Never A Dull Moment

Evangeline lost tooth #3 on Monday!  And it was a top front tooth.  Makes me sad because I know when that big tooth comes in she's going to look more grown up.  Sigh.  (I do have to say that the missing front tooth has bumped the cute factor up to a whole new level.)  She worked and worked on this one.  She noticed it was really wiggly at pioneer camp and obsessed over it.  She had it out the next day.  When she pulled it out she came running to show me and she was so worked up and excited over it, she was literally trembling.  As she was rinsing out her mouth, I rinsed off her tooth.  She noticed what I was doing and was really upset with me because, "if you rinse off your tooth you won't get a crisp dollar from the Tooth Fairy!"  She told me that she rinsed the last tooth she lost and her dollar wasn't crisp.  To her relief, she woke up this morning to find a crisp dollar....must have had nothing to do with the cleanliness (or lack-there-of) of her tooth. 

 

It's been a week of culinary delights.  I tried my hand at cherry calfouti (I always get excited for a chance to use my cute little ramekins.  I also got a lesson from Karen Heighton on how to make her delicious yeast rolls and cinnamon rolls.  (It's been a caloric extravaganza around here!)  Maybe this year we will have that big Christmas breakfast I always envision.

 

Today I just happened to glance over in time to notice that Jed was sitting in his little toy basket.  It was so funny.  I had to lift him out though or the little dude would go face down.  He's still pretty wobbly.  

 

And being so cute is apparently very exhausting.  Jed fell asleep midway through his oatmeal and peaches.  I took him to his room where he got a nice long nap on the floor....oh, this boy. 

Our church had a special event for the little ones, 24 Hours of Fun!  The kids stayed in a cabin at Mill Creek.  It was kind of a super small church camp experience for the little kiddos.  This was Evangeline's first sleepover that wasn't at a relative's house (although Ammie did stay with her).  Kyle, Jed and I went out to the cabin for dinner.  There were 18 children in attendance!  They met at the church at 1:30 on Wednesday, then headed to Mill Creek where they played games, had fun with water balloons, did crafts, had devotions, and roasted hot dogs and S'mores.  In the morning they ate breakfast and went swimming.  I picked her back up at the church at 1:30 on Thursday and she was good and pooped out. 

 

Other highlights of our week included library visits, the audio version of Anne of Green Gables, Jed turning 11 months old today, the Blueberry Festival, playdates for Evangeline and Avery Gard, seeing the cousins, a visit from Amy, jazz class, VBS at the Church of the Nazarene, and closing on our new home!!! 



Littlest Pioneer

Evangeline attended the Littlest Pioneer camp at Lincoln Log Cabins over the weekend.  I was so excited that I happened to see this on their calendar in time to sign her up.  I was also very excited when I noticed that she had to be accompanied by an adult.  Pioneer camp exceeded my expectations....actually I had no idea what to expect at all, but it was far better than I could have hoped.  Their were three little girls there at the camp that day.  The first thing they had the girls do was dress up in a pioneer gown (this is when we knew for sure that this was going to be a fun day).  They were read a story about pioneer life and then it was straight to work.  They had to pack up all the bare necessities in their covered wagon and move west.  

 

They settled at a farm and immediately got to work.  They had a few chores to do right off the bat, like gathering fire wood and water....

 

Then they had to wash up before preparing Johnny Cakes for lunch...

 

Evangeline has never wanted to crack an egg at home because she doesn't want to get it on her hands.  All three girls had an egg to crack for the recipe though, so she had to go for it.  Being her first attempt at cracking an egg, she didn't know how hard to hit it against the side of the bowl.  She gave it a very good whack and the egg white and yolk flew into the bowl.  It was so funny.  I snapped this picture milliseconds before the adults helping saw it happen.  Everyone was cracking up.  Amazingly she got most of the egg in the bowl and not one bit of shell.  Her face was priceless. 

 

After the Johnny Cake was cooking on the hearth, the girls helped do the dishes.  Let me tell you, all of these chores were so much more fun doing them inside a log cabin the old fashioned way.  They were all so eager to volunteer for each task. 

 

While the cornbread was cooking the girls went out to the porch and cut up apples for an apple crisp.  Cutting with a knife...anther first....have I sheltered her?  She really enjoyed this activity.  She was so proud of herself. 

 

There's the cornbread baking on the hearth in the Dutch oven.   

 

The girls got to pet the pigs and feed them apples.

 

Next, it was butter making time....

 

Once they finished the cornbread and apple crisp it was time for them to set the table....being a pioneer was a lot of work!  

 

The food was delicious!  In addition to the Johnny cake (cornbread), butter and apple crisp, there were also potatoes.  Thomas Lincoln's (Abraham's father) prayer was recited before we ate.  It was a perfect feast.  Such a joy for everyone to eat the food the girls worked so hard to prepare. 

