112th Tontitown Grape Festival

Allen has worked at the Tontitown Grape Festival every year since we've been married. Hayden and I finally decided to go see what it was all about. Whew! It was H_O_T_! They serve fried chicken and spaghetti dinners that must be incredible because people stand in line for hours to buy tickets to dinner and then stand in another line for more hours for the food. The line is too much for me! We listen to some music and then Hayden rode some rides and I took some pictures.

Glasses!

Hayden had to get glasses this week. She was SO excited about them she tried to take the pair from the doctors office without the right lens in them. I went and picked them up yesterday, so far so good. She looks super cute in them.

Giant Moustachio

I love him!

Grilled Cheese and Goat Weed

This Saturday night Cynthia and I went to Fayetteville for a girls night out. We went to Hammontree's to eat dinner, a restaurant that specializes in grilled cheese! How brilliant is that? I have had the Where the Wild Things Are and it was awesome, but Saturday I tried the Caprese Melt, also good but not AS good as the other. After that we went to Kingfish, a new bar off Dickson St., probably my new favorite. We stopped at a gas station on our way out of Fayetteville to use the restroom and I snapped this picture with my phone.

Yeah, I don't know what it is but we sure got a laugh out of it!

Flea Market Art

When I go treasure hunting at flea markets there are a couple of things I'm always looking for, number one on that list is original art. (dishes would be the rest of that list) One day Cassie and I went True Treasures in Bentonville on our lunch break and I found this gem. It's taken me a while to spiff it up. I painted the frame and put a matt on it, then I had to figure out where to hang it. I think I might have spent a totally of $40 on it and I LOVE IT! My favorite parts of the drawing are his eyes and their hands.

Super Olive

To give you some reference on this amazing jump, Hayden is 5' and Olive might be 20" on all fours. She's a jumper! If you look closely you can see her tongue.

Orchards Park

Bentonville has a new park! Orchards Park, it's across the street from the future Crystal Bridges. Very nice park and they have live music out there every once in a while. Tonight Travis Kidd played, for those of you that have been in this area for a while you probably heard him play somewhere on Dickson St. in the mid to late 90s. He plays a little bit of everything and was lots of fun to watch.

The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns

If you're looking for a fun, quirky book to read I recommend this one! I enjoyed it so much I read it in two days. Click here to read the synopsis and reviews.

Flea Market Finds

This weekend was a rainy, rainy weekend! Friday night Hayden and I went to see Toy Story 3 so today she agreed to go to the flea markets with me. Yay! We went to two of my favorite flea markets, The Rose and The Rose, Too. They are both packed full of all kinds of treasures. 


I ended up with some Anchor Hocking "Manhanttan" depression glass, two glasses and a berry bowl. My mom gave me two "manhattan" salad plates that belonged to my grandma and I fell love with the pattern, if you can really call it that. I think it's elegant and timeless.


And a Pyrex baking dish the pattern is Butterprint in Turquoise, which I love because it's so retro. Someone I work with has the mixing bowls and maybe more and I covet them. He's not selling, I asked. :)

Flowers or No Flowers?

One weekend in May, I was invited to go to Chris Olsen's house with Amanda. He's a landscape architect in Little Rock, and he has an open house a few times a year. Needless to say his yard AND his house were amazing! The design of it all was very finished and he had lots of fun art. In his sun-porch off the back of the house he had hung neat plastic flowers all over walls and ceiling, available at Urban Outfitters. I decided, like I do, that I could make those, easy peasy. HA! 

Well, this is what I have so far and I think I either need a few more or I need to scrap the idea. What do you think? Not as perfect as the plastic ones, but handmade? :)

Broadway Baby

Hayden has officially accomplished something I have never done and will never do, she was in her first play at Rogers Little Theater. An even bigger deal, she tried out for a part! She sang a song in front of all the other kids and some of their parents.


She and 52 other kids along with the help of the Peacocks put together a collection of  songs and skits from various Broadway musicals. They did a great job and it was lot of fun to watch...twice. Mom, Dad and Allen went to the second performance with me, thanks for coming Grammy and Pop!! Next time I'll get a picture of all of us.


Hayden had so much fun she wanted to be in the second session that started the following Monday. We decided that it would be best to wait and maybe try the fall session in August. For now we're moving on to swim lessons.


