day 4

left; Peter and Seven they really liked our kids

right; Mr. Tripp and all the kids loving the ray tank

left; Mr. Tripp and Penny

Right; Benny, I think he clould had moved into the aquarium and never leave.

Matt the ray was twice as big as he was

Today it was rainy so we went to the aquarium. IT WAS AWSOME! Really it was a tie for best aquarium I have ever been to (the other was in Atlantis in the Bahamas). The kids loved it. So did Mr. Tripp and I. It was a great day. We got to pet sting rays and hours shoe crab. and walk thru a glass tunnel with sharks swimming all around us. Plus it smelled good, no fishy smell. Smells are very important to me, I'm weird.

Left photo; Penny enjoying the fish.

Center photo; Jellyfish, I could have watched them all day.

Right photo; Mr. Matt

Left photo; jaws

Right photo; trying to get all the kids to look at the camera.

day 3 to much walking

left; mining for rocks right; tram ride

left; nap time,

center; a penny bracelet for penny,

right; a game of checker. I let PJ win.

day 3. We walked and walked and walked. Mr. Tripp and I decided that we wanted to take the kids and ride the tram up the Mt. I wanted to drive to the tram but Mr. Tripp wanted to walk.

So we walked.* It was 90 degrees, humid and a very ,very long walk for our 5 little people, we were a hot mess when we finally made it to the tram. The kid were really excited and a little scared to take to mile and half trip up the Mt. I loved it. The view was breathtaking and the ride was fun. At the top of the Mt there was shopping, food, smelly bears and much more. It was great fun.

When we final came down from the Mt. We stopped a mining shop. Each kid got a bucket of dirt, sifting tray and a pan. THey had a blast mining for jewels.

At the end of the day we were all sweaty and smelly but had a great day.

*just a side note I my trying to Let Mr. Tripp make a the decision. It has felt as tho I have been calling the shots ALOT. So I am making my very best effort to let Mr. Tripp were the paints in this family.

day 2

Day 2

We had a 2 1/2 hrs drive from Corbin, Ky to Gatlinburg, Tn. We couldn't get into our condo until 3p so we walked up then back down the main strip in town.

Our condo is SWEET! two bed rooms two baths, kitchen, dinning room, living + our own washer and dryer. And it is super clean. The condo also has a pool and hot tub. It take us about 6 min. to walk to the main road from were we are. We will be doing a lot of walking.

photo left, I love the way the rock looks when it is cut into. Like the laugh lines that God gave the earth.

photo center, Mr. Tripp resting on a bench in the shade in down town Gatlinburg

photo right, All the kids at a log cabin rest stop right after we entered TN.

photo left, Mr. Trip with the big kids on a walking rope.

photo right, PJ with Bumblebee from Transformers.

photo left, All the crap we need for a week.

photo right, my own washer/dryer in our condo.

photo left, PJ and Ella resting

photo center, Penny's new smile

photo right, Penny loves our balcony, we can see the pool from it and she yells down at all the swimmers.

penny enjoying our jacuzzi tub. Its very nice.

on the road day 1

9 hrs on the road. That included 3 bathroom beaks and stopping for dinner. It was a very long day. Penny had two major melt downs and Phil came very close to throwing a MANtrum. Plus we left one of Penny favorite blankies at a Bob Evan in Ohio

(we will pick it up on the way back home).

Phil stopped driving around 11p we could have done more but he wouldn't let me drive. We stopped in Carbon KY at a super8 a.k.a. the hotel no tell. We supposedly had a smoke free room but the smell suggested other wise. The next morning (day 2) we all got up and had some free breakfast, It was good for being free. Now we have 2 1/2 hrs left until we make it the Gatlinburg and a clean non ash tray smelling condo.

the boys playing DS, Phil at the wheel

The girls enjoying a movie, PJ+DS=LOVE

the Garmin is Phil best friend

the 4th

the kids the morning after the fourth

America the Beautiful

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

the last two line are my favorite. I am proud to be am American

and proud to be a momma to the 5 cutest Americans.

plane white t makeover

Disney at ruffles and stuff inspired me to ruffle some stuff.

1. I started with a plane white T. from target. It cost me $10.00.

2. A second plane white T. This one came from the craft store and I dropped $2.00 for it.

3. I folded the second white T. in half so I could cut it into strips. These strips will become my ruffles.

4. Cut T. #2 into 3 inch strips. How many and how long depends on how many ruffles you want.

5. Set your sewing machine to a strait stitch, the longest stitch and set your tension as high as it will go. On my machine thats a 9. When your tension is set high it will instantly ruffle your fabric. be careful when the tension in high, your thread is pulled very tight and can snap.

6. Sew down the center of the fabric strip letting it gather as you go. I don't back stitch so that I can adjust the ruffle if I need to.

7. Before and after.

8. I made 4 big ruffles. Aren't they ruffly.

9. Place ruffles on T. #1. You may have to adjust them until you find the right look. When you like your placement pin them and sew them down. (don't forget to set your tension back to a lower setting)

10. Finished. Now you have a ruffled, frilly, girly T.

No more plane white T's. ENJOY!

Jurassic Park 4

Jurassic |jəˈrasik|adjective Geologyof, relating to, or denoting the second period of the Mesozoic era,between the Triassicand Cretaceous periods.[as n. ] ( the Jurassic) the Jurassic period or the system of rocks deposited during it.

My Sweet Ben has been Building his own jurassic park. However he calls it dino walls. He say people can come to his park and pay him a quater to look at all of his dino friends. But he sayed they can not pet them beauces they do BITE. "they are meat eaters mom".

Ella was lucky enough to be the first visitor to dino wall, so Ben let her in for free. I did have to pay to see but it was well worth it. Ben is quite the business man. He will draw me a picture or bring art home from school and say "you can give me a dollar for this and keep it forever". How can I say no.

Oh to have in imagination of a child. The things I would do and the life I would live. Wait... I have never really grown up myself.

Happy Birthday Jimmy

This past weekend we celebrated my nephews 9th birthday. I made him a towel like the one I made for Jennifer.

*****

He is my oldest nephew and oh how I love him. He is kind, smart and sweet. His eyes are the color of a cold blue pool and his checks and nose are scatered with freckles (i wish i had freckles like his).

*****

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

The world holds so much for you.

Birthday gift for Jennifer

So I missed yeasterdays blog. I might have failed my blog a day goal but I will not give up. Today you get two posts.

*****

Yeasterday we celebrated Aunt Jennifer's 37th birthday. Jennifer is a wonderful, special person and we are all so blessed to have her in our life's. I wanted to make her something as special as she is.

*****

This is how I made a personalized polk-a-dot towel for her.

I started with one bath towel and two hand towels. I found them on sale at Kohl's and paid less than $10.00 for all of them.

I cut a letter "J" and some circles out of the hand towels. Then I arranged and sewed the cut outs on to the bath towel. I used a zig zag stick and stayed as close to the edge as possible.

And finished!

I hope Jennifer likes it as much as Taylor dose.

I stole the idea from V and co.