Raising Cubs in a Campground

First you brown your marshmallow on all sides. When they look like this, sandwich a marshmallow between two Fudge Stripe Cookies* Enjoy the gooey goodness! *I know this isn't the traditional way to make S'mores, but this is the way I grew up eating S'mores and I much prefer the ease (and price tag) of bringing a single package of Fudge Stripes camping. **Optional step for adults: Soak your marshmallows in Bailey's Irish Cream before roasting them. We learned this trick from our friend Mrs. Hanson and our S'mores have never been the same! *** Chocolate chip cookies also work in place of graham crackers and Hershey's chocolate.

I love you to the angels and back PapaBear! Happy 10 year anniversary! (our dating anniversary)

I love you to the angels and back PapaBear! Happy 10 year anniversary! (our dating anniversary)

You never know when or where your kids are going to throw out those big questions. The ones about the birds and the bees. The ones about dying. The ones about Heaven. Tonight Sam asked them all. I was driving around Lake Minnetonka at the time, lost after a birthday party at a friend's new house in Wayzata. It's a night I won't ever forget. My answers weren't eloquent, but he didn't notice. He listened intently and then asked his next question.... I had to stop and ask for directions from a stranger at the gas station in the middle of my talk with Sam, but he didn't skip a beat. "When are you going to have another baby Mama?" (for the record he wants two siblings) "How are babies made?" "Where do babies come out?" I know our conversation tonight was only the first of many more to come. I pray that the seeds of faith that were planted in his little heart will grow as his understanding of these big concepts do. Our life this side...

I was looking forward to the cover design week until I sat down to write this post. No matter what I do I can't get the image to upload without being fuzzy. I'm not exactly going out with a bang with this design. *sigh* Life goes on....the cover looks fine in Booksmart and that's what matters. I have been dreaming of seeing this book in my Blurb.com bookstore all summer. I am not going to let this little glitch rain on my parade. A close up of the colors I chose for the cover of Julia's book. I opted to keep it very simple so that it will be easy for me to switch up the colors each time I add a book to the series. My pages inside might be as varied as they come, but I want the cover designs to flow from book to book. I figure the books are filled with pictures of the kids, no need to pick one picture for the cover. I'm excited to see what YOU did for your covers and how different they all will be! Because I am SO excited to finally have figured it out, I...

As I was tweeting that today is our 3rd favorite day of the year I started to wonder what other people's top three days of the year are. First for us is Christmas - singing carols with family and attending late night church to worship Christ.... Second is the last day of the camping season. Yes, we love our jobs, but after 6 months of being pulled away from dinner and working in the office, we are thankful for the day that the last camper pulls out for the year. The third day is also related to our park job....We close the gate every night and the timing of that depends on a number of factors. Tonight marks the night we can close it at the earliest possible time again. It's been almost 5 months since we could do that. What are YOUR top three days of the year and why? ****I haven't forgotten about Alphabitty Moments this week - I finally gave up at midnight to get the cover to upload without being so blurry. I'll work on it again during naps.****

Not too bad for the first jump huh? Miss A's siblings are great jumpers too!

Mine are in bed. Sound asleep. We are deep in the trenches of cutting out naps and it's rough going. Usually a skipped nap, an early morning, or a middle of the night waking is enough to throw them off, but lately, we've been hit with a triple whammy. They're exhausted. I'm exhausted. We'll get through it. Today my coping mechanism of choice was to take them to the beach. I know this probably doesn't work for many people due to the ramifications of having to bring extremely overtired children home from the beach and all that that process entails, but for us, it works like a charm - especially when friends join us. Bea, Sam, and Julia wore themselves out tonight while the adults and Caden sat and chatted in the grass. The 30 second drive home was over before we kneew it and once I manage to get the kids into their PJ's they were asleep before I can figure out where I set my cell phone down. I logged onto my computer to read my emails, check in with twitter,...

I found this apple under our apple tree this morning. Last year someone suggested that it might be a Cameo, but if anyone else knows for sure what kind of apples are a big as softballs and are quite tart no matter how late in the season they are picked, please let me know! (They never get more than 1/4 red) I purchased an apple picker yesterday and am excited to be able to pick the apples that are high up on the tree. Already we've collected 5 large sand buckets worth of apples! I guess it's no secret what you'll be eating for dessert when you come to my house for the next year!

We did it ladies! We made it all the way through the alphabet! When I started Alphabitty Moments back in February I had no idea how attached I would become to this very special memory book. Sure, come Wednesday night as I often scrambled to find the perfect word to go with the letter of the week, I might have questioned what in the world I was thinking, but I knew it was worth it and I'm more than ready to get started all over again! Thank you to those who have participated over the past year - one week or every week, you have inspired me to keep looking for the little things - to savor them, to photograph them, and to take the time to record them here on my blog. Don't forget that next week we'll be posting our cover designs for those who eventually will be turning their pages into an album. There was some discussion in my Forest Forum about using the Alphabitty Moments button for a book cover option so leave me a comment if you want me to email that to you. You are welc...

* Julia's mustache is actually melted ice cream. The kids and I still continue to drink only almond milk (unsweetened vanilla with a dash of sweetened vanilla), but we do have an occasional ice cream treat. I couldn't pass up the chance to have her picture taken with Amy (top row in the middle) at National Night Out a few weeks ago. She is the PapaBear's second cousin.

