Summer happenings.....

Wow, I can't believe that summer is almost half over! We have been trucking around doing various things. First, we spent a week in New Hampshire with my mother. It was very nice and relaxing, aside from the many days of rain we had.  Mia had her first experience with a lake and sand. At first, she was very irritated that the sand didn't come off easy, but instead stuck to her hands. She got used to it and explored. Brianna had a few run-ins with some very friendly ducks on the beach. It's amazing at how some animals get accustomed to people being around.

We went blueberry picking a few weeks ago. If you can believe it, we have never been. It was really nice! The place we went to was local, in Carver. There were SO many blueberry bushes/trees. Nice fat blueberries with deep color. We ended up with so many blueberries. I think it was about $1.70 per pound! I compared it with the store and it would have cost me much more. Brianna and I froze almost all of them. We have since made very delicious blueberry muffins. Fresh blueberries are so yummy! :-))

Mia has just had her first birthday! Ugh, time flies, doesn't it? We had a little birthday with the neighbors, my mother and Brianna. She had her first cupcake, sort of. She planted her hand on it, saw the frosting stick to her hand, and proceeded to try and wipe it off with her other hand. Didn't work. So she was a bit distressed about the mysterious glob, and let out a cry. I saved the day with a wet paper towel. :-) She received some very nice gifts from my mother. Some nesting blocks, stackable disks and a pull along toy. She loves them. It's so neat to see her try to figure them all out. She loved it when we made a tall tower out of the nesting blocks. 

Brianna has been having fun learning how to read and playing the day away. She has re-found her marble/block mazes. It is amazing what you forget that you had in an untidy room. We have also introduced her to the world of paper dolls...anyone remember these? She absolutely loves them! They have updated the concept by giving a numerous amount of sticky circles instead of having to bend down tabs to keep the clothes on. She starts a sign language class this week as well. She is very excited to learn a language that no one else in our family knows. Sneaky. ;-)

Joshua has been riding his BMX bike all over creation this summer. Good exercise. He goes up to New Hampshire to work at a camp for the month of August. It is a good, fun time for him AND he gets to make a little money as well. Good deal. He will be starting 7th grade this September. Time DOES fly.

Brian is continuously beginning new projects in the yard. He finished my other 3 planter boxes, planted some more flowers and plants AND started to make a water feature in the yard! It will look nice when finished. I'll post more pictures as it comes along. He has found a new hobby of golfing as well. Not for me, I find golf to be......boring. Sorry for all you avid golfers out there. 

Not much to report on myself. I did take a basket-making class at Soule Homestead last weekend and had a good time. I must say, that I think my basket looks quite cute. I am really interested in making more. Brianna would like to learn as well. I'm sure I won't update again until the summer is close to being over. Hold onto the summer as long as you can! :-))

An end to the shuffle....

We have been very busy lately and I have been neglecting to write our current happenings. Finally, a brief moment to collect my thoughts and write. Here we go. I think it was around the beginning of May that our homeschool group went to McDonalds on a rainy day for a field trip. The children got a kick out of it. They were able to see where they make all of the food and store the soda. I think the greatest part of the trip was when they were each allowed to wear a drive thru head set and listen to the orders being taken. They thought that was so neat. I love tours. It allows the children to see what goes on behind the counter, where they are usually not allowed to go.

Next, on our way home from New Hampshire, on Memorial Day weekend, we stopped at the Rainforest Cafe in Burlington. I had never been there before and that was a good enough excuse to stop and try it out, since we were going right by. It was really cool! More restaurants should be like this one. There were leaves, trees limbs and various other green forestry looking things all over the ceiling. You could not see one "real" piece of ceiling. All of the lighting and duct work was hidden perfectly. There were animals (not real of course) all over the place. Some were discretely hidden in the forest background and some had more obvious "stations", where you could walk up close and take a look. Every 2o minutes there is a "thunderstorm" , where various lights flicker to simulate lighting. There are also loud, but not too loud, thunder sounds. All the while, monkeys, birds and elephants make sounds as if they are disturbed by the storm. It is all very cute and distracting-for those waiting on their food. :-)) 

Around the end of May, I set up a homeschool field trip to a local dairy farm. We have been to this dairy farm before with another homeschool group of ours. It was as pleasant as the first trip. The family that owns and runs Arruda's Dairy Farm are so incredibly nice. The children saw the calf barn where all of the new calves are housed and grow up. Then they were shown all of the various farming equipment and told how it works and what its purpose was. Then, the highlight, we were brought into the milking parlor. It was very smelly, but so interesting. It is so important that children get to see where our food comes from, not just the grocery store. It is also such a great thing to teach the children the importance of patronizing  local businesses. They were also able to view where the bottling of the milk happens. In the end, they were offered a cupcake and a container of milk. Yummy!! 

The beginning of June was Joshua's and Brianna's dance recital, their last one. We will not be participating in dance until further notice. It is such a commitment of our time and resources (gas, money, etc). I have to say, I am so relieved that it's over. They did a great job on stage. Joshua was in tap again and Brianna had a tap/jazz/ballet combo class. Brianna would like to get involved in Girl Scouts in September. Joshua hasn't figured out what he's going to do. 

