Sunday, July 11, 2010

Day 143 (7/11): Pretty Boy?

Colton missed Vacation Bible School at our church because we were on vacation. So when his summer program said they were going to take kids to vacation bible school and feed them supper for free I signed him up.  He goes from 5:30 - 8:15 at night and yesterday when I picked him up, this is what I was greeted with:

Colton's friends' mom was mortified too.  She was hoping she had some wet wipes in the car to get it off of him before he got home and let his dad see it!   I kept on telling myself that it was an Egyptian theme and men wore makeup back then, right?  Right?



They had a blast all week and put on a little program Friday night and Sunday at church. Their group name was per bastet which means home of the cat in Egyptian so they had to funk the name up a bit and go by Ninja Cats.
The church was all decked out with Egyptian themed decorations.  He posed as an Egyptian dancer in one vignette.

Here's a couple videos of their practice Friday night and the actual Sunday performance during the church service.  I grew up Methodist and have continued to go to a Methodist Church here in Manhattan.  The Babtists were often seen as are archnemesis so I was interested to see what the service was like.  The pastor was always energetic with the kids as I picked Colton up each night so I was really anxious to see what he was like at the pulpit. The service was very nice and everyone was so welcoming.  It was a long service over an hour but it did hold my attention...not necessarily Colton's attention.  I would highly reccommend it to anyone looking for a church. Plus they are in need of a choir director so if you know of anyone that needs a directing gig, it is the First Babtist Church up in Bluehills area in Manhattan.


Did you see Colton dancing so wildly that he fell off the step?  I about died laughing!  :)

Friday, July 9, 2010

Day 142 (7/9): Buffett Baby!

We went to Texas to see Jimmy Buffett at the end of May and I never got the chance to post pics. So here goes....it brought back such good memories going through the pictures again and I can't wait to go to another concert.  If you have never been to a Jimmy Buffett concert in your life it is more than just a concert - it is an experience!  You go for the whole day to tailgate and check out all the other fans.


We made Cheeseburgers in Paradise for our tailgate.  It was extremely windy that day and we literally had to hang on to the tent to keep it from blowing away.  Notice the sandbags weren't even holding it down against the wind. So now for some of the sights and sounds around the stadium.  (Disclaimer:  If you are a younger person, ask your parent/guardian for permission to look at these pictures.  They definitely contain adult content).
These were the biggest pair of underwear I had ever seen. I am glad to report that they did not come out of my underwear drawer! 
Check out the sexy ones in these pictures!  Probably the only time you will see me in a bikini and surfing so take a good look!  I do like the abs on the men in our bunch so start on those situps and crunches Terry and Mark.
Now for something not so sexy...I thought you would enjoy both the front and back view. This guy gave you the illusion of having a bodybuilder body.  I think the only thing he was building was a protective cover for his beer belly.

I don't know what got sucked up into the back of these blue shorts but I don't want to find out. 
 Talk about wedgie city!
We did dress up a bit to fit in with the crowd. But we didn't break out the coconut shells like these dudes:  If you love people watching a Buffett Concert is a great place to check out some crazy people...crazy drunk people.  I think I would have to have a lot more alcohol to break out the coconut shells if I had a body like the guy on the left.


This guy couldn't keep his eyes off this girls balloons. She could poke someone's eyes out with those things!
And Mark got a treat from this guy.  See what he is doing with those things to that girls head?  Well he came down the aisle and did the same thing to Mark and said, "I've been looking for you all night!"  We busted out laughing!
We did see Jimmy in prime form that night.  He sang all of his classic songs in his flipflops and fun was had by all.  The Fin Heads were out and cruised through the concert the entire night.  I have tons more pics and videos of the day so if you are wanting more posts, please let me know!  :)  For now I leave you with a classic Buffett line: "If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insaane." I have laughed looking at these pictures and hope you have too. 

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Day 141 (7/8): Fruity Fun

The summer temperatures always make me crave fruit so at our 4th of July party we bought tons of fruit to make a watermelon fruit basket and a fruit pizza. As Rachel Ray says....YUMMO!  The kids could not wait to bite into it...literally!
The fruit pizza was YUMMO too. Ted said he knew it was real because there was lots of fruit on it unlike those that you buy in the store.  Apricots, kiwi, grapes, cantelope, strawberries, blackberries and pineapple adorned our pizza pie.  It was so good but now I'm fruited out for a while!

Day 137 (7/4): 4th of July...late

I thought I had this set to open on the 5th of July saying what we had done over the 4th but for some reason it did not - technological snafu or something. We had a few people over on the 3rd of July to shoot off fireworks wtih hopes of the rain staying away on the 4th so we could watch the big show the city puts on.
We went to several fireworks stands in order to find the best deal.  We finally ended up at a stand that supported Flint Hills Soccer Association and they had great deals and we filled our laundry baskets up with the loot. Colton, of course, was ready to shoot off the stuff as soon as we got home.

We told the boys they had to wait until it got darker outside so they went downstairs.  It was pretty quiet so I decided to sneak down to see what they were up to.  Well what do boys do behind closed doors - wrestle!  It was quiet wrestling but that's what they were doing.

In order to kill a little bit of time because now we had 3 kids that could not wait to shoot off fireworks, we had some cheap water guns filled with water ready to be shot.  The boys went outside and blasted each other.

