C&A Visit, Library Summer Wrap Up

 This girl loves shoes and flip flops, and bankets!

The library hosted an end-of-summer-reading wrap up shindig at the South Hill Complex. They had all sorts of fun activities. Chelsea is the only one who wanted her face painted.

 Her favorite colors

 I didn't get too many pics of the C&A group. We did see them a few times, but we weren't on vacation and still had to work and stuff, so we didn't see them as much as we would have liked.

 The bouncy house wasn't as popular with my two as bouncy houses usually are. Maybe it was the wet grass? Who knows.

 They herded all the kids from all the activities over to the magician when it was his turn to perform. Unfortunately my girls were not the least bit interested in what he was doing.

 Wesley liked playing basketball.

 So did Abby.

 Check out the tippy toes here!

 My girls LOVE spending time with Grandma Heit!

 Who doesn't love a little sidewalk chalk?

 Chelsea missed out on getting a balloon earlier because they chased the kids over to the magician. She was fortunate, later on, to get the LAST balloon animal the clown had to offer. It even survived for about 1/2 an hour before it popped.

 I got this mid-plop. Abby overbalanced and ended up on her rear, ha! Cute.

None of my girls did this, but they had little sumo suits for the kids to sumo wrestle. It was pretty funny to watch. Hip, hip, for reading and the library!

Camp, the Parade, and the Fair!

 These first ones are from "Girl's Camp" this year. It was not camping, but rather more like an EFY for just the young women. They called it encampment. But it was fabulous! The girls played lots of get to know you games, since this was for 4 whole stakes, not just ours.

 This is Jeremy Harvey. He played the piano for us throughout camp and also spoke, using the piano during his talk. He suffers from cerebral palsy and VERY limited vision. He was told he would never be able to play the piano and lo and behold, he's mastered it. He's fabulous!

 We stayed at Jamestown college. They were very nice in allowing us to use their buildings and dorms and fields for out 400+ girls and leaders. These few are teaching the rest a line dance. 

 Here's one group (we had ALL the girls doing this in four different groups) doing, I'm not sure what you call this activity. But you stand really close, then sit down like you are going to sit on a chair, and everyone supports everyone else. They were also able to take steps and walk in a circle like this. It was pretty cool.

 Here's the ZUMBA leaders!

 The girls are signing Cherie's ice pack. 

 We're back in Minot now for the State Fair Parade! Here is our very own Josh Duhamel! Love this guy!

 Can you spot the Daddy-O?

 Here he is! He walked the whole thing AND took pictures all while suffering an injured ankle. What a trooper!

 Auntie Beth joined us girls to watch. They don't look overly impressed, but they were sufficiently entertained and happy to gather candy and other items like flags and sunglasses and such. Chelsea brought her toy camera and "took pictures" of her favorite floats.

 Little stinker Abby took her glasses OFF for the picture. They were all wearing them and being cute.

 And Abby WAS being cute here waving her arms and smiling, but of course she HAD to cough as I took the picture. Then she wouldn't do it anymore. Stinker.

 Brie is by far my most flexible child. She doesn't even put any effort into it. She just bends and folds and stretches like nothing!

 And here we are at the fair! A HUGE thanks to the Spain family for letting us borrow their double stroller. It made life SO much easier. The weather was perfect this year, too.

 We all voted for different color piggies to win the race. But none of us picked the winning pig, the green one. One of these years we're bound to pick the winning pig and have a chance at winning the drawing for a free Tubby Burger. :P

 Here's a new attraction this year. Sting rays! Chelsea was happy to look but would NOT touch them. Brie did touch a couple, and Abby tried, but couldn't reach far enough into the water with her short arms.

 We thought Abby would love the dog show. She was mildly impressed when a puppy came close to us. But overall she was upset that she wasn't allowed inside the fence to play on their equipment.

 I lucked out with the timing on this one. They've got volunteer "puppies" lined up that the real dog leaps over while catching the frisbee.

 We also caught a little bit of the tiger show, but apparently they started early. And ended early. Right after we got there. Oh well.

