Free Slurpee Day!

EAT MOR CHIKIN or There really is such a thing as a free lunch!

Did I really get my children to dress up like cows for Cow Appreciation Day to get some free food at Chik-fil-A?

Yes I did!

Eleanor had a great time.

Claire enjoyed the adventure.

Macy not so much. Just kidding. She had fun. So did Ben. Were they embarrassed? Yes, they were, but they will look back on this day with fond memories. Or not. :)

Kate enjoyed her first taste of a Chik-fil-A nugget.

Kate just wants you to know that I dressed up too. The owner of the Chik-fil-A can vouch for me!

Dutch Wonderland, Camping and a Skunk

Three summers ago, Trent went on a business trip to Germany. Being the crazy mom that I am, I took my then four children to Lancaster, Pennsylvania:

to see Thomas the Tank Engine:

and to visit Dutch Wonderland:

We had so much fun, that it has become an annual summer tradition. Although we haven't visited Thomas the last couple of summers, we have continued to visit Dutch Wonderland:
I love Dutch Wonderland. It's a small amusement park right in the town of Lancaster. Parking is free, all the rides are geared for children 12 and under and it's one of the few places where the size of our family is not unusual.

This year was a little different in that we decided to camp during our visit instead of staying in a hotel. We had to take two cars to fit all our camping gear, but it was so worth it. We saved a ton of money and the weather was perfect. We stayed at the Old Mill Stream Campground which is on the grounds of Dutch Wonderland. It was great! Our campsite couldn't have been more perfect. We were right by the playground where the kids enjoyed playing:
Across the river was a real farm with a real Amish Farmer:
And right next door is Dutch Wonderland! This was perfect for many reasons. First we could wake up and eat a healthy breakfast of scrambled Eggs, bacon and French toast:

with Nutella, of course:

Then we could just walk right over to the park, but not before capturing this moment with our new friend Luke:
What, you don't see Luke? Look a little closer:
See him now? He is five, hasn't started Kindergarten yet and is wearing a shirt that says "Pull my finger." He would come over whenever we came back for a meal or a rest begging us to take him with us. He wasn't sure what Dutch Wonderland was and didn't seem to understand we were right next to it (apparently the large roller coaster right next door was not something he noticed), but he definitely wanted to go. He happily made himself part of our family by popping into our pictures that were taken while using the automatic shutter feature.

After a fun morning of crossing floating bridges:

getting our picture taken with a large dragon:and a large pretzel:Driving choo choo trains:and embarrassing my children:

We came back to our campsite for a little lunch:

It was back to the park for more fun! Milking plastic cows:driving cars:riding sky rides:and visiting some Amish relatives. The resemblance is uncanny!

After dinner (back at the campsite) and a few more hours back at the park, we were ready to relax with a nice campfire and some yummy smores. Don't worry, Luke is there ready and willing to help us eat those smores. First he would like to know what a smore is.One of the things Trent and I liked the best about this campsite is that it's right in the middle of town, but feels like you are out in the country. I commented that I liked the fact that we didn't have to worry about bears. Maybe because of this comment, or maybe because we were tired after a long day, Trent and I failed to remember to put our garbage sack in the car. Around 2:00 am, I woke up and Trent says, "There's a skunk getting into our trash!" After a few tense moments, it finally wandered off without making too much of a mess. Luckily Trent did not barge out there like he first wanted to do when he thought it was a dog. Now that would have made the trip memorable!

The next day we packed up our campsite, but we weren't finished yet. We were in railroad country after all! A quick trip to the railroad museum:

where I made Claire work hard shoveling coal:

was followed by lunch surrounded by more Amish farmland:Before driving home, we made a stop at the ever popular Choo Choo barn.

