Looks like summer!

It feels like it, too!  It has been super hot and humid that last few days, but it is supposed to cool off soon.  We had a super busy weekend with lots of time spent with family.  Since it was so hot, the giant, homemade, 100-foot slip'n'slide came out again...

No pictures of my son, since he was in trouble at the time, just so no one *cough*(Mom)*cough* accuses me of playing favorites.

Grace is now standing up by herself quite a bit.  You know what that mean, right? This is going to be a CRAZY summer!

A stray emu showed up, too.  That doesn't happen every day.

Last night the storm clouds came rolling in... I just stared and watched them for awhile- it was so cool!

 They were already moved over top of us before I could pull myself away to go grab the camera.

 The storm cooled things off and was very much welcomed here!

 The last day of school is tomorrow... then the real summer fun begins!

Giveaway Day Winner

I was shocked to receive so many entries for my SewMamaSew Giveaway Day post!  I cannot get the Random Number generator to show up on the blog for me, and I don't know how to get numbers on my comments (if anyone knows, feel free to explain it to me!)  So I used the generator to get my number, then I counted and recounted to determine my winner.  Congratulations to.... (drum roll)..............

SHANA said...

My plans are to go camping as much as possible!!

Congratulations!  All of the comments about camping made me so hungry for s'mores that I bought graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows at the grocery store last night! 

Thank you to everyone for your lovely comments and WELCOME to those of you who decided to follow my blog- I look forward to getting to know you!

Capturing the Little Moments

 I have a big 'ol mish-mash of things to show you for my Sneak Peek Friday.  Some things I will be sharing a little more about next week, too.  I have been snapping pictures as often as I can (provided my memory card is not full- I procrastinate backing them up and I also can't bear to delete a few of the cutest ones!) I am trying to capture every little moment that I can because everything and everyone is growing so fast!

I was able to capture some beauty in the sky, too.

 I also captured some everyday moments...

I highly recommend the directions for sidewalk paint I found HERE (just use cups that won't tip so easy).

Finally, I captured some little peeks at the crafty things I have been working on lately to share here...

 I am linking up at StudioJRU's Sneak Peek in the Studio Friday- check it out to see what everyone else has been creating!

Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is something that my mom made quite a bit when we were growing up.  It is a great way to use up bread that is not so fresh, or those icky end pieces. You can serve it warm or cold, and it is also perfect for breakfast or a dessert.

Bread Pudding

6 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups milk

8 slices of bread

spreadable margarine or butter

cinnamon

Start with 6 eggs (aren't they so pretty?  They are darker blue and green than it shows in the picture.)

Crack the eggs in a 2 quart casserole dish and beat well.  Add sugar and vanilla...

Mix well and add 2 cups of farm fresh milk.

 Stir together.  Spread margarine or butter on the bread and cut it into quarters.

Push the bread pieces into the egg-milk mixture one at a time.

 Sprinkle the top with cinnamon.  Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour... it will get all puffed up and nearly firm.

Pretty easy, right? Enjoy!

Giveaway Day! YAY!

Hi! Welcome to my little blog!  This is my first time participating in the SewMamaSew Giveaway Day! Well, as a giver.  I have won a few giveaways in the past so I wanted to share this time.

If you are new here, I am so glad that you stopped by and I will be brief because I know you are probably just looking for the giveaway part at the end. My name is Lindsay - you can read a little about me over on the sidebar.  I have trouble focusing sometimes (Oh, look!  It's a squirrel!) so my blog is about a lot of things.

Sometimes I share yummy recipes (I have a really great one I am posting soon!),

sewing or craft tutorials,

little peeks at the things I am making,

or pictures of the simple beauty surrounding us out here in the country.

 If that sounds/looks interesting to you, browse around a little or feel free to become a follower, but I am not requiring it for this giveaway because I wouldn't want to junk up your RSS feed if you don't want me there.

OK, now for the part you are waiting for... I am clearing out my fabric stash little by little, so I am stuffing a small flat-rate box full of fabric (which means I can only ship it in the US.  Sorry, if you are out of the country- I will have a giveaway including you next time!) So here is what I have...

Most of these are 1/4 yard cuts from bolt (not fat quarters),  but some are 1/2 yard and some might be a little less.  A lot of them were for a lovely autumn quilt I was going to make, but I give up! 

To enter- I am keeping this simple- just leave a comment telling me what your plans are for this summer.  I am hoping to do a lot more fun things with my kids to keep them busy and out of trouble!  Make sure that I have some way to contact you.  That's it!  I will draw a winner at random on May 25.

Thank you so much for dropping by!  Now go ahead and click HERE to get to the full list of giveaways going on this week!

Lake Tobias Field Trip

Last week I had the privilege of chaperoning my Kindergartner's field trip to Lake Tobias Wildlife Park.  It is located out in the country and centered around a man made lake, so it is a beautiful setting.



Bagged lunch packed and all ready to go!

The weather was absolutely beautiful and we had such a great trip!  I took a ton of pictures and I wanted to share a few (OK- a lot) of them to show you what a great place this is!

Our first stop was the new reptile house.  We got to sit right up front next to the alligators for a little show including snakes, turtles, a tree sloth, and more.

They also have some exotic birds and monkeys.

Then it was on to the Safari Ride! (It is my favorite part of the park.) 

They have old school buses turned into Safari vehicles and many of the park's animals are roaming together in their natural habitat. 

The buses drive around through the trails and you can feed the animals special crackers.  The animals are quite used to this (even spoiled I would say), so they come right up to the bus, and sometimes even ONTO the bus!

The tour goes through wide, open fields and wooded valleys.

I know it is a little blurry because my zoom gets like that, but a baby was born just before our bus came through!

Hey, buddy!  Are you going to move?

Guess not.  We just stopped there to learn about the animals and give them a snack... this guy knew what he was doing!

Z-Donks!  A mix between a zebra and a donkey!

Elk

Heading back...

After the tour, we walked around the rest of the exhibits.  They have lions and tigers an bears (Oh, my!)

Pretty close there!

 

We also went into the petting zoo.  There are a lot of fat little goats there, but after many school groups visiting that day, they just weren't very hungry... well, for crackers.  They still wanted to eat hair, nametags, and clothing.

Wait!  I want to feed you, little goat!!!

Maybe after you get a drink?

You can find info. on the park HERE.  They have picnic pavilions, a hiking trail, playground equipment, concessions, a gift shop, and WAY more animals than I have pictures of in this post.  This is not a paid post or anything, I just wanted to give a shout-out to a nice, family-owned, local attraction and share about the nice day that we had there.