Sarah's birthday

Sarah's birthday celebration kind of happened in stages.  On her actual birthday, we had a small party at my parents' house with the children there (one of whom also had a birthday that day!) and both sets of grandparents.  Saturday we had another small party with pizza and blondies at a nearby park; a couple of Sarah's friends were able to join us in spite of the dreary weather.  Sunday some of my long-distance relatives were in town, and we went to visit with them.  It was not a party, but there was cake and dessert and a singing of "Happy Birthday."  Sarah and Natalie both enjoyed playing with their cousins. 

Here are some pictures from the shindig at my parents' house. 

photos from Friday

This post is brought to you by my dad, who shared his pictures from Friday's tour.  :) (Sarah may have taken some of these shots, but I don't know which ones.)

The show bread which caught Natalie's attention.

The angels atop the ark of the covenant.

The ark of the covenant.

The priestly garments.

If you ever have the opportunity to see the wilderness tabernacle mock-up that Messiah's Mansion does, you should do so.  They've been in Greeneville, so my dad, Sarah, Natalie, and I went yesterday. 

They've done a good job.  They have a model of the temple on display (similar to the one I remember from Orlando's Holy Land Experience).  They have posters of the various temples that have existed.  Then of course there is the full scale model of the tabernacle. A speaker explains the various rites and rituals and symbolism. 

The girls enjoyed it but were obviously a bit younger than the target audience--Natalie especially.  Sarah stayed content snapping photos (and asked questions a time or two), but Natalie got restless at several points. 

However, two things caught her attention, and anyone who knows Natalie won't be a bit surprised by what those two things were.  ;)  The first was the display of show bread.  Natalie noticed the bread right away.  And being the bread-lover (okay, food-lover) that she is, seeing bread was enough to make her listen to the speaker.  "That's bread?" she asked me. 

"Yes," I confirmed. Okay, it was fake bread, but that was beside the point.

"It belongs to God?  Is He going to eat the bread?"  (I think she may have been trying to ponder how she could con God out of said bread, really.)

The second thing that Natalie noted were the angels on top of the ark of the covenant.  However, I think she maybe recognized the angels because of watching Doctor Who.  She's pretty obsessed with the Weeping Angels.  I wish I had a picture of her doing her impersonation of one; it's absolutely hilarious.  I don't, so just trust me on that. 

All in all, though, we enjoyed it.  Hopefully, I'll have pictures to post soon.  :) Also, I have some photos from Sarah's birthday to share eventually.

review: Tropical Traditions Gold Label Coconut Oil

We like coconut oil, and we use a fair amount of it around here. 

The first jar of coconut oil I bought wasn't very good.  We didn't use it for much other than popping popcorn.  We then procured some organic virgin coconut oil.  Oh, this was much better!  A delicious mild coconut flavor.  I began to use it more frequently in cooking and baking. 

Still, I kept reading about Tropical Traditions, a company that was apparently the "gold standard" of coconut oil.  I was curious; could this stuff really be that good? 

I was very excited to receive a quart of Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil for review.  I was also impressed with the generous amount they sent!  I've spent the last month or so trying it out in various cooking and baking applications. 

First of all, let me just say..."YUM."  This stuff is good.  It has that lovely coconut flavor that I've enjoyed in other virgin coconut oils.  Sometimes we put it on bread in lieu of butter.  I noticed the Tropical Traditions seemed smoother or "creamier" than the other brands; it spread more easily.  It also melted better, which was helpful when I wanted it in liquid form to use in a recipe. 

It makes wonderful breads (both quick breads and yeast breads) and baked goods (like my grandmother's blondies!).  It's been used on vegetables, in oatmeal, and to make popcorn.  Really, it worked perfectly in everything I tried.  

You can go to www.coconutoil.com if you are interested in reading more about coconut oil and its health benefits. 

Stay tuned for info on how YOU can possibly get free coconut oil from Tropical Traditions!

http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/virgin_coconut_oil.htm

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

when autocorrect loses its mind...

Back in the spring, my brother gave us an iPad.  The girls and I share it, and we love it.  Love, love, love it.  However, its autocorrect feature leaves a bit to be desired.  It adds punctuation where I don't want it, changes words I don't want changed, and generally makes a nuisance of itself.

However, sometimes it is amusing to see what autocorrect will do.  One night, while chatting with a favorite online buddy of mine (I'll call her Aeryn) I complained about the autocorrect function.  I said that I didn't need the iPad to help me make typos; I could make typos just fine all on my own.  Ironically, the iPad changed "typos" to "tops," demonstrating my point quite well.

The conversation I had two nights ago takes the cake though.  Autocorrect lost its mind, I tell you.  I "met" Aeryn via LiveJournal, where we both have pages.  We abbreviate LiveJournal LJ in chat.  Well, I usually try to abbreviate it, anyway.  When I attempted to say something to Aeryn about visiting her LJ, the iPad took it upon itself to change "LJ" to...

Ljubljana.

I kid you not.  The iPad thought I was trying to type Ljubljana.

Because if I'm going to visit somewhere, somewhere I would abbreviate LJ, that must be the place, right?  Eye roll. 

In case you're curious (I was), Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia.

Here is the conversation, for your viewing pleasure:  

So...I guess I'll see you in Ljubljana.  Apparently I go there quite frequently.  The iPad says so. 

end of Fun Fest

Saturday is the last day of Fun Fest.  We came, we ate, we walked around, we listened to the last bit of the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert.  (Really, you should see Natalie rocking to "Sweet Home Alabama."  Priceless.)  Then we watched the fireworks. 

Sarah watched the fireworks jumping up and down with excitement the entire time.  She particularly liked the heart-shaped fireworks and the smiley face ones.  Natalie kept exclaiming, "Good job, multicolored fireworks!  Do your stuff!" 

Here are some of the shots from Saturday evening.

Natalie hamming it up for the camera.

This cracks me up.  Sarah looked up right at the wrong moment and got surprised by the camera. 

Natalie wanted a picture with her daddy.

Natalie doing her She-Ra impersonation.

Crowd shot.

More of the crowd.

balloon glow

Friday night at Fun Fest is Balloon Glow.  Hot air balloons look very pretty when they fire up in the dark (or twilight, as the case may be). 

Unfortunately, I am a lousy photographer and I didn't get any shots that did justice to the experience.  But you can still see what I did get. 

One of the balloons going down.

Another balloon goes down. 

No, my children didn't draw these.  The children of a friend of mine did.  But I thought they were cool. 

Nelson took pictures of Saturday's fireworks.  Rest assured, he took much better shots than I did.