granny camp: epilogue

recently i've become obsessed with vintage clothes and jewelry.

what luck to discover that my mom still has one of her bridesmaid dresses from her own wedding in the late 1950s.

here's my twinnie modeling it. isn't it grand?

one of my mom's bridesmaids returned it to her on her 50th wedding anniversary not long ago. wasn't that thoughtful?

can you believe she is letting me borrow it? if it were me, i don't know that i'd be that generous.

here's what it looked like back in 1958. gorgeous.

and speaking of generous, mom let her daughters borrow several beautiful pieces from our great-grandmother charlotte's vintage costume jewelry collection.

the broaches blew my mind.

what a stylish great-grandmother i had!

i'm so excited to play dress-up.

plans are under way for a vintage dress-up party. i'll keep you posted.

hugs to mom for sharing from this completely unexpected treasure trove.

more bits of my weekend volume 9 (aka granny camp ad nauseum)

there is no way to capture all the fun we had at granny camp. one thing i learned is that my almost-five-year-old is much more capable and adaptable than i ever imagined. we did so many new things.

we flew on an airplane ...

... rode in a taxi ...

... went to new heights ...

... rode on a train ...

... pretended to be children of the corn ...

... played with the little cousins ...

... and the older cousins too ...

... petted 10-day-old turkey chicks ...

... hung out with uncle david ...

... and uncle rupert ...

... rode bikes ...

... roasted hot dogs ...

... made smores ...

... rode on the big john deere combine with grandpa ...

... went on the dragon water slide ...

... swam ...

... went thrifting ...

... sang songs ...

... took part in a drumming circle ...

... and saw skies like this.

what a time we had. more of my "sister time" coming soon, and a sneak peek is on the way of what i'm wearing to a vintage dress-up party. stay tuned!

bits of my weekend (aka granny camp wrap-up)

granny camp is coming to a close. in this short time the kids bonded, fell in love with their grandparents all over again and made awesome memories. the grown-ups made some great memories too.

we had a slide show that made us laugh, cheer and tear up a bit.

we spent time with family we hadn't seen in a while.

we ate lots of home made goodies.

and the best sweet corn you can imagine.

we rode three across in the back.

and hung with our cousins at our favorite pizza joint.

and we tried new things (in this case, chocolate cheerios).

we did so, so much more, and as you can imagine, i took a lot of pictures. i will post more when i get back home.

in the meantime, i'll leave you with this. the reason for this trip in the first place: being with my mom and dad, aka, granny and boppo.

More fun in ill.

the boy is enjoying being with the little cousins at granny's house. jackson and isaiah just got back from jamaica. that explains the rasta hat with built in braids. currently they are off to the park and then will hit the thrift store (my boy loves thrifting) and then macdonalds playland. i think i'll kick back and have another cup of buddy brew.

Granny Camp Day 1

our trip to illinois is officially under way.

here's the boy with the pilot before we flew from nashville to chicago.

we immediately set out on foot to explore the city.

what in the world?

they were filming transformers 3.

we went in to a nearby cafe and watched the action. we even saw some of the stars.

my 14 year old nephew ashford was disappointed that megan fox was nowhere to be found. but the kid from holes was there. and some other guys that are apparently a really big deal.

after that we hoofed it to the john hancock building. here's a view from the 95th floor.

even the bathroom had an amazing view.

then we went to the museum of science and industry. the trains were a big hit.

we also liked the weather exhibit. this is an indoor tornado.

at this point we were thoroughly exhausted. but there was no slowing us down. no way. we headed to navy pier.

here's the ferris wheel.

and we had to get on the big noodle.

afterward, we saw this. oops.

more to come!