My Birthday

On Wednesday I celebrated my 28th birthday. Oh goodness, only 2 years until I'm 30. I'm not looking forward to that.

We'll we decided that we would just stay at home and I would cook the ribs I had thawed out earlier this week since Anders was now leaving early Thursday and not coming back until Tuesday. (Gotta love work travel) I went into the kitchen to start a veggie side and when I got there Ivan come out and says, "Mom, are you making a birthday cake?" I said, "No, I'm making a vegetable to go with dinner." Ivan shoots back, "No you have to have a birthday cake, it's your birthday!" He was so adamit about it, which was funny because he never said anything about it all day. This is also coming from a kid who never eats birthday cake when we have it around.

So I quickly put together a white cake with chocolate icing. Not my favorite but it was quick.

I have to acknowlegde my Mom for always having baking supplies in the house growing up - it has stuck with me :)

I will have to say it was pretty cool to have my 2 and 3 year old singing Happy Birthday to me. I'll always remember that - a first time for the both of them to sing it.

Now days have gone by and Caylin keeps telling me randomly, "Happy Birthday Mommy!" and then breaking out in the song. She is just too cute.

Here is the future baker in the family

There were a couple of things that were happened during dinner that were pretty funny.

I'm sure they won't come across as funny as there were to us but I still think they are with sharing.

1. Ivan and Caylin like to play that they are Mommy and Daddy. They go around all day talking about, role playing the whole nine yards. Well Ivan went to the potty and needed help. He called for Mommy to come help, Caylin went running. Ivan then says, "NO, I want my other Mommy, she has on a red shirt, black pants and a green ponytail. She's sitting at the table. Can you go get her please?" What I thought was funny was that that he describe everything I was wearing, down to the color ponytail holder that was in my hair. This kid is so observant it's scary.

2. We were just having some conservation at the table. I believe we were telling Daddy all about the playdate they had in the morning. Out of nowhere Ivan made a comment and I was like, "Oh Ivan....." He chirps in and says, "I'm funny!" He said it with his head cocked to the side and he raised the pitch on the end of the word funny. Again I think you had to hear it to laugh about it, but Anders and I were laughing so hard.

We have some great kids!!! We are so blessed to be their parents.

Applesauce

The kids and I had a playdate with Amanda and her kids, Macy, Carter and Cayden this past Tuesday. We headed out there after Ivan's preschool. Had a pinic lunch (Thanks Amanda for the food!) then went off to pick apples. Well at Apple Works you can't pick the apples, but they had a petting zoo and a playground. So off we went.

While at the petting zoo Ivan got bit by the donkey. I couldn't believe it. It didn't bleed but you could see all of his teeth imprints. Poor Ivan. He handled it pretty well.

We then decided, "Ok, enough with the animals."

We headed off to the playground. There was a huge slide, a maze and some rope swings. The kids had a blast on the slide.

We then went inside the building to get some apples. I was wanting to make applesauce and apple pies. So I got a peck each of JonaMacs for the pies and Jonathons for the sauce.

I had no idea applesauce was so easy to make. And it seriously was the best applesauce I have ever had. I left the skins on for more fiber.

After $10 for the apples, 30 minutes cooking and 10 minutes pureeing we have applesauce.

I love the rose hue to it and the kids loved it too.

The trip tp orchard might have been a little traumatic, but the sauce is delicious!

Camping at Clifty Falls

Over Labor Day weekend we headed down to Clifty Falls State Park. We couldn't wait to take the kids and my parents away for the weekend. I think Anders just needed to get away as well. I was shocked that both my dad and Anders were willing to miss opening day of college football for camping.

Anders and I decided to buy a trailer to haul our and the kids bike down with us. When we went to McCormick's Creek camping for 2 days and we were stuffed in the car. We knew we needed more room especially since we were staying 3 nights and this time were really going to cook over the fire. So leading up to the trip Anders bought and put on a hitch on the Ford, bought the trailer, put the thing together and made the flooring and sides to the trailer. It was a lot of work to take it but I'm glad we have it now. I could of really hurt Anders on Friday that we left because of course the trailer was not done, so I got to pack everything while entertaining the kids. I'm so glad he took that day off to do that. (Anders never takes the day off, EVER)

We had a great time at the park. We actually ate really well.
Here was what we had. And note we made everything over the fire.

