Now don't you all want to come to Texas to visit us!? (It's only been 100 degrees once...)

While in Arkansas, we attended a true Arkansas cultural phenomenon and a mecca for lovers of all things toad and deep-fried: Toad Suck Daze, of course! For a history of Toad Suck Daze, as well as an explanation of the name, click here.

Now you might think that we attended Toad Suck Daze to mingle with Conway's finest dignitaries (e.g., the Toad Master); or perhaps to pit our expertly trained toad against the region's finest in a toad race; or to shop for any number of toad-adorned tchotchkes (though no one will use that term at Toad Suck Daze); or maybe to see the crowning of Miss Toad Suck in all her splendor. But you'd be wrong. No, the reason for attending Toad Suck Daze is to see how much fried goodness you can stuff into your gut.

From fried pickles...

to fried cheesecake...

Well, you can see for yourself.



Kelly and John enjoying fried chicken-on-a-stick.

And most gloriously of all... FUNNEL CAKES!


Mmmmm...Only 351 days to go till next Toad Suck Daze!

We've been back from Arkansas for over a week, and I think I'll write a couple of installments to cover our goings-on. There are the cute cousins, the racing toads, and the food. Too much really for one post.

Ava and cousin Lucy reconnected after a much-too-long separation (almost 2 years). Lucy won Ava over almost immediately by placing an offering of friendship at Ava's feet the moment she first saw her: a pile of tiny plastic princesses and ponies. They were such fun to watch: wrapping "presents" for each other in the bathtub with wet washcloths, tearing up and down the hall of my parents' house, filling the yard with bubbles, discovering their shared love of Wonderpets. Ava took to calling Lucy, Honey, as in, "Honey, you not supposed to do that!"

And Penelope met Aunt Kelly and her family for the first time, while we all were introduced finally to Jett, who is now a year old. It kills me that we can't see more of each other, but I'll take what I can get. Here's little Jetty at the playground of my old elementary school with his dad. What a cutie!

Mom, of course, was always there to lend a hand and give a cuddle. In fact, Ava became quite accustomed to waking up, stumbling into the living room where my mom reads in the morning, and climbing into her lap for a nice, long cuddle.


I celebrated my birthday while I was there, and devoured a plate of birthday cinnamon rolls. Trust me: if you'd had my mom's cinnamon rolls, you'd forgo a birthday cake, too!

I love being back with my sister. It doesn't matter that we talk on the phone every other day; there is just something about being together in person and staying up until 5 in the morning talking and talking and talking without any end of things to say. And no matter how long we spend apart, we can still finish each other's sentences. It still is almost shocking to me to see how effortlessly we understand each other. We are different in many ways, and yet we hardly even have to explain an emotion or a reaction or a thought in too much detail, because we already understand before it has even been expressed. I can't imagine life without a sister--MY sister, specifically. Now if I could just get her to move to Texas...

(Side note: Why is it so hard to get a good picture with your dearest friends or family?? Every time I see Kelly, we realize practically as the plane is boarding, that we haven't gotten any pictures of both of us. And then the ones we end up with are..well..not blog material. So I dug a little into the past to find a couple of silly sisterly shots.)


Time for bed: Good night!