Turning 60

Back in August my parents turned 60!  They are actually only two days apart in age.  My mom's birthday is on the 25th and my dad's is on the 27th.  

After much discussion of how we were going to celebrate their big 6-0 my sister and I decided to have it at the clubhouse of Carefree Country Club where my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Stub live in the summer (they come up every summer from Florida).  The location worked perfect, especially because it was a super hot so it was nice to be inside.  

The planning of the party seemed to be whirlwind but everything came together perfectly.  Tami and I had so much help from our Aunts and family friends.  We couldn't have done it without all the help!  It was so much appreciated.  

The party turned out to be wonderful.  So many family and friends came to celebrate!  Even family from out of state.  Monte (my dad's brother) and his wife Angie came from Chicago and Jim (my mom's brother) and his wife Vicki surprised the whole family by coming from Florida.  Oh it brought my mom to tears! 

Some old high school friends came to celebrate, although we definitely missed my mom's best friend Gail and her husband Dick who were unable to make it.  They have been best friends from high school. 

Some of my mom's old work friends and their husbands made it as well.  

Elsie and I headed up to MN a few days before the party to get some finals details together.  One of them being making this picture display.  I actually stole the idea from my pinterest board of ideas for Elsie's 2nd birthday party haha.  I did the "6" in pictures of my mom from when she was itty bitty all the way through to the present and the "0" was dedicated to my dad.  The "!" was pictures of the two of them together that goes all the way back to 9th grade.  They celebrated 40 years of marriage this year as well.  It was so much fun going through my parents old pictures and pictures from my childhood.  I went through just about every single photo album.  

Just a few random shots from around the room. 

Left to right around the table:  Janice, Vicki, Lynn, Ilene, and Grandma Opal

Left to right around the table:  Dad, Tom, Danny, Jim, Stub, Jack

My mom with her siblings and mom.  We weren't able to located my mom's sister Janice when we took this and her brother Rob wasn't able to make it but Lynn and Emily came.  

Jim and Polly-family friends that we grew up with.  They got there towards the end but better late than never.

It was so good to see so many people  that I haven't seen or visited with for so long!  I loved it and there were a few people that surprised us by showing up which is always great! I wish I would have had more time to visit with everyone but I felt like I was running around like crazy and I definitely didn't get as many pictures taken as I had hoped.  Also a big thanks to John who was on Elsie duty all day/night long so I could get everything ready and host the big celebration.  

The Birthday Couple!  Love you both so much and so happy to have the opportunity to celebrate with you!

Beautiful Weekend

Another relatively quiet weekend here in our home-at least compared to our crazy busy weekends that took place during the summer.  I am really enjoying the slower pace that fall brings to our home.  No packing and unpacking every week to prepare for our next weekend outing.  Don't get me wrong...I just love the busyness of the summer but I also welcome time at home and doing things in our neck of the woods as well.

Of course, having our home on the market and having showings just about every Satruday, our Friday nights tend to be filled with house cleaning and this Friday night was no different.  Which is okay because then our home is clean and enjoyable throughout the weekend.

Saturday morning was just a beautiful morning.  All week I had been looking forward to heading out to the Berry Patch.  I have been there a couple of time.  Once back in 2011 when I was pregnant and once back in June when we picked strawberries.  It isn't a fancy place but they have the best fruit!  I really wanted some honeycrisp apples and at $2.25 a pound I just couldn't pass them up.  So Elsie and headed out to go and pick some.  We went early to avoid the crowds.  Plus we had a house showing so we had to get out of the house anyways.

Elsie loved to pick the apples.  I think if I let her she would have picked all day.  Another great thing about the Honeycrisp apples is that the trees were low to the group-perfect height for Elsie.  Ohh these apples were so good and smells so delicious

Elsie had her own little bag that she filled up and wouldn't let go of until we got home.  She also thought it was a good idea to eat an apple on the way home.  We were driving and all of a sudden I hear a "crunch" and sure enough she is biting into one of her apples.  We ended up walking away with 10.5 pounds of apples. I am looking forward to making some yummy muffins. 

