Happy 100th Tablescape Thursday Susan!

Susan, at Between Naps on the Porch is hosting her 100th consecutive tablescape party! Week after week, it is a favorite place to visit and find new blogs to visit. I seldom participate as I get more and more intimidated by the week! There are some seriously talented people out there in blogland.
But, I do love my dishes, and tonight, in honor of the big occasion I looked through some photo files and found these I took awhile ago for a tea party for my granddaughter and me. I would do a few things differently after my education on TT, but that would require a very late night playing in the dishes.........so please join us in the guest room for a favorite combo-Books and Tea Parties!!
Welcome to the guest room where the Brambly Hedge dishes and books live in my secretary. I thought the little table in front of the window was perfect to set up our tea party. I have plates and cups and saucers for each of the 4 seasons. I am using Summer and Autumn for this table.

The dishes are very sweet, and the stories are even sweeter. The books have such detailed pictures and are such fun to read. Highly recommended for your sweet children or grandchildren.

Thank you Susan for beginning and continuing this fun blog party ...........here's to 100 more!

Last of the Cabin

One of our do it yourself desserts one evening was dirt pie. Each child had a small pail and emptied a pudding cup into it. Next came the dirt - or crunched up chocolate cookies. We put an oreo straw into the mix so we could put the real flower we picked in our flower pot. Not quite enough pudding to fill it up, but they had fun.See that worm?


On Saturday Bob's sister came up and brought her 2 grandchildren. Here are our 4 with her Brooklyn enjoying an ice cream in town.
That evening was our 4th of July dinner - even though it was still June. Lots of red, white, and blue food.
Elizabeth and I always make this jello at the cabin.
Our niece, Casey, and her daughter Brooklyn.
The end of vacation and the big fish pictures. Laura and Tom left fairly early in the morning so we followed them to the edge of town for our picture.
Jessica and Ryan left a few days later and it was a beautiful day.

End of another summer fun at the cabin with the grandchildren. We are hopeful that lots of family memories will be made by all of the kids.

This last picture is totally random and has nothing to do with this post, but I thought it was funny. It was getting ready to rain and the sky was getting dark. I looked out to check on the weather and look at what I saw in the top of our tree. Double click on the picture to check out the white heron in the top of the tree. He looked so pretty against the very dark sky.

Fun on the Boat

After totally decorating the cabin with bears, and getting the grandchildren totally into the idea that grandma and grandpa's cabin was the bear's cabin, we wanted to see real bears!!

Last year we spotted a mother and 2 cubs on the way to dinner at the golf course, and we saw another at the other end of the lake, getting a drink. But no photo proof, until now.

On our drive up this year, we were near the cabin when Bob saw something ahead in the road. We pulled over, and luckily my camera was nearby, because I finally got my shot.

A real live BEAR.
After that big news, we are on to our fun on the lake. Cooper was doing a little fishing.
Tom took the kids out on the float we bought to pull behind the boat.
Laura decided that they were getting pretty far out, so she and Bob took the pedal {or paddle?} boat out to be near them.
The biggest surprise for me was this! I never thought the kids would get in the lake. My girls and I are not exactly "lake" people. I know we have a cabin and everything, but I prefer roughing it with AC and a dishwasher and screened porch - and looking at the lake from a nice boat. But the grandchildren loved it. Elizabeth went in first, and after this we had a hard time getting her out!
Cooper was next and he loved it too.
Ben just thought he'd fish for awhile, but he did get it too. I just don't have the picture to prove it. He definitely liked it the least though.

Getting ready to get pulled. We can't go fast on our lake - it is small and it is a no wake lake. But we can pull a raft and it was just right for our little ones.

The boys also got a turn, but no pics. They all got pretty brave too and were standing and falling off and just generally having fun.

I've got just a few more pictures to post tomorrow. Off to get ready for my overnight guests. Ben and Elizabeth are coming for pizza and an overnight with grandma and grandpa. We will have "movie night" with popcorn too. Fun times!!

A Favorite Song

I was staying up way too late tonight and happened to catch the end of one of my favorite musicals, and the end is where the best song is!! I thought I would try to put it on here via You Tube and see how it goes.

The first time we saw this movie I thought it was so bizarre until about the half way point. Now I can't tell you how many times I have seen it - or parts of it anyway.

So.....enjoy.

*eta - I can see that the whole video doesn't fit on the blogger template I have chosen, but it's late and I think to fix that problem will require a little more brain power than I have at this time. But you can still see most of it, and you can hear this beautiful love song.

Vacation Beginnings

We choose to go to the cabin at this time because of this happy occasion! Our high school friends, Mark and Kathy celebrated the wedding of their youngest daughter on a Friday afternoon in the midst of a beautiful vineyard. She was escorted down the aisle by her parents.Aren't they a handsome couple? Her dress was just beautiful and so "her".
After a lovely reception we spent the night at my sister's and then headed to the cabin early on Saturday morning. We had a few projects to complete before the kids arrived the next evening. Like grocery shopping, mowing, and I had to clean the screen porch!

It is just what is sounds like, a porch off the family room that is screened in so we can sit in comfort away from mosquitos! The screen is just stapled to the wood, there are no windows to insert or anything like that to keep the dirt out. It actually stays fairly clean, but I think it had been a few years since a hose had been used in there. I moved the furniture around and hosed the walls and floor really well. I used some soapy water on all the "wicker" furniture.
Now we're ready for action. Unless it is unbearably hot, this is where I like to sit. It is such a peaceful place to read and watch for wildlife. I am collecting children's little red chairs and you can see my recent acquisition here. I also began to collect a few vintage picnic items. I love the coolers that you can glimpse in this picture. It has to be red or black or a combo to come home with me.
The next day was Father's Day and I totally neglected to get a picture of my dad or my husband. One of my brother's had to work so I guess it wouldn't have been a complete picture, but still! I am so bad about taking pictures. We went back to my sister's for the day (about 2 hours from the cabin)

I bought the kids T shirts and thought we could get a group picture. HA Here is the best I had, missing Evan.

Ben, Emma, Elizabeth, Cooper and Jackson in front.
My 4.
Here is Evan - such a cutie.

Cabin Fun

We are back from over 2 weeks at the cabin. We drove up this year and it is a looong drive. I think about 17 -18 hours. I am very thankful that we don't have to make the drive with the children, it is so much easier with just the 2 of us! We did plenty of road trips when the girls were little, and I will have to say that that is for young people! Both of our girls and their families made the drive and I know it wasn't easy. We are so glad they did though because we had so much fun with all of them at the cabin.I will do a post with pictures of some of our fun, but for now I need to get busy around here. I have company coming in a week for the weekend, and then my sister comes the week after that for her freedom from kids weekend of shopping and floating in the pool.

I am finding that there are so many things I want to do, rather than the things that I should be doing. I would like nothing more than to take a book and head to the pool, or read a few more blogs...but there is over 2 weeks of mail to go through, laundry, bills, errands, and on and on. So, I guess I'd better get to it.