Christmas time in the country

For the tree this year we did something a tad different. We pulled down some of the wild grape vines, twisted them into a garland and spray painted them gold. I think it turned out really well. The kiddies were really good sports and let me take a zillion pics of them for this years christmas card.

Great Wolf Lodge

The boys and I met up with my sister and her family at Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City. I had never been there before and oh my gosh, I was not expecting it to be as crazy as it was.

We spent most of the time at the water park, which was amazing! At first Jaime didn't want to try anything or venture out of the kiddie section but the second day I got him to try everything and he had a blast! Connor made himself a posse and I barely saw him. There was an arcade, putt putt, starbucks, craft room and magi game that the kids can run around and play. I knew it had the water park but no idea of all the other amenities. Which is kinda funny since my company did their advertising for years. Oh well

Enrique iglesias

I was able to get last minute tickets from work. Yeppie! He's so handsome *swoon* and put on a really good show.

Jenny and I planned on meeting up to ride together so when I got to the parking lot I texted her "I'm parked under the H". "There's no "H" in Meijer?!" She replied. So true.

Blackberries

The boys and I love eating fresh berries. Shocking right? The great thing about where we live is how many wild berries we have. Not just the blackberries but mulberries, cherries, grapes, raspberries and apples. Okay, so not all are berries but they are all delicious and all on the property! My backyard is like a snack time smorgusboard.

Summer time

The sprinkler park is open now. It's a perfect way to spend a Sunday.

Going Mobile!

I'm super excited to announce that Blogger has made it so easy to go mobile that I just couldn't resist! Now you can read this blog on your mobile device. Unicorny Attitude Mobile check it out! Let me know what you think!

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QR Code for my mobile site.

This is the QR reader that I use on my android.

Spring in full Swing

The boys and I finally got around to planting the garden that I've been planning for quite some time now. Seriously, we had a grid and everything. It has taken us, okay me, the better part of a month to get all the seeds in the ground. (Gardening is hard and I have the blisters to prove it!) We started in May when it rained non-stop for weeks and finally finished this past weekend when it was hovering in the mid-nineties. Michigan weather may be crazy but it sure is good for growing things.

Each boy picked out 4 plants and they will be responsible for, which includes the planting, weeding, watering and harvesting. They did excellent on the planting part only time will tell how the rest goes. 

Jamie picked: bib lettuce, spinach, radishes, and squash 

Connor picked: pumpkin, watermelon, peas and carrots

I think the best part was getting muddy.

Cake in a Cup

I gave the cake-in-a-cup recipe that I found a whirl (I had written it in a notebook but not where I had found it-sorry). I'm not a baker. I also have a hard time following directions and I tend to want to do my own thing. A splash of this a dash of that and then cross my fingers and hope it's edible. Thankfully, it usually is.

Cake in a Cup Recipe
4 Tbsp Flour
4 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp baking cocoa
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg
3 Tbsp milk
3 Tbsp oil
splash of vanilla

-Combine all dry ingredients & mix. Add egg - mix well. Add milk, oil, vanilla and mix
-Microwave 2 1/2 to 3 minutes (I'd recommend 2 1/2 minutes)

Buttercream Frosting
Powered sugar
Butter softened
Vanilla
Cocoa

(I don't remember my exact measurements, i tend to "wing it")

For my first try I followed the directions perfectly and left it in the microwave for 3 minutes... and the center burnt. The second time I didn't use as much oil and I left them in for only 2:30 minutes, that worked out WAY better. I also made my own frosting. The first time with cocoa the second time I melted chocolate chips both versions were delicious. I just used what I had on hand. The second time was a delicious success!

Skittle Theory Version 2.0

I posted a while ago about my skittle theory but it wasn't a very good explanation. So I'm going to give it another whirl let me know what you think: Like any bag of skittles there is a variety of colors. So you try a red and it's good but not great, a green is just not for you, yellow's are a lot of fun but too much drama, another red just for kicks, then you come across an orange and they're the perfect fit, just right in every way. Then some cosmic kick-in-the balls occurs and they are no longer in your life. Does that mean they weren't the one for you? No, it means that you're perfect match is an orange. It's just digging through all the other colors to figure that out. There's not one person for everyone, there's a handful :) That's my skittle theory, hope you enjoyed.

