Warning More Zoo Pictures

I can't seem to help myself.  I love to go to the zoo with a camera. Now I am even going by myself since the kids are back in school.  We belong so it is free other than the gas to get there.  I apparently like the challenge of trying to get pictures of squirmy animals behind glass and fences.  Here are some of the shots that I thought were the best.

This is the first time the bears weren't by the water.  This guy posed for me, but doggone it the glass was a little dirty.  Next time I'll bring Sparkle and a paper towel.  Oh, I suppose that mess is on the dangerous side of the glass.

 This guy was kind of creepy.  He stared at me for the longest time.  I was glad the fence was there.  Gulp!

 You wouldn't think so, but goats were one of the harder animals to get a good picture of.  They have short attention spans.  Now if I had Photoshop do you think I could add back that little bit of missing chin?

 This is by far the best picture I have gotten of this monkey.  He is in this position everytime!  It must be boring in the exhibit or maybe he is nocturnal.

 Again, this turtle reminds me of some of my childhood pet turtles.

 These otters were the hardest animals to photograph, but they sure were fun to watch.  Lots of action.  I don't suppose the bored monkey could join you?

Anyway, I had an enjoyable morning and it was a nice day.  It's good I went when I did because then we started looking at building an ark yesterday!

Potpourri

Isn't potpourri a little of everything?  Well, that is what this post is.  I made some snickerdoodles to take to the oldest and, of course, there were some left for us.  I would have to say that next to chocolate chip, these are my favorite kind of cookie.

I also made a Martha Stewart Reversible Purse. I really liked this fabric.  The directions call for one solid and one print, but I like to live on the edge : )  The hardest part is the final step where you turn under the outer edges of the straps and top stitch.  The long side does not have a wide enough curve and so it is really difficult.

On Saturday, we headed to spend the day with the oldest. There was a family/alumni day with some events.  On the way we stopped at the neatest, brightest yellow store.  I'll have to get a picture next time.  It is connected to an apple orchard and it is only open for about six months.  They stock a little of everything--baked goods, an unbelievable variety of candy, mixes, even a pretty good supply of jigsaw puzzles.

Here the girls are starting to decorate rocks.

No festivities would be complete without inflatables.

The younger two were also content in the dorm room.  The best part was in the evening when we saw a theater program.  The students put it together in two and a half weeks.  It was made up of lots of skits and some dancing and acrobatics. One girl and guy balanced on top of big workout balls and managed to go up ramps on them.  The girls liked a dance number that was done in the dark.  The participants had some glow-in-the-dark paint on what they wore so they looked like dancing stick figures.  I personally liked an aerobics class skit.  The tapeworm circus was gross, but good.  Spaghetti up your nose anyone?

The younger two and hubby went to a ballgame. I'll blog about it even though I wasn't there.  I'm nice like that.

      The hometown team lost, but the kids got to run around the bases afterwards.                                                                           

I finished another knit-a-long.  I need to start blocking my work.  I really like this pattern.  It has gift potential.

Happy first day of Fall!  I'm off to watch "The Middle."

Fall Fun

 

On Sunday we paid a visit to an apple orchard and also saw some scarecrows.  I just love the fall colors, don't you?

The girls like to grab a wagon.  That is one thing we didn't have when  they were little.

The youngest always scrambles up in the trees.  This year she needed to as it was hard to find unblemished apples. I don't know if hail got to them.  We like Haarlson.

We love looking at the huge variety of scarecrows afterwards.

This one was amazing.  The woman's apron was made of acorn caps and the skin was made of oak leaves.

I truly have seen everything Julia now that I've even seen a Julia scarecrow.

A break on the horse swings.  Weeha!

This is Cinderella.  It is hard to tell, but the mice are there helping her with the sewing.

This is Lady Gaga.

We picked a peck of apples and so we'll have plenty for school lunches and to enjoy with caramel dip.  Yum!

The First Day of School

September 7th was the first day of school this year.  It was a little chilly so the girls were able to comfortably wear long sleeves and pants.  All went well aside from a bus issue which has since been taken care of.

Here is a close-up of the youngest's new tennis shoes.  Take a close look since they will never be this pristine again.  She is hard on shoes and clothes.  I guess that means she is doing a lot of living which is good.  See the jeans?  She was pushed off a ledge and fell on her knees poor thing.  New jeans with worn knees in less than a week.

One other day last week the sunrise was so beautiful that I threw on hubby's shoes when I came downstairs and ran out in the middle of the street (don't worry--there wasn't any traffic) to take this picture.

We are on week two of school and almost a month of college.  We miss our freshman.

Have a good week!  Soon I will post pictures of some fun scarecrows that we saw yesterday.

The State Fair

Last Sunday we made our annual visit to the State Fair.  It was the perfect day for it--not too hot.  Here are some random pictures of our adventure with some not so random commentary.  We arrived at 8:00 a.m. so that we could get a free parking spot within (long) walking distance.  The first thing we did was watch a western horse competition.  Those horses moved too fast for good pictures.  There were about five horses competing.  You could tell quite easily who knew their stuff.  Then we made the rounds of the animal barns as you can see.  The kids learned about cows by finding answers to trivia questions in the dairy barn and made a haul including frisbees and lots of bags of cheese curls.

Next stop was a maze at the Kidway.  This is the last year for the Kidway since the youngest is too big (sigh.)  Time for some mini donut fortification before all the building at Home Depot.

The projects are bean bag toss games.  They didn't seem to want to give middle daughter a space to work so hers became a take home project.  These would/will be fun to decorate with paint.

Good-bye Little Farm Hands we have definitely outgrown you too!

Here we are back with another John Deere!  The ham is also at it again.  Her Serta sheep from Little Farm Hands is in for a wild ride!

Do all fairs have so many things on sticks?  We didn't need this since it wasn't hot, but it is cute.  The youngest picked it up while the rest of us got Green Mill for lunch.

It was fun to watch the parade.  There were a few art cars that were part of it.

I loved this one covered with Big Mouth Billy Basses.  Remember those?  These were singing the Hallelujah Chorus.

In addition to the above, we visited the 4-H, Eco-Lab, Art and Education buildings.  I looked around the Creative Activities building and Heritage Square while the girls, escorted by hubby, went on the Skyride, Giant Slide and Carousel.  Of course, we picked up our bucket of Sweet Martha's Chocolate Chip cookies for the ride home.

This was a small part of the sea of people when we left at about 4:00.  I believe the attendance was about 205,000 on Sunday.

A little sisterly love.