Koons Park Fireworks

Earlier tonight my hubby and I went out to Koons Park in Linglestown PA to view the fireworks show, it was awesome! The fireworks only lasted for about 22 minutes but it was well worth it! The park was packed with tons of people and it took us 25 minutes to even get out of the parking lot.

Just Heartbroken....

This is a photo taken last April of my Auntie and my Uncle. They are like grandparents to me and we are all very close.

Sadly, my uncle passed away yesterday morning from heart failure and renal failure. He was 85 yrs old and will be missed. He was a special man. My auntie and uncle were married for over 60 years. My auntie is totally devastated.

We love you Uncle A and we will miss you. We will take good care of Auntie H for you.

Mom's Need Time Out Too!

I am going to participate in a Blog Bump so from time to time I will be adding a post to my own blog here about other blogs that I find interesting.

Blog Name: Mom's Indulgence

http://momsindulgence.com/2007/taking-time-for-you/

Taking time for you is what its all about in the current blog post. As moms and busy women we often forget to take time out for ourselves.

I just recently came back from a fantastic vacation to the Jersey Shore so I realize myself how important it is to take a break from our every day lives.

Stop on by the Mom's Indulgence blog and take a look around! I am sure you will find something interesting to read there!

Happy 23rd Birthday Jenelle!

Where does all that time go? I can not believe that our daughter just turned 23 years old on June 19th!!! Happy Birthday Jenelle!

Birthdays here in our family are always a big deal. We usually have parties and make it a several day celebration, especially if the birthday falls on a weekend.

Our daughters due date was July 4th, I was hoping she would arrive a tad early on June 29th since that is my birthday and we could share the date, but Jenelle had other plans and arrived on June 19th which ended up being a blessing because on the year she was born, June 19th was Fathers Day so my hubby was double blessed that day.

Are birthday's a big deal in your household? Do you go way out to celebrate them?

Shelly

Babies Fledged!

Well...this will be the last picture of the baby house finches! This picture is at age 10 days. I got up Saturday morning to go check on them and they were all gone! So they fledged on Saturday morning at age 12 days!

Mom and Dad are still hanging around in the pine tree that sits about 30 ft from my hanging basket. According to my bird book, house finches can breed 2-3 times per year so perhaps we will be blessed with another round of babies sometime this summer. I will let you all know if that occurs!

My husband and I totally enjoyed this experience!

Crock Pot Chicken Marengo Recipe

This is the recipe I made for dinner yesterday and it turned out delicous! Please stop on by my main blog at: http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com/

Crock Pot Chicken Marengo

2 1/2 to 3 lb. frying chicken, cut up
1 (1 1/2 oz) pkg. spaghetti sauce mix
1/2 c. dry white wine
2 fresh tomatoes, quartered
1/4 lb. fresh mushrooms

Place chicken parts in crock pot. Combine dry spaghetti mix with wine; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 7 hours. Turn control to high and add tomatoes and mushrooms. Cover and cook on high for 40 additional minutes. Makes 4 servings.

Babies are now 8 days old...

As you can see from the newest photo they have alot of down fluff on them and I can see the starts of feathers now too. They all have their eyes open and are peeping their heads out over the nest in the flower basket.

They are making a mess in the nest and all 4 of the babies seem to be crowded in there now that they are bigger. I didn't see the "dud" egg in there today so either they ate it or mom/dad removed it.

~Shelly~

Baby Birds are 6 days Old!

Well, our baby house finch birds are now 6 days old. They are getting alot of furry down type of material on them now and have even started opening their eyes. I can hear them from outside my bedroom window and can see them in the hanging basket.

Since its been 95+ degrees here in PA, we have checked on them often. They were over-heated today and breathing hard so we misted the flower basket with some light water and they actually seemed to enjoy that although mom was not happy and dad was certainly not happy and took a dive at my husband. We haven't been able to get pics of mom and dad yet.

Today's photo is of our 4 hatchlings and they are now 6 days old. The 5th egg never hatched but is still in the nest at this time.

~Shelly~

Bird Watching - We Have House Finch Hatchlings!

My husband and I are big fans of birding. We enjoy watching them, trying to identify them and of course watching hatchlings grow up.

For mothers day he got me a beautiful hanging flower basket. A week later we noticed a very small bird (we believe she is a house finch) going in and out of the flower basket.

We finally got nosey and suspected she had made a nest and took a peek and low and behold there was a beautiful nest inside our flower basket with 5 tiny blue eggs (the size of marbles). It has now been 2 weeks and we finally have hatchlings!

Yesterday we noticed that 3 of our 5 eggs have hatched and then this morning another one hatched so we now have 1 egg left to see if it hatches. I hope you enjoy the photo's and I will be updating my blog from time to time about these beautiful little birds!

For more information about the House Finch Birds please see:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/House_Finch_dtl.html

~Shelly~

Pics from Vacation in Ocean City New Jersey

We recently took a mini trip down to Ocean City, NJ last week for a few days. My hubby and I took my mother along with us and had a great time! We have been visiting Ocean City in New Jersey since I was a little girl, so it's always nice to return every year to see what has changed & what is new.