I was taking pictures and Austin thought I was one of the boys hiding on the porch and started blasting me.  Good thing he had bad aim or he would have regretted it!

I'm not really sure what was going on with this pose?  Was he down playing possum with a water gun? 
Finally we got through supper and they started the fireworks show.  Smoke bombs came first so they could dance around in the smoke. I think Parker thought he was directing the show. Parachutes and tons of other fountains and tanks found their way into our stash.  We had a great time and hope everyone else had a Fantastic Fourth!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Day 140 (7/7): Concert Series Part 2

I absolutely love Sugarland.  I always have ever since I heard their first song. I've bought all their albums on they day they came out and know every single word to every single song and I'm not afraid to belt them out. Ask those people sitting around me at the concert or the birds outside my shower window if you don't believe me.
The concert was named The Incredible Machine and they came out on stage hidden behind this big curtain with sounds of machines while they peeped through the holes of the curtains.  It was lit so you could see their sillouhettes through the curtain and they were acting very robotic or machine like.  There was one huge round video board which the technicians switched out scenes of the concert, Jennifer, Kristian and the band members, and then these really cool heart images. 

She did not leave the stage for any kind of break and played for over an hour. She was just as bubbly at the end of the concert as she was in the beginning.  She played all of her hit songs and then some other covers such as Beyonce's All the Single Ladies, Miley Cyrus's Party in the USA, and even Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline.

Jennifer and Kristian were great to their fans too. They signed a guitar and then walked out into the crowd to give it to a lucky fan.  Kristian gave it to a little girl all decked out in cowboy boots and a hat.  She was so shocked.  They also made a banner by spray-painting their logo (which is also tattooed on Jennifer's arm) and gave it to a lucky fan in the front row and had him walk around the Sprint Center to show it off to everyone. I wasn't one of those lucky ones but I hope to be at the next concert!  Check out the real lighter on this guy a few rows up.  It was classic as most people just use their cell phones!

Usually artists release an album and then tour their new songs.  Sugarland decided to do it backwards as their album is not coming out until October 19th (hint hint for anyone wanting to buy me an early birthday present). I cannot wait to get it. They played 3 - 4 of the songs off the album and they all had this pop-country-rock feel that will be wonderful for me to serenade everyone as I sing in the car and shower!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Day 139 (7/6): Ice's New Girlfriend

Well as if our house isn't zoo-ish enough....we got another critter. The neighbor girl has brought Colton her beetle since she was tired of taking care of it. So we welcomed Madison into our home. Ice now has a girlfriend to LOOK at but that was my stipulation - they could not be in the same cup!  I did not want beetle babies crawling around my house! I read that female beetles can lay up to 500 eggs in their life time...which is a whole lotta' creepy crawlies!

Madison came over in a very small cup (sauce cup from Pizza Hut maybe?) so we decided to get Ice a new home and move Madison into Ice's old house. Dillon's has a new fresh peanut butter grinder and we found the perfect clear cup to make a beetle house at that station.  The new cup made way for a Beetle Hotel or double decker creature cage.

Colton even made them name tags for their abodes. I had to prompt him a little about what to put on a girl one since he said he'd never made a girl name badge before.  But you can see he drew flowers with vines and stars for Madison.  Icy's name is made manly with the lightning and clouds.
These little beetles have already developed little characters. Ice likes to be on top of the rocks in his house and Madison is rarely seen above the rice/oatmeal mix.  I hope that does not mean she is burying her eggs for those future baby beetles.  If so then she is going right back over to the neighbors!  My favorite time to watch is still when they get turned over on their backs with their little legs just flailing in the air.  It's like they are crying out...help me..help me...but I just sit there and laugh at them.  They eventually get flipped over because you'll walk by their houses and they are right side up crawling around.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Day 138: (7/5): Quilt Show with Grandma

My dad and grandma came up to go to one of Colton's basebal games. Grandma think these are little mini vacations so I was trying to think of something for her to get out and see in Manhattan.  The Mariana Kistler Beach museum was hosting Pieces of Time: Quilts from the KSU Textile and Costume Museum. I love quilts and it is FREE to get into the museum!  There were only about 12 - 15 quilts but some were over 200 years old and they gave stories about each quilt.

This quilt was called tumbling blocks and if I remember correctly it was from the late 1800s. It had a brown striped backing.
This was the showcase quilt and it was interesting to read about the differences in flags on the quilts.  You would never have noticed if you didn't read the information but there are different numbers of stars on the flags to represent the addition of more states in the union by the time the quilt was done.  It read that it was a true testament to how long it takes to finish a quilt with a time of over 3 years for the addition of Minnesota and another state to add stars to the flags.  I don't feel as bad now when it takes me a long time to finish up my UFO's (unfinished objects).
Another misconception I had about older quilts was their lack of color but some of these quilts were bright and cheery. I assumed that quilters used scrap gunny sacks and flour sacks and such but these were very colorful.  The quilting on them was so tiny just like my Grandma Doornbos.  They were truly works of art!

I strongly encourage anyone in the Manhattan area to visit the Beach Museum. It is FREE (well you can always put a donation in the donation boxes) and they have wonderful exhibits.