Main Street Market

I needed to get away.

The girls did too. 

The necklaces the girls are wearing here was picked out at one of the booths from Main Street Market.
Clara went with resin roses, Rhiannon went with a native american bust.
 (Unfortunately I don't remember the shops names where we got them.)

One of my dear friends was set to participate in this amazing little festival called Main Street Market in Rockford, Illinois.  

Cuteness abounds.

Perfect!  
It was only a two hour drive, the girls and I had never been there before so there was new scenery to experience and we could shop for insanely cute stuff. (see below...)

I'm told this AMAZING painting I got for a steal is in fact "creepy".

I beg to differ.
This dog begs to differ, too.

Insanely cute stuff ==Right up our alley!

It was held at the Midwest Village Museum.  So there were fun artifacts like this hand pumped well.  I told the girls that there was one of these on the farm I grew up on.   They told me " that kind of make's you ancient, Mom."

After Rhiannon showed Clara how this crazy ancient contraption worked she, of course, had to have a try as well.

I'll give you one guess as to what happened.
If you grew up with one of these I bet you already know.

Clara grabbed that handle, pulled down with all of her might and bonked herself really good right on top of her head.  

That pretty much ended the festival fun for us.

However we weren't ready to head home yet.  We asked a local if there was a beach or a lake we could go wander about for a little while.  He sent us to a beach about 10 minutes away.

  We got to the "beach".  
It looked and smelled like a cow pond with some sand around it.  

A cow pond beach they were going to charge $3 a person to go on, mind you.  

Looking for snakes.
Because they want me to have a heart attack.

We said "no thanks" and decided to explore the forest near it instead.

Where the faeries live.

We noticed a TON of large hawks in the area.  After walking into the woods we also noticed there were a TON of chipmunks scuttling about.

I did NOT tell the girls the connection between the hawks and chipmunks.  I did tell this little guy that he needed a better hiding spot.

All in all it was a pretty magical day.

Have a great weekend!

Look At The Wall!

I went away this past weekend for a girl's weekend.  

I came home to my kids liking each other and a clean house. 
 The Mister even said Clara slept like a champ.

Apparently I need to go away more often.

Also, I am a really really mean mother, see below:

jjj

Day Tripping

Yesterday it actually got above 40 degrees.

Heat wave!

Since the weather was enjoyable, The Mister suggested a day trip to Michigan. 

Like any good northerners, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to spend the day at the beach.

Clara likes to guide us with her map. 

Rhiannon climbed up an ice covered tree...

And then wanted to walk over these icebergs to get to the lake.  

I swear if that girl doesn't get some sense in her I will never let her move out of the house.  She scares me silly almost every day.

Some family ice skating action went down.  

As well as some slide racing.

I totally won.

These pictures were taken at Warren Dunes State Park.

I can't wait to come back for some great hiking this spring.

We stopped for a food break and ended up at the worst restaurant ever.  It was called Fitzgerald's.  It's in Sawyer MI.  The service was terrible.  The food was worse.  I wouldn't waste your time or money here if I were you.  However they did have a really cool painting of this dog.

We ended our trip by stopping at a few antique stores.

First, we met the worlds largest and sweetest dog, Maggie. 

I'm pretty sure this is the flying dog creature from 

The NeverEnding Story.

We finished with this place.  It's 3 giant barns, all connected, and filled with antiques and large beautiful, ornate chandeliers.
Drool....

Those windows = to die for.

Happy Monday!

Hyenas

This weekend the girls and I made another short and sweet trip to Long Hared Grandma's house for my little sister's bridal shower.  It was fantastic to see everyone and I do believe she made out like a bandit at that shower!

Clara and Rhiannon were so happy to see their aunts and cousins.  The entire weekend was go go go go, play play play play!  Clara even slept most of the way home.  However, when she woke up she told me about a dream she had where the two of us went into the forest to visit the hyenas.

(Hyena's are Clara's new favorite animals.  Probably not the animal you want your 3 yr old to root for in the Lion King, but.....)  

Then for the rest of the trip (a little over two hours) Clara screamed and fussed about how we 

"HAD to go to the FOREST to see all her friend HYENAS!"

I promised her, if she would please please for the love of god stop screaming, we would ride our bikes to see the hyena's in the morning. 

It worked. 

Clara enjoyed the rest of the car ride and Rhiannon and I enjoyed the non screaming three year old. 

Without fail, about 6:45 this morning, Clara crawled into my bed and asked if the Hyena's were awake yet?  

So even though my house is a complete disaster area, I have laundry coming out the wazoo and I have house guests coming tomorrow morning, we suited up and rode across town to see ourselves some Hyena's!

Taking a "rest"

I made her wait ten minutes so Mama could get some coffee from the field house before we walked to the Hyena enclosure.  As you can see from above, it was a bit tortuous for her.

Luckily, the zoo offers Hyena carousel rides, too!

Still, ain't nothing like the real thing and once the carousel stopped she was ready to go!

When we finally got to the Hyena enclosure, they proved to hold true to their mannerisms by not wanting to have anything to do with us human folk.

Thankfully, this very shy but also very curious guy, briefly came out of his cave to say hello a few times.

It seemed to appease the wee one, and that is good enough for me!

Happy Monday!

Southern Accent

A.  Nobody told me that teenage girls eat JUST AS MUCH as teenage boys.  Sometimes, when I am putting her dinner plate down, I feel like if I don't get my arm out of the way, it too will be devoured.  I have never seen such a small person with such a  ravenous appetite!

So to all my friends out there who are just now having babies - (and they are all having boys!) - Don't feel like you are the only one who is feeling the grocery bill blues!  The ones with the girls are feeling it too!

B.  The "why" monster has invaded Clara's brain.  I think I hear that question around 6 million times a day.

C.  We just came back from an amazing trip to Washington D.C.  I don't know what I was expecting to find there, but I didn't think I was going to love the area as much as I did.  I think the biggest breath of fresh air  was the fact that we were not in segregated areas.  (If you are not from Chicago you may not know this, but Chicago neighborhoods are so segregated it is sickening.  I almost feel I am doing my children a disservice raising them here.)

However, while I was in D.C. it felt like I was back in the south, People would sit on their front porches and everyone said hello to you, or was just generally pleasant   THAT does not happen in Chicago.  If someone on the street says hello to me I never stop to chitchat.  EVER.  There is always ulterior motive.  And it usually involves money.

Plus, we left Chicago in a cold and flooded state of emergency while Washington D.C. was warm, blooming and beautiful.  Our cab driver who took us from the airport had to think the Mister and I had both lost our minds since we both were hanging our heads out the window like a couple of dogs for the entire ride.

It was fantastic!

That night we ate at this fantastic BBQ joint called the Kangaroo Boxing Club.  

We highly recommend it!

But the reason of our trip was this...

(Congratulations K and D!)

We all had a wonderful time at your beautiful wedding!

At the "Green Turtle"

Seriously?  Abe even joined in the festivities!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous week!

Happy Humpday!