Back From Vacation!

Sorry to not post for so long, but we took a “beach” vacation down to Gulf Shores, AL and Fort Walton Beach, FL. It was so nice to get away for a couple of weeks, walk on the beach and soak up some sun! But we’re back to reality now and ready to get back to life. 😉

I just wanted to share a few fun things that we did in case you are ever in that area and looking for something to do. The condo we stayed in at Gulf Shores, AL was right on the beach. And yes, the beaches are beautiful!

The sand is a beautiful white!

And the water is clear!

We tried to take a walk on the beach every day. It was fun to keep an eye out for shells and whatever else might show up.

We saw a few of these and think it must be some kind of jellyfish, but not really sure. Pretty funky looking, right?!

We enjoyed trying different types of seafood at different restaurants.

The weather was beautiful, but we did have red flag and rip current warnings a lot of the time we were there. Gulf Shores is a rather laid back area with lots of friendly people. Fort Walton Beach is a couple of hours further east along the gulf coast and so the beaches look pretty much the same. The traffic is much heavier and everything is busier around the Fort Walton Beach and Destin area. But I suppose there are more things to “do” if you get tired of being at the beach. (Do people get tired of being at the beach?)

One thing that we did that would be extra fun for families is to visit Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park.

Gulfarium is not nearly as big (or as expensive) as say, Sea World, but it has some fun things to offer. There are extra encounters that you can pay to do, but we just enjoyed what we could see with the general admission price. We saw African penguins that live in warm climates and they were super cute!

We watched a sea lion show…

And a dolphin show at the Dolphin Oasis.

They rehabilitate injured gulf animals here but some of the exhibits were closed due to being worked on. There are exhibits to see inside buildings too. Like these very cool looking frogs. (Yes, they are poisonous.)

There were some really neat looking fish too.

We took a ride on a boat for a dolphin cruise and I would highly recommend this! If you get seasick easily you might want to take some Dramamine beforehand, but it was a ton of fun! We went with the Southern Star Dolphin Cruise and thoroughly enjoyed the captain’s narrative.

We did see dolphins, but because the water was rather rough at times I didn’t get any pictures of the dolphins. (I was busy hanging on so I didn’t join the dolphins!) The dolphins popped up and back down so fast it was hard to catch a photo. It was an evening tour and the sun sinking over the water was beautiful.

I guess I better stop for now, but it was a great vacation and I would highly recommend you take a vacation to the Gulf Shores of AL and Fort Walton Beach/Destin, FL area.

Rusty was glad to have us back home even though he got to spend his vacation with our daughter and her husband and kids in their home with lots of dog cousins. 😉

I hope if you take a vacation, you enjoy your time away to relax and recharge. 🙂

It’s All in How You Look at It

Hello! We are away on a vacation just now but I had to share this funny with you. I guess I have a weird sense of humor, but I saw a bowl of bananas the other day that made me laugh. Yep, just a bowl of bananas. Here it is…

Anything look funny to you? Just a bowl of fruit, you say? Well, here’s what I thought when I saw it…

Haha! There, you’ve had your chuckle for the day! 😁

An Adorable Update for You

Hello, again! Just wanted to share a very adorable update with you that I think you might enjoy seeing! Earlier this week for Earth Day I posted some pictures from our nature walk. One of those pictures was this Robin’s nest with 4 eggs in it.

I checked on the nest yesterday and guess what?! Yes, the eggs have hatched! 🙂

Look at those tiny baby birds! Awww, it makes my heart soft and mushy just looking at their cuteness! 🙂 Just wanted to share them with you to brighten your day!

Happy Earth Day 2024!

Yes, it’s Earth Day once again! That means it’s time for our annual walk to look for signs of Spring and see what flowers and other nature items we can find. Pop your shoes on and let’s go! 🙂 Here are some things we found:

Our Creeping Phlox flowers are blooming and they are so beautiful! Here we have light purple…

Also white…

And possibly my favorite colors, pink and white.

Next we found a bush with red and pink flowers. (Sorry, I don’t know what kind of bush it is.)

I bet you know the name of these bright yellow flowers! If you said dandelions, you are right!

Oh, look who is hanging out and gathering pollen on this dandelion!

These tiny little wild violets are growing in our yard. Yes, all by themselves. We didn’t plant them.

Here is another pinkish-purple flower that grows all on its own too. It even grows up through stones!

Speaking of stones…look what we found in our driveway, of all places! Two Killdeer eggs! From what we read, it seems Killdeer often lay their eggs in not very safe places.

While we are talking about birds and their eggs, look what else we found on our walk.

Care to guess what’s hiding inside this nest? This is a Robin’s nest and look what a beautiful color their eggs are!

Here’s another batch of pretty white flowers.

