Just For Fun...

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Penny Montana

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Chocolate Peanutbutter Chocolate Chip

3. YOUR “FLY GIRL” NAME: (first initial of first name, first 3 letters of last name) L-Kas

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Purple Panda

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Jean Monticello

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Kas-La

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) The Pink Rootbeer

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Chester Frank

9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy) Rose Reeses

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Elizabeth Andrew

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) I don’t remember my 5th grade teacher’s name, so I’m using my 6th grade teacher’s name: Stupar St. Paul

12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) Spring Lilac

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Raspberry Sockie

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Oatmeal Maple

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather + “Tour”) The Knitting Sunny Tour

Jessica Cooked Supper For Us Last Night

She decided she wanted to make mozzarella sticks, so I brought her to the grocery store where she picked out the ingredients she figured she needed. They were very good. She's going to be a good cook when she makes something so yummy at 9. I just opened the packages for her and let her go for it. She invited us to the table when it was done.

Anna's Family Day and Weekend Update

July 23rd marks 6 years since Anna’s Family Day. I received her on July 22nd, but the adoption wasn’t done until July 23rd so that’s the day we celebrate. To celebrate her Family Day, we decided to try out our tent. We went to a KOA only about 25 miles from home. The girls LOVED the campground. It was small in comparison to most of the campgrounds we’ve been to. It had a nice little playground and a pool in a field house. They advertised that it was heated, but it wasn’t. That didn’t stop the kids from wanting to swim. There were also a lot of other kids around for them to play with. The place was small enough that most parents were fine with the kids going there for hours at a time. We were very close to the playground area. We had so much fun that we decided to stay another day. We were originally going to stay Wednesday night through Friday morning, but stayed until Saturday morning. I had heard on several news stations that all the local campgrounds were booked solid every weekend through Labor Day. I think the county parks were, but I made reservations online at this place on Tuesday and went camping the next day.

Very nice people around us, too. The first day, there was a family of 4 in a very old travel trailer. I told the guy the next morning as I was trying to light the fire (I relied on fire for the first night’s supper and first morning’s breakfast) that I was able to put the tent up in less than ½ hour, but the fire took me an hour to get going. He helped me by chopping up the wood a little. As Jess was helping me use dryer lint to start the fire, they told me dryer lint mixed in Vaseline made an even better fire starter. I’ll have to try that! Then Friday night a family with 5 kids set up next to us. They had a pop-up camper a little smaller than ours, but same brand, and then the 2 older boys put up a tent (the campground allowed a camper and a tent or 2 tents on one spot). The dad and I were chatting and he told me his oldest was going to be getting his Eagle Scout in about a year, so when I had trouble getting my fire going with my wet wood (it rained really hard that morning), he sent his son to help me. He got it going right away.

My girls definitely want to go back to that campground. Whether it was the actual campground or just that there was one place the kids all congregated, I’m not sure, but we will definitely put it on our list of places to go again. We managed to weather the rainstorm Friday morning. After seeing the almost flash flood area by the restrooms and the standing water in many areas of the campground, I felt pretty good about just a few drips in our tent. The dew on Saturday morning left the tent wetter than the rainstorm.

Saturday we went to one of our SMC (Single Mother’s By Choice) meetings/playdates. My girls played outside a little, but then spent the afternoon inside watching Scooby Doo movies. I guess they can only go so long without those “screens”. I stayed way longer than I had planned, but it was at a friend’s house and it was nice to see her and another “old-timer”. Now it’s back to work. Next week Jessica starts Dance Camp already, and Anna her twice a week dance classes. Where did the summer go? We have one more camping trip planned the weekend of August 8th, with our SMC group.

20 Months

Just noting it. Nothing to say about it.

Jessica's Bridging Pictures

Here are some pictures from Jessica's bridging ceremony where she "bridged" from Brownies to Junior Girl Scouts. I forgot my camera and received these from another parent.

Happy 7th Birthday to Anna!

Anna had a birthday party on Sunday, but her birthday is today! Happy 7th Birthday to you!

I Got the Tent Up.

It wasn't too bad. Now that I've done it, I learned a lot that I won't or will do next time. I opted for the inexpensive tent because I needed other things in order to tent camp.

Our Camping Trip

Oh, but we had fun!!! There was a group of us - 8 moms and 9 kids for a long weekend - Wednesday through Sunday. We went up to Hayward, Wisconsin, which I guess is a popular vacation spot in Wisconsin. I have to say that I just LOVE group camping. We had our pop-up camper and everyone else stayed in camping cabins, with one mom and her son in a lodge.

The kids had a blast swimming, jumping on the jumping pillow, playing on the little and the big playgrounds, riding the wagon, eating ice cream, participating in a watermelon eating contest, playing impromptu relay races, seeing Hayward's big fish from a distance, going to the Wilderness Walk to feed the animals, seeing fireworks, roasting marshmallows, and all around having fun.

The moms paired up so we only had to cook one dinner for our stay. I did my normal grilling: potatoes, carrots, brats, hamburgers and hot dogs. There was always someone to take the kids someplace or to do something with. It was great.

The most fun, or should I say funny, thing was when we went tubing down the local river. Boy, was there a lot of laughter in that. When we got in, the current was so strong we all had a really hard time getting on our tubes while holding the kids tubes who were tied to ours. And we were helping each other, too. The ride down the river lasted about 1-1/2 hours. Anna and I ran into trees on the side of the river at one point and a man behind me yelled out "don't worry, I'll get you", and helped me out. One friend almost lost her bathing suit bottom when she had to stand up to get past a shallow area. For about the last half hour, we were pretty much tied together as a group. Next time, we decided that we would tie all the tubes together instead of just the kids to their moms. One mom who left her son with the designated babysitter (for those too young to go) took Jessica with her. That was a huge help. Later, she gave Jessica her first job as a Mother's Helper.

We had so much fun, we're planning a trip next summer. And we're also planning a tent camping trip for next month. I'm now excited to camp again! And my friend Joyce has a couple of videos on her blog (here) of a Tween Music Video and a Relay Race if you want to go over and check it out.

Jessica is 9 Today!

Happy Birthday to my first baby although she's not a baby anymore. These pictures are from our camping trip this last weekend.

We Leave For Another Camping Trip Tomorrow

We're headed camping tomorrow in Hayward, Wisconsin. I still have so much to do just to get ready for that. We also haven't even begun to plan for the girls' birthday parties which were supposed to be the following weekend. I wonder if I can talk them into delaying it a week? Otherwise, we may be sending invitations out from the campground and hope a week's notice is good enough.

Here's what we're looking forward to:

A 300-foot waterslide, large heated pool, fun-bikes, mini golf and two playgrounds. Movies, ice cream socials and wagon rides, plus a DJ on Saturdays will keep kids (and others!) entertained. Have fun on our new Jumping Pillow.

We'll be camping with a group of moms and their kids from our local Single Mother's By Choice group.