Peighton's First Driving lesson...

This is where Preston spent the afternoon:

Glued to the window watching Grandpa rake the hay.

When he was done, Preston got a long tractor ride over to Grandma's house.

Which left Peighton a bit sad since there was only room for one extra in the tractor.

Her consolation prize...Grandpa told her he would bring the Gator over and let her drive!

It's a good thing there was LOTS  of space!

And if you look close you can see that she dressed up for the occasion with her turquoise hair flower and dress...

She did really well.

Although from the deck I could hear a few "SLOW DOWNS" from Grandpa!

Preston waited patiently for his ride and played in the sandbox.

And we walked out to see one of the "BEEEEG" bales.

He told us that the "Mer's" were going to eat it.

( A "Mer" is a cow....you know, because they go Moo.)

Another fun summer night!

Road Trip Clips = Genius!!!!!

Awhile back, I saw a cute idea for some "Road Trip Clips" HERE.

I filed it away thinking someday that might be useful.

Well, this weekend our "someday" came!

If I would have thought about it just a bit sooner, we would have had WAY cuter ones...but at 10:00 the night before we left for our little roadtrip, I wasn't into making fancy ones like these:

I just busted out the stickers and some clothes pins and made them in about 5 seconds!

Peighton got Snow White and Preston got Boots the monkey!

The kids thought they were fantastic.

I laid out the rules for Peighton as we pulled out of the driveway.

If she was not being nice to Preston, threw a toy, whined, etc her clip came down.

But if it stayed up then she would be allowed to pick a small treat at the next stop.

The girl is all about treats...she was all in.

And it worked GREAT!!!!

I only had to remind her once that her clip could come down and she made a better choice.

At times, there's a lot of whining in our car.

But I'm thinking our new little clips might help make the whinies happen a bit less on trips!

Such a simple thing but made such a BIG difference!

I think I'll make some cuter ones for our next trip though!!!!

A little Fair Fun!

We are having lots of fun this summer!

We drove to northen Iowa this weekend to go to Dustin's High School reunion and got to see the Worth County fair too.

A great weekend for all!

There was free face painting...that we stood in line for about 45 minutes to get!!!

But was totally worth it.

Preston enjoyed the ice cream and burgers!

There was a "Kiddie Barn" with puppies, kittens, goats, a pot bellied pig, horses, a donkey, a llama, rabbits, ferrets...and a camel.

Preston tried feeding the kittens corn....it didn't really work out for him.

Peighton liked the horses.

When did this one get big enough to sit and watch a show like a big kid?!?!!?

There was a music show that they got to go on stage for!
They both enjoyed that part!

He stayed on stage like a big kid!!!!

One of my favorite parts was the hula hoop contest.

Peighton is pretty good!

There's really nothing cute than my little guy trying to hula hoop though!

It was a fun day at the fair.

Dustin got to watch the cattle show and the kids got to see so many fun things.

We may just have to go back next year!



Summer Strawberry Salad

Is there anything Cool Whip and Instant pudding CAN'T do?

This strawberry salad recipe is fantastic and great for a summer gathering!

I saw it at THIS website and thought the kids would love it.

And they did.

They even helped make it-bonus!!!



I think there are a few other things you could do with this recipe too.

It would be fantastic on a graham cracker crust-super quick pie to throw together and take to a BBQ!

And if you leave out the strawberries it would be a great fruit dip too!

Her recipe is a little different but here's how we did it:

12 oz Cool Whip

1 package cheesecake flavored instant pudding (I almost used vanilla because I had trouble finding cheesecake and I think it'd be just as good.)

Strawberry yogurt...I used about 1/3 of a large tub....there was no measuring here!!!

Mix all that together and then add sliced strawberries.

The kids and I gobbled it up for lunch today!

Another Pattern Tested and Modeled by Peighton!

(I did this pattern about a month and a half ago and just never got it posted!

We recently packed up and moved and my little blog has gotten neglected.

But the sweatshop is back up and running and there's lots going on so look for more craftiness to come-especially a super cute caterpillar baby shower post!)

Who doesn't love a free pattern!!!!

I got to test another pattern for the wonderful Peek a boo Pattern shop!

This one was a super cute summer dress in my favorite fabric-KNIT!

Peighton and I chose some stripes for the top and some crazy ants and cupcakes for the bottom.

She cracks me up with her "model poses."

Such a fun summer dress to make!

I know it will be one of Peighton's favorites this summer!