A little big of Magic!

We finally made the trip to the city to visit the children's museum, The Magic House.  I remember going with my Mom when she taught 2nd grade as a chaperone, but Wow! this place has gotten huge!  Logan and I took along our buddies Parker and Heather.  It was so much fun.  It was VERY crowded which made for a stressful day for Heather and I, but the boys had a great time!  This trip is best told with pictures!

Bubbles!

Parker and Logan making bubbles

Logan's favorite-the water table

Shooting the water guns

I caught this exceptionally cute picture in the mirror maze!

Look how wet they were after playing at the water table!

Yep-the boys are playing with the dollhouse...

Going down the little slide.  Logan and Parker weren't quite old enough to go down the BIG slide, but maybe next time.

Logan entertained himself looking through these holes at me for quite some time!

I was pretty entertained myself!

"Let me out!"

"Mom?!?"

These are the holes he was looking through.  I was standing on the other side taking pictures.

Driving the delivery truck

FUN!

I think my hair stuck up better than Logan's.  He didn't know what to think!

They had a special exhibit for Alice in Wonderland.  Here is Logan having tea.

Not sure how he knows this is the proper way to hold the tea cups...

He was having tea with these two girls!

Logan went in this tunnel and would not come out.  He caused a back up...

We had a great day and both Parker and Logan passed out on the way home.  Heather was kind enough to let me swing by Dunkin' Donuts (it's the nearest to where we live now-several hours away as opposed to the one on every corner where we lived before) for my iced blueberry coffee!  It was a delicious end to the day!

Memory Monday-Pageant Fun!

I know...I know!  It's been awhile, but Memory Monday has once again made a comeback. 
This post was prompted by a visit with my friend Melissa a few weeks ago.  Melissa moved to our town in 6th grade, but we were never really close friends until our Junior year and it's really too bad because I can only imagine all the fun we would have had if we had been friends since 6th grade!
My hometown has a little festival every year in September called Harvest Festival.  It's a big deal for our little town.  Every year, there is a Harvest Festival pageant that is for high school girls in our town.  I grew up going to the pageant and always dreaming about being the Harvest Festival Queen.  Now obviously, this is a big dream for a short girl like me...I'm not exactly pageant material.  I should add that I have a cousin who was very big into the Miss America circuit (she's a lot taller than I am!), so I went to several of her pageants too growing up.  I've not been one to not do something just because I'm told it probably won't work out, so when I was old enough to enter the Harvest Festival Pageant, I did!
All the festivities started before school started my Junior year.  There were about ten (maybe more?) girls in the pageant that year.  Cheryl is the pageant coordinator and she always had a "get to know you" get together before school started which consisted of a float trip and horse back riding.  It is so much fun!  This get together made doing the pageant so worth it.  It was my first time horse back riding too.  And to think of it, it may have been my last also...I don't think I've ridden a horse since then. 
The pageant actually consisted of an interview a few days before the pageant and then the night of the pageant was an intro number, talent, evening gown, and final question.  (Yep-no swim suit competition!)  The interview was always fun and I truly think it prepared me for job interviews (laugh all you want...but it really did!).  Oh, on a side note, I did this pageant both my Junior and Senior year, so if I talk in plural, that's why.  I always did a gymnastic routine for my talent.  It was definitely interesting.  My junior year, I wore a gorgeous blue evening gown but I cannot find any pictures to put in, sorry!
Anyhow, much to my surprise I was 1st runner up my junior year.  This is how Melissa and I became such good friends.  Ellen, another friend of mine, was the Queen (she was amazing!) and Melissa was the 2nd runner up.  We all spent the rest of the week together doing Harvest Festival activities such as riding in the parade, riding a horse in the rodeo, and other such stuff.  Melissa and I have been friends ever since.
Oddly enough, our Senior year, Melissa and I once again were 1st runner up and 2nd runner up!  Crazy, right?!?  Another good friend of mine, Katie, won that year!
Now, if you win the Harvest Festival pageant, you represent our town in the Crawford County Fair Pageant, but any high school/college age girl can enter the County Fair Pageant also.  The summer after my Senior year, I decided to enter the Crawford County Fair Pageant for fun. 

Excuse the crappy photo quality, I took a photo of the photo and the photo is from over 10 years ago!  But this is my gorgeous beaded dress I wore in the Crawford County Fair Pageant.  I still have it and I do still fit in it!

The County Fair pageant was similar in structure to the Harvest Festival pageant.  The night of the pageant as we were walking across the stage in our evening gowns, they read a little bio on us.  Early on we had filled out a little bio sheet and one of the questions was name 3 words to describe yourself.  I can't remember the first two words I used, but the last one was short.  Obviously.  I hadn't realized that this would be read by anyone but the judges, but as I walked across the stage, you guessed it, it was announced to everyone that I was short.  Everyone was shocked!  Just kidding...but it sure did get a huge laugh from the crowd!

Here I am walking across the stage and getting ready to bow.

Low and behold, I actually win the pageant.  I was actually turning to walk off the stage when they called my name. (we were supposed to clear the stage once the Queen was announced).  I had to turn back around and go get my crown!!  So in 1998, I was the Queen of Crawford County! 

