Of course, the long weekend = getting ready for the photo editing class that starts Monday. Working on that today, but this is another of those classes that will get developed in real-time. Fun and adventure! :D

I hope you have an awesome weekend. Got big plans?

Just at the base of the hill where the cabin is, we discovered a community park, right across the street, and we climbed down the rocks and put our feet in the Watauga river. It was awesome! The water was really cold, but the river is very shallow right there, so the kids were able to walk around in the water. I went back to the car to grab the kids a change of clothes and get sunscreen, and … hmmm…

that’s funny…

the car door won’t open…

I remembered pushing the lock button on the door before getting out, but I also remembered that I had left my bag (where the key was - we have one of those remote ignition things) on the floor of the passenger seat. Shading my eyes, I could SEE the key peeking out of the pocket in my bag - so close, and yet so far away… isn’t locking yourself out the worst feeling? The backup plans begin to roll through your head - how do I get out of this? What do I do first? Since we were in the mountains, we had only the one car key (WHICH, have I mentioned, I could SEE through the window, ARG.), and we were about 4 miles from the cabin anyway. No cab service, a cell phone with 1/4 of its battery left - this should be one of those personality quizzes like the “what would you do if you were stranded on a desert island?”

But I guess if I had to pick a place to lock us out, a beautiful sunny mountain park with a river running through it is probably as good as it gets, right? :) And it turned our hour-long, pre-lunch adventure into a three-hour extravaganza while we waited for the locksmith to come and prayed that Jared’s cell phone battery wouldn’t die before he found us. He did, and it didn’t. But it was close.

We had a whole day planned, but decided instead to grab some lunch and head back up to the cabin for a rest after so long running and splashing and sunning. I have a massive sunburn on the back of my neck as a souvenir today, and as a reminder to BRING MY KEY WITH ME when I decide the car door needs lockin’. Hehe.

We also ate some really, REALLY good southern barbeque at a place called Pappy’s. WOW. See, normally (maybe because of Better off Dead), I would avoid a place with an actual pig smiling at me from the logo. But I think my life will never be the same again after that smoked pork. Are you from Carolina? Do you favor the vinegar-based sauce? I didn’t even know this existed til we moved here. “Barbeque sauce” was that thick goopy mesquite-y stuff you bought at the grocery store, that had cow horns or something on the label. But THIS. Delicious. And the slaw. Love me some slaw. Especially since I can say “slaw” here because it’s a one-word word instead of “cole slaw” like it is in the west. Like there is another kind of slaw? I don’t know. But wow. We are totally heading back for the 4th of July weekend, and you KNOW I am going to get me some barbeque from Pappy’s.

Do you have plans for the 4th of July weekend?

How many tomatoes usually grow on a plant, anyway? I have just these two teeny ones so far. :)

We’re also growing herbs, as I mentioned - some cilantro, thyme, parsley, basil, etc. Ele has taken a shine to the cilantro and its long, leafy stems. I told him he could eat one, and after getting used to the taste, he’s been mixing some leaves up with mud for a little fake stew to serve around. And he enunciates each syllable, “Cil-LAAHN-tro”.

So we went to Subway yesterday for lunch, and I ordered each kid a plain ham and cheese sandwich, since neither of them will eat veggies on sandwiches. But as the worker was wrapping them up, Ele stood up on tiptoes, just able to peek over the counter and through the glass, and said,

“Excuse me! Do you have any cil-laahn-tro?”

He got a look of complete confusion in return from the sandwich maker, who didn’t (alas) have cilantro, and I thought I would die from the cuteness. :)

And then, ele wanted some juice yesterday, so I got out the big pitcher with the Crystal Light in it, and he said, “I want to pour it!” Well, even though it’s bigger than he is, almost, it wasn’t very full, so I said ok

I held his cup while he poured it, and he did it perfectly. I said, “Great job, Ele!” and he set the pitcher down, and looked at me proudly, and said “Bow chicka wow wow!”

That of course, is a reference to our collective new favorite YouTube video, Kittens Inspired by Kittens:

All you have to do is:

Copy this code (just highlight over it with your mouse and type Ctrl-c):

FREECLASS062009

Then click here and enter it in the Access Code field (you need to be logged in to the site)

How is that for easy and fun?

