A Great Beginning to Spring Break

This year, the hubs and I decided to start spring break with a 3 day weekend.  A little while back, we made plans to meet the brothers (Sam's brothers, that is) in Dallas for St. Patrick's day, but we really didn't want to have to drive.  Sam came up with the awesome solution of riding the Heartland Flyer (a train that runs from Oklahoma City to Dallas).  Since I had Friday the 16th off due to parent-teacher conferences that we completed earlier in the week, Sam took the day off too and we boarded the train at 8 a.m. Friday (the train only goes to Dallas in the morning and to Oklahoma City in the evening).

It was awesome riding the train since a.) we didn't have to drive, b.) we had a lot of room to stretch out and relax, c.) you can bring your own drinks and snacks to enjoy as you please or get stuff from the snack car, and d.) you can get up and walk around if you need to stretch.  Sam's back really started hurting in the week leading up to our departure, so it was nice that he was able to recline and walk around as needed.  We decided that if we ever have kids, we will definitely be taking them on a train trip or two.

Here I'm stretching my leg as far as I can to show you how much leg room we had.

We sat mid train both times.  The chairs face two directions, so we ended up riding to Dallas backwards.

My bearded hubby.  He started growing his beard at the beginning of the year with a goal of not shaving until St. Patrick's day.  He has since shaved it off.

After we got to Dallas, we all decided that we didn't want to fight the crowds.  Instead, we hung out in Ty's back yard and enjoyed chatting with friends, playing horse shoes, jumping on the trampoline, and a fire pit once dusk hit.

Pete really wanted to get every bit of bark off of the logs.

Can you see the wake board rope and handle hanging from the tree?  Ty has a special wake board for the trampoline to practice flips and jumps.

 

Seriously, how cute is this dog?!?!?!

Of course, I made a shirt for the occasion!

 

Oh, and even though this has nothing to do with the weekend, I have to include a picture of the St. Patrick's day mantle I made for when I hosted bunco.  And, for the fun of it, let me tell you a little more about St. Patty's day bunco.  I served a loaded baked potato bar, leprechaun floats (sprite and lime sherbert ice cream), Skittles (taste the rainbow :), and Oreo balls (because they're good).  

I'm an Aunt!

He's here!!!  My sister delivered her amazing 8 pound 7 ounce, 18.5 inch long miracle yesterday!  Sam and I are very excited to have our first nephew (so excited that I've already driven to Oklahoma City to visit him twice!).  I could tell you all about how amazingly perfect he is, but I think I'll just show you a couple of pictures instead.

Isn't he handsome!?

I think he looks pretty comfortable in Aunt Courtney's arms.  (Look at his head.  Instead of a cone head, he has the cute little crease of a breech baby.)

It's hard to imagine that my little sister has a baby!  She's a great mom already!

The whole Bowling family.

In true Courtney fashion, I made a hospital survival kit for Blake and Mindy including snacks (both healthy and non-healthy), Gatorade, chapstick, pony tail holders, wisp disposable toothbrushes and a magazine.  Of course, I found the idea on Pinterest :).   

 

Freezer Paper + Silhouette = One Stencil Crazy Person

Dr. Seuss' birthday was Friday.  To celebrate, in true crafter fashion, we helped the kids make shirts using freezer paper stencils.  It all started last weekend when I made 22 freezer paper stencils that looked like the cat in the hat's hat (we only have 18 students, but the teachers and assistants wanted shirts too :).  We were just going to put the hat on them until one of my friends suggested we add all of the kids names so, of course, I broke out the Silhouette again.  Wednesday night, Bailey (my co-teacher) and I divided the shirts in half and ironed on the stencils.  (Have I ever mentioned how much I love ironing?  I haven't? Oh, that's because I despise it!)  Thursday, we put the shirts in the art center and let the kids go to town painting them with red fabric paint.  After snack that day, when they were dry, the kids all got to peel off their stencils.  They were pretty excited to see the shirts they made!  We kept the shirts over night so we could heat set the paint, then passed them out Friday at group time so the kids could wear them all day.  We took a super cute group picture in our shirts but, since I can't post pictures of the kids on here, you have to settle for pictures of the shirts sans kids.

Here's the whole group.

We didn't put names on the teacher shirts (because I really don't want to be known as Ms. Courtney for the rest of my life).

The kids did a great job covering the whole stencil with paint.  I think the thinner spots add character.

