The Lost Sea!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Devils pit (or something like that) 

The Lost Sea is just one of those things everyone needs to do once in their life. Go ahead and put this one on your bucket list. It's worth doing. Taylor is 7.5 and was a great age to do it, much younger and he probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. It is a lot of walking. There are some steep inclines to climb up and down. 

If I was a homeschooling parent this would have been a great learning trip! 

Going down the steep tunnel! 

Glowing Fish

Pappy's Steel full of that good ole mtn. dew

We're on a boat. in the dark.

Taylor rated this one 5 out of 5 stars. It was his favorite part of our trip.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars. (It got a little lengthy imo, but still a very awesome thing to do) 

Bummer man.....

So, while Taylor, Dad and I were in Nash-Vegas we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. I have some issues with this place.... It was like these baby displays for some of the pioneer's of Country Music and you get down stairs and freaking Luke Bryan has this monster display!?!???! I know he was the artist of the year and that's fine, but geeze! I don't even remember seeing anything about George Straight, not much George Jones either! Of course, a lot of the BIG names were represented, but I just felt bored and let down. There wasn't much interactive things either.... They had a kids "station" where we made little access passes. (Taylor felt like he was in the most awful place on earth, so I 1000000% do not recommend this for younger kids, unless they're some sort of country music-aholic.) There were listening stations set up randomly and a couple of little films. But, for the kind of costly admission, it was not worth it for me (or DAD) at all!

Coolest type-writer! want list! ;)

The face of misery....and we were just getting started....

The one thing I will say for this place is they did give Mr. Dylan some credit! I adore Bob, so they get a bonus point for that!

This is a horrible picture, but I laugh when I see it. Look at Taylor....he is so not feeling it. He's over there just drinking his water, looking like this is his own personal hell! 

Taylor and I both gave this 1.5 out of 5 stars. I do not recommend this place. Giant waste of money and time. 

                                           "Somebody told me when I got to Nashville

                                            Son you finally got it made

                                            Old Hank made it here, we’re all sure that you will

                                            But I don't think Hank done it this way

                                             I don't think Hank done it this way" 

Parthenon-Nashville: Yay or nay?!?!?!

 So, Taylor and I read the Percy Jackson books (the first two) this summer and also watched the movies. In the first film, the gang heads to the Parthenon (in Nashville) to retrieve one of the pearls.... So, Taylor, Dad and me all rode up there to check it out. 

Selfie with Athena 

Movie Script, Percy's Pen and Pearl from the film. 

Small Scale 

So, was this worth going to??? Well, I wouldn't make a special trip to see it, but if you are in the Nashville area already I'd give it a go. It's cheap, like $6 a ticket and it is something to see. Taylor, Dad and I all agreed we were glad we saw it, but we would probably never have the desire to see it again. 

I was a bit dissapointed...The building is multiple stories and I thought each level would be the whole ancient Greece/God's and Goddesses type thing.... but, the whole second floor was a local artists' exhibit (that wasn't thrilling for us), the first was just the entrance and the gift shop, the next was all about building the Parthenon, so that left all of one floor to be the Greece deal.  Literally 2 rooms up there, one with the giant Athena statue (which is cool) and the other with a few busts..... 

We liked the tidbits about the movie and would have liked a bit more. 

We rated this 2.5 out of 5 stars. 

All in all,  it's gorgeous. The outside park area would be great for a picnic. It's neat to see. We have no regrets of visiting, but feel no burning desire to tell anyone they "have" to go. 

Just dump it in and walk away! Crockpot Strawberry Dump Cake!

 Crockpot Strawberry Dump Cake Recipe!

Go grab your Crockpot… you’re going to love this simple recipe :)

Items needed:

·         Crockpot

·         1 box Strawberry Cake Mix (any brand will be okay)

·         2 cans Strawberry Pie Filling (21 oz. each)

·         1 stick Butter (melted)

Really Easy Directions:

·         Spray inside of Crockpot with non-stick cooking spray

·         Empty cans of Strawberry Pie Filling into bottom of crockpot, and spread out evenly.

·         In medium mixing bowl, combine dry Cake Mix and melted Butter, and stir until crumbly.  (break up any large chunks).

·         Pour cake crumble mixture over strawberries in crockpot, and spread out evenly

·         Cover crockpot with lid.

·         Cook on HIGH for 2 hours, or LOW for 4 hours.

·         Serve with Ice Cream or Whip Cream.

Note: you can substitute any flavor of pie filling. My hubby loves the cherry pie filling.

Stars: 5 out of 5....super easy!

Crockpots can be found here 

Seashell Crystals

Well, the goal here was to grow "Crystals" onto the seashells. These have been sitting for about 12 hours now and this is all we have "grown". I am going to let it sit overnight, but I have a feeling this is it........

The face of disappointment..... 

I think we grew more crystals in the pan!!!!