Come join us at JessicaSprague.com for daily freebies and lots of cool features as we party the week away for our 2nd birthday! :)

We spent Saturday at the Tweetsie Railroad. We rode Thomas the Tank, who was attached to the regular locomotive, and since our ride time was 9 a.m. we were there WAY before any crowds, and spent almost 2 hours just hopping on anything we wanted to ride. (is it me, or is the ferris wheel there REALLY SCARY? I thought I was going to pass out, whizzing through the air on this spindly little thing. *shudder*).

Tweetsie is built around one of the last remaining steam locomotives from the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina railroad, and the engine that pulled us was built in 1917. It was so cool. The park is small enough that we could just relax and take our time exploring.

The kids loved it. We loved it, all except for the part where (wait for it) I forgot my camera. So the only pictures we have of our first visit to Tweetsie are the ones we took on our cell phones (the one above is from their web site). On the plus side, I didn’t lug a camera around. So there’s that. Trying to stay positive. :)

We have loved our visits to the mountains over the past couple months - something about getting away, even just a couple hours away, helps me refocus on what’s most important to me.

I hope you had an awesome weekend, and you’re looking forward to celebrating with us next week!

So by now you know that JessicaSprague.com is turning TWO YEARS OLD. That’s right - it’s hard to believe that we have come so far, and that we’ve been going for two years!

In celebration of this, and frankly because I just wanna share the cool stuff, I’m offering a FREE two-week photo editing class, starting July 6!

This class is technically the second in the series of Photo Editing classes I’m planning, but you are not required to have taken the Photo Editing: Good-to-Great Workflow class beforehand. I recommend it, because starting with a well-exposed, beautifully contrasted, bright photo just makes all the techniques in this second class even better, but it’s not necessary. :)

I think that this class is PERFECT for anyone who takes digital photos. Not only digital scrapbookers, certainly - paper scrapbookers will especially love learning how to put frames and brushes on their photos, and anyone who takes digital pictures will love the simple enhancements they can make to give their photos specific looks - dreamy, soft focus, urban, cross-processed and more.

Now, I could use your help.

Please tell people. This content is just TOO GOOD to keep to ourselves! :D

Here’s a blog badge:

Post about it on message boards, or put this badge on your blog - invite friends and family to join you in this class, which can change the way you edit pictures forever. I CAN’T WAIT to show you this cool stuff, and I want to be able to share it with as many people as I can. Will you help me spread the love? :D

I swear I have tried to post for two nights, and have been foiled by gremlins.

Monday night we decided to make a new dessert, which I saw Giada making as I glanced through the channels on the way to Noggin on Monday afternoon. It was SO GOOD. I changed it up just a bit, but here’s the lo-down:

Toasted Pound Cake with Citrus Cream

(adapted)

• 1 pound cake, sliced (she recommends a loaf-shaped one, but we got a round one and just sliced it across)
• 2 Tbs melted butter
• Honey for drizzling

• 8 oz. mascarpone cheese (my grocery store didn’t have it - I chose whipped cream cheese instead)
• 1/2 c. whipping cream
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 lime
• 1 lemon
• 2 oranges
• Blueberries

Heat the oven to 350. Slice the pound cake so it lays flat on a baking sheet. Brush each slice with butter, then drizzle it with honey. Bake for 7-8 minutes.

Citrus cream: Add the cheese, cream, sugar, and vanilla to a large bowl. Zest and juice the lime and the lemon, and one of the oranges and add to the mixture. Mix the ingredients together with a hand mixer until it forms stiff peaks.

Cut the peel off of the remaining orange and cut out the orange segments (do this like you would slice a peach - cut inward so you get just the orange segments without the extra pithy stuff.

To Assemble: Lay a slice of cooled cake on a plate, and top with the citrus cream. Add 2-3 orange segments, and sprinkle with washed blueberries.

IT WAS SO GOOD. Seriously. Go right now and make some.

Ok, we had major weirdness on Tuesday night - a HUGE thunderstorm abruptly shut our power down - TWICE, so we were scrambling to unplug all our equipment. Def. don’t want a repeat of last year’s lightning strike incident that fried the cable modem. So gremlins, but lightning ones.

