Super Ems Turns 3!

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I can’t believe it’s been three years since this little princes/super hero/silly girl made her entrance in to this world.I don’t think any of us would trade her for the world!

She has lots of loves but Minnie Mouse and princesses are in the top spots (okay, so are all animals).  I couldn’t resist grabbing up a Minnie Mouse outfit for the occasion.  And, of course the ears. Her brothers had to get in on picture time too. And a Minnie Mouse balloon made it a great day.

Emmie loved opening gifts and enjoyed each one.

Because I’m a glutton for punishment, I decided making a Minnie Mouse cake wouldn’t be too hard.  If I hadn’t messed up on the fondant the first time (and threw it all over the kitchen table), it probably wouldn’t have been bad…Regardless I am super happy with how it turned out and seeing the smile that stretched a mile wide on our birthday girl was worth every bit of the headache I brought on myself.

For those who want a challenge:  Here is the video I used to make the cake.  Take note that in the comments, it also includes a link to a template.  Templates make life a little easier.  I also make my own marshmallow fondant using this website recipe.  Finally, this little image saved me from a lot of headache trying to figure out how to get the peachy/light beige color of Minnie’s face.

Here’s the photo montage of the process to get to Minnie!

Minnie has a face! Phew….at this point, I felt like I might survive.

Bowed up.  Because we had an extremely busy week, I had to get her face made about five days before her birthday.  I just put her in the fridge until we were ready to use her.

The birthday girl with her birthday cake!

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Island Adventures

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Here it is!  The long awaited kitchen island renovation.  We started work on the island in April.  I planned out two weeks without a dishwasher and island and Mark worked hard to get us working by then.  I think he did a great job!  Regardless, we didn’t get it fully finished until May.  Even now, we need to install our disposal button and fix a little bit of a leak.

So before:

The wonky angled sink and the the extremely high bar made the island counter space pretty much useless. (note our sweet Sunny girl who passed away at the end of May.  She was our sweet baby.)

And close to after. Right now, the floors are all torn up…new flooring is going in this month.

Here’s the process:

Getting the tile in.  We used white ceramic tile and some beautiful hand painted talavera tiles.We bought the cabinets and Mark started the planning process

Yes, I would have loved a farmhouse sink, but we found this one and the size and style was perfect.  We thought we wanted a double sink, but we did a lot more research and talking to others (i.e. surveying friends and Facebook peeps) and realized a large one bowl sink may be what will work.  After using it for over two months, I am in love with it.  We go the largest and deepest sink and it’s great for our large pans and dishes!  It’s also going to make a sweet bath for baby Tobin!

Industrial?  Commerical?  Sure, but it was just the style I wanted.

Demo day.  Mark got the bar granite removed while I was away but I got to watch the rest of the island come down.

Bye, bye crazy island set up.

Putting the cabinets in place. We did very little moving of the plumbing and Mark built a box around it to make it easy to get to if needed.  Saved us thousands of dollars in plumbing re-location.  One of the joys of a concrete slab. Since I know next to nothing about how to construct things, I got to paint.  See, I’m the visionary and Mark is the one who makes it happen.

The night before we tiled the counter, was spent arranging, rearranging and sending pictures to friends for approvals and ideas.

Finally decided what we wanted.

The next morning, we go to work.  I did most of the tiling.  Mark did a lot of the cutting.

The couple who grouts together, stays together…right?!  After we finished grouting the whole thing, we we went out on our cruise.  We were exhausted but it was the perfect way to relax.

Mark turned gray from a day of cutting tile!

 

My parents have a lot of stuff because they have an antique booth, go to estate sales, and are frequent auction attendees.  As such, when I mentioned I needed drawer pulls, my mom told me to shop with them first.  And I did.  I found these brass and ceramic pulls that I thought would look great with our already decked out island.  Just needed some slight updating.  

A good ol’ cleaning eraser and some oil-rubbed bronze spray paint….Ta Da!  Brand new drawer pulls.

This island has been wonderful!  We have plenty of room to do meal preps, and all the other things we need to do.  Because we took out the bar, and set it at a proper rectangle, we also have a much wider space.  Our living room looks huge!  I can not wait to get the floors in and see it all finished up (and to get my house put back together.).

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April 2017 Randoms

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On the way home from the NF Symposium and airport, we stopped to grab supper.  When we got back to the car, this was on our window. Such a sweet finding.

Tot is clearly a very social dog.  He loves people but he equally loves visits from other dogs.  We loved being able to watch our friends’ dog, Riley.  Tot and Riley are best buddies! Expecting some rough weather, we battened down the hatches but wound up getting just rain…which meant we had some fun in puddles! Emmie’s first ponytail!   Emmie’s first person!  I personally think we got a smart girl on our hands! Teaching Ceili Rain to crochet. Bryant is a teeth losing machine! Waiting on Zoe to find a dress for Easter, the other two girls decided to have a fashion show.  What happens on long drives.

Meeting a friend’s newest and beautiful daughter, O.  Look at all that hair! Obviously, we have a very busy house and some days are busier than others.  We can gauge how busy our days are by Tot’s comatose state.  This particular night, he wouldn’t budge until we started turning lights off and heading to bed.
Emmie’s figured out how to take pictures with our phone.  And edit them.

Sunday mornings are no longer bow mornings for Emmie.  All she ever wants is a flexi!  I miss the bow days but I have to admit she can wear a flexi just as well.

