sailing weekend (and so much more)...

Our final trip of the summer was up to Ashland, Wisconsin on Lake Superior for a weekend of sailing with grandpa. What a beautiful whirlwind trip it was!

First stepping into the freezing waters of the big lake outside of Superior, Wisconsin. Looking for rocks on the beach is a favorite pastime and one that the kids could do for hours. If we look like we just came out of the dryer, it felt like that. Even up in the freezing north of Lake Superior the day was in the 90's and very windy. Since we couldn't sail right away, we headed up to Bayfield where there are scores of fruit orchards.
We found a beautifully quaint farm with blueberries, raspberries, apples, pumpkins and a cutting garden.Apples in August, oh yea!Look at the size of the pumpkins, amazing for this time of year!

Back in Ashland we took a beautiful sunset sail on the calm waters of Lake Superior.

When we woke the next morning to calm blue skies we headed out on the boat again.

Chloe was quite the little sailor!Can't think of a better place to kick back and put your feet up!

On the way home we stopped at Jay Cooke state park and took in the beautiful rock formations and the very very beginning of fall color.

Hope you had a great weekend as well!

long good-bye...

Chloe graduated from pre-school today. It's the beginning of a typical Minnesota long good-bye to summer. We never can just say farewell here and leave, it's always quite drawn out and emotional. I kind-of like it that way. By the way, her teachers loved their surprise balls!

yum.....

Farmer's market bliss!! Our growing season is so short here, this is definitely a peak time to visit the market. Lots of color and flavors. My house smells divine with zucchini bread in the oven. Love the hint of late-harvest with the squash just beginning to come in.

Then we took a nice walk at the garden, enjoying these beautiful late-summer days.

end of summer surprise...

With Chloe wrapping up her preschool career this week, I wanted to do a fun thank you gift for her teachers who have done so much. After seeing some really festive and creative surprise balls on the web and hearing from Linda Crispell that she's going to do a version for the Best Halloween Ever blog (can't wait!!) I thought I would try one myself. I started with filling up a giant plastic prize ball with some fun flower lollipops and a card with attached gift certificate. I found the ball container at Party City. I added some kitchy mini-rulers, crayons and confetti for an end-of-summer back to school theme. I did one for each teacher.
This gave me a great base for wrapping and and made this a giant ball of surprises. I didn't trim the crepe paper since the ball is so big. I just started wrapping in different directions and put a little piece of Japanese tape for a cute way to transition to a different colored tissue.I started adding in the little surprises to each layer, tucking it into the crepe paper and then continued to wrap around. There are little notebooks, stickers and other goodies embedded into each layer.Layer upon layer of pretty surprises develops.I then did some decorative colors at the end to give it a festive look.
I added a thank you to the front and Chloe added some stickers to the sides.Here are the goodies we put inside. You could do this for any theme or occasion. My kids don't know it yet, but they are each getting a back to school surprise ball on their first day back.

I hope they enjoy opening them. What a fun way to say thanks for the memories!

the harvest....

circa 1979
the family garden
Yep, I'm the little blondie in the knee highs. Nice look, huh?!
After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and Coming Home to Eat I want a garden like this again some day. Nothing beats home grown veggies.