Project Life Tuesday

So this is Project Life - The Slacker Edition! The camera did not come out much last week. The result ... boring pictures. I'll have to dig up some filler pictures for the three days I am missing. But here is our week for now.

Monday, August 16

Today I cashed three checks from our fair winnings.

$1.25 ... Ryleigh
$15.00 ... Traci
$37.50 ... Tricia

In my defense, they missed $5 on my check, but Tricia pretty much put me to shame this year!





Tuesday, August 17

Today, Dave finally got the fish tank cleaned up. Tricia won five new fish at the fair last week so the tank needed to be cleaned desperately. Unfortunately, one of our "old" fish did not appreciate his new buddies and had a water burial. And even more unfortunately, one of the new fish decided to jump ship and landed on the floor, where he stayed until Wednesday morning when I found him. Oops!




Wednesday, August 18

No picture today. Slacker Day #1


Thursday, August 19

No picture today. Slacker Day #2


Friday, August 20

We went to a new State Park this weekend. This is the sign as you enter Big Stone Lake State Park. We decided to head up to Ortonville to visit Grandpa Don & Judy. Ortonville was celebrating their Corn Festival so we took part in some of the festivities.




Saturday, August 21

No picture today. Slacker Day #3


Sunday, August 22

Could this be more boring? Our site number at the campground this weekend. The campground was okay ... sites were a little close together and it was fairly rustic. We visited the SD State Park and decided that might be a better option next time.



So there is my slacker week of Project Life. I promise to have a better picture week next week! Remember to head over to Jessica's site to check out the other Project Life entries!

Project Life - Fairs and Festivals and Plays - OH MY!

WHAT A WEEK! We were so busy this week that I barely had a chance to think! Rather than take a picture a day, I am just picking some of my favorites from the week.



http://www.jessicaturnersblog.blogspot.com/

Fairs and Festivals and Plays - OH MY!

The week started with Tricia having auditions for The Princess and the Pea. The production was put on by the Missoula Children's Theater and the Calumet Players. Auditions were Monday for two hours and rehearsals began right after lunch. Every day, the kids practiced from 10:30-3:00 and they did their first performance at 7:00 on Friday night. What a busy and long week for these kids, ranging from 1st through 8th grade. They did just terrific! Tricia was cast as one of the "phony princesses" of Glacierdom and you can see just how much she loved her role!

The Pipestone County Fair was also this week, Wednesday through Saturday. Both girls just adore the fair. Since we live across the street there really is no avoiding going over there every night. We just have to ration the ride tickets and game money. Ryleigh loved going on the "Miracle Round".




Tricia found Aubrey on the last day of the fair and they wandered around together. Finally they convinced us that Aubrey should spend the night. Aubrey kept trying to persuade Tricia into going on the Zipper, but she did not give in. They both love the Sizzler though.



This was Ryleigh's favorite ride, the octopus. She went on this one about six or seven times over the four nights. The arms went up and down as it went in circles and it was plenty bouncy. Even though she won't admit it, Tricia even enjoyed this one with her sister once. The best part about this year's fair was the carnies. They were great - clean, smiling, not making us use tickets to ride with Ryleigh when necessary. The rides were all clean and they worked well. This is a huge change from past years.



They had bumper cars this year and even though they went pretty slow and the kids spent most of the time stuck together, Tricia had a blast. Just check her out with her sunglasses and stage make-up still on!




And as if the play and the fair wasn't enough for one week ... the Civil War Festival was also this weekend. Pipestone has the festival every other year. Two years ago, Tricia, Aubrey, and I helped with the games. This year, we just wandered around with all three girls in costume looking adorable and oh so Little House on the Prairie! We spent all of Sunday enjoying the pretty dresses and walking the grounds. Ryleigh was so exhausted that she crawled in my lap and fell asleep during the battle, even through the cannon booms.



Oh, and don't forget all the open-class entries that Tricia scrambled to finish up ... I have to get some pictures taken of all the crafts. I never did get pictures taken of the baked goods, but suffice to say that Tricia cleaned up at the fair this year!

So that was our week. I cannot believe that I survived it! And to make it even worse, I had the 2-day paraprofessional conference at work on Wednesday and Thursday so I was at work at 6:00 all week. No wonder my legs are feeling like I ran a marathon, I basically did over the course of the week.

Remember to head over to Jessica's site to check out the other Project Life entries.

Project Life Tuesday

I am way late getting this posted this week. My life just keeps getting more and more crazy! I am embarking on this crazy journey to take a picture a day for the entire year. So far so good! Here are my pictures for the week; head over to Jessica's site to check out the other Project Life Tuesday posts.

Monday, August 2

FINALLY! The tree came down! Here they are just as they were getting started. The entire giant tree came down in such a short time.



Tuesday, August 3

Miss Ryleigh in the tub with her goggles on. She has gotten much more confident in the pool this summer thanks to Grandma Peg. So when we found these goggles, she just had to try them in the tub!



Of course, Tricia cannot be outdone. Check out those cool goggles!




