Up, up and away!

Well, who would've thought yesterday while typing to you

that my husband was receiving an invitation for us to go up in this balloon?

picture taken from Warren \County Farmers' Fair Brochure

Of all times to not have an SD card in the camera! I left in a rush after typing yesterday's post and neglected to take it with me :(

Thankfully, the camera holds a few shots without a card...

Off to Fred's house. Fred's the pilot, by the way!
To fill you in, every summer at the fair/Balloon Festival, our family helps out by way of setting up, chasing and then packing up balloons for any pilot that may need help. Most of the time we're with

Fred (Balloonatics & Aeronuts)
or
Kenny (Balloons Over Orlando)

FILLING THE BALLOON

A LITTLE LOOK AT THE INSIDE WHILE IT'S
FILLING UP WITH AIR

THIS IS FRED, VERY FOCUSED AS SHOULD BE!!!

THAT'S US OVER THERE ON THE MOUNTAIN
OR AT LEAST OUR SHADOW :)

PICTURESQUE OXFORD FURNACE LAKE

SOME OF THE BEAUTIFUL SCENERY AROUND
OUR NECK OF THE WOODS

It was such a wonderful night for a flight! Living where we do we could see both the NY and Philly skylines. NY was very distinguishable, however it didn't photograph very well, too hazy. Awesome, nonetheless!

For a good portion of the trip we were up a mile or more (a little unnerving when I started the "what ifs" in my head, but I didn't allow myself there for long).

Just before we landed we needed to fly THROUGH some trees in order to slow us down... that was really neat! When we came out on the other side of this one tree, Oxford firemen were there to cheer us.

Bet you thought I was going to say RESCUE us - we just happen to fly next their firehouse!

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU, FRED! for all the wonderful times that we have had in and around the balloons. Looking forward to many more.

My family is very blessed.

Did ya' miss me?

Hey there everyone!
I know it's been a TERRIBLY long time. 
Summer seemed to fly right on by.

Here we are again... the start of a new school year for my kids and a time for me to get back into a routine of some sort. It will be good again to have some time to myself. Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT one of those moms that "can't wait for them to get back to school". I think that it's horrible to wish your children out of your house. They'll be gone all too soon. Nevertheless, I should have some alone time... time to talk to God, get into His Word, do my chores without interruption and maybe DEFINITELY do some fun stuff, too!

So, this summer I spent some time driving back and forth to French Creek Bible Conference where all three of my children spent their respective weeks at camp. In addition to their own weeks, Wyatt spent an extra week working in the kitchen and another week as counselor at Cass' conference. Our family spent Labor Day weekend there, as well.

We actually began the summer with a trip to Seeley's Bay, Ontario with a stopover in upstate NY on the way home. It was nice to get away together. And the dog, too,  is now an international traveler!

Another big highlight was the Farmer's Fair where my daughter was in the Princess competition once again this year. She came in 2nd Runner-up last year with her performance of 'God Bless the USA'. A little stiff on stage, wasn't quite her best. This year she gave it her all with a rousing performance of 'BoogieWoogie Bugle Boy' in the style of the Andrews sisters. With her stuffy head and runny nose she still pulled in 1st Runner-up!

Here she is in her homemade 'military' uniform complete with hand-crafted garrison cap. I found the pattern on Ehow.com. The skirt used to be a pair of hunting pants. I had taken in and old blouse and shortened a store-bought tie. I love how easy it was to pull off her authentic hairdo - hairnet and bobby-pins! 

she actually started facing backwards then turned around like this while marching

the music picked up and so did Cass and her 'jazz hands'

now, if you manage to flip through these fast enough, it's almost like being there!

tu, tu, tu, toot, diddle-ee-ada

'he's the boogie woogie bugle boy  of Company B

'they made 'im  blow a bugle for his Uncle Sam'

'it really brought 'im down because he couldn't jam'

instrumental 

'he puts the boys to sleep with boogie every night'

dah, dahh, da-da, da-dahh

Look at that smile - she had a GREAT time!

Okay, sorry for all the pics, but I'm a proud mama, what can I say?!

Well, now that my two September babies have both celebrated their birthdays and we have a couple weeks of school under our belts, I'll get at that routine like I mentioned earlier. Back to some sewing and baking and cards with the girls! AND of course finding some time to share with you all    ;) [wink]

no pic of Sawyer's cake but here's  Cass' cake