Wrapping up spring break - Kentucky's Bourbon Country style...

Friday Tom took the day off work to spend with us on our last "school day" of spring break. We planned to tour Maker's Mark (yes, another Bourbon distillery). It's near Bardstown where we used to live and one of the places we always talked about going, but never did.

So, we set out on our way with directions in (my) hand.

After stopping at the bank, we headed toward New Haven and were well on our way. The next thing I knew we were passing Lincoln's Boyhood Home. I yelled for Tom to stop. It's another place I've driven past before, but had never visited. I was surprised to find it "on our way."

Kevin had visited the park before on a field trip, so he acted as our guide. He was a very good guide! This kid must really pay attention in school.

Here I am pictured with the boys in front of the valley where the Lincoln's farmed their crops.Tom posed with the boys in front of Knob Creek where Kevin explained young Abraham Lincoln once almost drowned.Shortly after leaving Lincoln's Boyhood Home, I started to notice things looking a bit familiar. I realized we were just outside of Hodgenville. Oops. About 10-12 miles back we missed a turn. So, backtracking we went. Finally we found the proper turn and were on our way. (I won't be surprised if I end up receiving a GPS system for a gift in the near future!)

And to Loretto, Kentucky we arrived. The tour was great and family friendly, too. We were NOT the only ones there with kids! I thought the coolest part of our tour was seeing the bourbon bottles dipped in their signature red wax.I was really impressed with how both boys asked questions and interacted with our guide. Blake was able to answer several questions she threw out, too. (In the photo below, we are standing beside a 12'x12' (yes, 12 FOOT) wooden bucket full of "mash." Kevin thought the smell was disgusting!The tour ended with the adults sampling the bourbon. I should probably note that I am so NOT the bourbon fan. I just like bourbon balls! Tom prefers his bourbon with Coke.

After the tour, we walked around the grounds a bit and followed a couple of trails. The setting there is beautiful. Tom said he wished he lived by this creek:I wished I lived in this house!Blake wished he owned Maker's Mark!

After a nice lunch out, we went to see "How to Train Your Dragon" in 3-D. Both boys thought it was AWESOME. It was the perfect ending to a fun-filled spring break.

Saturday we spent 5 hours at the ballpark. Today we'll be back for four more.

OPENING WEEKEND starts Friday. I'm not sure who in our house is most excited about that. It might be a four-way tie!

More spring break fun...!!!

Our good friend Laurie was in town from Boston this week and we took her out to a FUN Louisville landmark - Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

It was a treat for our boys, too since they'd never been there. Armed with my camera, I took advantage of some of the crazy-fun displays around and inside the restaurant's gift shop.

Going to Lynn's is quite the experience. The food is great, too! We recently caught the episode of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" on Food Network where he challenged Lynn in a breakfast cookoff. Lynn won! (And yes, for those of you paying attention that means we ate at two places featured on the Food Network this week!)
Oh, and before I sign off I have to share my latest purchase.

I've mentioned before that I love the color GREEN. Now I'm sporting this on my fingers AND toes. Tom hates it, but I'm lovin' it. OPI's "Jade is the New Black" is my new happy color!

I've been tagged by a blog chain...

I've been tagged - twice! - by Star AND Erica. So, I guess since it's happened twice, I really should participate...

I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy, 5 pieces of trivia about myself, and pass this along to five fellow bloggers to continue on the blog chain.

10 Things that make me HAPPY (not in any particular order or a complete list):

1. Spending time with my boys
2. the smell of fresh mowed grass
3. Sleeping in
4. Having the windows open
5. knowing that the Kings of Leon are in the studio making album #5 :)
6. new scrapbook supplies
7. a new batch of printed photos
8. stress-free holidays
9. getting picked up for an idea book (THREE layouts will be in a new Memory Maker's idea book!)
10. Bourbon Balls

5 pieces of Trivia about myself (that you may or may not already know):

1. I've never had a cavity.
2. I have terribly short toes.
3. I'm afraid of the dark. And water. And bridges. And heights. And needles.
4. I can't swim. I don't want to learn. See #3. :)
5. I started back to work in October after staying home for 5 1/2 years - I'm really happy working again even if it means I have to get up and out early in the mornings. (I guess I forgot to mention that I'm SO NOT the morning person!)

I'm supposed to select 5 bloggers to continue this chain. In other blogs, just about every blog friend I have has been selected for this, so I'm just going to ask if you read this and want to participate, link me to your blog in the comments.

Have a great day!