Friday night - Burgers and chips

Saturday - Bacon and eggs
Deli sandwiches (ok so no fire was used here)
Taco Soup
Cashew Curry Rice
Tried these biscuits things - didn't work out so well :)
Smores

Sunday - Eggs, Pancakes, Sausage
Ice cream (it was storming out so we made due and went into town)
Pizza Quesadillas
Individual Fruit Cobblers



We hiked on Saturday. We went to a Memorial site that the trail started out and immediately had to go down these stairs. (I'm glad we didn't have to climb up them) I"m also really grateful that a friend of mine let me borrow her hiking backpacks. If we didn't have those we wouldn't have hiked at all.

It rained some Saturday night. We didn't do a great job putting our tent up so we got some water in it. We didn't notice until the morning, so not too bad. We got breakfast made over the fire. Then we all decided we needed to shower. We took turns boys then girls. It felt so refreshing to get all the dirt off of our feet, even if it was only for 30 minutes. As soon as the girls got done it started to rain. We decided to go to Downtown Madison to get ice cream. There is a shop there that is on the 1000 things to do before you die, according to National Geographic. But of course they are closed on Sundays. We still ended up getting ice cream and the kids loved it. It's all that really matters. Oh and my kids will randomly still sing the downtown Madison song we made up while driving there! Sunday night was the worst thunderstorm I had ever heard. The lightening was the brightest we had ever seen. Anders and I actually woke up from it before the kids.

Oh and before the storm came, at about 11 at night, Caylin pukes. Totally random oh and noticed she had a high fever. I sent Anders to the store to get medicine. She was acting so weird it scared me, I know it was the fever but it still scared me. Anders was back in about an hour. As soon as Caylin got medicine in her she acted fine and went right back to sleep. Well about 5 hours later the storm really hit. Luckily we had packed everything we could into the cars. We thought we might have to go to the car due to the storm and put everything we could in Mom and Dad's car. It's a good thing we did because Ivan, Caylin and Steph slept in the very back of the ford while Anders was in the drivers seat. Steph didn't know she could lay in the positions she did that night. Steph might be ready for Circus Soleil. I've never seen Ivan so scared. I had put him in the car and then was heading back out to get Caylin. Ivan yells out, "Please don't leave me." He was also all over shaking, I've never seen or felt that. Luckily with me laying next to him he calmed down and they went back to sleep. As soon as we woke up which was 7am, because of Ivan, he is always awake within 5 minutes of 6:55am. We packed up and started back home. Since we packed everything up wet, as soon as we got home we unloaded and set everything back up, tent included to make sure it was dry before storing it. By the way out tent is huge! Not a easy job when doing it by yourself, which I was doing. So much work and all we wanted to do was rest. Plus I did laundry from the trip for 3 days. My washer and dryer didn't stop for those 3 days.

I really love camping. I love that we are away from electronics and kids just play. Ivan learned how to throw a frisbee on this trip (Thanks Grandma), Caylin and Ivan threw rocks, and we taught them cornhole. Stuff we would get to eventually but not while we are doing our endless project to-do list. Plus I think my kids loved hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Paris for 3 days. They only were in tears for 2-3 hours and asking everyday to go to Grandma's house.

Here are some pics from the trip:

Tunnel Falls after the storm Throwing rocks - The simple things

Making Smores


Our Caterpillar friend. Both kids liked him a lot! He had some crazy antennas.

We ended the trip on the tire swing! They would stay hours on this thing.

And Yes we got Grandma to get on too! The kids thought it was the greatest thing that we got on it with them. You never grow too old for tire swings. (by the way Grandpa so so nervous during all this - he kept thinking Caylin was going to fall off)

Can't wait until the next camping trip. Hopefully one more before the season ends.