Popcorn Festival and other little specials!

The popcorn festival is actually old news, but it was fun and I haven't shared about it yet! 

Ahem. The Valparaiso Popcorn Festival (otherwise known as Uncle Fonzie's 28th birthday- Magoo and I are such a good nephew and sister, we called to say an extra special happy birthday) was the weekend after Labor Day, and my hometown always has a grand week to celebrate Orville Redenbacher.

We celebrate with style.

Check out this float.

 Seriously. Who else has an enormous cow with his own bag of popcorn? Obviously no one!! May I present to you the largest bovine of my childhood, the Kelsey's steakhouse cow!!

Aaaaaannnndd....

Can't forget the Shriners! Those red fezzed (fizzed? fi-ed?) daredevils with their little speedsters! A popcorn parade must.

Magoo and I didn't quite make it through the parade before it got to be a little taxing- I'd say we were one third to halfway through when we gave up and hoofed it back to the shuttle stop.

Do you see this kid??! I mean, seriously. Isn't he just the bees knees?? Sometimes he's so cute I think my brain might pop!

Here's another exciting bit of the popcorn fest- (this was the 45-minute-shrunken-to-the-attention-span-of-a-1.5-year-old-without-TOO-much-stimulation-cause-I-didn't-want-him-to-wig-out-on-anyone version) we rode on a big yellow school bus to get between our car and the fest! Magoo thought it was just the neatest thing. Check out the chops on that face!

We had a pretty good time on our little weekend jaunt- Magoo loved the parade and I had so much fun with him! We also were able to see great-grandparents, aunts, my uncle and cousins, and some friends. Oh, and we checked out a Harley Davidson motorcycle showroom- cool bikes, dude! Magoo was pretty fascinated by them. :)

Oh, you know, just hanging out at Harley Davidson, taking a break from checking out all of the dazzling motorcycles!

Books o' the Week!

I've got a couple books to list here! The week of August 20th, I read A Woman's Passionate Pursuit of God, by Karol Ladd. The following week (the holiday week), I read Aria of the Sea. This week, I am reading One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp. I started reading it last year, but never finished it. No time like the present!

I've got a few more things to add, but I'm going to make a separate post shortly!

Book of the week: Four

Last week's book o' the week was Four,  by Veronica Roth. Final book from the Divergent series, and I thought it was okay. Definitely a chick book!

Lefties Unite!!

Happy Left-hander's Day!! 🙌 🙌 🙌

Book of the week: Freefall

This one was a re-read. It's an oldie!

Starry Night Wannabe

Hey there!

Magoo was gone for a couple hours this afternoon, and I thought to myself, "Self, now is a great time to do something with that gigantic canvas down in the basement that no one has touched since it was put down there six years ago!" So do something, I did!

Van Gogh is one of my all-time favorite artists- I love, love, love his style- so I decided to try to replicate Starry Night for the living room wall in my brand new apartment. (Yes, I've got the keys- WAHOO!!!) 

So, like I was saying, Van Gogh. An hour and a half later, this is what I had.

I need/want to add more white and yellow to the sky, and I plan to add the little silhouetted town, as well, but this is it for now. It's currently a gigantic gooey mess laying up high in my bedroom so no toddlers or puppies or mamas accidentally or deliberately get their fingers or tails into the paint.

It was a lot of fun, but I'm kind of sad that the canvas isn't empty anymore! I want to paint it again! ;)

I'll post a picture when I get the canvas hung where it belongs! It might be a few weeks before everything is totally dry though. Anyway, there's my fun activity for the day!

Book of the week: Catching Moondrops

This week's book! 

I'm going to start labeling the book of the week posts really obviously, starting now. That way it'll be easier for me to check to be sure I'm keeping on track!