2014 Spencer County Fair

Last Thursday evening, I took Gavin to the 2014 Spencer County Fair.  It's claimed as Indiana longest running fair.  If it doesn't get any better, I'm sure it will quickly lose that title :(  Sad to say, but it's the truth.  

Even though it was little, we still had a good time, and both Gavin and I were worn out when we left!  We had lemonade shake-ups, corn dogs, hamburgers, popcorn, AND taffy!!  Gavin rode rides, raced R/C cars, and jumped in bounce houses; Aunt Stace juggled two cheeseburgers, a lemonade shakeup, and two people having to potty using a yuckty port-a-potty without contaminating any thing!

Thanks to a friend's friend for getting me the free ride bracelet and free admission for Gavin; Aunt Stace still broke the bank buying everything else!  LOL!

 

 

 

10 Ways To Give Your Kids A 1970's Summer

I found this little article from a link on Facebook.  You can view the link to the original story and author here. 

 This article brought back so many memories of my childhood and growing up that I thought it was definitely worth saving and sharing on my blog.  Today's kids will probably never experience the joy that we had back then, but with this article, it will give them an opportunity to try!

10 ways to give your 2014 kids a 1970’s summer:

1 .   Let them watch TV. Plenty of it. But only the TV Land channel. I want my kids to watch The Love Boat, The Carol Burnett Show, The Jefferson’s, Charlie’s Angels, My Three Sons, The Bionic Man,  $100,000 Pyramid, and my favorite, Hart to Hart.  Seriously,  what little girl in the late 70’s  didn’t want to be an amateur detective married to the CEO of Hart Industries, driving around in a yellow Mercedes-Benz SL Roadstar, while sporting a matching lilac pant suit and  perfectly quaffed butterfly winged wavy brown hair?

2.   Eat whatever you want, and/or whatever can find.  There will be no more pantries full of organic vegetable chips, and non-GMO graham crackers. No more refrigerators full of anti-pesticide fruit, free range eggs, and cold pressed juice.  This will be the summer of Frito-Lay and Red Dye #5. I want to see my kid’s reaction when I tear open a tiny envelope of cherry Kool-Aid, sprinkle it into a BPA laden plastic pitcher, dump 4 cups of regular, granulated, white, and maybe even generic sugar (not raw, stevia, or agave,) then add water from the tap, and  viola! You are hydrated! I will be over here drinking a Tab. Lunch will be fried bologna and a blue can of Planter’s Cheese Balls, and for dinner we will pile in the car and go pick up a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, a styrofoam quart of mashed potatoes,  and OMG, dessert will be pineapple upside cake! Made from canned pineapples in…wait for it…syrup!

3.   Make them play outside. Like all day. All. Damn. Day. Hot? Drink from the hose. Run through the sprinklers. Swim in the pool until your hair feels like straw, turns green, and the bottom of your feet are calloused from the bottom of the pool. Search for ladybugs, play hide ‘n seek between the houses, run down the street gutters after a rain storm. Read under a tree. I hear this lady named Judy Blume writes good stuff.

4.   Send them to the movies for the entire day. I will drop you off at around 11 and pick you up for dinner. Its’ real simple. You sneak from one theater to the next. Nobody cares.

5.   Spend three nights in a row at your best friend’s house. No, you don’t have to call to check in every hour. And yes, it’s totally ok their parents will be at work and nobody will be home all day. It will give you plenty of time for #1, 2, and 3.

6.   Make stuff, like from stuff you find. No trips to Hobby Lobby for pre-cut, pre-stuck, pre-fabricated crafts.   Find crap in the garage and assemble it into something you can play with. No, you can’t Google how to do it. Ropes are fun.

7.    Have them put on a talent show. A real, genuine, sing and dance and entertain the hell out of me talent show.  I promise I won’t upload it to Youtube or share it on Facebook. I pinky swear. No, there is no theme, no requirements, no directions, no anything. No, there is no right way to do it. You have an imagination. Please use it.

8.    Play the old Simon game until you want to throw it against the wall, or smash into 1,000 pieces.  It’s the original train your brain app.

9.   Build a fort in the backyard. No, I am not gonna help. Yes, you can use the $125 Pottery Barn Kids duvet cover from your bed. I don’t care anymore. Making a memory trumps 400 thread count cotton.

10.  Finally, learn to find the amazing in the ordinary. Trust me. You will need this skill in your 40’s. I pinky swear.  

Thankful Tuesday 6.10.14

Cobblestone 2014: Here We Go!

