Last night Isaac was sitting next to me visiting while at the same time holding his little bag of golden coins. Recently Michael has taken to getting his cash in these dollar coins instead of paper money, and Isaac is fascinated with them. Last night Isaac traded in all of his paper money for a stack of golden coins.

As we were visiting, I told Isaac that he reminded me of Silas Marner. Of course, Isaac had no idea what I was talking about, so I told him the story briefly, while trying not to give away the end. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday morning I made my usual trek to Kelly’s Bakery for coffee and a cinnamon roll. The trip was extra special because my sister-in-law Mary and our girls, Laura and Hannah, joined the breakfast party.

While we were there, we saw a notice that Kelly’s would be hosting a gingerbread-house-building party that very evening! It only cost $7 per house, which seemed very reasonable to me! If I were to try to make gingerbread houses myself, I would have to mix up the cookie dough, cut out the right shapes, make the icing, buy many different bags of candy, and then create all the mess of assembling the houses and THEN actually think about cleaning up after the project was over. Whew! The very thought makes me quake in my culinary boots.

After getting part-way through our day, I realized it would probably work out to take the children, so I called and made reservations for our party of five: Laura, Isaac, Luke, Amelia, and Hannah.

What fun we had! Kelly had thought of everything! The gingerbread was sturdy, there was plenty of icing, there was a dish of mixed candy for each creator, a cup of graham cereal “roof tiles”, and even a little dish of coconut for the “snow”.

We spent two hours there and the children worked so diligently on their houses. I loved watching them build and create and interact.

Our adventure was worth every penny. Actually, it was worth twice the price. Now that I’ve made gingerbread houses at Kelly’s, I know without a doubt I’ll never make them in my own house.

P.S. Would you like to see a photo album of our adventure? Check out my gallery!

My mother invited all of her in-town children and grandchildren to come over to her house for a “camp-out” this Memorial Day weekend. So we took sleeping bags and a change of clothes and headed over for the fun. There were a few small tents, but the rest of us just slept under the open sky on the deck. We decided that it’s a great way to camp, with private bathrooms inside and not much packing and preparation necessary. It was unseasonably warm this weekend, and we spent a lot of time inside in the air conditioning. But the weather cooled down nicely so we could enjoy roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire, and we enjoyed sleeping outside. Read the rest of this entry »

So, what do you do when you’re stuck inside on a rainy day? No doubt you have lots of ideas, and I’d love to hear them! Here is what we’re doing today: Read the rest of this entry »

It’s actually happening! I can’t believe it.

I would like to say a big thank you to my dear hubby for making my blog actually appear somewhere in cyberspace.

Now I’m officially in the new millennium with an online journal.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Much love,
Christie