Back at Camp

We had a great weekend camping and everything went fairly smooth. It was Princess #3's first time camping (not that she remember it in the least) and the girls first trip this season. Everyone had a blast! We camped with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law. We went to the Adirondack State park.  We are fortunate to live so close to such a beautiful area.

I did not grow up camping, but Prince Charming did and his family likes to hike/canoe with everything in a pack, tent for the weekend and hike/canoe back out. Now, least you think I am very woodsy, let me assure you that the type of camping we are doing now is not primative camping in any sense. We can pull our pop-up camper in the site, set-up our camp stove, lanterns, walk down to the potty and get water (usually within 5 sites of ours, this time it was right night door). Usually the bathhouses are a little further away but you can still get a hot shower everyday. The only thing we do not have is electricity. This type of camping is just my speed, sitting in front of a campfire with a good book or cooking over the campstove when everyone comes in from the lake. Ok, so maybe there is a little bit of woodman somewhere in there. But truely I love it and the girls love it...


Here is a peek from the weekend:

Our first camping trip of 2008

Our pop-up camper

Princess #3's make-shift crib, a bed surrounded by suitcases and pillows. When she gets a bit bigger we have side rails that we can put on the bed Our king size bedPrincess #1 and Princess #2 share the other end with a full size bed
Our campsitesWhat the area looked like most mornings
Uncle Pastor in the hammock with the girls
Aunt Pharmacist with the girls

Grandma and the girls

Princess #2 Princess #1
Princess #3
Me and Princess #3 hanging out at camp

Capt. Grandpa's Fishing Tours

As you know we went camping this weekend. My dad brought his boat and took the girls out fishing and Prince Charming out fishing. I am not a fisher so I stayed at camp and took care of Princess #3. The girls had a blast catching fish with grandpa and grandma. Their favorite part was netting the fish. They caught 8 rock bass keepers! We fried them up for dinner one night. Prince Charming was able to fish 3 mornings with dad and caught 8 or 9? walleye. The weekend turned out great and everyone had a lot of fun!

Maybe we should rename it Capt. Princess's Fishing Tours

Princess #1's fish

Princess #2's fish

They still won't touch the fish, but they are as proud as peach to catch em

FISH ON!!

GET THE NET!!

Prince Charming's fish of the day....

Prince Charming did a little better in the mornings without the girls!

Wordless not so Wednesday

Friday's Daybook

FOR TODAY, August 22nd
Outside My Window... is the camper ready for this weekend
What it is I am thinking of.... how much I still need to pack
I am thankful.... that I get to go away this weekend
From the kitchen... is coolers and rubbermaid ready to go in the camper
I am wearing ...brown shorts and a white tee-shirt
I am creating... I just finished stitching together 6 photos to create a flat 180 view of my in-laws backyard.
I am going to... Adirondack's State Park
I am reading... Watchers, Talkers and Doers
I am hoping... Princess #3 sleeps through the night while we are camping
I am hearing ...the hum of the computers
Around the house... suitcases, cooler, rubbermaid, laundry....etc.
A few plans for the rest of the week: camping
One of my favorite things... actually I have 4 favorite things... which leads me to the next question...

A Picture I thought of Sharing: My favorite things

The house that Prince Charming built (or helped build)

As many of you know the last 3 years of our life have been a bit hectic because Prince Charming's parents built their dream home. My father-in-law and Prince Charming did the majority of the work themselves. It was a long and at times frustrating job but Prince Charming loved the work and knowledge he gained. I think Prince Charming is a little bored now with all these measly little jobs I have for him at home.

We spent this last weekend at PopPop and MomMom's, here is some pictures from Meadow Winds....

The barn was the first structure on the property, it was built by PopPop, Prince Charming, and PopPop's brother in 1996

The lean-to was the next structure on the property, built by PopPop and Prince Charming in 2003. It has served many purposes through out the years, it was where we all ate while the guys built the foundation and framed the house, then it was Meadow Winds Campground when we parked our pop-up next to it during last summer. Now it serves us well for family picnics and bonfires.

Finally in 2004 Prince Charming and PopPop dug the foundation for the house and then the house was framed in 2005 and PopPop and MomMom moved in just before Christmas of 2007 The view of the backside of the house from the pond, looking towards the road.

A 180 degree picture laid flat of the view from the back deck of the house

The Marine and His Military Wife- the bell is mounted!

