERYTHING that she had either outgrew or just didn't like to wear. It left a few things by the time we were done. So we set off shopping. She got several new shirts to change up her wardrobe. Then today we took her to Tractor Supply to pick out her birthday present. She said she wanted cowboy boots, but she actually ended up picking out a pair of Justin boots that are pretty wild! Of course Abigail wanted new boots too! She didn't complain when we were clothes shopping, but when it came to Tractor Supply boots she was mad! They don't have kids sizes thank goodness, but I pacified her with a junior compound bow. She is like the new Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games!

Can't believe I am allowing this in my house!

You would think it was her birthday!

Emily sporting her new boots and her new PJs!!!



Girls are ready for Pajama Day at school tomorrow!

Halloween 2012

We decided to have a weinie roast and stay in this Halloween. We invited people to come over to celebrate with us and several families were actually able to make it. Here are a few pictures of the kids and festivities.

 

One of the lanterns we made with plastic bucket and voltive candle.

 

 

This is what our house looked like from the road.  We didn't have any trick or treaters.  I think they thought, Well it's just a party.  I had a sign out at the road saying Trick or Treat here, but after dark that was pretty useless.

 

Katie as a lion.

 

 

It;s not too often when you can say "I have a dragon in a wagon!"  Sounds like the beginning of a kids' book.

 

 

Abigail as a ragdoll, but we took it one step further...

 

Emily as Werewolf Girl

My cupcake "creation"

Our little actress...

Burger Boy

 

The Wallace Youngins

One of our homemade lanterns

 

Curtis Mountain 2012

Here is a few pictures from this past weekend.  We love going to this place.  Brandon and I have been going since around 1997 and we always love it when others can join us.  This is the 3rd year in a row that we have taken the Austin family with us.  They seem to enjoy it as much as we do since they agree to keep coming back with us! 

We are thankful to have Rick and Janet be so generous with their property up there!  

Austin/Burnette Crew for the 3rd year in a row at same photo location!

Emily and Sam waiting to ride



Abigail looks bored out of her mind, but I promise she had a good time!

 

 

Burnette Crew

 

 

 

Me and Abigail at an "abandoned" cabin we found. We stopped in to enjoy their view

 

Emily's 1st Softball Tournament

After 12 1/2 hours at the ballfield she is smiling with Runner Up bragging rights!

 

Abigail and Michael passing time at the ballfield

BAHAMA MAMA!!!!!

Usually with my postings I write alot, but there were so many things that I could talk about with this trip I decided to just include a bunch of pictures with captions.  We will save the "good" stories for telling in person!  Like me losing the bottom of my shoe in the formal dining room, or Kisha accidentally flashing our cabin steward, or the experience we had with a woman in Ron Jon's Surf shop.  Of course some pictures can't be put on the blog, because "What happens on the ship, stays on the ship!!!"  Hahhahhaa!  We were a pretty tame bunch, but we did have a fun time! 

We are finally onboard and waiting to leave Port Canaveral.

Looking down at cargo that still needed to be loaded before we set sail.



Boy, would my kids love to be with us!  Notice on left side slide goes out over ocean!  Ahhhh!

Home sweet little home.  Note fake window hole!

Brandon standing outside our cabin door

I am so happy I can't keep my eyes open!

Waiting for comedy show to start.

Seal Towel Creation

Brandon up top of our ship. It had nice padded jogging track and mini golf.

A look out at some Nassau beaches

Pier leading into Nassau downtown area.  This deck onboard that you see is at the back of the ship and is called Serenity.  Padded deck chairs and no kids allowed!

Me onboard our ship which is docked right next to the Disney Dream.  Makes all of us on our ship jealous.  Look at their waterslide.  It has clear tubes and rafts you ride in around their top deck!

View coming into Nassau.

I am just infatuated with this lighthouse. How pretty!

Brandon thought this was photo worthy... pretty cool and unexpected.

Kisha and Tommy waiting on there freshly made conch salad.

Tommy kept trying to get our picture, but trucks kept driving behind us, but this one shows true colors.  Brandon is a happy little fellow isn't he!

Brandon holding down the fort on Cabbage beach.  Kisha got a massage and we had to change into bathing suits in the bushes! I can actually say I have been on the beach naked now!  Hilarious!

Crystal blue waters

Brandon and me at Cabbage Beach

Kisha and me in neck deep and only a few feet in from shore.  It's ankle deep one minute and looks like this a step later.



A beautiful drape of flowers and vines over some windows outside a downtown Nassau shop

Downtown Nassau shop area.  They had rolled up the streets by this time of the day and very few places were open.

Friday Night Dinner

Tommy being silly



If Tommy is gonna be silly so can she.  I have a similar picture of her from about 12 years ago, but instead of a napkin in a formal restaurant it was an Amish bonnet hanging out the side of a minivan!

Tommy and his beautiful wife.  I absolutely love this picture of Kisha!

Swan Towel Creation



Stingray Towel Creation

Abandoned boat out in the middle of nowhere...Hmmmm...

Saturday night Dinner

Sunset in the Bahamas

Atlantis Resort-Famous for a huge waterpark and luxurious accommodations