This was totally inspired by a visit to my friend Rhonda’s house earlier this summer when I was in North Dakota.  Nestled under some beautiful evergreen trees in her yard was a terrific mud kitchen.  Her girls were busy cooking up a storm.  Instantly I knew that it would be…

The Iowa cousins brought a Jelly Belly Bean Boozled game.  If you haven’t had the experience of playing (or the absolute delight of watching) before, the box is filled with real honest to goodness jelly beans.  Half of them are normal, like banana, or coconut, or blueberry.  Half of them…

Not many grown ups joined in the Smore Fiesta, but all small (or should we say young. . . or at least young at heart)  sugar-loving people were very, very happy.

Oh, this rattletrap pontoon!  The cabin would not be complete without it.  The fact that it falls apart a bit more each year just adds to its sense adventure and charm.  You never know if it will actually start, actually back up, or actually make it back to the dock.…

Cousin Miranda is an appreciator of cat eye glasses as well, and I think the two of us might convince Cousin Katherine that eclectic eyewear is the way to go.

Perhaps the most exciting and most hilarious part of our annual family cabin weekend with aunts, uncles and cousins is the tradition of dividing into teams to construct boats out of cardboard and garbage bags.  Every team gets a stack of cardboard, eight plastic garbage bags  a roll of duct…

Clearly I need to post about what we’re reading a little bit more frequently, because this list got a lot longer than I had anticipated!  It felt like I haven’t been reading as much as I usually am, but I guess maybe that’s not true after all, because I didn’t even…

Mr. TOF and The Banana have been having a great time running on the track at Wednesday Night at the Races.  Mr. TOF has literally been going to Wednesday Night at the Races his entire life.  His first appearance there was as a three week old baby.  It’s kind of…