 

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Cruisin’

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We love where we live.  Not only are we three hours from the beach or mountains, but there is always something to do.  Especially in the spring and fall, before and after the humidity.  There are swamps to explore, rivers to walk on.  We can go to baseball games or kayak the canal.  Or, in this one date night, take a beautiful open air cruise…with music…on the canal.

It was probably one of the most memorable and beautiful date nights we have had.   There was a great interpretive museum before we went on the two hour or so cruise.  We had no idea what to expect with the music and all we knew was that it was bluegrass.  The music did not disappoint.

Another treat was we were able to watch the sunset.

This is Butt Bridge.  I know what you are thinking and you can snicker all you want.  But (no pun…okay, yeah it was), Sir Archibald Butt was a hero of the Titanic sinking and an ambassador for the United States.  He is credited with saying “Women and children first.”  So, this bridge may be called Butt Bridge but there is a reason for it…besides the obvious.

Bonus treat was watching the sunset.

Mark and I agreed that this would definitely not be our last canal cruise!

My advice:  Don’t just sit around complaining there is nothing to do…go out and explore!  You may very well be missing out on a true hidden treasure.

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Close (Ark) Encounter

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The Ark Encounter is not anything that I can really post and share a few family pictures and expect you to really experience it.  It is a true personal experience that you really can grasp the enormity of unless you are actually there.  Ya’ll, there are just no words to describe how amazing it is.

I’ll do my best to share some highlights from our trip to the Ark.  We got there before just before it opened and our achy feet and tired kiddos were ready to head home by around 4.  But, in the time, we managed to see and read as much as we could.

The woodwork and craftsmanship was just astounding.  I believe over 200 Amish craftsman had a part in this and their amazing art and talent definitely shown through.

This was a great infographic that laid out the plausible way the ark could have held “all” the animals and 8 people.  I can’t imagine the amount of research that went in to this.

Taking a quick break on a wooden beam!

The door to the ark.  Just one example of how Christ is the only door to Heaven.

After exploring all day, ya gotta take a break.   Ya’ll Bryant just went and sprawled out like this.

There is a small petting zoo on sight and the highlight for our whole family were the goats.  They were so sweet and we all enjoyed petting them all.

This girl was a trooper through the whole trip and by the end of it, I realized I could turn the back seat of our double stroller around and she could easily climb in and out.  This saved my back from a thousand pick up and put downs and she loved talking to mommy when she wasn’t knocked out cold.

 

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Creation Museum Adventures

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This was our third trip to the Creation Museum and it was just as good.  T The last time we were there, we had a miscommunication with Ace and he missed out on ziplining.  We made sure to get him in to this trip.  He had a blast. The petting zoo…of course, was a big hit. Emmie loved the duck which they all named Cucumber.  She would squeal each time he gave her a little nibble on her hand.   And there were chickens!  She really wanted to give them hugs but they weren’t having any of it. Ceili Rain and Emmie each choose a fox for their souvenirs!

Quick picture before we head to our next great adventure…the Ark.

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At the Convention

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We sat through a lot of sessions and all of us learned a lot. And also got some silly pictures in. The treat was hearing Andrew Peterson sing on Thursday evening and hearing him speak on Friday morning. The most we saw of Cincinnati was the rooftops of several beautiful buildings near the parking deck.

The kids were thrilled to meet some new authors but also one that was familiar to us.  S. D. Smith wrote a book about rabbits with swords.  I grabbed it up for free on the kindle, read it to the kids aloud, and we were hooked.  We highly recommend The Green Ember and the whole series!  Seriously…rabbits…swords…who could lose.

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The House on the Corner

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After  looking at the cost of hotel rooms in and around Cincinnati for our larger than normal family, we decided to look in to renting a house.  We went through Deborah’s Guesthouses.  It was an absolute score!  The price was much less than two hotel rooms.  We were five minutes from the Creation Museum and the little area we were in was nice, quiet and near a park!

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Little Ponderosa Zoo

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I’ve mentioned before how we decided for Christmas this past year to give the kids an experience rather than a bunch of gifts…because ya’ll, our house is covered in stuff.

Well, the experience included a trip to a home school convention in Cincinnati to hear and hopefully meet our favorite author and singer, Andrew Peterson, a trip to the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter.  We made our trek in April.

About a month before the trip, we had a family movie night and stumbled upon a cute little movie on Pureflix called Little Ponderosa Zoo.  We soon learned that the Little Ponderosa Zoo wasn’t just a movie but an actual place and it happened to be “pretty close” to our route to Cincinnati.  Since I needed to get out every two hours, we decided to include this little zoo in our trip.

Ya’ll, it was the best decision.  A perfect break during a long road trip and an opportunity to see some pretty neat animals up close and personal…and feed them! It’s a wildlife sanctuary and most of the exotic animals were “pets” before the owners realized they were actually real wild animals.

If you are ever in the middle of Nowhere Tennessee and want to get out of the car and rest for a couple of hours.  Little Ponderoas Zoo is THE place to go!

Rabbits!  Ready and willing to be loved on.

We walked out of the barn and Emmie saw all the goats.  She ran up to them and began proclaiming, “I wuv you!  And I wuv you!  And I wuv you!”  She was in heaven.

Liam and Silas were super excited to feed the ponies.

We fed kangaroos too!

My super excited treat was seeing a little rescued monkey as everyone was leaving.  He was very curious about all of us and played peek-a-boo with me, running away from me and then eventually getting a little closer as I continued to talk to him.  And then, oh my, then he looked at me and gave the biggest grin.  I flipped out.  And no one was there to witness it or get it on camera!    Most of the monkeys are generally from abusive or neglected situations.  This one, was just absolutely adorable!

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