Mr. G's mom was so smart to bring a bottle of bubbles to their session a while back. He was so relaxed and focused on blowing bubbles that he didn't notice me. I was able to take a series of images -My entry this week was originally posted here . For more bubble pictures click on the button below....

If you're like my husband and worked in a pickle factory during summer vacations in high school, you don't eat store bought relish. He's seen what goes in there and well....let's just say those cukes are not the cream of the crop. So I made up my own version of relish and blogged about it in my favorite things post . (see the link for a photo) chopped tomatoes chopped onion chopped cilantro Italian seasoning Drizzle a little Italian dressing over the top and stir The amounts of the veggies are completely up to you - I prefer more onion than tomato in mine. This easy concoction is very tasty on brats. I haven't tried it on hotdogs or hamburgers yet, but I'm sure that's just as good. Do you have a recipe that you'd like to share? Link up and maybe you'll find the perfect thing to serve at your next gathering! Photobucket" border="0">

Thankfully the only thing those three things have in common is the fact that they all start with the letter G. Tonight we made a trip into the 'burbs to pick up a bargain from Craigslist. I got it in my head that a globe would be a great birthday gift for Sam who loves looking at maps & asking where certain animals live. A search last night yielded a couple of possibilities. I threw out an offer for one that is pretty fancy , but the price was right. She accepted my offer (see tweet from today) so the kids piled in the van and away we went. I hid it under a towel in the back of the van so the birthday surprise wouldn't be ruined and we drove off in search of a park I used to frequent when I was a kid. Shoots and Ladders is well known in the Cities and was pretty busy for 7pm, not that I blamed anyone - it was beautiful out. The plan was to let the kids play until they couldn't climb through another tunnel or up another ladder and then let them zone out with a DVD on...

Except today I'd call it a boulder in the road. Trying to get past it is like trying to remove gum from the bottom of your shoe. The more you pull at it the stickier you gets. I hate being sticky. I hate that we are experiencing so much defiance from our almost 5 year old. He said that if I made him do "insert generic request here" he would trip me. Nice. He's out of control and I'm sick of being pummeled by boulders at every turn. We tell him we love him no matter what but his behavior is not OK. There are consequences. Tonight he has to spend some alone time in his room. He says he doesn't know why he gets so out of control. I said I forgive him. We pray together then we exchanged forehead kisses - our favorites. I feel responsible for the negative change in him. I pray for smoother roads.

Welcome to You Don't Say Saturday! The premise of this carnival is simple. Post a quote, verse, poem, or lyric (siting the author of course) and if you happen to have a photograph (or two) that fit the theme of your post, all the better! Little girls dance their way into your heart , whirling on the tips of angel wings, scattering gold dust and kisses in our paths. - author unknown

2.5 - the # of inches of rain we received Thursday night and into Friday 3.5 - the # of inches of rain we received Friday night 2 - the # of times we went to the fair this year 10 - the # of rides my kids went on 1 - the # of goats that tried to eat Julia's hair 6 - the # of days Julia's hair has been in braids 1 - the # of alligators my kids held at the fair 5 - the # of dollars I spent to have this photo taken 2.5 - the # of corn dogs I ate 1.5 the # of bags of cotton candy our family shared 1 - the # of rides it took for me to get nauseous at the fair (the kiddy boat ride) 0 - the # of rides I went on after that 8 - the # of people I knew that we ran into at the fair (including the midwife who delivered Julia) 50+ - the # of days since we had any long periods of rain 12 - the # of CD's my book on 'tape' is 3 - the # of days of VBS we had this week 4 - the # of days we have to work at the Park Day Camp on the same days as VBS 1 - the # of fires I (with help) put o...

2.5 - the # of inches of rain we received Thursday night and into Friday 3.5 - the # of inches of rain we received Friday night 2 - the # of times we went to the fair this year 10 - the # of rides my kids went on 1 - the # of goats that tried to eat Julia's hair 6 - the # of days Julia's hair has been in braids 1 - the # of alligators my kids held at the fair 5 - the # of dollars I spent to have this photo taken 2.5 - the # of corn dogs I ate 1.5 the # of bags of cotton candy our family shared 1 - the # of rides it took for me to get nauseous at the fair (the kiddy boat ride) 0 - the # of rides I went on after that 8 - the # of people I knew that we ran into at the fair (including the midwife who delivered Julia) 50+ - the # of days since we had any long periods of rain 12 - the # of CD's my book on 'tape' is 3 - the # of days of VBS we had this week 4 - the # of days we have to work at the Park Day Camp on the same days as VBS 1 - the # of fires I (with help) put o...

Welcome to week 25 of Alphabitty Moments ! I didn't realize how hard the letter Y was going to be until I sat down at 11:30 last night to make my pages. I couldn't get past the word yellow and so I slept on it and did some Googling this morning. Usually I can scan through my photographs and a ' little thing ' that I want to remember will jump out at me, but these last letters of the alphabet are challenging. We're SO close to being able to publish our books and that has motivated me to keep going. After next week's letter Z layout we will post our cover designs and then start back at the beginning of the alphabet the following week. For my Y pages I chose the word YUMMY. Birthdays for my kids (especially Sam) are all about the cake. "What do you want for your birthday Sam?" CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!! is always his answer even though what I was really inquiring about is what gift he would like. Julia's page includes some of my favorite pictures of her fro...