 But really, what was the most exciting part of the fair for the kids? Yep. The playground.

 This didn't work the way I pictured. I pictured all three lined up on the slide together, sliding down with happy smiles. And, no. This is what happened. Oh well. :)

Bedtime apples for all. Brie picked out her own pajamas, can you tell? Incidentally, we didn't line them up for a picture. One of them thought this would be a fun way to eat her snack, and of course the others had to sit there too.

Aren't they just cute?

Random Cuteness

 The girls got to eat ice cream and WATERMELON flavored Oreos for a snack last week. They didn't even go to the table before chowing. They just had a kitchen floor picnic.

 This is the same night as the kitchen floor picnic. They are being a train.

 We had some backyard fun for FHE last night. The girls were SO cute and they had so much fun running around and trying to get Daddy wet. The popsicles were a big hit, too.

 Brie is always the first to freeze out when swimming. She's shivering and resting with her eyes closed. I feel bad for her, but it still makes me smile.

Smile!

Zoo Time!

 A couple of Brie's little friends joined us and Auntie Beth at the Zoo!

We checked out all the animals that were there, like this tiger, but not all the animals have returned since being displaced by the flood. 

 Chelsea brought young Simba and Nala to visit their grown up counterparts.

 Brie is the only one with the guts to let the llamas eat out of her hand. Chelsea dropped the food close to them, and Abby wanted nothing to do with being near them.

 Kangaroo was rolling around on it's back. 

 Pumbaa on the right was walking on her front knees for some reason.

I think it was easier to pick up the food.

 Venturing out of the stroller.

 Petting zoo time! Again, Brie was the only was brave enough to touch the donkey.

 My two little otters! Too bad the otters and penguins aren't back yet. They are two of my favorites.

 In front of the lions. The grown up lions didn't seem terribly interested in the toys.

Not sure about some of these animals, but having fun nonetheless!

Abby does a cute little skippy-type dance when she's dancing or just feeling happy. I captured a couple seconds of it while Chelsea sang Gummi Bears. Usually that song gets her going like crazy!

Making Cinder Slippers

 Here's all the steps I took for the cake pops, if anyone is interested.

Bake the cake as the box says. Crumble it up in a bowl and add a couple scoops of frosting.
I chose yellow cake and chocolate frosting because I like how they taste together. 

 Mix.

 Roll into balls and then stick them in the freezer for 15-20 minutes so they hold their shape without crumbling.

 Melt a little bit of chocolate, dip your stick in, and insert the stick in half to 3/4 of the way. Let the chocolate set. I just used those little chocolate discs that you melt in the microwave.

Once it is set you can pick them up by the stick and dip them and they stay intact. I tinted the white chocolate slightly for a more peachy skin color, but I didn't quite to enough. They still look pretty white, but oh well. Nobody complained. After I dipped as above, I stuck on pink and black sprinkles for eyes and cheeks. Then I set them upright in this handy cake pop holder from Walmart to harden up.

 I had some extra white (peachish) chocolate left over when they were all dipped, so I dyed it pink and piped it out onto some parchment paper for hair bows. (seen below) Before I did the yellow hair I used a toothpick and some black decorating gel to add the mouths and eyelashes.

 I used some yellow chocolate for the hair. First I dipped them, like so. And then I let that set.

Cinder Slippers' hair actually is supposed to stick up, but I didn't know how to make that work with melty chocolate, so I gave her a little swirly bun type hair do instead. After dipping her head in yellow, I put the rest of the chocolate in a piping bag and piped on a few layers of swirls for her hair, letting each layer set. I gave her her little bangs and stuck the bow on last.

Ta Da! Cinder Slippers

times 21.

This whole process took about five hours. Chelsea's reaction? "Oh, they look better than the first ones."

That was a little deflating at first because I expected a much more excited and impressed reaction from her. But then I realized she had no idea how much work they were, and she liked them, and that's all that mattered. And I had a LOT of fun with these little pops!