My Friend Came To Visit!!!

This weekend one of my best friends from high school came to Michigan to visit.  After high school she moved to Florida to live with her mom.  I have only seen her a few times since she moved.  

One of the best things about my friendship with Ashley is that even though we don't see each other often and don't keep in touch as often as we want, we can always just pick right up where we left off.  With her there aren't those awkward moments of silence.  We can just talk and talk and talk.  

We had planned to get together on Thursday afternoon.  I had a meeting at work and then I was going to take half the day off.  We ended up getting to spend the whole day together due to a power outage at Lakeshore.  

I dropped the girls off at playgroup and then picked up Ashley at 9:15 am.  We went for breakfast and did a few things.  We picked up the girls and went home and played.  She stayed for tacos and cookie baking.  I brought her back to where she was staying at 7:00 pm.  

Being a Michigan girl, Ashley wanted to get to the beach.  Ashley was hoping to experience cool fall weather during her visit and Michigan delivered.  She came right in the middle of the very high winds.  We took a picture at the beach.  Keep in mind the super high winds when wondering why we look a little wind blown.

I am so glad that it worked out for us to spend the entire day together.  I guess it is my turn to go to Florida to visit her next!

High Winds = No School

This week we had Tuesday off because of high winds and tornado warnings.  
I didn't know if I should leave the house so we stayed home and did some playing, organizing and relaxing.


We made cookies and the girls got a hold of those decorating candies.  Ariel got the cover off of her bottle and dumped them out.  Then Annabelle "accidentally" dumped hers out.  As you can see they really enjoyed helping me clean up.  

We had lunch downstairs and then watched a movie and ate our cookies.  

Since we weren't going to be leaving the house I told the girls they could wear whatever they wanted to.  Annabelle went with a leotard and yellow jellies (2 sizes to big).  Ariel went with Annabelle's jammie shirt, Dora panties, and one shoe.

Now This Is Love

McRae Family Love

Fall Family Fun

I had the day off of work so James decided to take the day off also.
We took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to Crane's for lunch and apple picking.

My sweetie girls

Looks like our project was a good idea to take along.

Ariel loved our grilled cheese.

Picking the apples they could reach.

Oops, Ariel, choose a different one.

That's a yummy one!

Annabelle found a baby apple.  
4 hours later she is still carrying it around.

I kind of feel like a real photographer with this picture.

All tuckered out.

p'[[-

Dress Up Paper Dolls

This project turned out so cute.   
I went found this blog (gwennypenny.com) by clicking on lots of blogs and just ending up there.
I printed the paper dolls, cut them out, and laminated them.  
I knew that I wanted the outfits to stick on somehow and I was originally going to do magnets so it could be used on the fridge.  Well, I didn't have any magnets and I wasn't exactly sure how it would work out so I used velcro.
This works perfectly.  
I wanted this to be easy to take places (restaurants, cars, etc.) so I thought that I could put the dolls on felt so they wouldn't move around too much.  
I took a piece of felt that I had and folded it in half and put a piece of velcro on the edge so it could close.
Then I made a pocket and hot glued 3 sides of it onto the outside of the folded felt.  I stuck a piece of velcro at the opening of the pocket.
I glued a bit of felt to the back of the dolls so they wouldn't slip.
I decorated the outside with fun things I had from my bow making days.
Annabelle loved it.

"Oh wow Mommy!"

Halloween Activities

I have been reading (and now following) lots of fun crafting and homeschooling (I'm not planning on doing this) blogs.  They have great ideas that are easy and not very expensive.


I made these jack-o-lanterns where you can change the face.  Since it is with felt it sticks, but is easily changeable.  All you do is take orange felt and cut out pumpkin shapes.  Then with black felt you make shapes for the eyes, nose, and mouth.  We also made hair, bows, and tear drops.  This is fun for everyone.  It was easy for Ariel for make her own and Annabelle and  Caden had a lot of fun creating different faces too.

 

I also made this super cute Halloween Memory Game for Annabelle.  You just have to print out pictures of whatever you want.  Then I covered the back with paper (I"m really liking orange and purple for Halloween colors) so that the picture doesn't show through.  I laminated mine because I love all things laminated and I own my own laminator. 

Cinderella

Annabelle says to me, "Mommy can I clean the deck windows?"  
"Of course you can.  Let me get you the supplies."


My two girls cleaned the windows for me and looked adorable doing it!

Summer Allowance Recap

I never summed up my experience with having only $10 a week this summer.

I still love to buy things and wish I could buy lots more than I can.  
However, even though I am not giving myself $10 I am still thinking about what I am buying.  I am getting pretty good at avoiding the Target One Stop.  Do I really need the light up ring (actually yes, we needed 2 of them and 1 broke 10 minutes after we got home), but I am really thinking about what I am buying.  

I am currently not giving myself a set amount of money for a couple of reasons:
1.  I really don't have that much time to go shopping.  And if I do I really can't do a good job with two little ones.
2.  We are trying to save our money.  We would really like to move into a bigger home within the next year or so.  I'd rather have another bedroom in a new house than a new pair of pants (plus my sister just gave me some so that saved me probably $15-$20).

Try to do this challenge.  Take 10 weeks and give yourself $10.  This might be a good time to do it especially as we come into the Christmas season when we have to buy gifts for others.  You can just do what Annabelle does when she wants something and says, "I'll put it on my Christmas list."

Overall this was a good experience for me.  It didn't cure me of my want to spend, but it did help me examine my spending.

Good Luck to you if you try it!  

Riley Trails - Round 2

This past Sunday we decided to go back to Riley Trails for our hike.  We really liked it and didn't do very much our first time. This time we actually hiked for quite awhile.

Looking for a different trail to take.

Ready to hike.

Ariel playing in the sand.

Ariel adding a leaf to her nature bag.

Annabelle actually held the grasshopper!

Ariel wasn't so sure.

Se took the yellow trail.

Posing by the Fairy Moss.

"Look at me!  I am strong!"

Not  my best, but this shows how much fun Ariel is having.

Annabelle took our picture.  

Craft Time!

Ariel's placemat.

Annabelle's placemat.

James caught a grasshopper for the girls to see.

Annabelle found a walking stick.

I'm not sure why the pictures got out of order.  I can't seem to get them in the right spots.  It might be mostly my problem since somehow my precious baby turned blogger into (what I guess) Russian.  I am not able to understand anything they are telling me on here.  I do know that Linkki means Link.


Anyway you can probably figure out that we did the placemat craft last.


I hope that you are inspired to take your family out on a hike and enjoy these beautiful fall days!