We’re almost done with our Earth Day walk today, but keep an eye out for trees that have blossoms right now too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed going on this walk with us, but I hope you can take time outside to go on your own walk and that you will find all kinds of beautiful things in nature that will amaze you! 🙂

Another Batch of Lego Clearance!

Yes, I found more awesome clearance prices on Lego sets at Walmart! Whoohoo! 🙂 Of course, this is just from our local Walmart store so there is no guarantee that the same set is available near you, but it’s worth a look! Without further ado, here we go!

#1.) Lego Star Wars Tenoo Jedi Temple #75358. Sale price $19.00, regular price $39.97.

#2.) Lego Creator Super Robot #31124. Sale price $5.00, regular price $9.97.

#3.) Lego Disney Peter Pan & Wendy’s Storybook Adventure #43220. Sale price $7.00, regular price $19.97.

#4.) Lego Friends Igloo Holiday Adventure #41760. Sale price $19.00, regular price $49.97. (Yep, this one went home with me!)

#5.) Lego Friends Beach Buggy Fun #41725. Sale price $4.00, regular price $10.97.

#6.) Lego Friends Sea Rescue Boat #41734. Sale price $32.00, regular price $80.00.

#7.) Lego Disney Twirling Rapunzel #43214. Sale price $3.00, regular price $9.97.

#8.) Lego Harry Potter Quidditch Trunk #76416. Sale price $27.00, regular price $68.00.

#9.) Lego Super Mario Dixie Kong’s Jungle Jam Expansion Set #71421. Sale price $16.00, regular price $26.97.

#10.) Lego Ninjago Cole’s Earth Dragon EVO #71782. Sale price $13.00, regular price $34.97.

#11.) Lego Ninjago Nya and Arin’s Baby Dragon Battle #71798. Sale price $17.00, regular price $34.97.

#12.) Lego Jurassic Park Velociraptor Escape #76957. Sale price $17.00, regular price $39.97.

#13.) Lego Marvel Endgame Final Battle #76266. Sale price $50.00, regular price $100.00.

#14.) Lego Botanical Collection Orchid #10311. Sale price $39.98, regular price $49.97.

#15.) Lego Jurassic Park Triceratops Research #76959. Sale price $24.00, regular price $49.97.

Those are some amazing prices, right?! I hope you can find some of these great deals at a Walmart store near you! 🙂

Make a Picture With Dandelions

Spring seems to have arrived in Ohio and along with it comes the dandelions! Every year we have hundreds of dandelions and even though they are considered a weed, their bright yellow color sure perks things up. 🙂

Today I wanted to share a fun way to make a picture using dandelions. All you need is a piece of cardboard, some markers and dandelions. Oh, and an adult to poke some holes in the cardboard.

I show some dandelions in that picture, but it’s better to wait to pick your flowers until you are ready to use them. They wilt rather quickly. Let’s start by drawing a vase on the cardboard. It doesn’t need to be perfect. (As you can see mine is crooked. LOL)

Have an adult poke several holes in the cardboard above the vase. Your dandelions are going to go here so make the holes big enough for the stems of the dandelions to fit through.

I drew stems from each hole down to the top of the vase, but I used enough dandelions that the stems were covered up. So it’s up to you if you want to draw stems or not. 😉

You can color your vase to add some more color to your project.

Now you are ready to head outside and pick some dandelions! Pick one flower for each hole you have. Slide the stem of the dandelion in from the front to the back. And voila! 🙂 You have a vase of flowers!

I hope you are having some sunshine and warm temperatures wherever you are! 🙂 Till next time…

Happy National Pet Day!

Yep, it is National Pet Day! 🙂 Do you have a pet? While dogs and cats are probably the most popular pet to have, there are so many more types of pets available. Maybe you have a rabbit or a turtle or an iguana or a hamster or a…(gulp!) snake? How about a bird or a guinea pig or some fish? The list goes on and on and we could do this all day! Haha! Somehow whatever pet we have, we always seem to love ours the most. 😉 So for National Pet Day, I thought I would share some photos of our special buddy. He is a fox red Labrador Retriever and he is super smart and very friendly. (Except to chipmunks…)

Rusty thinks he needs to be wherever we are. Here he was trying to tell his daddy that he forgot to take him outside with him.

Sometimes you can tell what he’s thinking by the look on his face…

This is the feeding time stare…”Mom, it is my supper time. Did you forget?”

“Peek-a-boo! Do you want to chase me?”

“Hello, there! I need pats…right now! You aren’t busy, are you?”

“If I say “cheese”, will you give me some?”

“Happy-Birthday-Pinto-can-I-take-my-hat-off-now?”

“Did someone say treat??”

“It’s time to do a breathalyzer test…were you snacking without me?”