While Ocean City is not my favorite New Jersey beach destination (I love North Wildwood), it is my second and we visit there often. We had a great time up on their large boardwalk playing mini golf, hitting the arcade and doing a lot of shopping.

The beaches are very clean and my only grip is the fee to get on the beach (beach tags are required & they are expensive). There is a lot of beach room, so you never feel over-crowded with other people around. We love to watch the early morning sunrises and you can see the sun come up over the Atlantic Ocean which is really wonderful to see.

Ocean City is a family resort and you will NOT find any alcoholic beverages sold on the island at all...which is a fabulous thing for those of us who have families and don't want exposed to that. There are plenty of things to see and do in Ocean City!

Our Trip Down to Atlantic City in New Jersey

Back in February my hubby and I took a little trip down to Atlantic City NJ to meet up with my very good friend Joan who I just adore!

I met Joan online about 3 years ago so this was our second time of meeting up to visit with one another. Joan lives in Florida and I live in Pennsylvania. So in February we headed down to Atlantic City to visit with my friend Joan and we stayed at the Trump Hotel.

The picture in this post is a scrapbooking page I made featuring me and my friend Joan. I wanted to construct just a simple page...nothing too fancy! We really had a great time playing in the Casino (I lost) but she won a little money and seeing some of the sites near the Trump Marina.

Atlantic City is a fun place to visit and we went down in the wintertime and there was still plenty of things to see & do which kept us all pretty busy! We had a great time!

Beautiful Religous Statue in Dauphin PA

We had my MIL's 80th birthday party in the church rectory and outside the main doors was this beautiful statue. My picture does not do it any justice but I just had to share the photo! I am a big fan of sculpture...particularly historical or religous statues.

This statue sits on the grounds of the St. Matthew Catholic Church in Dauphin Pennsylvania and is beautiful, you really have to see it in person to appreciate all of it's beauty. I am not sure how old it is (looks fairly new to me) but it's gorgeous! I sat there for at least 20 minutes admiring it's beauty.

If you are ever in the area, make sure you stop in and check it out (with their permission) as it's on private church grounds. The church and grounds are beautiful too!

My MIL'S 80th Birthday Party!

We have been planning a surprise party for my Mother in Law Sarah for months! We finally pulled it off this past Saturday and it was a Surprise! My husband, my mother and me spent 12 hours on Friday cooking food for my MIL'S party and were exhausted! We had the surprise birthday party for Sarah on Saturday and it was a really nice party! We had 2 cakes for the party..which was nice since we had so many party guests!

The cake above was custom made just for this party and it was totally edible, including the flowers! Sarah loves to plant flowers so we thought it would be appropiate for her. We had a great time visiting with family and friends.

Happy 80th Birthday Sarah!

~* Shelly *~

Embroidery & Cross Stitch Handmade Pillowcases

I have been doing hand embroidery and cross stitch for around 23 years now. I really enjoy working on linens and often make them as gifts for friends and family and of course I have way too many in my home for myself.

My latest finished projects are pictured above. One set of pillowcases was done in a hand embroidered floral pattern and the other set was done in a floral cross stitch pattern. I think I like the embroidered set better :)

Right now I am working on a floral set of His & Hers cross stitched pillowcases and will post a picture of those once I get them completed. Each set takes me about 2 weeks to complete.

You can find FREE Crafting Patterns and Projects over on my official crafting blog at Passionate About Crafting ---> HERE



~*Shelly*~

Easter Weekend Festivities! Crunchy Peanut Butter Eggs Recipe

TGIF...the Holiday Weekend has arrived!

I don't know about you, but I love springtime and all of the holidays that go with it. I was busy all week making homemade chocolate eggs with peanut butter and buttercream filling. I then painted around 100 eggs and stuffed around 100 plastic eggs for the annual Easter Egg Hunt for Saturday. I love seeing the children run after them, its so much fun!

I have been busy planning my Holiday Menu as I am expecting 11 guests for Easter Dinner on Sunday so this weekend will be filled with some good food! I enjoy all the preparations for the Holidays, I just hate the clean up afterwards so I always assign that job duty to my husband. Yes he moans and groans but its his job since I do everything else :)

I have been having a hard time getting Easter Egg dye off my fingers and hands this week so I am in desperate need of a manicure and I guess while I am at it, a pedicure would be nice too.

Crunchy Peanut Butter Eggs

5 1/2 c. Rice Krispies Cereal
1 lb. 10-X Sugar
1 stick of butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. peanut butter
1 bag (12 oz) chocolate chips
smidgen of parafin wax

Mix rice krispies and sugar. Add butter and mix well. Add vanilla and peanut butter and mix again. Roll dough into EGG SHAPE and refrigerate 1 hour. Coat with melted chocolate chips with a little paraffin added. Cool on a non stick baking mat or waxed paper.

~*Shelly*~

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