Camping

Yep, we went on a camping trip Thursday and Friday with the group of girls and mamas from church. We had such a good time! For such a special trip the girls "needed" camping clothes (I'm sure you believe that). I made Maddie a "Miss Madeline" apron dress, and Molly a little shirt with pockets and shorts to match (I used the "Miss Madeline pattern for the shirt too). This isn't a great picture of the girls because they were not in the mood for a photo shoot while all their friends were playing! LOL!

We cooked foil dinners over the fire and I was surprised that so many of the girls had never had them before! We grew up eating them all the time! I will share the recipe for those of you who would like to give it a try in the next post. They can be cooked in the oven too but it's just more fun in the camp fire. After dinner we all went to the playground to play tag and be silly and I got this funny picture of a couple of girls swinging. Can you see the streak where they were swinging so high? I think it turned out pretty good considering it was dark outside. I was using the night setting on my camera. We stayed up until about 2 am giggling and talking, I love how much fun it is when people get that tired and silly. We were in my Mom and Dads camper and we were crammed in! I know that's kind of cheating, but hey.... we cooked on the fire gimme a break! LOL! And after the lizard situation (by the way, yes, he is still loose in my house) I'm not too keen on sleeping outdoors. We saw two poisonous water snakes while we were there too! You know what's so funny is that I'm not scared of snakes, we had them as pets when we were kids; but spiders and lizards have always freaked me out. Isn't that weird?

The next day we went on a scavenger hunt, it was HOT, and I had on flip flops (I left my shoes sitting by the door at home), and I had blisters, and it was an 8 mile walk; but we still had fun! It was part of a nationwide scavenger hunt called Letterboxing. I have never heard of this before but it is very interesting! You get clues off of the Internet, and follow the clues to find little boxes tucked away in the woods that contain notebooks. You sign the notebook and head off to the next clue (you can also get a stamp from each box if you bring a stamp pad). Then at the end you find a big box full of goodies from the people who have been there before. You may take one thing but you have to leave one thing. How cool is that?! If you want to find a hunt in your area go HERE to check it out. And here's my new camera case that I used for the first time while on the camping trip. I was making this camera case when my Dad called to tell me that Maddie had stopped breathing and the ambulance was on the way. Uhh! I hate to even think about it! So for about a week I didn't really want to take pictures of it and post about it, but now I'm fine with it. It was just raw at first. I made it with scraps of my favorite fabrics, and lined the inside with flannel. I really like it but I wish I had made the strap just a little longer so that I could wear it across my chest instead of just hanging around my neck. Oh well, maybe next time. Then I covered my wrist strap with matching fabric. Did I go too far? LOL! I have had several compliments on it so far, so I think it's a hit.

**I know you are all wondering when Miss Madeline will be ready, and I am happy to report that tester patterns will probably be sent out next week! I am still trying to work out some printing issues for the printed version, but the PDF should be ready in a couple of weeks! The final sizes on the pattern is 6 months -4t and 5-10. If I need any more testers after I look at who I already have I will announce it here on the blog. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for all of your interest in this pattern!! **