Let The Waiting Begin . . .

To make a long story short, my camera has to go in for repairs, so I borrowed my dad's camera. I have a few pics that I can still post from my old camera, but just realized that I didn't get all the right cords from my dad to download photos. It may be Labor Day before I see my parents, so it may be a while until I can post pics of our vacation, etc.

Pray my camera is fixed quickly . . . I don't like being without out it; althought I'm thankful to have a back up in the meantime!

Chocolate, Chocolate & More Chocolate

We are heading to Hershey, PA this week on a mini vacation. After a trip to Daffin's Chocolates, it looks like including chocolate in our summer fun is a trend!

The kids are excited that Pappy & Nana are coming with us -- the hotel with pool -- Chocolate World -- Hershey Park -- Hershey Zoo -- eating out!

The hotel we're going to has WiFi, so maybe I'll get a chance to catch up on some posting. Then again, maybe not.

Weekend with Papaw & Gramma

Papaw and Gramma came to visit us this weekend.

We met them in Sharon at Daffin's Chocolate Kingdom. Unfortunately, we didn't have the opportunity to visit the factory, but we all received a free piece of chocolate.

Isaiah was so cute. Every time I would say, "turn this way for a picture", he would line up and face forward. None of the pictures with the three kids turned out, but he's starting to catch on.

The girls posing with the chocolate castle in the background.

Next, we went to Kranyaks (where we had seen the Easter display). Both the parents and the grandparents gave the kids a dollar amount to spend. Isaiah was in his RACTEE glory!! He had to touch and try everyone.

I couldn't pass this up. Next door was a pet funeral home and cemetery. I'm not sure if it was part of the wellness center or visiting hours for the funeral home, but there was a park in the front for pets to roam around. I'm not a big pet lover. We have a cat, but we spend as little money as possible on it. If worse comes to worse, the pet goes and it won't be through a Pet Funeral Home!

Here's Madi with Sparkle the horsey she picked out at the toy store.

And Makenna with the panda she picked out at the toy store.

Not a great picture of Daddy, but I wanted a picture of his shirt. We made this in 2001 when Makenna was little. Those are her footprints. (Can you believe we are wearing long sleeves in July!!)

Me & my blue-eyed baby

Thanks for a fun weekend Papaw & Gramma! We look forward to the next time we can get together!

The Butterflies & Their Great Release

On Day 11, we had emerging butterflies in our little nature adventure. Four out of the five made it out okay, but we did have one fatality.


We saw the one on the top left trying (being the key word) to crawl out of its cocoon. The others were much quicker about it and we didn't have the time to watch them emerge one by one. You can probably tell the coloring of the one I mentioned is much darker than the others. I believe it had problems from the beginning. For those of you wondering, the mother in me did kick in and I tried to save it by helping open the cocoon with a couple pair of tweezers. However, the chicken in me came out when I realized I had no idea what I was doing and that I could possible pull wings off or it could release quickly and come flying at me! My philosophy: 4 out of 5 ain't bad. (In case you are wondering, the "red" non-bloody substance is something they secrete while releasing from the cocoon.)


The butterflies were a little crinkly when the came out (as you can kind of tell in this photo). Within 5 minutes or so, the looked perfectly normal.


The white thing you see on the right is a scrunched up piece of tissue with sugar-water on it. The instructions said the butterflies prefer carnations but tissue will work. Um, I don't get flowers, even cheap carnations. There's no way I'm buying flowers for a temporal insect. (Not that I didn't look for a floral arrangement at the store that happened to have a few carnations in it. We can all suffer for the cause within reason.)

It was difficult to get a good photo of a butterfly with its wings open. You've probably noticed that the outside of the wing is very neutral colored. The inside was beautiful. My shutter wasn't fast enough to catch the inside but this once. I even set it on continual shots and didn't get a good pic.

Just hangin out -- I just want to say "the 3 amigos" when I see this photo.

Momma got tired of feeding the butterflies and them taking up space on my counter, so it was time for them to go , um, I mean time for them to be released into their natural habitat. Besides one of them (who we affectionately named "Flippy" because he was spastic and was flipping out all the time) was begging to be released. I'm pretty sure he was the one that escaped when I opened the top the slightest bit to take a few pictures before we let them go.

Each of the girls were able to hold a butterfly for a couple minutes before they flew away.

Madi's little friend stuck around for quite a while. She'd put it on a plant for a little while and come back to play some more. It made her day. I think that one was rather docile and may have not been healthy. The next morning she found him on the plants where we had put it the day before. Not sure if it was too cold or if something was wrong with it. She brought it in and wanted to hang it up in her room! We did press it in some waxed paper. I'm trying to find a clear box or a biology display to put it in. Anyone know what I'm talking about and know where to get one?

