Category Archives: advantageous adventures

punk-in

Posted in advantageous adventures, love and happiness by

hey all! does everyone feel like crap from their sugar hangover today? nooo??? just me?

hope you had a grand halloween. we sure did. i am really going to milk these next 8-10 years of candy begging. this ONE night makes up for the 364 other harrowing nights of the year.  just kidding. ya know.

truth be told, i know i’m going to enjoy halloween every year because darla enjoyed it so much. she wore a pumpkin costume my mom made for me when i was 3. it made the rounds through cousins and various family members and now returned to it’s rightful owner!…i mean darla…it’s a good little costume.

cheesy pumpkinpumpkin walk

costumes

and then there’s me. when darla saw me she said “what are you? a game show host?” i had no idea she knew what a game show was, let alone a game show host. i dressed up as ALL of my bad fashion choices. really…really, all of that is just part of my regular wardrobe. it’s probably why i look back on so many photos and think “why…WHY did i think it was ok to wear that? ever?”

i’ll tell you why. because my name’s elaine and i like to sparkle.

hope you had a fun one, happy dia de los muertos! bye. don’t get diabetes!

birthday buddies

Posted in advantageous adventures, Kiddie Hangouts, love and happiness by

i’m sure everyone remembers that we love to hit up pumpkin patches with these folks. we got to spend yesterday celebrating the birthday of our very best buddy and my favorite little guy at schacht’s family farm. can you believe how big these kids have grown?

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birthday party

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trunk party

buddies

these last two are my favorites. they were hissing like snakes and then laughing at how they amused themselves. these kiddos have their own inside jokes now. we’re slowly approaching the age when parents will be outsiders. i’m ok with that. especially if it means their bond will grow stronger. they’ve acted a bit more like twins in the past, but lately there’s been a whole lot of love.

happy 4th birthday burkeybuns! we love you.

FAIRfield

Posted in advantageous adventures, kiddie-do by

and here are some more pics from our visit to the fairfield county fair in mike’s hometown, lancaster oh. because, well, fairs always make for pretty pictures. tickets round

chopper round

slide start round

birch beerbirch round

balloon round

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this may be the state’s last county fair for the year but i can’t guarantee it’ll be ours. we’re at 5 fairs for the year and one major theme park. we’re gonna see this thing through.

1. ticket to ride  2. new ride  3. dad’s turn on the fun slide  4 & 5. birch beer – it’s not only delicious, it’s pretty too  6 & 7 balloon wrangling. immediately regret the decision to get her that balloon. no i don’t. she loved it and started referring to it as her baby. it was worth it in the end.

weekending

Posted in advantageous adventures, let me let me update ya, love and happiness by

just a bit of our fantastic fall weekend:

the best part, by far, was meeting our nephew. welcome to the party, little man!

evanedit round

aaaand fairfield county fair. just wouldn’t be (w)right for us to miss a fair.

fair round funslide round

family effort pancake breakfast for friends
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that was well received

and finished it up with a walk to admire our neighborhood in more ways than one ;-)

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i hope you all had a refreshing, fulfilling weekend as well.

good vibes to you for a great start to your week.

first field trip

Posted in advantageous adventures, it's cool to school by

our first field trip with darla’s school was more like a patch trip, pumpkin patch that is.

on monday, darla’s school arranged a visit to nearby Circle S Farm. i was pretty impressed by their set up. lots for the kiddos to enjoy and learn from. and they enjoyed it for sure. and how. let’s have a looksie, shall we?

the first thing that made the day special was getting to hang with darla’s friend kaden and the second thing was the pumpkin donuts. yum. YUM!

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and then it was on to playing in the hay barn

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and then it was on to hayrides through sunflowers

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to pick our pumpkins

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and spy on woolly caterpillars

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then it was back to the farmyard for animals, hay maze and more jumping in the hay

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and my favorite two moments of the day

hayfightdoug

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we had a really great time. more than that, we had two tired kids who wore themselves out having a great time. score.

weddinz

Posted in advantageous adventures, love and happiness, Travels by

i’d first like to take a moment to thank everyone whose wedding i’ve attended this year for choosing such beautiful settings. i mean, look at this

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and this

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and now i’d like to take a moment to thank pinterest for spreading and spurring every one of those weddings to be so thoughtfully put together, detailed and aesthetically wonderous to behold. i mean, look at this

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and this

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and this!

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we had an amazing time this past weekend taking part in the communion of a very special couple. their one-of-a-kind weekend was perfectly tailored and i’m just very grateful to have been a part of it and to have seen our friends bc well they’re fun and cool and good looking. i mean, look at this

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and this

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sigh.

a bit more reminiscing…

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1. bonfire!  2. there’s some handsome dudes down there getting pics  3 & 4 fashion choices – farm b&b calls for ruched floral and vintage cowgirl boots, fall wedding calls for faux fur stole & animal print clutch  5. boutineer boy  6. mother nature showing of the beautimous veil  7. officialness  8. another columbus day wedding couple  7. more twinkly  8 & 9. gettin’ this party started! and james on disco ball duty.

and by the way, the dance party was epic. EPIC. at least i thought so…

a wonder wander

Posted in advantageous adventures, kiddie-do by

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i much prefer a nice stroll in the woods over any other activity with my girl. after a picnic lunch at their pondside wildlife observation deck we took our apples and went for a walk in sodalis nature park.

i love the way her imagination has the freedom to expand when there are few parameters. we walked along the trail, singing various songs, clearing sticks off the trail and using the sticks to build various projects darla dreamed up. i loved watching her excitement as she found red leaves and exclaimed “i found the first leaf of autumn!” or when she found large rocks to climb and jump off.

i’m looking forward to a whole season of these nature walks.

harvest moon weekend

Posted in advantageous adventures, let me let me update ya by

did you enjoy the harvest moon weekend? did neil young perform in your headspace as well? just me?

oh well.

we enjoyed a wonderful weekend of beautiful weather (thankful for that after several rainy days), carnival rides, food truck fest and a little girl running hills.

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ferris wheel

at the top of the ferris wheel

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picture comment one: i was a little reluctant to let darla in the fun house. i mean, did you see those paintings? i don’t know if you know this but carnivals are creepy…

picture comment two: the food truck fest was at mallow run winery. this was a rad time! the set up was very relaxed and kid-friendly – a great place to relax, nosh, and watch your child run up and down hills while you delude yourself that it will help get her into an earlier bedtime. i highly suggest it for any of you central indiana folk.

hope you enjoyed your weekend. thanks for reading about ours!

west coast wedding nostalgia

Posted in advantageous adventures, Travels by

i’m missing my west coast friends this weekend so i thought i’d do a visual venture back a few weeks to one of the most enchanting wedding weekends i’ve ever had the pleasure of partaking.

my five day stay in the bay city was FRANTASTIC.
a visit to the haight, a drive down the PCH, and a weekend stay at the holly farm were all part of the getaway.

my only regret is that i didn’t take more photos to reminisce!

missing you tons left coast friends. lots of love vibes to you.

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1. reunited  2. sourdough!  3. sf style  4. fireside chat by the ocean  5. new friends  6. miner’s cup  7. wall-to-wall music  8. wedding pretty  9. i love these faces  10. officially the raddest couple