Casey, IL - Big Things in a Small Town

This past Saturday, Jake and I took the kids and Jake's mom on a little daytrip to a town called Casey, IL which is about 2 1/2 hours away from us. I had first heard about this town from another blogger, Ashley at Under the Sycamore. She took her family there back in the Spring and it looked like such a fun town.

The town is so unique because it has 8 of the World's Largest Items, along with several other BIG items.

After seeing Ashley's post, I decided to do a little research for myself and see if there was a list out there that had all the World's Largest Items according to State and sure enough, I found this list. So lucky for us, we live in an area with quite a few Largest Things nearby and that's when I started planning a fun little family day trip to cross several of these items off our list.

First we stopped by the World's Largest Ketchup Bottle which just happens to be in a town just about 30 minutes from us. In fact, I used to live in Collinsville with my parents after graduating high school and it's where my sister lives now. We've seen the ketchup bottle numerous times, but hadn't ever stopped to take a picture with it, so we made this our first stop of the day.

While planning our trip to Casey, I noticed that there was another Largest Item on the way. The World's Largest Cross, in Effingham, IL. My goal for the day was to get a picture of one or both of my kids with each Large Item, and thankfully they cooperated to some extent. Ha.

I've seen this cross before on our drive to Indianapolis earlier this year, but we hadn't stopped to check it out. It's beautiful and quite the site to see. Around the cross are all 10 Commandments on stone plaques. Each one has a button that you can push and a man tells you about that particular commandment. There is also a museum that tells you all about how they built the cross.



We made it to Casey just in time for lunch. We had planned to eat at the Richards Farm Restaurant, which just so happened to be right next to the World's Largest Pitchfork. I would highly recommend eating here. It was really good and such a cool restaurant. It is in an old barn, which made for a really cool atmosphere. The food was good too!

The Largest Pitchfork happened to be surrounded by a beautiful little garden, so we walked around there and took few pictures.

Next on our list was to find the World's Largest Golf Tee. This happened to be at the Casey Country Club, just down the street. Since Jake's an avid golfer, he appreciated this largest item. ;-)

Next we headed down to Main Street where a majority of the Largest Items were. We were able to park and just walk around the adorable little town to find a majority of the rest of the items. Needless to say they aren't hard to spot. Ha.

The Largest Item the town is most proud of is the World's Largest Rocking Chair. It weighs 46,200 pounds and took them two years to complete. I also forgot to mention that each Large Item in this town has a corresponding bible verse on it, which I found to be so cool.

Right across the Street is the World's Largest Wind Chime which you can actually pull a rope and it will really chime.

After that, we walked down to this adorable little store which had the World's Largest Crochet Hook and Knitting Needles!

Such a fitting bible verse and one of my favorites.

Right down the street is a very big pencil. Not the world's largest, but very large nonetheless.



And just around the corner is a very large spinning top that actually spins! The kids thought this was pretty cool.

The train goes right through the town, so they had this cute little train station candy depot and this cute little caboose right outside.

Inside the candy depot was the World's Largest Wooden Shoes.

Going right out of the Candy Depot the opposite way from where we came is this cute little bridge, fountain and garden leading up to the World's Largest Mailbox. The World's Largest Mailbox was my favorite big thing in the town. You can really climb stairs and go inside and you can really mail letters inside the mailbox!! So cool.

Right across the street from the Mailbox is a very Large Bird Cage and it actually has a real swing inside!

From there we walked over to a very large Yard Stick!

Along the street we saw this cool mural, so I had to get a picture.

We also found a large ear of corn and a large cactus on Main Street.

And Jackson loved this very large bicycle.

Here are a couple pictures that show just how large the rocking chair and wind chime were next to buildings in the town!

There were a couple other large items right outside of town! A large toy airplane at the airport and a large coin at the bank!

So that was our fun adventure through a very small town with very BIG things!!

Jackson's Last Baseball Game of the Season and Trophy

Jackson had his last baseball game of the season a couple weeks ago and that same night they got their trophies. This was the first year that it's been coach pitch and Jackson did so well! He loves playing baseball and has so much fun! It was a great season!



Jackson Lost His First and Second Tooth

Back in May, on his last day of Pre-K, Jackson lost his first tooth! It was after school while he was eating a Turkey Sandwich for lunch. It had been loose for a few months, but it had finally gotten lose enough to come out.

So we put his tooth in a little baggie and put it under his pillow.

The next morning Jackson woke up and the tooth fairy had left him $5.00! He was so excited.

Since then, the tooth right next to it has been loose and it finally got loose enough to fall out yesterday, again while eating a turkey sandwich at lunch. Ha. What are the odds? LOL. So now he's missing both bottom-center teeth and it's so darn cute. Although I feel like he's a little young to have lost 2 teeth already. I don't know how old they normally are, but 5 years old seems young to me. Nevertheless, he's getting SO big!! He'll have 2 missing teeth now when he starts Kindergarten in just a couple more weeks.

Back To School Themed Dining Room Decor

It's been almost a month since I've blogged. We've been so busy this Summer and I have so much I want to blog, I just haven't had the time to do it. So I thought I'd ease back in with a fun, decorating post.