And, in case you are interested in some of the other things I have made using freezer paper stencils, here you go:

Valentine's Day Shirts

Mom's 50th Birthday Party Shirt

Initial Onesies

Cowboy Outline Onesie

Initial Super Hero Cape

And, one of my person favorites, Gabe's onesie with the nickname I gave him in utero.

These are just a few of the many things I have made using freezer paper!  Someone should probably stage and intervention.  On second thought, don't.  I'm having too much fun!!!

The South Won This One...

On Sunday, Sam took me to a Civil War re-enactment!  I've wanted to see a war re-enactment since the first time I saw the movie Sweet Home Alabama so I knew I had to make it happen when I found out about one less than 30 minutes from our house.  It didn't take too much convincing to get Sam to go since he is a history fan.  In fact, he researched the battle we would be watching.  Turns out, historians are unsure where the actual location of this fight was, but they know it was in the Yale/Keystone Lake area on November 19, 1861.  At this battle, the Texas Division of the South defeated the Seminole and Creek tribes (two of the few tribes that sided with the North).  Although the re-enactment was not completely historically accurate, the actors did a good job portraying the general idea.  Here are some pictures and captions from the version of the battle that we witnessed.

The front line for the Confederates slowly gained ground.

The Union soldiers continued to fight an admirable battle until the end.

Both sides had cannons.

The Creek and Seminole Indians charged the Confederates from the trees although I doubt they would have found many trees on the prairie in 1861.

I know it was a re-enactment, but this scene was touching to me. 

The final Confederate charge. 

And the Union surrendered.  (In reality, the Confederates claimed victory because Chief Opothleyahola left the area after setting the prairie grass on fire at the end of the fight.)

Sam loved the uniforms that both sides were wearing. 

The flag for the victors, the Texas Division of the South.

They even had a dulcimer player there!

After the Civil War re-enactment, we decided to continue our historical day by stopping at the town of Ingalls, Southeast of Stillwater.  This is where the fight between United States Marshals and the Doolin-Dalton gang happened on September 1, 1891.  This monument and a fabricated "old" town (which we assume is used for re-enactments) are the only evidence that this gunfight occurred there. 

And there you have it, our little journey through Oklahoma history.  Who said this blog wasn't educational?!

If you are interested in reading more about either of these historical event, here are a couple of links:

Battle of Round Mountain

US Marshal gunfight with the Doolin-Dalton gang

Camy's Fabulous 50 (Last Saturday Part 2)

My mom turned 50 this weekend!  Even though she didn't want a party, Mindy and I decided to plan a surprise gathering with some of her friends.  It started out innocent enough with dinner (she was already in Oklahoma City for my sister's baby shower and thought my step-dad and a couple of other couples were meeting us for dinner, she was surprised to see it was just her girlfriends).

 Why, Tina, what is that in your glass of water?

Oh, you know, just a movie ticket from the night before.  

 After everyone arrived for dinner, we told Mom that she could open her gift from Mindy and me (we had asked everyone else to just bring a card).  The first object she pulled from the bag was a pair of yoga pants.  She was trying to figure out why we would get her such a random gift when we told her to keep digging.  The next item was a pink t-shirt that I made for the occasion that said "Camy's Fabulous 50."  She was laughing at the shirt when we told her to look in the bag again.  In the bottom of the bag was an invitation to the party.  Here she is saying, "Pole dancing?!" 

That's right, we arranged a private pole dancing class for our mom and some of her friends!  Here's the over 50 crowd.  Some of them participated in the class, some of them just watched and laughed.

Since our moms are friends, we invited a couple of our friends to come laugh participate with us.  Here we all are in a group picture.

And the class begins...

We took lots of breaks.

We ate awesome angel food cake! (Why yes, those are left over Oreo pops from the baby shower earlier in the day.)  I made the little 50's to put on the table at the last minute when I realized that the black table cloth was going to be a little too dark for my liking (thank you, Silhouette!).

Mom showing us that she can still do a cartwheel.

I was told that I couldn't post most of the pictures from the night, but I had to include a couple.  Here is the instructor helping Tiffany flip upside down.

And here I am laying on the floor after sliding down head first (don't I look SO graceful ;)

 

As you can see from the pictures, we shared MANY laughs that night.  A huge thank you to everyone who came out and helped make this a fantastic night!!!