This picture cracks me up -- what you can't see is our cat coming closer and closer to Madi. One day while the butterflies were still in their garden, I placed it outside to give them fresh air (and to get them off my counter). The cat came up on the back porch and was batting at the butterflies. Madi looks petrified that Patches was going to jump up and try to get her butterfly. I asked Makenna to put Patches in the shed until the butterflies all flew away. Another tragedy averted!

Finally -- The Wedding!

I've been trying to post pictures for the last week, but life never slows down around here. I declared today "Lazy Monday," and I'm hoping to get my pics from the wedding posted in between laundry and keep the kids under control. Lots of luck if you're hoping for more pictures of "Everything But The Kitchen Sink" and butterflies. That will have to wait until another Lazy Monday!

So here goes . . . Thursday evening, Makenna & I drove to Cleveland, so we could at the church bright and early Friday morning to decorate. Makenna hung out with Papaw and some of Josh's family as they toured the USS Cod, the Cleveland Zoo . . .

Friday evening was the rehearsal -- bride & groom with Pastor Wolvin officiating

Father of the bride, said bride and bridal party (minus a brother or two)

My brothers, Steve & Jon, having a good time as usual

Some of the guests at the rehearsal dinner . . . Cathy is the young lady in the green shirt. She was the wedding coordinator and did and AWESOME job!

This is the reception area. Glad I took these photos ahead of time because I never got back around to taking any later.

This was the food line at the back of the reception area. The lady in charge of the food decorated this table to match the rest of the room.


I had to steal this photo from the girl that made the cupcakes. Since the cupcakes, weren't set out until right before the reception, I didn't get a photo of them. Aunt Mel had ordered personalized fortune cookie [messages] as favors. We also made place cards (didn't get a pic of them either) that looked like fortune cookies with everyone's name on tags that stuck out the ends.

The girls hanging out with Aunt Mel before the wedding eating a little snack.

Aunt Mel & Gramma before the wedding

Sisters with Mom

Bridal Party

Katrina, Beth, Becky, Mel, Me & Mary


Remaining Bridal Party

Jon, Cody, Josh, Dave, Shane, Steve

Daddy just acting silly with his "boutonniere" and program.

Groom & Bride waiting for the receiving line to begin.

We let the girls go through the receiving line even though it was only for those guests that were unable to stay. Can you tell Madi was excited to see Aunt Mel & Uncle Josh?

Finally, Aunt Mel!!

My grandparents (my dad's father & stepmom) and Isaiah waiting around for family pictures

Uncle Jon & the girls having fun with Papaw's old camcorder.

Uncle Jon figured he might get in trouble for playing with the camera, but Papaw wouldn't get upset with the grandkids!

Isaiah trying to see what Gramma would let him get away with.

Everyone from Josh's side -- pastor, family & friends.

Siblings all grown up.

The photographer was trying to get a serious shot of these two to edit into an old shot. It was hard to make them serious long enough to get a picture.

Our family with the newest addition.

(Self explanatory)


This however needs explanation -- Josh doesn't care for cake. Therefore, the 3-tier pie! (Pumpkin, blueberry and apple if you're wondering)

Poor Makenna thought this whole day was about her & Aunt Mel


Madi on the other hand was more concerned about smuggling another cupcake back to the hotel.

Doing a little decorating before the bride & groom depart.

Uncle Jon working his magic -- he rigged the antenna up to release the rest of the TP and roll along behind the car when they drove off.

There they go, the new Mr. & Mrs.!

Will it all fit?

Photo shoot with bridal party at Squire's Castle.

I'm anxious to see how the professional photos turn out!

Another pic of the bride & groom.

We all headed back to Papaw & Gramma's house at the end of the day.

The newlyweds dumped their wedding garb and donned their backpacks for their honeymoon in Europe.

"See you in three weeks!"

Sunday afternoon we headed back to Papaw & Gramma's for lunch (leftover Chinese food from the reception to be exact).

Gramma probably won't appreciate this, but I couldn't pass it up. Sister -- do you think they are alike?

Everyone just sat around and fellowshiped after a long day Saturday. (L to R - Uncle Denny [Gramma's brother], Pappy, Nana, Aunt Dolly, Gramma)

Papaw telling stories as he does best. (To Papaw's right, is his sister, Nancy, who came up from Florida for the wedding.)

The kids were zonked as soon as we hit the road. Isaiah and his souvenir bite from the toddler nursery on his arm. Poor guy! He still looks at his arm when you ask where his booboo is.