If you want to give this a go, you will need: 

• Shallow pan
• seashells
• 1 cup Borax
• 9 cups of water (brought to a boil) 

1. Boil 9 cups water, remove from heat. 
2. Pour in 1 cup Borax and stir until completely dissolved. 
3. Pour water mixture into measuring cup or spray bottle (make sure it is not too hot)
4. Squirt/Pour mixture onto the sea shells in a shallow pan. 
5. Wait, and wait some more for crystals to form. (we were able to see some crystallization within an hour or so)

For me this was about 2.5 stars out of 5. (there is just not enough crystals for me! I'm wondering how to keep all the liquid on the shells and out of the pan.....
Taylor gave it a 4 out of 5 stars. He enjoyed squirting them, he liked seeing the crystals grow, but like me, wishes there was more crystals on the shells.

We are going to get our thinking caps on and think of something else to try to grow the crystals on.....

Man-made forest

If you have ever found yourself needing to decorate for VBS, you know what a overwhelming task it CAN be..... This year, I really enjoyed doing it! My vision was for the front part to be the campsite with a waterfall in the background and for the isle to be like walking through the forest. I did not have a big budget, so I think we DIY'D it pretty well :) 

The Tree Trunk was made out of a carpet roll covered in brown crumpled paper. 

This INSANE water fall  was built by my mom. The base is a rickety old ladder. She stacked random size boxes onto each rung. Next she covered in crumpled brown paper. To make look realistic, spray paint with grey spray paint. Cover the front of the ladder with blue paper, taping down to look like the water is cascading. Cover blue with cellophane, but add your flowing lights to it first. 

Rocks were made out of grey/brown paper. We added blue mesh to the water in the "pool" to add dimension. 

DO NOT THROW AWAY OLD CHRISTMAS TREES!!!! Do you see all that greenery??!?!?! That is old tree branches! We also used these in the windows and on the table arrangements in our Fellowship Hall. 

The Canoe's were a nice touch! Especially since we have blue carpet :) 

Those chains are supposed to look like the tree branches and leaves. It takes a ton to cover a space this large though!!! They were a bit of a pain to hang, because our ceilings are so tall... so, it was the most manual labor decorating for this project. BUT, the kids loved it! And, surprisingly they lasted all week (and we didn't have any problems with kids trying to jump and grab them). Wahoo!

We also had tissue paper pom-poms hung in the mix. 

Crazy Kids! Thank goodness the canoes are my husbands, so he didn't mind people playing just a little. 

I hope this may help someone when they get stumped on how to decorate.... It wasn't all the "easiest", but it was very cost effective and people seemed to really enjoy it. 

This was one of those things that was hard to capture a picture of.... I tried doing a video, but unless you want to be motion sick, I don't think I will post it.

Sweet, Sweet.... Failure?!?!?

So, Taylor and me were going to try to make this permanent sand castle keepsake from here ..... our results were not so great.  In our defense we did not have "real" sand, we made the epsom salt sand, so maybe this was the issue?!?!?!?  I don't want to discourage anyone from trying this just because ours was bad! Share if you try it out with success!!!! 

Perk: all the solo cups have turned into creative play with Taylor! He is building his little heart out and having lego men join in :)

I mean, what can you do but just laugh?!?!??! Everybody has a good ole pinterest fail here and there!!!! I think we will just go swimming :) 

SHARK WEEK: SHARK BITE POPCORN

CHOMP, CHOMP, CHOMP!!!!!

To start of Shark Week with a BANG, we decided to make some popcorn that looks like a Shark Attack! It was very easy and went over well with Taylor (and me) 

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp butter (melted)
• food coloring (red)
• whatever kind of popcorn you choose

Directions:

1. Pop Popcorn
2. Melt butter in bowl
3. stir in about 5 drops of food coloring
4. Pour into popcorn (I wish I had a small squirt bottle to try this with) 

5 out of 5 stars from me and Taylor! (Easy and Yummy) 

Younique Presenter Kit

I LOVE that for the past 2 weeks (tomorrow) I will have been working with a wonderful company and team of ladies! I have never felt more support and motivation in any kind of work environment! Typically in a job environment there is stress and people that like to bring you down! However, YOUNIQUE is completely different, and is much more then makeup!

Younique's mission is too UPLIFT,EMPOWER, VALIDATE and ultimately help build self esteem of women around the world! By allowing them to have high quality products that encourage those core values! Younique helps abused women lifting them up and helping them heal! Again, Younique is way more then just makeup it is a movement!!!
www.youniquefoundation.org

www.makeupbylmjohnson.com

" EASY" Under Sink Pocket Organizer

There are many wonderful benefits of a shoe organizer, but I really like the idea of cutting one in half to use under the kitchen or bathroom sink.You can customize the size by cutting with a pair of scissors to fit where needed! This is so easy and it works great!

I would love to see your ideas on different uses with a shoe pocket organizer.

Well, i must be fantastic....

Water table FUN!!!

If these little swimming Diapers from i-play aren't the cutest things ever, I don't know what is!!! (Bonus points, they really do work) 

I've got my eyes on you, Aqua Calypso !!!! 

I hope everyone is finding a way to stay cool today!