Wordless Wednesday

 

Connor is one!

Our Connor had his first birthday last Friday and we had a party on Saturday. Here's a few pictures of the celebration.

The party was Sesame Street themed and these signs were on their slider doors as we were outside for much of it.

Pictures of Connor through the last 12 months.

The birthday boy!

It was very hot, a good day for some water fun.

We had a nice picnic supper.

And then went inside to open presents.  Connor was happy with the tissue paper and wrappings!

Connor's cake looked like a giant cookie that Cookie Monster would have enjoyed.  

He did get into it and made the usual mess!

Happy Birthday sweet Connor!  You are so loved!

Annual Granddaughter Shopping Trip

When Alaina started school we started a tradition of Grandma taking her out shopping for some new shoes, and just having a fun time together. When Ruby started school, she came along.  This year, Cassie is starting preschool and the older girls said we had to all go shopping together.
Since school starts this week, we had our shopping day last week.

Laura took this photo of all of us before we left.

They wanted Chik-fil-A for lunch.

This Chik-fil-A had a play area so we spent a little time there.  (Cassie would have stayed all afternoon if we let her!)

Then it was time to look for shoes.  Here's the shoes we found for Cassie.

Ruby with her shoes

And, Alaina with her shoes

After getting shoes, we moved on to look for some tops. We went to Target, but were disappointed in their selection.  We couldn't find anything.

We went to the Mall where we found some things.

Our last stop of the day was at the frozen yogurt place.  

Cassie said "Maybe we can come back tomorrow?"

One more picture when we got back to Laura.  The sun was shining in our eyes!

After leaving Alaina and Ruby, I took Cassie home.  She was sad to leave the girls - she thinks they are the best!

Shortly after I got home, this happened.  I've mentioned that we've had an official drought going on, with the lowest amount of rainfall on record.  We'd had 1.5 inches since June 1.  
On this day we had 2.25 inches!  We were so thankful for this rain.  It was a great day from start to finish!

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

We had a church potluck last Sunday and the dessert I made for it was really good, and it was easy to make too!  It has a fudgy brownie base, creamy chocolate filling and whipped cream on top.  All good - so, I'm sharing it with you today.

French Silk Brownie Dessert

1 box brownie mix
1 egg
5 1/2 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup milk
8 ounce cream cheese at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1/4 cup butter, cubed
16 ounces Cool Whip, divided (may also make your own whipped cream
shaved chocolate for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan.
Stir together the brownie mix, egg, melted butter and milk until smooth.  Spread into prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes until done.  Allow to cool.
Beat cream cheese and vanilla together, then add powdered sugar.
Melt chocolate and butter together, stir into cream cheese mix. Then stir in 8 ounces of the Cool Whip.
Spread over cooled brownie base.
Spread remaining Cool Whip over chocolate layer and garnish with shaved chocolate.

Wordless Wednesday

 

(Fungus on a branch that I thought was pretty in its own way)

A Day at the Lake

Bob and I had such a nice day on Saturday.  Some friends of ours have a cottage on a small lake and had invited us to some spend some time there this summer and we finally had a Saturday free to do that.

Their cottage is about 45 minutes north of our house, and we totally enjoyed this beautiful drive through the country.

This cottage isn't the typical cottage on the lake.  It has an interesting history.  It was built in 1930 as resort and was used as a bath house, dance hall and area for socials and swimming.  In 1942 it was repurposed as a skating rink, while the lower level was still used as a bath house.  In 1960 business had declined and it was vacated. A couple bought it in 1970 and renovated it to be used as a cottage.  They did a lot of work on it, but had to sell it in 1979 due to illness. The next family that bought it owned it for years and brought in a lot of antiques to decorate it to reflect the time it was built.
When our friends bought this cabin, it came with everything in it - the antiques, the decor, all the furniture and even dishes and glasses!

Now that I've told you the story, here's some photos of it.

This is painted on a storage shed next to the cottage.

The front of the cottage

The back deck 

The lake; you can see how dry it's been in our area, the lake level is way down from the usual as seen by the docks.

The inside - this is the back porch which has so many vintage things.  Old oil lamps, old pictures, readers digest magazines, old cook books and tools.  It was fun to look through it all.

This little table which has old hymns under the glass top.

Inside there is a huge loft with antique beds, a sewing machine, trunks...  You can see an old player piano in the corner on the main level.

Also in the loft is this wringer washer and other washing tools.  (A reminder of how spoiled we are now!)

This is one of several beautiful old dressers left for them.

This is one of the bedrooms.  It's called the Miss America room...

The reason for that name is because Miss America from 1988 stayed there and sent this signed photo as a thank you.   :)

This trunk was used by someone named J van Putten when he traveled to the USA from Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 1903.

They even have this original sign for the roller skating days.

Here's Bob and Sandy.  We enjoyed spending the afternoon with them and seeing their beautiful place on Little Sand Lake!

A Day in my Life

It's August already!  Here's how the first day of the month went at our house.

I started the morning my starting some laundry.  The laundry room is downstairs and not so beautiful, but it works!

In the family room downstairs is the treadmill, and my morning walk was next on the agenda.

After my walk, I went back upstairs, got ready, ate a boiled egg for breakfast and had a little computer time.  Not too long though because this was waiting for me:

Yes - beans to be canned!

Bob came and helped me do some snipping.

Don't they look pretty?

While the canner was running, the laundry got done.

While I was in the kitchen, Bob's brother stopped to help him cut down a tree. Bob's planning to put up a storage barn in the back, but a tree was blocking the spot.

And it's down - but as you can see it took a little more cutting to get it completely down and out of the way.

Meanwhile, I was having trouble in the kitchen.  I have a pressure canner and I got an error message saying it wasn't coming to pressure. I stopped it and started all over only to have the same thing happen.  

Bob and I had to get out to bring back an Amazon return and to grab supper so I stopped the canning and thought I would try again when we got home.
We brought our return back and stopped at Panera for supper.  I forgot to take any pictures while out!

When we got home, I got ready to try again and the canner wouldn't even turn on.  So frustrating since I've only had it for a year.  I called the company and they were very helpful.  They sent out a new lid for the sealing/pressure issue and told me how to get it going again. I've already canned Salsa with the new lid and it worked without any issues!

Here's the beans that got done!

A little walk outside is good for frustration!

Do you remember all the acorns we had last fall?  Bob put them all in a pile in our back wooded area and these are some crazy mushrooms growing there.

The garden phlox are blooming.

The Black Eyed Susan's are just beautiful this year.  Lots of our flowers have suffered in this drought, but they seem to handle it ok.

Then we had a little time on the front porch before coming in and watching an episode of The Repair Shop.

It was a day with some frustrations, but still good!