Thursday, September 24, 2009

Fun With a Friend

Drew was thrilled to have his friend Joseph over for a little while one morning last week. They stayed busy doing all kinds of things. They played with cars on Drew's road rug. They drove the little trucks on the driveway.
Joseph liked the black foot-powered one.
Drew liked the red battery-powered one.
They also had fun golfing.
We even opened up the water table.
We took a little walk through the neighborhood with the wagon.
When Beth came back from her appointment, we took the boys for lunch at their favorite place - McDonald's! They were very brave that day, and they climbed higher than usual in the play place.
The boys had a fun time together!

Tigers' Game

We got Tigers' tickets back in August when Nora was visiting, but while we were on our way to the game, Jim got horribly sick in the car, and we had to turn around and go home. Someone told us that we could try to exchange the tickets for another game. After a series of e-mails and letters between us and the box office, Jim got a call last Tuesday that we had tickets for that night's game.
We had very good seats. We were just to the left of the Royals' dugout. I took this picture from our seats. A couple innings into the game, the usher came running up and handed Drew this ball. He had gotten it from a Royals' player as he came off the field. Drew was thrilled to have a baseball, and we thought it was cool that it was a real game ball.
Drew also got to try his first Cracker Jacks. He is now a fan!

Drew started to get tired, and since the Tigers were losing so badly, we decided to go.
The Scallys had given us tickets to ride the Ferris wheel, so we did that on the way out of the ball park.
We rode in these little baseball cars.

We had a fun evening, and we were so glad that we were able to go to a game this summer after all!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Recent Scrapbook Pages

I have been scrapping a lot in the past couple of weeks. I've been reading a couple of scrapbooking sketch blogs that post weekly sketches and challenges, and I've been trying to use the sketches to get some pages done. These first two pages are based on sketches from http://www.52sketches52weeks.com.
I've had these pictures since last Thanksgiving, and I've just been trying to figure out what to do with them. I cut the leaves, pumpkin, and tags with my Slice machine.
This page uses the pictures I posted here a few weeks ago of Drew reading. I made the spiral-looking edge of the journaling paper myself by punching the holes and then ripping through the holes with a pencil.
These next two pages are based on sketches from http://www.letsscrap.ning.com. Kristen took these pictures of Drew for our Christmas card last year, and I finally scrapped them.
This page was for a monochromatic challenge ( I tried to use as much yellow as possible, but I just couldn't help myself from using a little blue too!). I cut the trains and title with my Slice again. I use it now on almost every page I make. I love it!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Caramel Dip

I was feeling fallish the other day, and I decided to make my first batch of caramel dip of the season. My mom gave me this recipe, and it is great as a dip for apples or warmed up and used as a sauce on ice cream or apple pie. It is very easy to make, and we all love it! Caramel Dip

1 stick margarine
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla

In a 2 quart sauce pan melt margarine over low heat. Add brown sugar, corn syrup, and sweetened condensed milk, stirring to combine. Increase heat to just below medium. Stir constantly until liquid comes to a boil. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Great Lakes Live Steamers

Our friends, the Scallys, told us about a park near Jim's work that has some little trains that people can ride on the first Saturday afternoon of each month. We decided to try to go this month, and we were thrilled to have beautiful weather today. Drew and I went out to the golf course to eat lunch with Jim, and then we drove over to the park. There were 4 or 5 little trains running. After about a 5 minute wait in line, we got on this little train for our ride. It was a fun ride through the park. Drew loved it! Each train had an older man as its conductor (this must be a hobby for these guys).


We couldn't stay long today because Jim had to get back to work. We enjoyed it very much, though, and we are excited to go back again.
On the way back to the golf course, we stopped for ice cream at Oberweis Dairy, a little ice cream shop in Royal Oak.
We all enjoyed our ice cream! It was also nice to spend a little time with Jim since he has been so busy at work recently.

Monday, August 31, 2009

A Few New Pages

I have a few scrapbook pages to share today. The first two pages are based on sketches from http://letsscrap.ning.com.
This page is about our 4th of July celebration this summer. I was excited to scrap these pictures from our drive through safari earlier this summer. It was such a memorable experience (Drew still talks about those buffaloes)!
This is a page that I've wanted to do for a while. I wanted to document the places we regularly go. These are a few of the places we go on an almost weekly basis. This page is based on a sketch from http://52sketches52weeks.com.

To see any of these pages better, just click on them.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Toledo Mud Hens Game

After our fabulous afternoon at the Toledo Zoo, we went Tony Packo's for dinner. This restaurant was highly recommended by several people, so we decided to give it a try. It was also right across the street from the Mud Hens' stadium, which was our destination for the evening. The specialty at Tony Packo's is their hot dog, called the M*O*A*D. Jim decided to order one. It was huge, and he could not even finish it. I got a regular hot dog. All the hot dogs come with mustard, onions, and their special chili sauce. They were very good. Drew had some mini corn dogs and fries.
After dinner, we went across the street to the stadium. We had great seats right behind home plate.
Drew is very interested in baseball right now, and we play (with his little bat and soft ball) and watch it all the time at home. This was the first game he's been to this summer, so he was excited.
I told him to put his hand over his heart for the national anthem, and he did!View from our seats.
Drew loved clapping with the crowd.


Drew LOVED these animals that came out between the innings. They did funny routines and dances, and he talked about them throughout the game.
We had so much fun!
We've decided to make a day in Toledo a summer tradition!