One of my favorite pictures of Rusty…”Me? Begging? No, I’m just sitting here making sure your peanut butter and jelly doesn’t get away from you.”

I hope you enjoyed sharing a little silliness with Rusty today. And I hope you and your pet have a wonderful National Pet Day! If you don’t have a pet, I’m sure there is someone who would be glad to share their pet with you! 🙂

A Solar Eclipse Yummy Project

Happy Eclipse Day to all who are living in the path that can see the solar eclipse today! Or for those who have traveled to places so you can see it. We are some of the lucky ones and we will watch it from our yard! I just wanted to share a quick, fun and tasty eclipse project with you! All you need is a few Oreo cookies…8 cookies is enough.

Take 7 of the cookies and twist to open them.

If the filling doesn’t completely stick to one side of the cookie, you can use a knife to put the filling all on one side. Now you’ll need something flat to lay the cookies on. Like a place mat, a plate or a pizza pan, etc. I’m using the backside of a pizza pan. Start with one cookie with the filling side up. This represents the sun before the eclipse starts.

Now take another cookie, filling side up, and place the bare cookie piece so it just covers a little bit of the filling…the moon is now starting to cover the sun.

Place 2 more cookies with each one covering up a bit more of the filling. This represents the moon covering more and more of the sun.

At the bottom place one whole cookie.

We have reached the totality of the eclipse and can no longer see the sun!

Now add 3 more cookie sets to show how the moon gradually slides away from in front of the sun and soon you are back to seeing the full sun!

You’ve made a complete model of the solar eclipse! Pretty fun, right? 🙂 But now for the best part – you can eat the cookies! LOL

One other quick share…this sign is in front of our local grocery store. They were getting into the spirit of the eclipse today! Look what they have for sell! 😉

Happy Eclipse Day! 🙂 The eclipse is about to start here! 🙂 I must grab my solar eclipse glasses and head outside!

Happy April Fool’s Day!

It’s that time of year again when we pull out all our silly pranks and play them on our favorite people! Happy April Fool’s Day! 🙂 Has anyone “pranked” you? Have YOU played a prank on someone else? Our family has had fun sharing the fun pranks of our day and we’d love to hear what silliness you’ve gotten up to! Here are some of the pranks I’ve heard about today…

#1.) Our daughter-in-law took 2 cereal bowls last night and poured some water in the bottom of them and placed the bowls in the freezer overnight with a spoon stuck in the water. This morning she added some cereal and milk to the bowls and served them to her 2 kids. As you might guess, the spoons were stuck in the bowls! 🙂

#2.) This morning I made my husband a little individual cake…a sponge cake. (Can you guess where this is going?) Yes, I used a real sponge. 😉 Here are a few pictures…

Icing the sponge cake…shhh!

It looks pretty normal, right?

Hey, my fork is bouncing off this cake!

Waaaaait a minute…this is the toughest cake I’ve ever seen…this seems very suspicious.

Oohh, its a REAL sponge cake! Very sneaky!

#3) I heard about coffee made with salt water…and coffee with salt instead of sugar added. 😉

#4.) There were stories about strawberries and blueberries and tomatoes being picked from the garden. (Which normally doesn’t happen till late spring and late summer.)

#5.) There was a rumor of a purple horse running through the property…

#6.) There was news about someone buying a new Gladiator… (No, he didn’t really.)

#7.) I saw news on Facebook today that Bob Evans restaurants are selling pancakes on a stick, today only. 😉

It’s great to have a day for fun like April Fool’s Day! 🙂 I hope you have enjoyed yours! 🙂

Coloring Eggs With Cool Whip

I’ve seen the suggestion floating around the internet to color eggs using Cool Whip whipped topping and food coloring, so I had to try it out. 😉 (I may have shiny object syndrome or something) Here’s how it went for me…

You will need a container of Cool Whip whipped topping, white hard boiled eggs and liquid food coloring. And a dish to do your coloring in…I used a cookie sheet.

Thaw the Cool Whip in the refrigerator. Then spread a bunch on the cookie sheet or dish.

Put drops of different colored liquid food coloring all around the Cool Whip.

Using a toothpick…or other small utensil…swirl the colors throughout the Cool Whip.

Roll the white hard boiled eggs through the colored Cool Whip and let the eggs sit on the cookie sheet. A word of warning…your fingers are going to be just as colorful as the eggs! 😉

Let the eggs sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Then rinse in water. Sit the eggs on a paper towel to dry. Here’s a look at my eggs after they were dry.

The eggs looked neat but most of the color was on the light side. (Maybe I did something wrong?) I had one egg in particular that didn’t take on much color even though I did it twice. Overall this was a fun process so you might like to give it a go too. 🙂