Day trippers - Destination Frankfort

We are out of school for SPRING BREAK (!!!) this week and ventured out for a day trip to our state capital - Frankfort. We had a great time although I think the boys believe I need a GPS for future trips! I have to admit, it was hard having to read directions, drive AND look for road signs all at once by myself!

Getting to Frankfort was easy, but it was about a 90 minute drive. Once we were headed in the right direction, we passed the Scenic Overlook. I had to turn around to get back to it. The view of hte Capitol Building was beautiful.

Our first stop was to the Rebecca Ruth Candy Factory. Bourbon Balls just might be my favorite candy, so I was excited about doing their candy tour. Unfortunately, we arrived after they were finished making candy for the day (they have no real schedule for that - just make it as needed), but we still got to do their tour. It's actually in a house! They've been making candy since 1919. After our candy sampling - bourbon balls for me and peanut butter eggs for the boys - we navigated our way to Frankfort Cemetary. Our boys are huge history buffs and were excited to see Daniel Boone's grave. (Although Blake tells me that "half of Daniel Boone" is actually buried in Missouri.) The view from the cemetary was amazing.Here are the boys sportin' some 'coon skin hats like Daniel Boone's in the Rebecca Ruth gift shop! Our next stop was at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The large sun dial memorial is set up is amazing. (Click on link to read more about it.)

Next on our driving tour schedule was the Old Governor's Mansion. Kevin was a bit disappointed and commented that it just looked like a big house. He was right. There is a lot of history behind it though. We pulled up to the curb, looked and drove on.

From there, we experienced some of Frankfort's one way streets. I managed to find the next stop on our list - The Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History. The driving tour instructions stated that parking was across the street, so I pulled in the lost ACROSS THE STREET. It was a private lot with signs posted everyone. It was also a TINY lot and it was very difficult to navigate back out of the lot! I received some comments from the backseat.

We finally found parking across the street and BESIDE the Clark Center only to find out that the center isn't open on Tuesdays. Right next door was the Capital City Museum. It was open and FREE! The boys enjoyed it. Part of the museum is in what is left of the old Capital Hotel. We had heard a bit about it and how it burned down during our Rebecca Ruth tour.

The boys especially liked the displays of the Civil War and both World Wars. My boys really know their war history!They even had sand on display from the beaches of Normandy.

By this time, we were all getting hungry. I had searched for lunch spots online and one place with Memphis-style BBQ caught my eye. The reviews said the food was great, but if you weren't familiar with the place, you'd likely keep going after seeing the spot. Once I read that Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives hosted by Guy Fieri had filmed there a few weeks ago, I knew the boys would love this spot.

The trouble was getting there...the map I had didn't have "Bridge Street" on it. So, after circling around the area I thought it was in, I finally called them. They gave me directions and two lights away from my turn, I thanked them. I made my turn and PASSED up the Diner! There was no turn before the bridge, so I thought I'd cross the bridge and turn around. Uh...no. I crossed the bridge to find the opposite lane blocked with firetrucks and police cars. ??? I couldn't turn around and was forced into the path of one-way roads and back around to a different bridge to cross the river (again). Ten minutes later, we finally arrived at Rick's White Light Diner. The place was small! There were three tables inside with a total of then chairs and then 6 or 7 stools along the bar. We ate at the bar and all tried the BBQ. It was good. Kevin loved the sauce. The sides were limted and both my mac & cheese and cole slaw were too peppery (whole peppercorns). I wasn't too thrilled to pay $2 for a CAN of coke.The boys loved it, so I guess in a way I was paying for the experience. My favorite part of our stop was the fried Oreos. They are dipped in their homemade pancake batter and deepfried. We each had one (see photo below). Yum!Before leaving, the owner, Rick Paul posed for a photo with the boys. He even let them walk around behind the bar. After lunch, I used the map and my memory from last November to find our way to Buffalo Trace Distillery. We attended my cousin's (evening) wedding there in November and have wanted to go back for a tour and to see the grounds during the day ever since. The distillery is in a beautiful location and we had a really interesting tour. You might think taking two boys to a distillery is odd, but we do live in the heart of Bourbon Country, so it's something they need to experience at least once! It was very informative and we had a great guide, too.At the end of the tour when I got to sample bourbon, the boys sampled Root Beer!

By the time our tour was over, our time in Frankfort was running out. (I had to get Blake home in time for Boy Scouts!) We headed back to the Capitol to tour the grounds and along the way were supposed to pass Berry Hill Mansion, Orlando Brown House, and Liberty Hall Historic Site. I never saw them though. However, I kept wondering how we missed the Old Capital Building, but then realized we'd been driving by it all day (when I'd "loop" around). It wasn't near as big as I was expecting it to be!