We have been continuing to work in our yard. It is looking so nice. I have finished the stone walkway, and Brian finished  all of the pathways. He also made me 3 planter boxes for Mother's Day, he still has 3 more to make. We bought a hammock and two Adirondack chairs, they do their job, making me relax. We have had our fair share of animals this spring. We had not seen much of anything for a while, but the coming of spring has given us visitors! We have had a slew of snapping turtles this past week. I'm thinking they are making the trek up the hill to lay eggs. not sure though. We have also found that a small bird of some kind has made a nest under our porch. Perfectly made nest, I have to take some pictures to post. We also saw a young buck in the field below our house last evening around 6:30pm. He was watching all of us, watching him. Last month we had a little excitement when a coyote ran across the field around dinnertime. Brianna is convinced that one of them will come up and try to eat us soon. I'm so excited to see so much wildlife in our backyard!!

Brianna is learning how to read! We are so excited for her. She is taking to it very well. She loves to do "school work" every day. We still have a long way to go with the reading, you know the English language and it's quirks. Joshua is very excited about public school ending next week. I can't say I blame him. :-)) Mia is starting to walk. Just the beginning, taking 4-5 steps at a time before falling on her bottom. She is getting her own personality lately, very cute. She is such a cuddler!! I do love it!! I can't believe she will be 1 next month--say it isn't so!! I will try to post more often after this, since we are not so busy anymore.

Trees to logs to mulch.....

We went on a field trip today to Brightman Lumber/Sawmill in Assonet. It was really interesting. Aside from the day being rainy and dull, we saw some really neat things. The man giving the tour was very friendly and more than willing to show us around. With the economy the way it is, things are slowing down for them, so he had some time. First he showed us where they roll the logs in. A machine rolls the log and takes the bark off. Then it rolls it down a slope, out of the way, towards another machine. This machine takes the debarked log and cuts it into whatever shape and length it needs to be. All the while, rolling it to cut a new side. At the time we were there, the logs were being cut up for mulch. He showed us the store house, the different mulch piles and a building where they use a huge planer to smooth (sand) the wood. When the economy was not so bad, this company would dry/cure their own wood. But with the rising costs of fossil fuels, they have had to stop that practice. Sometimes I overlook and don't pay attention to some of the more obvious things. For example, I did not know that a knot on a piece of wood is an indicator as to where a branch was. I would tend to think that many people would know this-but I didn't. It's so neat to learn new things!

Simple beginnings

This is my first attempt at blogging. It seems alot easier to me than mass e-mailing friends and family members all of the new happenings in our life. The pictures I have posted are quite large and I am not sure as to how to make them smaller. I will have to replace older pictures as newer ones become available. The first two are obviously older and the lower one is from last month.

It has been very busy around here lately. Let me start with Joshua. Joshua is now 13 and hopefully has stopped growing for a little while. He stands at 5' 10" tall and has a size 11 man's shoe. He is in middle school and his favorite subject is Science. This is his last year in dance and his recital will be in June. Joshua is a member of youth groups at two different churches. Last weekend,  Joshua participated in a fundraiser with our home church. It was titled "30 hour famine". The money raised was donated to World Vision for world hunger. The childrens' last dinner was at 8pm Friday evening. Their next meal was not until 3am on Sunday morning!  During their fasting, they held a car wash to raise money and went bowling for fun. The car wash raised $500.00!! He said he had alot of fun and made close friendships during the fasting.

Brianna is 6 years old now. She is officially my life's assistant. She helps all the time in so many ways. She is a natural with her sister. Mia adores her. She is doing well with her studies. She is learning all about the sun. To make understanding the sun more interesting, we are in the process of making a sundial and sun oven. We can't wait until they are finished. I'll post those pictures when they become available. She is learning about money and numbers into the hundreds. She loves being read to. Her favorite stories so far have been the Chronicles of Narnia and Meet Samantha (American Girl story). We love to take walks behind our house to the cranberry bogs. She recently caught a large tadpole with a makeshift net that we made. She is watching and caring for it diligently, waiting for transformation. This is also Brianna's last year of dance. In the fall, she thinks she might like to try out soccer or Girl Scouts. 

Mia is currently 9 months old. She is crawling like a pro, and standing on her own. She has mastered getting from a crawling position, to squatting, then standing on her own. She has had her first four teeth come in all at the same time; in a matter of 10 days. She has tried some "real" foods, although not many. She likes Cream of Wheat a little, and also likes pureed carrots and sweet potatoes that I make for her. She is getting quite a personality at this point. Smiling, laughing, observing. Honestly, she is such a well adjusted baby. 

Brian has been busy transforming the yard. We had a large area of overgrown land behind our lawn. We figured, why not make it useable? So we have been getting our hands dirty for weeks trying to use every free moment to clear it out. So far, Brian and Joshua have made a fire pit out of large rocks, and I have made a pathway made of flat rocks I found in the woods. It is coming together quite nicely. There are also two trees that are perfectly spaced to fit a hammock! I'll post pictures of our accomplishments soon.

Having two dogs sometimes makes me feel crazy! We have had Wanda for 6 years. Rosie, however, is a new addition. We have only had her since March and she is currently 3 months old. The two have grown to love each other. They share the same pillow for resting and play all the time. We have had our challenges though.  It will get much better as Rosie gets older.

Last minute addition: Mia has just taught herself how to clap! She is quite enthused about it.