Last night we went out with the kids for Cold Stone ice cream. And ate it while we walked across the parking lot to the kids’ favorite store - Borders (training them well, right? hehe). By the way, chocolate with peanut butter and some extra fudge is AWESOME. Wow I’m all about the dessert this week. On the way out of Borders I noticed these rashes up the insides of both my arms. Great. So I have a big poison ivy blister on my right forearm and now I’m covered in a red rash, too? So I came home and did something I RARELY do - I took a Benadryl. This stuff knocks me out cold for 12 hours.

And wouldn’t you know it? Almost exactly 12 hours later, I woke up. So chalk this one up to the medicine gremlins.

But that brings us to today. Another post.

• Went to the museum on Saturday for the Rest of Elliott’s birthday (celebrated in stages through the week)
• Between us, I think Jared and I and his parents got Ele the last two remaining planet books on earth that he doesn’t already own.
• Jared decorated an amazing planet cake with ping-pong ball planets. Genius. And delish.
• Saturday evening I planted a bunch of new plants in our yard, turning into the most amateur of gardeners, and it’s fun! Ele can even remember the names of his favorite: larkspur.
• Except that I think I found some poison ivy somewhere - I have a welty, blistery rash on my forearm that itches like a sweet motha. Also a lesser one under my chin (perhaps wiping sweat away?) that isn’t as big and blistery and doesn’t itch quite as bad, but is still QUITE enough itchy for tonight.
• Cortisone cream seems to be helping some. Til I went and washed the cakey stuff off to reapply. YOW.
• We are getting ready to announce the plans for the big 2nd birthday celebration over at JessicaSprague.com. LOTS of cool stuff going on. Mark your calendar for June 22-28, and plan to stop by each day to pick up special goodies and see the news! This is gonna be awesome!

Now if the evil Tuesday night gremlins inside my blog will allow me to post pics, I will do so shortly. If you don’t hear from me, assume I’ve been the Tuesday night snack, and they’re coming for you!

Well, what do you get a 4-year-old who owns every planet book, owns two solar system models, space PJ’s, everything? Who knew that there are NO stuffed replicas of Neptune to be found anywhere? And I looked. Oh yes I did.

So I called on the help of a friend I met through Etsy while shopping for Christmas presents last year, and commissioned a custom set of stuffed planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. And Kathrina from The Freckled Elephant did a GENIUS job. She has space fans in her house (something I didn’t know, but feel incredibly lucky for), so Saturn has his rings, Earth has land masses AND polar ice caps, Mars has ice caps on the north and south poles (appliqued in white felt!), and Elliott’s favorite part: Jupiter has his Great Red Spot. YES. Beautifully stitched, with loops for hanging if we ever want to do that.

Now look at him, snuggling his birthday present:

It was the BEST present he could have dreamed of. He jumped on them, squashed them, squeezed them, then piled them all back in the huge box she packed them in, and jumped in after them. So did Rowen.

At bedtime, we brought the box o’ planets upstairs, and he put on one of his two astronaut helmets and hung out with his planets in his new spaceship (of course the box is as good a toy as the toys, right?). And the best part, when he was finally ready for sleep, he piled all the planets around himself, and snuggled them as he fell asleep.

We didn’t get to the present-opening until about 8 p.m. last night, when the light was failing. And apparently, my camera was feeling funky last night, because I couldn’t get a nice shot FOR THE LIFE OF ME. Very frustrating. But, such is life, right? So here are the not-very-decent-but-still-precious pics of Ele and his new one-of-a-kind planets:

You can see a bit of Jupiter’s spot there, and Neptune is off to the right. She interspersed the fabric with a spotted velour she calls “minky”, which I thought would be great for putting his cheek on at night. He loves the texture, and it makes the planets look so cool. :)

Lovin’ on the earth.

Coolest part? He recognized each of them right away. Can you? ;)

Every kid dreams of jumping in his own pile of planets, right?

This is a rocketship, complete with minky fire coming out the back!

Rocketship in foreground, kids playing in the “spaceship” in the background. :)

Piloting his craft. Looks like he’s already arrived at Jupiter. ;)

This boy. Ah. I will need another post or two about him. Let this one be about him and his planets. It is a beautiful relationship. :)