 Love is like a bag of skittles...

Eisley has a new Video out!

Just released 'Smarter' from The Valley album. This is my FAVORITE band (tied with Red) of all time!!!



I love that it's siblings and a cousin. Makes me wish my family was more musically gifted, but to each his own.

Beautifully done as always Eisley.

My Favorite Girls

I'm a very proud Auntie and I just wanted to share some cuteness overload.

The girls had their pictures taken by Caitlin Terpstra in Grand Rapids. The pictures are beautiful! You can see more of the girls here. Now I'm thinking Christmas gifts for the grandparents having all the grandbabies together on a HUGE poster sized, matted, framed, and professionally taken photograph. Since Caitlin does such great work we might be coming to visit her...

Michigan Love Monday

Well, this was SUPPOSED to post on Monday but you know how that goes, the best laid plans of mice and men *sigh* Anyhoo, this weekend in Michigan was PHE-NOM-E-NAL! Beautiful, warm weather (warm means not snowing) and an abundance of wildlife. I had a fox in my backyard! Unfortunately, it was quicker at slipping away than I was a grabbing my camera. Next time Mr. Fox, next time…

I also went for a run at a local park. Seriously, how cute is this gazebo? Many a couple have been married here. True story. Here's the link if you're interested.

They have a bunch of nature trails that I love for running and kiddie wrangling. You can change you're route a gazillion times so you don't get board. They have benches and descriptions of trees and other flora. Wanna hear the best part? It's not paved! It's WAY easier on my joints.You may snicker and laugh but I want everything to work when I get even older than I am now.

Artistic Style

How young are you when you develop your artistic style? Is it something you're born with or something you have to work on and takes years of development?

Talking about Jamie's artistic expression on my wall got me thinking about his style. The boys have tons of notebooks filled with stories, journal entries, and doodles. To work on Connor's writing skills we started writing in a journal before bed so he could practice. Jamie, of course, had to have one too. He would tell me what he wanted to say about the day, I would write it, and then he would draw a picture. We've been doing this for a few years now. The other day I noticed that Jamie had a very distinct style.

This is one of my favorites because he drew two tiny hands like a T-Rex. He LOVES dinosaurs.

I hope that he doesn't grow out of this. I hope that it matures, like he will, but that it will essentially stay the same.

Artistic Expression

The boys love painting. Above they are having a grand ol' time painting wooden cars that I snagged at Joann's for a dollar.

I have always encouraged my boys in artistic endeavors, except when it expands to the white walls and involves permanent markers. That’s when I kibosh that artistic expression.

This little masterpiece was created by my four year old using sharpies. Going up the stairs was like following a marker breadcrumb trail. Every few feet there was another scribble or dash. Awesome.

I love his style though, he is pretty talented. (I haven't painted over it yet and honestly I'm not sure I will.)

Michigan Love Monday

March: In like a lion...
Nope, that's it. Michigan weather in March is a lion.
Hello April.

Glitter in the Morning

You know it's going to be a good day when you wake up in the morning and everything outside is sparkling like glitter was sprinkled around. This is the view that I woke up to this morning. My phone didn’t quite capture all the sparkle off the ice covered trees but I think you get the idea. Gotta love Michigan weather!

Spring has Sprung

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A lot happened this weekend. We had a supermoon, a thunder rain/snow storm, and the first day of spring! The full moon was the closest it’s been to the earth since 1993 on March 19th. It was 14% larger than normal. Could you tell? I was driving down the highway and it was gigantic! It looked like it was half the size of the horizon and orange. Unfortunately, by the time I made it home and snagged my camera it looked normal again. I was totally bummed that I wasn’t able to snag a picture.

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We also had some pretty awesome thunderstorms yesterday. It was fun to be driving through the big, fluffy chunks of snow only to have them turn into rain. Ahhh, the joys of living in Michigan. But no worries, if you want the weather to change just blink. There must have been a lot of blinking going on yesterday; the weather just couldn’t make up its mind. I’m glad for the rain and the beginning of spring!

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 Then the world starts to look like this again. *sign* welcome back color, I've missed you.