(I couldn't figure out why the photos were so fuzzy and I thought maybe the camera hadn't adjusted from being inside, then I found little fingerprints on the lens. :) 

My Big-Little Garden

Here's an updated photo of my garden. It's grown sooo much! The plant in the front growing over the side is the burpless cucumber, it probably could have been in the container all by itself. The tomatoes have lots of blooms but not tomatoes yet. The okra has a baby okra and the bell peppers have babies but the leaves don't look so hot. I sure hope we get at least one veggie from each plant.

Oh, the Drama

So, I'm sure you all know that Hayden is full of drama. She's been in a drama camp at Rogers Little Theater for about a week and a half and loving every minute. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "You can't stop the beat". Her performance is Friday and Saturday and the parents are in charge of the costumes. The rules we were given were, it has to have a black base and any other color had to be sparkly. This is what we've come up with. I pretty proud of it! Me, Allen and the house are covered in pink and purple glitter.

Deep-Fried Creative

A friend of mine found this blog, Monsters in Real Places. I thought it was super cute and would be fun to try. I challenged the rest of the crew at Deep Fried Creative to make some monsters of our own. Here's mine.

Check out the rest of the monsters at Deep Fried Creative.

Olive

This is Olive, she has lived with us for a little over a year and we love her very much!

My Little Garden

I have a friend that built a raised garden earlier this summer and her garden inspired me. Allen and I talked about it for a while and he had the great idea to use a galvanized, livestock water tank.

He drilled holes all along the bottom and then we put pea gravel in before the dirt.

I planted the plants 2 weeks ago and they've grown so much already. You can't tell it in these

pictures, but one of the tomato plants has a flower on it. :)

Memorial Day Weekend at Silver Dollar City

Allen unexpectedly had a few days off this weekend and we decided to go to Branson, MO. We went to Ripley's Believe It or Not and Silver Dollar City.

We took the tour of the Marvel Cave. I got a little nervous when the tour guides went over the reasons not to go through it.

The list included:

• over an hour long with no restroom
• over 500 steps
• your afraid of the dark
• your afraid of bats
• your claustrophobic

It was actually kind of fun, but I won't be spelunking with out a tour guide ever!

For some reason the first ride Hayden decided to go on was Wildfire. I am terrified of roller coasters. (I've only been on one my whole life, the Texas Giant, and I'm pretty sure I had a panic attack during the ride.) I waited in line with them and then went to observation deck.

You can't tell it from this picture, but she's was really excited. She was green when they got off the ride and I'm not sure she'll ever get on another one.

Meet Mortimer

Allen makes the best guacamole I've ever had and I can't get enough. We never have avacados on hand, so we're trying to root an avacado seed. Allen is quoting the movie Trading Places: "Looking good, Mortimer", "Feeling good, Lewis". That's how Mortimer got his name. He's sprouted this little root and I'm checking daily for some leafy green hair.

Perdido Key!

Me, my mom and my sister started planning our family vacation in January, we were paid up and set to go when the news about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill hit. We were sad for the the families of the missing people and hopeful they would figure out how to take care of leak.

It rained most of the first day so Emily and I went shopping in Foley.

Andrew, was really funny about the sand. He didn't want anything to do with it, Emily and Shannon could but him on his beach towel and he wouldn't move. He took some really good naps listening to the waves.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Hayden.

Lucky for us we had a week of great weather and a beautiful oil-free beach.

Future Rock Climber?

Hayden has discovered a new sport. Rock climbing. We took her to Lewis & Clark today to climb the wall and she was at the top in a flash. I think it took her all of 15 seconds to ring the bell at the top. I think we're going to have to check out the Ozark Bouldering Gym in Springdale.

Eureka!

Today turned out to be a beautiful day and we decided to go to Eureka Springs. We did what you do in Eureka, walked around and checked out the new shops, listened to a little music in Basin Park and ate a delicious lunch at the Local Flavor Cafe. Because it was kind of my weekend I got to choose the appetizer, Baked Brie, served with apples and pears. YUMO!

We noticed a sign for Pivot Rock on our way into Eureka. According to the "billboard" the rock is mentioned in Ripley's Believe it or Not. How could we NOT stop and see it?! After $9.50 and a short walk through the woods we found the rock. It was interesting but not amazing. We had a great day and hopefully we'll go back soon and check out some of the bike trails.

The Naturals Game

Saturday night Hayden and the Benton County School of the Arts choir got to sing the National Anthem at the Naturals game. They were all so excited and they did a GREAT job.

According to Hayden the highlight of the game was the Humane Society dog breaking free. The pup played "catch me if you can" for a while and then hunkered up and poo-ed in the middle of the out field.

It was the funniest thing I've ever seen at a baseball game.