From last Tuesday, Animal Kingdom's Camp Minnie Mickey. I hope Mickey won't need counseling after this.
**I'm trying to return to the blog world...slowly. I was trying to compose a post about the December life events, but decided I'm not ready to go there just yet. Facebook has also been quite the time sucker, which any of you that also have Facebook accounts can attest to. Thanks to everyone for your care and concern...**
Last Thursday, I wanted Molly to see a sunset. So we ate dinner and got in the car for the 15 minute trip to the big lake. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to see the sun at that point, so we didn't see what we came for. But we had fun talking about the lake and waving goodnight to grandma and grandpa to the south. Molly was, however, QUITE upset that the swings were no longer up. I tried to explain that, once the snow fences go up, the swings come down. No dice. 
Saturday, we went to "help" make apple butter at a friend's family farm. We did more watching than helping, but you know how it is when you don't want to be in the way? It was pretty cool, and we got some product for our presence.
Incidentally, making apple butter takes a long time. You have to boil cider down for several hours, then cook the apples separately (basically making applesauce in mass quantities), stirring constantly. The apples cooked for basically 6 hours before the cider was added back in, a bit at a time.
There was fun to be had in the corn crib while waiting. The girls were making "corn soup".
I got lucky and caught Scooter just waking up...she didn't fight it too much. But as you can see, she's clearly thinking, "I am SO going to poop stain this chick's side of the bed tonight."
We had pretty good seats, if I do say so myself. And yes, I know I'm old. Believe me, I was reminded by the number of legitimate geriatrics at the concert. We're talking people that served in the Korean War.
And for the daily dose of cuteness, I give you this:
Completely and totally accidental. And priceless, if I say so myself.
Not a very good picture, but this is the shrinky dink luggage tag I made for my kiddo's backpack. The picture is a stamp that I colored in with permanent markers, and the template was printed off the shrinky dink website. Not bad, considering it was my first foray into these things!
As some of you know, I am unable to actually be wordless. This is my daughter at about 21 months of age with my oldest brother (19 years older than me, to be precise). He's reading If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, which was her favorite book at the time. Even now when she sees him, which she hasn't much lately since he's been working in Minnesota for the past 4 months (he's in construction, and there aren't many jobs around here right now), she brings him book after book to read. It's adorable, and quite hilarious. He completely adores her (I like to think it's because she reminds him so much of his adorable little sister, for whom he built this box house). This is one of my mom's favorite pictures. You may be able to see why.
The spools around the edge are for hanging hair elastics, necklaces, bracelets, or whatever might need to hang. The ribbons in the middle are, well, for barrettes and clips. When she gets older, she can use the ribbons for earrings. I got a little ahead of myself and, instead of buying pink acrylic paint (pre-mixed), I bought a set of acrylics with the idea of mixing whatever color I might need. Um, yeah. The art major husband really didn't help me out much with the color mixing, so it wasn't exactly the shade of pink I had in mind. Oh well. And as for her name, it's not centered (I did try to pencil it in beforehand, but just sort of said Screw it) and in a fit of extreme stupidity, tried to freehand with a paintbrush. That was so many kinds of stupid, I can't even express it adequately. If I ever attempt another one of these, I will definitely be using a paint pen for the name.
What do you think? Should I try another prototype and try selling these babies on Etsy? Be honest!
This was taken at one of the cooler tourist traps in Wisconsin Dells - Storybook Gardens. These nursery rhyme scenes were all over, with animals thrown in for good measure (zebras, monkeys, giraffes, etc.). I loved the retro-ness of the scenes; they reminded me of a very similar, but smaller awesome place I used to go as a kid. Mein Gott in Himmel, I need a haircut, STAT. And can you see how those gigondous birthing hips squeezed out a 9 lb. 6 oz. kid in 30 minutes?
Why can't I ever actually be wordless? This is my old house. It was our first home, purchased a little over 7 years ago. My child was brought here from the hospital...she took her first steps in it...obviously the place still holds sentimental value. It has been for sale for 10 months and the price has been dropped $37,000 since it first went on the market. WHY isn't anyone interested?!?!?