The girls love to go hiking on MomMom and PopPops 42 acres of land

Or walks down to the pond with MomMom

They also love to drive the backhoe with daddy

PopPop and Prince Charming's latest project is moving boulders...

Tradition Continued

In our area there is a great program in our city's park in which they provide a free musical in an outdoor theatre every summer. It runs for about 8 weeks and it is free to the public. It was on of the first dates Prince Charming and I went on when we were dating, we have made it a tradition to go every year since, with the exception of a few years

1997: Guys and Dolls

1998: Camelot

1999: Gypsy

2000: The Music Man

2001: Oklahoma

2002: George M! (we did not see this one)

2003: My Fair Lady

2004: Fiddler on the Roof

2005: South Pacific

2006: Beauty and the Beast (missed this one too)

2007: Grease (saw the first few scenes but we had the girls and it was a bit much for them)

2008: West Side Story

Last week we went for our 9th show... it was great! But I do have to admit that wasn't my in my top five favorites of shows. I am waiting for the day they do the King & I... I so want to see that on stage!

Prince Charming & I at the park

The last few years my brother and sister-in-law have joined us

Sister-in-law's sister and mother joined us this year

The stage and show (much better in real life)

Wordless Wednesday

Yummy

This week I started giving Princess #3 some cereal. Her very first time was Tuesday and her godmother was able to give it a try. Of course it went everywhere including me and we waited a little too long so she was really hungry and didn't really want anything to do with it. She still is pretty impatient and I can only get about 5-10 spoonfuls in before she has had enough. Yet it is enough to help keep her satisfied for a good night's sleep.

Fun with Godmommy

Goddaddy
I don't know about this stuff... it doesn't taste like mommy's milk
I think Aunt C wants to put more of that stuff in my mouth, but I don't think I will
Ahh.. now this I know, I like this!

Flower Power

This week in school we did a day about "flowers" and plants. Now I am not a gardener by any means. I have one house plant and one hosta plant outside that was here in when we moved in. It is certainly not from lack of trying. As a matter of fact, just this year I gave up trying to get anything to grow and let my "flower bed" go to the lawn mower. So I knew I would need some serious help with this lesson so I called in guest lecturer, Grandma. Just to give you an idea of what I am talking about,

this is my attempt at a "flower bed"

this is one of many of my mother's

so, anyway, since my parent's live next door to us it was the perfect opportunity for the girls to learn some horiculture from the expert. My mom gave them a ride on the tractor around to all her flower beds and showed them which plants like sun and which like shade, when certain plants bloom and when some die. I gave them disposible cameras and they took pictures on their garden tour

Then they planted some seeds with Grandma and she is going to watch over them so they will grow. They also planted a plant shoot from another plant to see which one grows faster.

They went to cut flowers with Grandma to learn how to arrange flowers and press flowers

They each had a canvas and paints to paint the flowers they saw in Grandma's garden This is the first time either one of them has ever painted something that wasn't "in the lines" such as a coloring page. Princess #1 has drawn pictures from her imagination but not looking at something and putting it on a blank paper. It was harder for both of them than I thought it would be. I guess this is something that I didn't realize needed to be taught (oh the things we adults take for granted)

Princess #2's picture (preschool): (as narrated by her), the round colored circles are the flowers, the green on the bottom is grass, the blue line on top is the sky and the yellow circle in the upper left is the sun, the blue in the upper right is a cloud

Princess #1's picture (Kindergarten): (as narrated by her), the blue on the top is the sky, the smilie face in the center under the clouds is God, the pink on the left is flocks, the purple is violets, the yellow is lilies, and the purple on the right is beebalm. The green along the bottom is the grass We then went inside and Mommy became teacher again and we learned about the letter "Ff" and a little about creation. We practiced our new memory verse "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" Genesis 1:1. We made family flowers, by making cutout of each of our hands, including daddy and Princess #3 and pasting them together on a popcile stick

We then went into individual learning time. Princess #1 reviewed the long "a" sound and practiced the "f" sound. She is proficent at beginning constant sounds but not at all familiar with the vowel sounds. With Princess #2 we practiced recognizing the letter "f" and writing it. We also reviewed writing the letter "A". I also am working on number recognition with her. I made this flower planting box by cutting out flowers, putting them on popsicle sticks and putting dots in the middle. Princess #2 then has to count the dots and put in the right slot for that number... still a work in progress for her. (Playing spinner games as helped alot with this too)