Purple Fiddle and Ian's birthday

On a Thursday night (May 19) we all went to The Purple Fiddle in Thomas, WV. It's a fun little coffeehouse/cafe and going there was on our bucket list, so when we saw that The Steel Wheels would be there we couldn't pass it up. The Steel Wheels are based out of Harrisonburg, VA and the wife of one of the band members was in Service Adventure in Philippi! Plus they have good music, so we like to see them when they're here! We had a great (late) night singing and dancing!

Christina, Tara and Ranita with Julie from church

Here's a little video of us dancing to Tara's song, "Darlin' Cory." The song opens with the line "Wake up, wake up darlin Cory," which we find quite appropriate for our darlin' Tara Corey!

Then on May 25th Ian turned 5! We had a cook-out and cake with some friends from church. Ian requested a chocolate cake with strawberries and Toy Story characters on top!

Pre-supper baseball (Ella's hitting behind the post on the right)
We were also airing out our tents for our trip to Raleigh the next
night, though if you read the next post you'll see why that
wasn't necessary!

Last Weeks Challenge 
Last week our challenge was to use (as much as possible) food that was grown or produced in our "economic region," meaning WV and bordering states, or fair trade foods. This was a difficult challenge for many reasons, and there were times that we let items pass because it was Ian's birthday and he got to pick the menu. So while the hamburgers and hot dogs, pasta salad, carrots and hummus (homemade), and cake and ice cream (also homemade) may not have all been "local," (though some may have been, I'm not sure what was on the labels since I didn't shop) the objective really was to look at labels and be aware of where our food comes from.

This week we did not pick a challenge since we were away all weekend, and since we're halfway through the week we will probably not pick one. BUT next week begins our challenge that we've been saving, though the girls did a variation on their own a few weeks back: no personal use of the computer. We've been saving this one because the girls wanted to do this in our last weeks together so we can make the most of our time here together! Aren't they great!