Plymouth County Fair

Phew...glad to have the fair over.  It was my first fair manning the Tastefully Simple booth...and I had the entire fair.  None of the other consultants that I asked were able to help me out.  So...noon to 10pm every day for 5 days I was there.  Erin and Emily were with me most days - it was nice to have them help me carry stuff in every morning, and to be my gophers to get me pops and lunch and man the booth when I needed a bathroom break.

Friday night I was asked to do the "appetizers" portion of the Cooking School.  A lady named Candace had contacted me, and said that lots of people attend this school - and that it would be great advertising for me - I'd be mentioned in the Sioux City Journal, etc.  I couldn't really say no...although the thought of doing a demonstration in front of a crowd scared me pretty bad.

Well...Friday night I walked into a packed building with bleachers and chairs, about 300 people, along with news cameras.  Come to find out "Candace" was Candace from "Tony and Candace in the morning" on KSUX (pronounced K-Sioux) radio, and Michelle Stuhr from KTIV Channel 4 was also there as a special guest.  I about died...this was way bigger than I was expecting!  Needless to say I was extremely nervous when all eyes were on me...didn't say half of what I had planned to say up there...and even made a fool out of myself by opening a cheese ball packet with my teeth since I forgot my scissors!  At least I made it halfway cute by saying "Okay - don't look - I'm going to have to open this with my teeth!"  I got a good laugh...but still - how embarrassing!

I still had a good fair.  Sold over $2000 in inventory and made enough to pay off my business credit card.  Also had 19 people interested in having parties, so I should be busy for a while!

Back to our Disney Vacation...

Since we don't have much new going on, I thought I'd go back to where I left off on our Disney vacation back in January. We were on Day 3, so here are some photo highlights from Animal Kingdom...

We started off the day with some character signatures...Lizzie was all about getting the signatures...but not interested in getting her picture taken with them.


We were thrilled to find Lilo - Lizzie's favorite character at the time...






The Nemo show was pretty cool, one that we hadn't seen before.





I tried so hard to get a good shot on this bridge, after like 10 shots, I gave up - here's the best one. Check out all the birds in the trees behind them...

Our House and July 4th

I was just thinking a couple weeks ago how I probrably haven't really taken a picture of our house since we got the landscaping done, and the grass grown. So I went out the other morning and took a snapshot... (click to enlarge)

We live near the Fairgrounds, and on the 4th of July we can view the fireworks show from our driveway...

Grandpa and Grandma came for a visit over the holiday.

Fun with sparklers!

Ice Cream Days Parade

Last weekend was the LeMars Ice Cream Capital of the World's Ice Cream Days. We didn't attend most of the festivities. But we did walk in the parade for our MOPS group handing out candy and fliers to Mother's of Preschoolers who might benefit from joining. I was doing it mostly to support MOPS, but the kids actually had SO MUCH FUN! All their friends were shouting at them along the way - they just loved it. They can't wait for next year. Here is a picture of all of us who participated. (Poor Lizzie's face is blocked)

Dance Recital!

Last weekend was dance recital weekend. Erica was the only one of our girls in dance this year. She did so great, even though she came down with a bad cold the day before. I found out Thursday night that her tap partner wouldn't be there for the Saturday performance, and I was sick to my stomach. There were lots of moves that you do with a partner that were SOOOO cute! And I was back stage Mom for the Friday performance, so I didn't get to watch that one from the front. I recorded these below from the Saturday performance, but I splurged and bought the Friday performance DVD so I'd have the one with all the kids present.

Anyway, back to Erica's partner being gone. Apparently Erica already knew about it and had practiced without her. It didn't bother her one single bit, so I really had to hide my anxiety/disappointment. I shouldn't have worried - Erica did SOOO great! We were so proud of her. Enjoy!

Ballet - I love the part where they did sign language!

Tap - this is the one where her partner is missing. Erica is on the far right through most of it, I didn't zoom in enough - but you can still see her movements!

Three Months Later

Okay, I'm ashamed. I can't believe it's been three months since I've posted - so much for becoming a blogger. So much has happened in the past 3 months...or actually I should say 6 months - I feel like I'm really behind on things! Instead of trying to catch up right now, I'm just going to start with current things and post some of the girl's spring activities and craziness.

Emily's Piano Recital, Mother's Day 2008

Erica's Preschool Year-End Program, May 6 2008

Erin's School Concert, April 2008

Erin's Track Meet, May 12, 2008

Lizzie's High School Musical 2 Debut

My kids acting CRAZY...

And we have an addition to our family - meet Zeke:

Orlando Trip Continued...

First of all - I have to say Happy Birthday to Brian today - March 4...

Okay, I think we left off on Tuesday of our trip. That is the day we made our first trip to the Magic Kingdom. (Brian was still in meetings)

Before we left...here they are at our resort, Pop Century.


Here is the "floating ball"...


Lizzie and Grandpa watching the parade...


Erin, Emily, and Grandma on the Magic Carpet ride


Stuck in jail in line for the Buzz Lightyear ride...


All the girls...


Erica joined the square dancing with friends from Toy Story.