Huntsville Botanical Gardens

Our first day in Huntsville this past weekend we went to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens.  I was surprised that we had to pay to go inside (the Birmingham Botanical Garden is free) but it was definitely worth the price of admission.  This is the most beautiful gardens I’ve ever been to.

There was a TON of beautiful flowers and so many different areas to explore.  My favorites were the zinnias and the herb garden.  The water lilies were really nice too.

They had about 10 different tree houses throughout the garden for the kids to explore.  This picture was from the gnome treehouse

This picture below was shot straight up at a light hanging in a gazebo.  I think I want to enlarge this and hang it in my house.  I love the lines and colors.

Harmony Animal Safari Park

 

Brad surprised me with a quick weekend get away to Huntsville this weekend to celebrate our anniversary.

13 YEARS BABY!!!

We have done a bunch of stuff but one of my favorite things was going to the Harmony Animal Safari Park just outside of Huntsville.  It was in a very natural setting and the animals were super active.

The only animals behind a fence or in a cage were the camels, pigs and alligators (thankfully).

There were tons of mini horses, goats, deer and emus.  A few cows.  And a longhorn, zebra, camel and buffalo.  And in the reptile house there were a bunch of snakes, lizards and turtles.  

David stood in the sunroof and threw the food from there…which worked pretty well so the animals weren’t sticking their heads in the windows.

The worst part was this freak.  Seriously.  We don’t do emus.  They are gross and scary and intense and they want to get inside our car and poke out your eyes.  Check out those eyes….they are red….and evil.   There had to have ben 500 emus in this place.  Ewww.
If you are looking for something to do in Huntsville, definitely check this place out (even with the emus).

 

Are You Ready For Some Football?

 

Football has officially started (well it started last week, but this Saturday was the first day of full pads).

 

We had a lot of crying (a lot) and even more whining.  But it was hot outside.  I was crying and whining too.

 

Here is David tackling Walker T.

Birmingham Baron’s Foul Ball

 

 

This past weekend we went to a Birmingham Baron’s baseball game.

We had a nice time visiting with business colleagues and friends.

And a little bonus is that David got this ball!

Slumber party, Life, pancakes and Rango

This past weekend my bff came over and we had a slumber party…I felt like I was in high school again.  We got out the blow up air mattress and the three of us (David, Cara and me) snuggled on it while we watched the movie Rango (which was awful, by the way).  David fell asleep within 45 minutes and Cara and I didn’t make it through the movie either.  It was two major thumbs down for sure.

We woke up Saturday morning and I made peach pancakes for the three of us while Brad went to a football meeting.

Then, because David asked a hundred times, we played the game of Life.  Cara bought this game for David a few weeks ago when he spent the day with her and we’ve played it at least twice a week since.

Life is a fun game to play.  I normally lose.  I’m also often an unmarried mother of twins (as you can see – I am the green car).  Interesting.

Her pups spent the night with us too.  They didn’t let her out of their site as she walked to her car (Quesadilla on the left and Chloe on the right).  Luckily, all four dogs got along just fine.  :)We had a lot of fun with Cara (and the pups) and I hope we can have a slumber party more often….but next time with a much better movie.

Homemade laundry powder

About 18 months ago I started making my own laundry soap.  You can see my post about it here.

It’s gone very well and I’m happy to report I STILL use it.

The other day I was perusing Pinterest (my latest obsession) and found a few recipes (specifically this one) for powder detergent so I wanted to try it out.

So I did.

Cast of characters (very similiar to the liquid version):
1) Washing Soda (not baking soda) – 1 cup
2) Borax (not Boric Acid) – 1 cup
3) Fels Naptha bar (some people use regular soap from your bathroom, but I buy this and like it better – it’s only .99 a bar) – 1 bar
4) Lavendar essential oil – 15-20 drops

Grate the bar of Fels Naptha.  As you can see below I used my cheese grater this big (ALERT – Do not do this).  You want to use a microplane for grating the soap (which I have always used in the past and for some reason forgot about this time).

Since I used the wrong grater the soap was too big, so I had to use a knife and chop it up into smaller bits (this step is not needed if you use a microplane).

I added 15-20 drops of Lavendar essential oil to give it a nice smell.  I honestly can’t tell much of a difference after my clothes are washed, so next time I’ll add a lot more or just leave it out.

Mix everything together and now you have laundry soap!  Use 1-2 tablespoons per load.

WORDPRESS!

I have been thinking about moving my blog from Blogger to WordPress for some time.  So I bit the bullet this weekend.  I hope the change is a wise one.  Only time will tell.