I like to change out the décor in my dining room for each major holiday. So after the 4th of July, I didn't really have anything special to go in there. So when I was in Target the other day and saw all their cute "back to school" décor in their dollar spot, I thought it would be so cute to do a "back to school" theme in the dining room. Plus I thought the kids would love it too.

I searched around on Pinterest for some ideas and came up with a list of stuff to use that I already had on hand, along with some things I wanted to find. I already knew Target had a lot of cute stuff, so I checked around there and the only other store I went to was Michaels.

I always try to incorporate the wooden caddy I use as a centerpiece by changing what's in it to go with the theme. My mom found it at Ross and I just love it. We already had the fake grass from when we used it for Easter with eggs. So I went to Michaels and found a bundle of apples for $9.99 and used a 50% off coupon. I just cut them and stuck them in the Styrofoam that we have under the grass. I got the ruler ribbon from Target in the dollar spot and just tied a bow to make it a little more festive.

I found the little "dream big" star at Target for $1 along with the apple chalkboard clothes pins. I thought the clothes pins were so cute, but really didn't know how I would use them. Luckily, as I was putting everything together I thought to pin them to the top of my galvanized napkin rings that are also from the dollar spot at Target from last Fall. I just wrote A, B, C, and D on them.

I had the plates, napkins and table runner already on hand, as well as the salt and pepper shakers, napkin caddy and coasters. I love all of my galvanized table décor because it goes with anything and can be used with any holiday décor.

I also tied on some of the dollar spot ruler ribbon to the salt and pepper shaker caddy to add a little fun to it. :-)

The red glitter apple mason jars were in the Target dollar spot and the pencils are just regular number 2 pencils that you can get for under $2 a pack anywhere.

I love my buffet and love decorating it for different holidays as well. I had seen where someone used a globe in their back to school décor so I thought since I already had one for "back to school" photo sessions, that it would be super cute to incorporate it. I happened to find it last year at a consignment shop for only $10!!

The apple banner that I have hanging on my wooden "Give Thanks" sign that my dad made me is also from the Target dollar spot. You have to put it together, but it was really easy and turned out so cute!

I always try to incorporate a candy dish on my buffet and fill it with m&m's, so when I saw this adorable apple for $3 at Target, I knew it would be perfect for that. I also thought it would be cute to add a picture of the kids from the first day of school last year. The clipboard I have is from Target as well and cost less than $3. I just added a piece of the kids art work to it.

 I already had the little red chalkboard, so I used that along with the cute little ceramic pencil, which was also from Target for $1. I made the "Back to School" print using PicMonkey and just framed in a 5x7 frame I already had.

And finally, this cute little ceramic apple that I have sitting next to my globe was also from Target for only $1.

So I'd love to know, do any of you decorate for Back to School? It wasn't something I had ever thought about doing before, but I love the way it turned out and I plan on doing it every year now because it was so much fun!

Fourth of July 2017

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July. We had a great day with several of our friends and family. Jake and I threw a big pool party in our back yard and ended the day with a little fireworks show that evening. Everyone had a great time. I barely took any pictures but here are a few that I got. :-)

I took this a few days before the fourth because I knew getting a picture of these two that day would be nearly impossible with all the chaos of getting ready for the party. I'm so glad I did.



I also took a few pictures of the decorations around the pool and patio when I took the kids pictures and I'm so glad I did because I didn't take any the day of the party.

I did get one picture of the pool full of people yesterday!

And I took a few of the fireworks with my phone.

All in all it was a great party and a great 4th of July!

Mother's Day 2017

For Mother's Day this year, I decided it would be nice to rent a pavilion at the park, pick up chicken strips from KFC and just have a fun, easy time together with family. No cleaning, no cooking, no work. Just easy and fun for everyone! It ended up being a beautiful day and we all had a great time.

My sister rented the pavilion at a park over near her house and we just all met up there after church. We ate lunch and then the kids played at the playground. We were near a pond so we went down and fed the ducks some bread and then my brother-in-law made snow cones for everyone for dessert. It was a great day!

Here are a few pictures from our day.

Jackson, Avery and I at church Mother's Day morning. 

Avery feeding the ducks a biscuit at the park.

Avery giving her sweet cousin Emerson a kiss at the park.

Avery giving her Papa (my Dad) some love.

Jackson and his cousin Landon feeding the ducks.

Yummy snow-cones!

My mom, sister and I on Mother's Day.

My mom with her 2 kids and 5 (soon to be 6) Grand-kids. :-)

Along with having a very nice day, I got some very nice gifts too. :-) Jake, Jackson and Avery gave me an Alex and Ani bracelet with Jackson's birth-stone on it (now I just need Avery's).

Then, the kids each made me something at school. Jackson's class made a book of questionnaires of each of the kids about their mom. This was Jackson's page about me. :-)

Then Avery's class made flower pots with little bugs on them using their thumb-prints in paint. So cute! She also made a "All about my Mom" page and they laminated them for us. :-)

All such cute gifts! I just love the "All About My Mom" questionnaires. They are so funny.