I could keep going on and talk about my trip to the State Fair to participate in that pageant and another crazy pageant I was in, but I'm getting tired.  So I'll leave those stories for another Monday.

Here's a few more pictures from my pageant days.

I was actually back at the Harvest Festival pageant after winning the Crawford County Pageant.  This was the crown bearer that year.  I'm pretty sure he's in college now...

That's Melissa!  We were filling time at the Harvest Festival pageant singing a duet.

The whole Crawford County Queen getup!

The Lazy Mom's Blog Post

I'm lazy today, but I know there are a few people out there who would love a blog post today.  So....this is what I got today.  A few Iphone pictures from the past few weeks...or months...whatever floats my boat!

Eating biscuits and gravy at our favorite breakfast joint!

Sprinkler fun

"Driving" the new truck

Logan attempting to take his temperature...it was hilarious seeing him try to figure out how he could get the thermometer under his shirt into his armpit!

My little Picasso

Ha!  Pretty sure Jeff came in and scolded me for taking the picture before I took his legs out of the crib...

Passed out after a long day...

Here is a teaser for an upcoming blog about our trip to The Magic House...

Tropical Storm Logan hit our house!!!

What this picture doesn't show is Mommy telling Logan that he will never, ever get to ride one of these and that sitting on the back is as good as it gets!  Uncle Dean is such a bad influence!!

Daddy and Logan showing off our new mower.

Filling the pool

And this is why the pool never got completely filled...

Logan means serious business here with his bubble mower and his shades!

Good Lord, he's cute!

All fresh and clean after a bath!

 Now these are a few pictures from this morning.  I have decided that Logan and I are going to take daily walks (weather permitting) when we Logan wakes up in the morning.  This morning we took our breakfast on our walk with us.  Logan and I finished our waffles early on, but I enjoyed my coffee as we were walking.  I am probably the only person who follows the silly sticker about hot liquids in the cup holders (you know-don't put hot liquids in the cup holder).  It was really hard steering one handed, so from now on I am icing my coffee down for our walks!  Logan and I like our new jogging stroller although Logan and I have different ideas of where the canopy should go...

Logan likes to pull the canopy forward so he is completely covered!  Note:  The coffee was only set in the cup holder for the picture!!

Logan decided he liked the canopy all the way forward by the end of the walk!

This is fun!

There ya go!  My lazy Mom post for the day.  Enjoy the pictures and hopefully I will get motivated to do a better post in the next few days!

Baltimore Part 3

The last installment of our Baltimore trip is finally here and only 2 months after we went there!  You can always read Part 1 or Part 2 if you need a refresher.  Our last full day was spent mainly in the Inner Harbor.  Jeff is a big history buff and he was very excited to tour all the ships.  I am not a history buff (sorry Aunt Vicki!) so here's a few pictures of the boats...

Wait, this isn't a boat, but it sure is a cute picture of Logan!

The US Constellation

Captain Logan

The pirate ship we will take Logan on next time we are in Baltimore

Raising the flag

Logan really liked the cannons!

A view of the Aquarium from the ship

The Chesapeake.  Jeff toured this one too.  Logan and I did not...more on that later!

The submarine

Jeff in front of the submarine

The USCGC Taney

I would not want these poor guys job!  They are cleaning the roof of a building!

Another photo of the Constellation

Logan says "No more boats, Ba!"

  Logan made it through the first ship.  Barely.  Logan and I decided a trip to the Maryland Science Center seemed like a good idea.  The science center has a reciprocal membership with the science center that we are members of at home, so it was free to get in!  It was a great place.  There was a lot of stuff that Logan enjoyed.  Pardon the photos...they were taken on my phone since Jeff had the good camera.

Logan digging for bones

Logan loved these life sized dinosaurs until they roared.  He jumped out of his socks and ran to me!  He wouldn't let go for a long time!  The man working at the museum said that the other day a teenager heard the dinosaur roar.  He said he ran and never came back! Ha!

Trying to get a photo of Logan and I with the dinos in the background.

This was a big squishy mat in the toddler zone.

Logan found the trains, of course...

And the water table...

 We went and picked up Daddy from the ships and went home to take a well deserved nap.  After we all woke up, we decided to try out another diner that we had seen on the travel channel.  This place was funky, yet cool!  The Paper Moon Diner is definitely a place to hit up if you are in Baltimore.  The food was delicious, but there was so much to choose from!! (Not a bad thing!)

"Hey-where's the food?"

This was the ceiling of the restaurant!

There were toys everywhere!

I'm not gonna lie, this freaked me out a bit!

Cupids riding wonder horses!

Barbies...

This lovely lady watched you pee in the bathroom...really!

Those are all Pez dispensers!

Outside the diner!  See-even the outside is crazy!

A family photo...I do look a bit possessed...

The next morning we packed up and drove home.  It was a great trip!  We all can't wait to go back to Baltimore sometime!

The view from our hotel window!  Not bad for under $100 a night!  Thank you priceline.com.

A beautiful overlook at a rest area on the way home!