After we got home we had lunch and Elsie just "had" to wear my sunglasses. 

After lunch it was time for nap.  Which meant I had a bit of time to get some stuff done-mainly finish cleaning our screens.  There was bit of discussion with our neighbor Kari over the best way to clean screens so I tried two different ways-one with Dawn dish soap and the other way was hot water and vinegar.  I have to say both did a pretty good job of getting our filthy screens cleaned.  Since I had the hot water and vinegar out I decided to clean a small area on our siding that was starting to get a bit mildewy since it is on the north side.  Well, one thing let to another and the whole addition of our house got clean.  It took us awhile (John ended up helping when he got home from work)

And of course had to sit up at the counter for snack-she loves sitting here-it makes me nervous though.  After her nap she helped me make some apple crisp for dessert after dinner.  She is really into helping me :) "I Do It" is one of her new favorite phrases these days.  So she had to help me stir and "measure"

Also this weekend we had an open house which was scheduled for Sunday so we tidied up/clean again on Saturday night and I hit the hay early because I had a run the next morning.

On Sunday morning I ran in the Flapjack 5k/10k in Des Moines.  I originally signed up for the 10k but with such a hot end of summer and John being so busy I definitely didn't run enough to feel confident in my abilities to comfortably run a 10k so I switched to a 5k which was perfect.  It definitely wasn't my fastest of the year but I am ok with that.  Compared to all my other 5ks (Rosy Cheeks, SCAVMA Scamper, Dam to Dam) I "trained" the least for this one, including my one in February.  And when I say trained I just mean logged some miles.  

It was another beautiful morning!  I wasn't sure how to dress and right before the run started I decided to take off my long sleeve and I was so glad I did.  Hillary and I ran together the entire time and I am just glad I never had to stop and walk.  Going in my goal was to do it under a 10 min/mile pace which I did.  

The race was to benefit Children's Cancer Connection.  This is just an amazing group!  I worked with them quite a bit when I worked out at the camp.  They were my biggest group coming out for two full weeks in the summertime and a couple of retreats throughout the year.  Also, Peyton (JoLene's daughter) was/is involved with this group and has offered support for her through her journey. In fact, they just named a room after her for teens called "Peyton's Place".  

Elsie spend the morning with Bev and they met up with Brandi and the girls at the local Arts Festival.  Sounds like she had a good time and I am glad she got out to hang with her cousins again.  

Sunday afternoon was our open house.  Marc wanted it to be clear to everyone on the street that we were having an open house:) We had two couples come through that afternoon for a total of 13 showings since it went on the market.  But that is where it ends.  No second showings and no offers. John and I have already begun to talk about our projects for our current house in the event that we stay in it for a few more years.  I will try to do a home update soon.   

All in all, it was a great weekend.  The weather was beautiful we spent time with family and friends and we have lots to be thankful for.  

Our Labor Day Weekend

Our Labor Day weekend was pretty low key.  We didn't have too much planned and kind of just went with the flow of things.  Saturday morning we had a showing so we went over and hung out with Amber and the kids at her house, met John for lunch, and then hung out the rest of the day at home.  In the evening I decided to to a couple little projects.  The first is a wreath for the fall.  I found the idea on Pinterest and am so so on how it turned out.

The other is the project for the Busy Bag Swap I set up with a group of friends.  There are seven of us and we are each making a little busy bag for each family and then swap them so each family will have seven different busy bags.  I got the inspiration for the swap from this blog.  My project is turning out to me more time consuming/expensive then I thought but oh well.  I am doing color craft sticks with velcro and they make different shapes out of them.

On Sunday John, Elsie, and I biked to the park in the morning which was fun to have John with us because most of the time it is just Elsie and I.  After nap we ran to the store to get a few necessities and then over to Marc and Ambers for a little BBQ.  I was shucking the corn and I had two little girls who wanted to help.  It was pretty cute!