 

After lunch the girls had to stuff their bed-tick.  They filled it with hay and took turns laying on it.  They imagined what it would be like to have to sleep on that each night.  They took it up to the loft in their cabin and tried it out up there too.  

 

After all the work was done, it was time to play.  There were several pioneer games for us to try.  Our favorite was one where you take a hoop and fling it back and forth with two sticks.  The object is to try to catch it on your stick when your partner flings it to you.  We got pretty good at it. 

 

A few other games we enjoyed were ball-in-cup, and a game were you run with a large hoop and try to keep it going with a stick.  

 

The day concluded with a scavenger hunt, a walk to Thomas Lincoln's cabin and making a log cabin out of a milk jug, peanut butter and pretzels.  Evangeline had such a fabulous time.  She cried in the car as we were leaving.  She did not want camp to end. 

 

We stopped at a farm stand on our way home to get some peaches and corn.  We also got some frozen apple cider.  What a wonderful day.  How special it was to spend this day with my girl.

 

Evangeline wasted no time putting on her sun bonnet as soon as got home.  She wore it for the rest of the day.  That evening we took a walk around the "O".  There is a place on our walk where the grass is seeded out.  Evangeline's been talking about laying down in prairie grass like Laura Ingalls for weeks as we pass it driving back and forth from Terre Haute.  She asked if she could lay down in this grass.  I caved.  As she was laying there she said, "Ahhh it feels good to lay down in the grass...this is a great way to get chiggers though."

Mornings in Terre Haute

I'm going to miss walking our "big O" when we move.  It's so pretty this time of year.  Summer flowers and wildflowers everywhere, tall corn, late sunsets, mushrooms and toadstools, wildlife scampering all over the place.  These are the days I'll cling to when the weather turns cold. 

 

Evangeline is still a napper.  Here she is getting some shut-eye in a fort she built.  

 

Me and Jed spent our mornings this week in Terre Haute while Evangeline's been at art camp at the Swope (more on that later).  One morning last week I took Jed to Deming Park.  I think this was the first time he's been in a baby swing.  He didn't know what to think at first.  He seemed a little nervous.  Once he figured out that it was supposed to be fun, he loved it.  He laughed and squealed.  There was the neatest swing at the park.  It had the baby swing on one side and connected to it was a normal swing for me.  That way, when I would swing, the baby swing would go at the same time in opposition.  We sat facing each other in our swings smiling and giggling at each other.  It was very fun.

 

We've done some pretty fun things this week waiting for Evangeline at camp.  We've spent a few mornings with Zach and Cale, which has been so special.  One day we all went to the Children's Museum after picking up Evangeline.  It was a hit. 

 

I sat Jed in one of the baby seats at the water table.  He just sat there in his little smock not sure what to think.  All the sudden he realized that he could splash and that was it....He was splashing with both hands just a'cracking up.  There was water everywhere.  It was hilarious.  His face was dripping with water.  He was so soaked I had to change his whole outfit.  The only spot on him that stayed dry was the part of his shirt under his smock.  He was disappointed when I had to remove him from the table.  In the picture below you can see his arms are just a blur of splashing motion....

We also got to spend some time with Dad this week.  We finally got to take him out for lunch for Father's Day and we visited him at the farm on Friday.  He made us fresh squeezed lemonade and zucchini roll-ups from his garden.  There was also freshly baked bread and compote he made from wild raspberries. 

We walked back to admire his garden.  Evangeline had the best time picking squash, basil and blackberries.  We can't wait to go back.

 

Lemonade Stand Contest

For two years now Erica Crumrin (a.k.a. Evangeline's 1st grade teacher) and I have talked about having our kids participate in the lemonade stand contest downtown.  It finally worked out with our schedules this year.  We cannot take credit for this awesome stand, however.  Erica's brother-in-law made it for his sons about 10 or so years ago and it's been sitting in storage ever since.  We whipped up some tropical tasting lemonade, and some pirate costumes...added a Disney Princess for good measure (2 year old, Carrigan Crumrin) and the kids had a blast. 

 

They had pirate's treasure to hand out to their patrons....

 

Here is the sign the kids made.  They had two kinds of lemonade to offer.  Pirate Punch, which was yellow lemonade with Sprite and pineapple juice, and Princess Punch, which was the same recipe but pink.  (Evangeline drew the ship on the left.)

 

I like this next picture because I can just picture this conversation.  I know this particular face she's making well.  It's one she makes a lot when she's telling me about something.  It's so fun to watch her socialize with her little friends.

 

There were probably at least 20 lemonade stands this year.  It was just the picture of small-town Americana.  There were strawberry shortcakes for sale and all of this was followed by the band concert on the Court House lawn.  The city band was fantastic this particular night.  They played all the patriotic marches.