camping with friends, dogs & marshmallows

Last weekend we went camping with friends at Comlara Park, which is just about 15 minutes north of town

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The weather was as perfect as camping weather gets!

And we just hung out and enjoyed it!

We cooked "hots" or "brawt dogs" for dinner - that's what Kevin said when he mixed up brats & hot dogs! Haha! :)

The first day of camping Callie is a big scardy cat and stays right next to us, but by the second day she's out exploring anything and everything.

Annie spent some quality relaxation time in the hammock.

Cute pic of "ZoZo" - it was her first time camping!

Bryce made a supply run for everybody, thanks Bryce!

The campfire was sooo pretty

With a fire this good we definately took advantage and had some smores!

Ok Ok, quite trying to drag it out of me... I had 2 smores and 8 more marshmallows

Geez, I was camping, marshmallow are what you're supposed to eat when camping!

It was also Harley's first camping trip, he really LOVED camping.

Here he's chasing a spider across the campsite!

And of course I couldn't leave out a pic of Mia :)

It was a really fun camping trip, can't wait to do it again!

Annie took some fun jumping pics & couple pics; check them out here

 

blueberry muffins

This is my favorite blueberry muffin recipe. It's so simple and that really let's the blueberries speak for themselves. Yum!

They do appear a little darker than I usually make them... I got distracted and didn't listen for the timer very well ;)

Don't you just want to dig in???!!!

Blueberry Muffins

1/2 cup butter

1 1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup milk

2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, washed

1/4 cup sugar (to sprinkle on top)

Preheat oven to 375. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and 1 1/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time.

Mix together flour, baking powder & salt. Add dry mixture to butter mixture alternating with milk.

Mash 1/2 cup blueberries and stir into batter. Fold in remaining blueberries.

Fill muffin cups and sprinkle tops with sugar.

Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes. 



more wildlife

Now that we have such nice new windows we love to just sit and stare out them.

This is what Callie & I were staring at the other day:

I guess it was just too hot to do anything but be lazy!

The wildlife around our house understand the concept of windows and doors exteremely well and this guy didn't even flinch at Callie's death glare :)

Happy Summer says Mr. Squirrel!

i can see clearly now that the windows are gone

I can see clearly now that the windows are gone... well, at least the old windows are gone and now we have new windows!!!

We've needed them since we moved in, but frankly it's hard to spend so much money on a functional home improvement expense (rather than a pretty home improvement expense).

However, I'm in love! They are beautiful windows and the ability to open a window without using a can of hairspray to prop it so it stays open is ahhhmazing!

We'll start with least exciting to most exciting :)

Here's the upstairs bathroom before:

and after!

Here's our bedroom before:

and after!

Here's the dining room before:

and after!

Here's the family room before:

and after!

This big window in our family room didn't open before and now it does!

The added airflow has been really great with the weather being so nice lately!

Here's a close up of the new window header we put up in the family room and dining room (and will put in the kitchen at a later date) to add some architectural interest.

Even Callie has been loving the new windows

(sorry for the bad pic quality - phone camera)

What do you think? Pretty, right??!!

I'm working on sewing curtains now so stay tuned for that update!!!

i once had a birthday

I once had a birthday... it was three weeks ago now, but here's some pictures anyway :)

Casey's birthday was just a couple of days b/f mine so we got to celebrate together at our in-laws

Jayne was happy to share in the brithday cake!

I made sangria for my birthday cookout - YUM!

and my baby-girl-friend Ella made sure to check out my birthday flowers

The best part of my birthday was that Kevin got me a hammock!!!!

We've really been enjoying it (except for the bird poop on my maiden voyage nap).

Callie and I have taken many naps in it and sometimes Kevin will join us and rock the hammock!

It's the best thing ever! Seriously!

I LOVE IT!!!!

Despite all the hammock naps, Callie was still worn out at the end of my birthday weekend :)

kentucky derby "k-derby" event

This past weekend my Kiwanis group hosted a horse racing fundraiser called the K-derby

Kevin & I dressed like we were headed to the real Kentucky Derby

Kiwanis is a world wide community service organization that has individual groups (like the Normal Kiwanis Club that I'm a part of or the Bloomington Kiwanis Club that my boss is a part of) that meet together and serve their community by doing service projects and providing financial support to not-for-profit organizations.

 

The fundraiser was sooo much fun! We watched a series of horse races and "bet" on which horse(s) would win. If we were right then we got to enter our winning tickets into prize buckets for a chance to win prizes donated by a local business.

This was the first year I've been able to attend the fundraiser and I already can't wait for next year!

I was on the planning committee, and specifically, I was responsible for the food. I worked with our venue for most of the food and then made serveral cupcakes & cakepops to cover the sweet stuff!

 

I got lots of compliments on the goodies so that was certainly nice, but mostly I was glad to be able to share the treats I enjoy baking so much!



There was chocolate oreo cupcakes with cookies n cream frosting



Coconut carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

Margarita cupcakes with tequila lime buttercream

(to celebrate our fundraiser being held on Cinco De Mayo)

 

Chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes with chocolate buttercream

You might think it'd be hard to beat those yummy looking cupcakes, but the big hit was the cake pops!

I made:

 White chocolate devil's food cake pops

Milk chocolate vanilla cake pops &

Peanut butter chocolate cake pops

 

Luckily, I had a few left over so now that I'm dying for a cake pop after writing this post... I'll go have one of my last hoarded treats :)

it takes a community to grow a garden

Kevin & I were so excited to find out our town was starting a community garden this year!

Kevin stood in line on sign-up day just to make sure we got a plot (and it's a good thing he did, b/c the plots didn't last long at all)!

There were a couple of different sized plots to pick from, but we stuck with the basic 10 x 10 this year as a test to see how green our thumbs will turn out to be :)

Here's our little plot

Mid-April we planted spinach, lettuce, peas, & green beans

Both of our parents had veggie gardens so we grew up eating fresh & yummy homegrown veggies.

Can you pick out the pea seeds in the picture below?

Just this past Sunday we went out to plant green onions, garlic, tomatoes, & peppers

It was hot out! Mia was panting just by observing our hard work!

And Callie was so excited about how well the spinach was growing that she had to have some grass salad right then and there!

I didn't try the grass, myself, but the spinach does look tasty!

We planted green, yellow, & red peppers... can't wait for those!

I've snapped a lot of green beans already in my lifetime, but I'm happily anticipating doing more from my very own garden later this summer.

 I love our pretty little green garden!

 If you're as impressed as I am with how we've actually got stuff growing then I'll have to take & share pictures of some of the other plots... we're just cherry tomatoes amateurs compared to some of the masterpieces out there!