Despite making everyone wearing matching shirts, the kids once again had a wonderful time. If you don't believe me, just ask them:

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!!! Today we got up early and picked these :

Blueberries! Yum! We're hanging around home and eating burgers tonight. Trent, Eleanor and maybe Claire will see the fireworks tonight. Ben's skipping because he doesn't like the loud noises. Kate is missing because it's way past her bedtime. Macy is missing because it's Saturday night, and because she needs more sleep than the others, she decided she needed her sleep to be fresh for bible class tomorrow. :)

However you're spending the day, hope it's a fun one!

Summer Vacation is here and the fair is coming.

We here in the Palmer house believe in getting things going for summer vacation as soon as possible. The day after school let out we left town and went to everyone's favorite summer vacation destination Rock City. Okay, it's probably not everyone's favorite. In fact, I'm not sure it's our most favorite, but it is a favorite.
Growing up in Arizona, (maybe it was Idaho-I can't remember) I once saw a show on PBS about how people would paint "See Rock City" on the roof of their barns. I always wanted to go after seeing that show. Although the first time I went it was nice, it has been much more fun taking the kids.

The kid's favorite part of Rock City is called the "Fat Man Squeeze". It's almost all they ever talk about when we go (or when we're not there, but talking about Rock City). Another favorite is where you can see seven states at one time.

Then we make our way to Fairyland Caverns.

Inside is Mother Goose Village. We spend a lot of time in here.

Lots of dayglo painted nursery rhymes. It's quite impressive. You know what else is impressive? That this picture turned out so well considering it's dark in Mother Goose Village and I didn't use a flash.

After visiting Rock City, we drove on down to Trent's parents. We attended the wedding of his nephew. It was very beautiful. The girls all wore matching dresses that I made. Here's a picture of Claire in one of them:

I would show you a picture of all the girls, but I didn't take one. Someone else did. Maybe someday if I get a copy, I'll post it. The dress above is the only one that is fairworthy. It escaped the wedding and reception feast of BBQ unscathed and is now hidden safely in a closet where it will stay until fair time.Next on the agenda was to visit the place where all Cabbage Patch Kids are born. Although I was a bit too old for Cabbage Patch Dolls by the time they were really popular, I always wanted to visit this place.

I think this is Eleanor's doll. They give all visiting Cabbage Dolls a visitor's tag. Very cute.

Checking out the newborn nursery.

We were able to watch a really live Cabbage Patch Birth! I was so excited I forgot to take pictures. It was a girl! Eleanor was chosen to give the baby it's middle name. She chose Grace. So if you go visit and see Cinderella Grace on your visit, you will know who gave her her middle name.

Visiting the cousins and brothers and sisters as they like to say.

By the end of our trip, Kate couldn't go past one of these without getting her picture taken.

We did other stuff too like bowling and watching movies, but you don't need to see pictures of that. We also got to see my great nephew. He couldn't be any cuter if he tried.

As is often the case when visiting Trent's family in Georgia, there is a lot of driving involved. That means lots of time for me to smock!

Here's one of the things I finished up. There's a story behind this one and I'm not sure it's over yet, but it's close, very, very close. I'll tell it another day when I've gotten some sleep. Is it fairworthy? Yes. Would I like to bury it under a rock and never see it again? Yes!

I also worked on this. It's been a pain and I'm not entirely happy with it either, but I'm a perfectionist-especially when it comes to things I'm going to enter in the fair. Recognize the fabric? Claire's dress is made from the same fabric. There's a story behind this piece too and believe it or not, it's related to the previous photo of smocking.

The fair is 6 weeks away. I'm sick with anticipation. I'm literally sick. I feel like I will throw up every time I think of that deadline, but that is another post for another day.

Things I did today.

I picked strawberries and made two strawberry pies.

I bought one blueberry bush,

with blueberries!

I had Claire try on Simplicity 2918 to see how it fit. It fits nice. I just need to hem it.

Here's a close up of the bodice.

I also made a cake, read some blogs, ate shrimp scampi for dinner and turned 40.

It was a good day.

A new baby!

I have a new great nephew!!! His name is Jet, he was born on Tuesday and he's very cute. If you'd like to see him (and you know you do), please click here.