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After dinner the kids got out the Gator and wagon.  They had so much fun with it!  Elsie loved chasing it around when she wasn't in the wagon.  One time when she was in the wagon, it tipped over and she fell out.  She just started crying, only to find out she wasn't crying because she was hurt but because she wasn't riding in the wagon anymore.  She had to wait until it was her turn again.  haha-tough girl!  We had a little fire with s'mores and then called it a night.  

Monday we got up and headed out to Saylorville Lake with Amber, Marc and kiddos.  It was a beautiful morning but Elsie was a bit of a handful.  She just doesn't want to sit still and when the boat is cruising around the lake she wants to move around-which of course is not safe so most of the morning was a bit of a battle.  Oh I can't forget how I gave Elsie her pacifer in hopes she would stop fussing so much and then she decided it would be a good idea to throw it in the lake to see what happened.  It took a lot of convincing to get her to understand it was never coming back. I hope that next summer things go better in regards to the boat.  

A couple other little highlights...

Elsie was a bit obsessed with sitting in the driveway in her little camp chair.  It was one of the first things she did when she woke up, and then after breakfast, and then anytime she had a minute.  So we spent a lot of time chilling in the driveway

This is a funny story-well at least funny to us.  I have mentioned before that Elsie still sleeps in a sleep sack.  Well lately she has been wanting to read this little board book about Moses.  Well she was reading it with John and otu of the blue she points to Moses and says "Moses, sleepsack"  She thinks that Moses and all the Bible characters wear sleepsacks just like her...one day she will realize they are just robes.  The things she says these days...

Center Grove Orchard

This past weekend Elsie and I went to Center Grove Orchard twice-once Friday afternoon after work with Amber and the kiddos and once on Sunday with Bev, Brandi and the girls.  This year we decided to buy a season pass.  Elsie still gets in free so to make the pass worth it we had to go twice-which we took care of this weekend so all our other trips will be like free :).  Both times this weekend there was hardly anyone there!  It was perfect!  The weather wasn't so perfect on Sunday but we still had a great time.

Both Olivia and Emma just love Elsie but Olivia does such a great job showing Elsie around, taking her hand, and helping her out.  It was so sweet.  This will be very evident as you look at all these pics.  

The first stop was the little tractors-we actually hit this area up twice-once at the beginning and once right before we left.  

Elsie is still just a little too small for this as she can't really pedal but boy did she try.  

The we moved on to the animals-which she just loves!!!  It is so cute too, every time we walk away she waves and says bye-bye to the animals.

After the animals, we headed to the corn pool.  This year I didn't have to worry too much about Elsie trying to put the corn in her mouth.  She loved jumping off the side into the corn...well actually into my arms.  

There was constant reminders not to throw the corn...

Duck Races

Jumping Pillow...I just can't seem to get Elsie to go on this.  We start but not soon after she is saying all done.  One of these days...

The big girls had fun though.  

Well if Elsie couldn't do the little tractors, she definitely was big enough to do these but it didn't stop her from trying.  So I pushed her around the whole track and she would get so mad if I steered-which meant we were constantly running into the side.  

We also tried to send Elsie on the little train.  It started off okay. . .

But it wasn't long before she wanted off.  Not sure if you can tell from this blurry picture but she was not happy at all.  I had to run and get her off.  

She was much happier sitting on the sidelines with her drink, watching her cousins. 

After the train ride we got on the hay ride out to the apple orchard.  

Elsie is obsessed with apples so I knew she would enjoy this.  And the apples were just the perfect size for her!  We picked mostly Galas for eating and Macintosh to do some baking. 

Olivia did a great job of sharing her apple with her little cousin.

After picking some apples we headed back to the little tractors one more time.  Elsie let me push her around a little bit but I think had more fun chasing after the older girls.  

Trying so hard...

Just a couple comparison pictures . . .

Last Year-2012

This year:  2013

Last Year

This Year