Wednesday, August 4

Thank goodness I took two pictures yesterday ... no picture today! And I had the BEST picture for today, but my camera batteries were dead! Tonight when I got out of my car after work I looked at the odometer. It read 80808. How cool would that picture have been?!?! Lesson learned ... take the picture IMMEDIATELY!


Thursday, August 5

Oh joy, a trip to Slayton to pick up supplies for the para conference. I waited until just the right moment on the way home to get this picture of the odometer. Not as cool as 80808 would have been, but such is life.




Friday, August 6

Today, Tricia had Aubrey over for the afternoon and then to spend the night. I was able to sneak in and snap this picture before they woke up on Saturday. Who knows when they finally fell asleep!




Saturday, August 7

It has been a while since we've featured Holly. Tricia took this picture and actually entered it in the fair. We love our Holly-dog.




Sunday, August 8

It was HOT, HOT, HOT today. Tricia and I spent the day baking our fair entries (four each ... the house is FILLED with baked goods!). In between she was outside playing with Ryleigh, Mataya and Kindra. Ryleigh was out there in the heat most of the day. This was the result. Poor kid. We ended up tag-teaming to get her in a pull-up and then let her sleep in just her shirt.




Another week, another seven pictures to document the daily goings-on of our little family of four. I hope you have enjoyed!

Fair Time!

It is Pipestone County Fair time! For Tricia that always means crafting a ton of stuff to enter into the open class categories. I have entered both photography and baked goods the last several years. I've even managed to win a few purple ribbons along the way.

So here is the list of things Tricia is entering:

Nutter Butter balls
Color enlargement
Watercolor painting
Cake (from mix)
Native American item
Black and white enlargement
Crayon picture
Colored pencil picture
Bookmark
Fuzzy poster
Chocolate chip cookies
Sequence of pictures (person, building, animal, landscape)
Jewelry (from a kit)
Cupcakes
Card
Collage
And there's more, I just can't think of them!

She's been super busy getting everything ready to go over the past week or so. She just LOVES going to the fair the last day and picking up her check.

Oh, and both girls will also enter the coloring contest again this year. Last year, they both got first place for their coloring.

I am not so eager for the start of the fair. We live across the street from the fairgrounds, so the traffic is so horrible for the duration - thank goodness it is only four days! We also often end up with a lot of new friends as people try to find a close parking space and pull into our yard. Getting in and out of the driveway is NEVER fun! Oh yes, I love this time of the year!

RAW(e) Lamps

This week the theme over at Sailor and Company's RAW(e) event is lamps. The main rule for the RAW(e) pictures is that they have to be completely untouched, straight out of the camera. Since I no longer have time to edit pictures (and I have never been very good at it), I love the idea!

This is a picture of my favorite new lamp ... my book light for my NOOK.



I love, love, love my new NOOK! And the book light makes it even better since I can read at night without disturbing Dave. Oh, the beautiful picture of my puppy is helpful too.

I hope you enjoy my little foray into photography every now and again. I miss my old hobby!

Project Life

Last week was a crazy week. Tonia and I spent way too much time packing up and moving the office (a three story house packed to the gills) to our new office location (four tiny offices the size of half of one of our previous levels). I worked so darn close to 60 hours that I wish I would have put in that last 30 minutes at some point.

Anyway, since we were packing and moving and moving and packing, I never even picked up a camera. So I thought I would take you all on a trip down memory lane. These pictures were all taken at the end of July in the years 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. It was fun digging up these oldies but goodies.

So, without further adieu ... please watch as my beautiful girls grow!

Monday, July 26

This is a picture I took back in 2006 when Ryleigh was just 5 months old. Just look at that chubster! And Tricia just adored her then. Oh, to have these days back!

Tuesday, July 27

This one was in July of 2007. The girls were at Troy's house in Danube playing in the dog pool of all things. Even worse, they were playing in their clothes!

Wednesday, July 28

This one was also in 2007. In order to pass swimming lessons, Tricia had to jump off the diving board. She was so scared to do it, but once she did it, she LOVED IT! Here she is just as her feet are about to touch the water.

Thursday, July 29

This shot from July 2008 shows Tricia in all her glory! She modeled for the 4-H Fashion Revue and loved every second of it. She did two different outfits, which she picked out on her own and then wrote about. She has not done this again because we have not found the right 4-H club for her to join.

Friday, July 30

Here is Miss Ry doing what she does best ... napping! I have so many pictures of her in this pose that it is just crazy. This is how she would always fall asleep in the old armchair. Silly kid.

Saturday, July 31

When we were at Yogi Bear campground, the theme was Mardi Gras and they had a bike parade through the campground. Tricia decorated her bike and rode it while I followed on foot. Yogi and his crew were throwing beads into the campsites just like they do in New Orleans. Of course, she couldn't be bothered with clothes ... must wear the bikini at all times!

Sunday, August 1

See, I told you this is what she does best! This picture was taken at the Yogi Bear campground in Sioux Falls on our "Staycation" in July of 2009. She was so tired that she fell asleep in her lawn chair by the fire while wearing her sunglasses! What a character this one is.

So there you have my little trip down memory lane. I am so glad that this kit is versatile and we are able to adapt it as necessary! And how fun is it that we get to see the girls grow right before our very eyes.