Hiking to Grotto Falls

During our recent vacation to the Smokies we hiked to Grotto Falls in the park. To get there you drive through the park on the Roaring Fork motor trail, park the car and hike up from there.

We thought this would be a good one because it wasn't too far and you could walk behind the falls which sounded cool.

The kids at the trailhead:

The trail was really wet. We didn't know if it was because of some recent rain or if it was always that way due to all the shadiness, etc.

Paul was happy to spot a place to rest a minute! There were no benches along the way!

We finally made it to the falls and it was worth the hike up. We could hear them before we saw them. Such a beautiful sight. The Great Smoky Mountain Nat Park gets about 7 feet of rain per year so that's why there are so many awesome water falls.

There were lots of people on this trail. Everyone waits to get the ubiquitous picture behind the falls.

Both kids fell at some point but nothing too bad. It was a perfect day for a hike. Not too hot, just right. Michael was so cute telling people on our way down, "You're almost there, you can make it." After a while we told him he had to stop telling people that because they weren't almost there! He changed it to, "you can do it, keep going!"

Little Eagles Cake

A friend asked me to do a cake for her son's baseball team's end of the season party. I did a two layer sheet cake because I never think you get enough icing on a regular sheet cake. Especially if you get an inside piece. Half is choc and half white. This thing weighs a tons. I used 4 cake mixes and 5 batches of icing. I made my own fondant for the accent pieces. It's so easy to make and much cheaper than buying it. It's only marshmallows and powdered sugar. 

The Morning Show

Every morning at Camp Sharon the kids meet down by the lake in the amphitheater for a short devotion and a little wake up fun. In the past there was an older lady named Elaine who did the show. It was called The Morning Show with Grandma Elaine. Last year Elaine couldn't be there so a gal name Tisha did it. She was much too young to be called Grandma Tish so it was The Morning Show with Aunt Tish. This year Tish couldn't be at camp so... The Morning Show with Aunt Tammy and Lauden was born.

Lauden Baker is a neat kid who I met last year at camp. He's goes to school in Joplin and is very talented. He lead the kids every morning in the Good Morning song by Mandisa. Always fun to dance to! I had seen his mom on facebook and asked him how old she was. 39! Ha! I like way old enough to be his mother!

 

 

We tried to give everyone a chance to be on stage at least once during their week at camp. Toward the end of the week I had all the boys who hadn't been up for anything at all to come up and help lead the pledge. The next day I had the girls who hadn't been a part of any of the activities. As a mom I always want to see all the kids have a turn to be on stage!

 

We also sand the Wake Up song every morning. Here are some of the counselors helping to lead it.

 

 

One morning I had Michael and a couple of the girls from my cabin come up and sing In Summer from Frozen. Everyone sang along. The kids all know the Frozen songs!

 

Here's a nice shot of most of the campers. We had around 80 kids at Camp Sharon the week we were there.

 

 

Of course I had to make shirts for Lauden and me with my newly acquired screen printing technique. Funny this is I wore one of my Morning Show shirts while we were on vacation and I had several people ask me about it! Ha!

 

Lauden and I had a lot of fun doing The Morning Show. He's quite the actor and hey, I got to use my theater degree for something:)

 

 

 

 

Major Cake Fail

My friend Sandy asked me to make a strawberry cake for her daughter Savanna's 20 th birthday. I didn't have a go to recipe so decided to try Paula Deen's straw cake recipe. The cake came out fine but the icing was way too runny. I don't know where I went wrong. I even added an entire extra bag of powdered sugar and it was still thin. I decided to go ahead and try it. I split the layers thinking maybe they wouldn't be as heavy so wouldn't slide off. Well I thought like a fish as my dad used to say. 

Here's evidence:

So I had to start over. I searched the net and found a different recipe so I made it. Not sure how it tastes but it came out much better. 

Redemption!

For this cake I used I am baker's from scratch strawberry cake recipe. But like I said I have no idea how this cake tastes. 

Throwback Thursday

I came across this picture of Paul while cleaning out our shed. I hadn't seen it before. He says he was in middle school. Got the Beatles' vibe going doesn't he?

Camp Sharon 2014

We're just back from a great week of church camp at Camp Sharon on the Lake of the Ozarks. We took 13 kids from East Prairie to Junior I week which is for 2nd-4th graders. Paul spoke each night and was a counselor. I was a counselor for the second year in a row and we both loved working with the children and the staff all week.

It was exhausting but exhilarating. We were definitely two of the oldest counselors but we hung in there as best as we could! A cute 20 year old counselor came up to me on Friday and asked if I could cover for her during one of the rec times for which we shared team captain responsibilities. She said she needed a nap and was so exhausted. I thought to myself, "how do you think I feel?!" ha! But I was glad to help out. The staff worked so well together. The younger set was so great. They are really great examples to our kids and I sure would love to see Mallory and Michael in those roles one day.

Here are a few pix from the week. We were so busy we hardly have time to take any pictures.

The kiddos we took from EP. Nine girls and four boys. Two years ago we didn't have any kids going to camp, last year we took 7 and this year 13. WE also have 8 going to Junior II which is 5 and 6 grades.

 

My cabin was Shady Oak for the second year. I slept in my same bunk. Hannah, my co-counselor and I had five darling girls.

Michael LOVED camp. He just did great for being one of the youngest campers there.

This is the water front where the kids swim and canoe. Paul and I both had a canoe class during the morning class times.

A few of the sweet girls getting ready for dinner one day!

Mallory thoroughly enjoyed camp again this year. She wasn't in my cabin this time which went well. It's almost not fair to be the only girl whose mom is telling them what to do all week!

Getting ready for camp

The whole family is off to Camp Sharon next week. Paul is speaking and being a counselor. I am a counselor again and Mallory and Michael are campers. Camp Sharon is the Church of God camp in Missouri. This is the Junior I week which is for 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders. We're all really excited. Last year we took 7 kids to camp and this year 22 are going spread out over three different weeks. We have 13 going to JI.

My cabin for this year is Shady Oak which I happened to be in last year. I wanted to screen the girls shirts since I have learned how to do it the DIY easy method. I found these bright shirts at the Dollar Tree on Tuesday for, yes, you guessed it, just a dollar each! Score! As in most cases at the Dollar Tree they only had one size in this color which was adult S. I figured that would work for most of the campers. I picked up three extra ones of the same color at Hobby Lobby in bigger sizes. While they weren't a dollar they were on sale and were only 2.79 each so that was great.

So our theme is sort of a nautical, cruise type theme. "Welcome Aboard, where will the mission take you?" Paul will be speaking on water related stories from the Bible like Noah, Jonah, Jesus walking on water, etc. There will also be a missions emphasis in the afternoon classes.

I've always love sailor theme so this is a great one for me! I used to wear sailor dresses all the time and one time even told a woman wearing a nautical outfit at Darryl's Restaurant where I worked in the 90s, "I love your outfit." To which she replied, "It's my uniform." She was in the Navy.

So, this is the design I came up with. I did the Shady Oak first in blue. Then added the anchor in red. Once again I just printed the words and the anchor out on the computer and cut them out with an exacto knife. Then placed the paper on my shirts, the screen over and then did the screening. So easy and fun. Also, I have discovered you can place the little 'island' that you cut out of letters like A, O, P, D, etc right on the shirt in the place it is supposed to be when you put the paper with the words down. It just stays in place when you screen the design which makes those letters look much better.

 I think they turned out really cute! So much fun to make these shirts!!!