On 95 Cupcakes

This weekend we celebrated my grandpa’s 95th birthday!
My Popie is an amazing guy.  Smart, funny, and kind.  
It was great to get some of the family together- we don’t do it enough it seems. 

We had a red, white, and blue themed BBQ lunch.  Mom used baskets and apple crates from her house for decoration and storage.  We bought yellow mums, red peppers, and black-eyed susans in pots to use as flowers so we wouldn’t waste anything.  Mom had a ton of red white and blue fabric she’d bought to make a quilt and we used that on serving tables and just brown craft paper from the hardware store on the tables.  Turned out really cute!  We made banners out of twine and strips of torn fabric which were adorable. 

I’d made ten dozen cupcakes!  Vanilla Bean, Lemon-Lime, Chocolate Caramel, S’mores, and Coconut!  Look for more pictures and recipes soon on the cooking blog.

Of course my camera decided to protests AND my phone’s memory was full so I couldn’t take any pictures.  The ones above my ten year old took with his camera!  

On Digging It

We went to the Crater of Diamond State Park with our Cub Scouts this weekend to camp and try our luck at mining diamonds.   It’s a two hour drive there from Little Rock, and a beautiful drive. We ended up with just three families camping on Friday, but had four more join us to dig on Saturday.  For those of you who don’t know, the park is the only place IN THE WORLD where diamond digging is open the the general public. 

 Searching for Diamonds

 Digging is much harder than you’d think.  There is a lot of mica,
quartz, jasper, and calcite that confuses you and makes you think you’ve
struck it rich.  I found some pretty green rocks I thought might be
jade, but were volcanic ash!  It makes for great geology lessons and Cub
Scouts 
can earn lots of goodies like: Geology beltloop and pin,
family travel requirements,  Webelos Geology pin requirements, and lots
more.  

Sifting and Washing

The boys loved getting dirty (but not so much getting hot) so we treated them with a trip to the little water park right outside the digging field.  I think that was the highlight for them!

Cooling Off in the Waterpark

Some hints:  If you go with a large group they give great rates.  We only paid $1.81 for the kids and $3 for adults to dig.  You can take wagons, tools, screens, coolers, from home.  If you don’t want to cart all that they also rent everything you can hope for there and have a restaurant where you can rest.  Take swimsuits if you want to get the kids clean before going home!

On T.G.I.F. Fun

I picked up the kids a few minutes early today and 
we headed over to the bakery to get some yummies.
Community Bakery Goodies
Kids’ Lemon Pie & Lemon Raspberry Tart

After swimming this afternoon we headed 
down to our library for some serious fun at Lamanpalooza.
Trout Fishing In America at Lamanpalooza
Boys Rolling Down the Hill 

They had all kinds of games set up (jumpy castles, face painting, fire truck, police car, ambulance tour, fish, food, clowns…) and Trout Fishing in America was the headliner.  The kids had a great time!
A great Friday!

(Trying to remember my days- join in!)

STOMP-in Good Time!

Last night we took the kids to see STOMP.

Wow!
Those performers must take their vitamins!
They performed for 2 solid hours, without an intermission.
Dancing, Drumming, Jumping, Juggling,

I think we have all been looking at things in a different way since the show.  Everything can make music!
 
Jac woke up and said “Mommy, is STOMP on again tonight?  I REALLY liked the girl with the pretty hair that looks like the girl in Ratatouille.”

If you live in Arkansas you have one more chance to see them (tonight!)