Well our 2014 Cobblestone vacation has come and gone.  We had a great time again this year!  In fact, it was probably one of the best times there I ever remember having.  There were some regular families not there, some new families there, and some families that showed up mid-week.  It was an action packed week, yet a week of relaxation.  It definitely went by too fast this year!  

Normally I blog about each day separately but time got away from me.  I did take a picture daily of our planned activities and we pretty much stuck with that schedule.  And I didn't take alot of pictures this year, and the ones I did take, I took with my phone so the quality might not be as good as if I would of used my big camera.

On our way to Cobblestone Monday, Shawn and I stopped at Grant's Farm.  I'll blog about that in a separate entry.  I had heard earlier in the year that there was a new Cobblestone billboard placed along the interstate.  As we got closer I told Shawn to help me keep an eye for it.  I was curious as to what was on it.  I had asked what it looked like, but never got a response.  I was also curious if any of my pictures were on it since some of them have been used on the Cobblestone website.  Imagine my surprise as we got up to the Cuba exit and saw this...

Yep, that's Shawn and Stephanie in the upper right hand corner!!

We finally made it!  Love the Cobblestone entrance!

The first night there it rained, so the outdoor activities got moved inside!

 

Tuesday's Activities

Cobblestone had a contest on Facebook a couple months ago.  For everyone that shared a specific post, your name went into a hat for a drawing for a $25 gift certificate to use while we were there.  I was uber-excited when my name was drawn out of the hat!  All week I was buying stuff and saying "just put it on my tab".  I had to keep making sure that no one else was using my tab too!  LOL!  You have to watch all those jokesters!  And of course David corrected me in the fact that it was actual credit and not a tab.  

We had some rain Tuesday morning, so the bocceball tourney got turned into a tippo toss tourney.

Every year, each morning I would take a picture of Shawn and I outside our cabin.  This year, this was the only time I did it :(  I'm telling you, the week went by fast!

The last couple years, the Anderson's have been showing up in family t shirts.  This year, the Glenn family had t-shirts! HERE WE GO!  

And every evening you'd find a group of people congregating outside the lodge until the lights went out!

Wednesday's Activities

I'm not sure why, but Wednesday morning I was SO TIRED...thanks to my lovely husband for the picture depicting this...hahah!!  And that couch was SO comfy!  (Like my hat Tootie?)

After lunch, I was poolside for the day.  Shawn golfed with his mom and dad.

My fave dessert of the week!  Lemon pie!

Instead of the horseshoe tourney, we all wanted to play a fling 'em tourney!

 

 

Thursday's Activities

Thursday after breakfast, Shawn and his dad went golfing, and I went walking around the property.  I walked down the steps to the cave for a little bit, and then had to walk up all the steps :(  Then I walked down the trail to the river, which was up really high!  Then I had to walk back up the trail and steep hill :(  I also walked around snapped pictures of alot of the different cabins they have around the property.

 

 

 

I always love seeing all the beach towels hanging out around the property!

After lunch on Thursday, we met our friends the Bean's out at Maramec Springs Park to walk around. You can read about that here.

I tore up the bingo on Thursday night!  I always play 4 cards and bingo'd about 6 times!  I even covered two cards on the last cover all game!

Up next...silly games!  Definitely my fave!

Friday's Activities

Shawn and I won a very small trophy for our shuffleboard game win the night before.  Horseshoes was the planned activity, but no one wanted to play it so we all played a shuffleboard tourney.  The Glenn-Bell's actually left with two trophies this year!

Friday after lunch, it was pool:30 for Shawn and I!  We had a great afternoon hanging out in and around the pool just enjoying company with everyone!  

I just love this jokester Garrett!  He's my photog friend at Cobblestone and a great guy!  His family wasn't going to come, but through much persuasion, and probably fit throwing on his part (LOL!), they showed up on Thursday for the rest of the week!  He hacked my phone this night during a very long game of Left, Right, Center!

Saturday's Activities

Shawn and I had to leave Saturday after lunch so we didn't partake in any of the mornings activities.  After breakfast, we went back to the cabin to pack everything up, shower, and then load the car and say our goodbyes.  We don't normally leave until Sunday morning with everyone else, but Shawn had a childhood friend get married and he wanted to go to the wedding.  I'll blog about the wedding in a separate entry.

Hope to see you next year jokester!

See you next season Cobblestone!!

So there you have it...Cobblestone in a nutshell!