We arrived at the Capitol just after 5:00. Our timing was perfect in that there wasn't a crowd and the trees and flowers were all in bloom. And beautiful.Our timing was bad in that it was AFTER 5:00 and we couldn't get in to see the Rotunda and statue of Abraham Lincoln that the boys "really" wanted to see.

So, instead, I showed them the Floral Clock out back. The boys weren't as impressed with it as I was the first time I saw it in high school. Then again, when I was in high school, I hadn't experienced 1/10th of the cool things our boys have gotten to do. The clock was decorated with blue pinwheels in honor of Child Abuse Awareness.It was time to head home and on our way out, I captured one last shot of the Capitol with the tulips in bloom out front. The boys were happy when I found my way out of town without having to turn around at all!

That's not all we did on spring break...check back later!

What a wonderful weekend...

Our Easter weekend kicked off our spring break. (YAY!!!!)

Saturday also doubled as my nephew Luke's 3rd birthday party. He's an April Fool's Day baby, but we celebrated this weekend at a local park. The boys enjoyed playing on the huge playground and eating cupcakes - chocolate, of course!It was cool seeing the four boy cousins stairstepped on the equipment. It was more fun seeing my cute little niece Reese (six months old) on the swings. Isn't she a doll?!? I just love her to pieces!Although we had planned to attend Mass on Saturday night, we opted instead to stay home and watch the NCAA tournament games. Everyone agreed to get up early for 8:00 Mass on Sunday. It worked out well because Saturday night our hands were still stained from coloring eggs.It's so fun to watch the boys get so creative with their eggs. We cut back this year and ONLY colored three dozen eggs.
The Easter Bunny came!!!

Although we stayed up a bit too late on Saturday, we were all up and ready for Mass on Easter. I must also add that my boys were looking quite nice. Kevin's had a suit this year (it's for his First Communion later this month).

Right after Mass, we headed over to Evansville (2 hours away) to visit Tom's mother. We went out for a wonderful lunch and then back to the house for an egg hunt.

The boys LOVE her egg hunts. The eggs have money and candy inside!

We spent the afternoon fishing. It was a beautiful day.

Later in the day, Tom's brother and his family stopped by.

It was the perfect Easter!

This week has been a fun one. Come back for more updates!

Crop Chocolate - Chocolatier projects

A while back I noticed a call for designers over at Crop Chocolate. It's a great scrap deals site and I was interested in designing with the kits they were going to send out.

Last week I received a box full of some Making Memories and Fancy Pants items.As the items appeared to be a bit "girly", I reached for some photos of my niece Reese. The first layout I made is for Blake's album. I used pop dots with the MM label stickers to add some dimension to my title.

I also made a layout for Kevin's album with the products. I LOVED the Fancy Pants' transparency and tried to get creative with the ribbon and make my own flower.

Crop Chocolate is closed until after Easter, but once they reopen, watch for my projects to pop up!

After the crop...

Since coming home from the crop last weekend, I've had so many ideas for layouts. I've tried to scrap a bit each night.

At the crop, I made a 2-page layout of Kevin's 1st grade field trip, but there were two photos that sort of told another story (about how he still wants to do things with me), so I wanted to keep them on a separate LO. I used the same products (Fancy Pants' Rough & Tough line) that I used for the field trip pages. It makes me sad to see how fast Kevin - my baby - is growing!Using the American Crafts "Love" kit that I picked up at the crop, I think I'm going to be able to scrap several photos of my niece Reese. (And believe me...there are MANY photos of Reese!) For "3Weeks" I scraplifted a layout that Shannon Zickel used as an example with the kit. I mixed it up a bit and made her 12x12 example into an 11x8.5.

I also took another Shannon Zickel 12x12 example and altered it into an 11x8.5 for "watch her grow." These photos of Reese from just one month apart crack me up!Finally, one last Reese LO for Kevin's album. I lifted a LO by Lynn Ghahary in the April issue of Scrapbook Trends. The other night I pulled out my American Crafts "Kids/School" layout and used the example Shannon provided with the kit with a few alterations to make this "Wild Wheeler Fun" LO for Blake's album. He loves spending time over at Uncle Terry's!As of now, we are officially on Spring Break! YAY!!!

We still have lots to do to get ready for Easter (it snuck up on me!) and with the forecast of pretty weather, we hope to spend a lot of time outside.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter! I'm sure I'll end up with plenty of new photos to scrap! ;)