Blooming

One of my flowers is blooming!

As it was opening

Fully in bloom

I also have 3 more blossoms coming :)

Birthday Party

This past weekend we headed up to Michigan to surprise my mom for her birthday. We had everything in place for her to arrive under false pretenses to her party, people there to yell surprise, and a scrapbook filled with birthday wishes and fun memories. Our plan started by spending Friday night at my sister's house and on Saturday before heading to set up the party we stopped at Anderson and Girls for their free petting zoo. My oldest sister and one of her daughters also had come up and we had fun showing them around and introducing them to the amazing homemade blueberry doughnuts.

We got to touch the reindeer very soft antler, he didn't really care

New prairie dogs

Coming over to say hi :)

Arctic Fox cubs

Michelle with a baby goat

A baby lemur coming to say hi

 We had fun seeing and getting to touch a lot of animals we haven't been able to interact with as much before. We got to touch a zebra, wallaby, and also the Lemur they had out, she kept jumping from people's shoulders and getting into the banana's on the counter :) It was fun watching her. Then we jumped into our cars and headed to my parent's church to set up for the party.

Cakes and fresh flowers from our yard

Scrapbook

All the quilts my mom has made for all of us

Titus and Stephen stacking napkins

 After the party we said our good byes to Michelle and the kids and went our to dinner in Grand Haven at our favorite pizza place. Then we went out to the boardwalk and walked to the end of the pier before driving to our favorite ice cream place before heading home. Ahh, Michigan in summer... I miss getting to do this more often. I LOVE going to Grand Haven in the summer.

On the pier

Elizabeth, Kara, Carlyn, and Dan

My parents

On Sunday we all went to church and had some lunch before heading home. It was a very fun weekend and we enjoyed getting to spend time with Elizabeth and Carlyn.

State Fair

Last Saturday Dan and I went down to Indy to go to the state fair. We were excited to spend the day with Jen and possibly see a lot as it was the first weekend of the fair.

Wolf show

Beef tips and potatoes

Tractor ride and food stalls

After catching a little bit of the wolf show as we walked in we headed to find food :) Our first stop was for Beef tips and potatoes, a favorite for all of us. We walked around past a lot of the rides and vendors towards the animal barns and got some corn on the cob before checking out the animals and exhibits.

Lamb barn

Twin lambs born on July 27th

Horse barn competition

Staying inside the lines

 We wandered from the sheep barn, through the horse competitions, to the quilt exhibit, and finally to the bunny and chicken barn. We had fun watching one of the lamb shows and a horse riding competition before being put into a coma from the cuteness of all the bunnies and baby chicks.

Baby chicks

Bunny

 We snapped some fun pictures before leaving the poultry and rabbit barn :)

Me and Dan

Me and Jen

 We wrapped up our time at the fair by getting our elephant ears and funnel cakes. As we ate them we wondered into the exhibit hall to see the World's largest Popcorn Ball. It was huge and they are going to break it apart and feed to animals once the fair is over.

Popcorn Ball

Our feet were very tired by the time we left and were glad to sit and relax at Jen's house for the rest of the evening.

Baby Shower

On Sunday we had a baby shower for Angie. Dan was a huge help as we worked to get things set up.

Dan setting up the clothes line

Sandra's cake

all the bibs and burp cloths

Vases for the door prizes

Food all set up

 As people were arriving we had them cut out their bibs from the t-shirts they brought and I helped walk them through the steps. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the project.

Making bibs 

We had everyone come together for prayer before we ate and then had them do a fun questionnaire about events that happened the year Angie and her husband were born. It was fun hearing the responses and it was a nice change from the usual baby shower games. Then Angie got a chance to talk about the baby and becoming a mom and people were asking questions and offering advice. Then it was time to open gifts.

Getting food

Working on the questions

Opening the quilt

Me and Angie

Everything went really well and we were all glad we could be there to celebrate with Angie as she will soon become a mother.

Baby Quilt

I decided to make a baby quilt for my friend Angie. So she picked out a pattern and we grabbed our husbands and went to Shipshawana to pick out fabric...and eat good food :)

Here is how it turned out:

Putting the pieces together

Adding the rows

With the boarder

All finished!!

Here is what the back looks like

It was so much fun to work on and I got to use the extra fabric for burp clothes which was a fun surprise for Angie at her shower.

County Fair

On Sunday Dan and I went to the county fair. It was the last day but there was still a lot going on. We checked out all of the exhibits and I learned a lot about what can be submitted to the fair. We enjoyed looking at the quilts and Dan suggested that I enter a quilt for next year...which I am considering. We of course stopped in to see some of the animals and I took a few pictures of some of the cute ones :)

 Bunnies!!!

Goats

 We took some time to sit and watch the barrel racing. I had never seen this event live before and it was fun watching how fast everyone was trying to ride and which horses didn't want to do what their riders wanted.

one of the riders

picture of the fair grounds

We made sure to get some food while we were there as well. I had a really good elephant ear and we shared some German roasted cashews. Once we got home Dan set to work on our toilet which has been leaking. He thought maybe the wax ring needed to be replaced.

You can kind of see in the picture...but there wasn't a wax ring at all! We were surprised it only just started leaking. So Dan put a new wax ring down and no more leaking toilet.