another year gone by

This past weekend I celebrated with my amazing family. We had dinner out, which we decided that it will probably be the last one for a long time. Harkin was so not into it, which is typical of a 19th month old. Thankfully we were the only people in the dining room. I do love seeing all my boys dressed up though. They are all so handsome. It was a pretty mellow day but spent with those whom I love dearly. Thanks boys for making it a nice day.

apple picking

 

What fun we had this past weekend picking apples. Harkin thought it was a blast to be up on Eric's shoulders picking fruit off the trees. He spent plenty of time munching as we went along. We came home with two full bags and hope to spend some time baking lots of yummy apple goodies this week.

sunday smiles

preparing for winter

The boys have been busy preparing for winter all summer long. There have been many trees felled off of our property and now they are working on splitting it all. Next comes the stacking. It is hard work to keep us warm all winter long, but good for them all to be outside and cooperating together.

Right now the days are still pretty warm, but cooler temps are on their way.

exploring cabot

We went for a drive on Sunday, not exactly sure where we were going to end up. We checked out a new place to have breakfast, very toddler friendly! We then headed over to Burke mountain and saw a few mountain bikers coming down the hill. Since we were so close and it would eventually lead to home we stopped in Cabot, Vt where the original plant and now factory of Cabot cheese is. We were able to taste lots of cheeses, which everyone needed. We had few hungry boys in the car. Then we got to go on the tour. We love tours. The boys were really into it and said they learned  a lot about cheese they did not know. Such as... the fact that if a bar of cheese is past its sell by date- don't throw it away. It won't go bad, it just gets to age longer and becomes a stronger cheese.  We are really into buying local and have been buying Cabot products for a long time now. The tour just made it hit home a little bit more. We were able to see some of the farmers that were on a video that we watched.

It was a pretty good adventuring day.

homeschool art group:Picasso

This time we met we read the story about Picasso and then made our junk sculptures. The kids had been collecting stuff for the past two weeks and were very excited about making things. Some kids made more than one, i.e. Landon.  It really is such a fun group of kids and they spend about an hour working on their projects. They like to see what everyone else makes and sometimes get ideas from one another. I am glad that we decided to do this.

Sunday Smiles

a little bit sneaky

Years ago I had browsed through this book at the library. I wasn't overly impressed because I wanted my boys to like vegetables and know it. And I wasn't too sure how spinach would taste in brownies.

During the summer our library was having weekly drawings for cookbooks. I put my name in and won the book.

Now since Harkin really isn't into eating a ton of veggies, I gave it a second thought.  The recipes look good and there really is only a small amount of puree in each recipe. This past week we gave the pumpkin french toast a try. All the boys loved it. It was made again later in the week. I was not being sneaky, however, they knew it was in there. But they already like pumpkin.

There are several others I would like to try, especially with the winter squash and sweet potatoes. Those are a few veggies I can't get anyone to eat so sneaking them into recipes is the way I just have to go. We'll see how it turns out.

fragments

 

It's been awhile since I have written one of these posts. I was reading through past ones and decided I really like them. They are just little moments of our past week that I want to remember. Things that make me smile and sometimes those that don't, but that is where we were at at that moment.

*Guitar is going well for Landon. I love listening to him practice. Such a sweet noise.*

*Harkin has learned the word "mine". Cute but also not.*

*The weather has been a bit on the chili side and we had our first fire tonight since I was so cold after Will's game. My husband is so sweet.*

*I was sick in bed for a day. The boys were amazing. They took care of the house and Mama and Harkin.*

*Knitting every day which just makes my day.*

*Every morning when Harkin wakes up, the first thing he does is call Wu Wu(William) and Chi Chi(Landon), while banging on his door. He wants them to come play with him. They are not always awake yet, but then they are.*

*My husband is the silliest man I know. Every night at dinner he makes the evening so much fun for the boys. They so look forward to it.*

* Made fried chicken tacos one night for dinner and the food hadn't gotten to the table before everyone was eating them. They said this was one of the best dinners I make. Even Harkin was eating one.*

*William told me today he wants to open and run a dessertery. You know a bakery but just with sweets.*

*Huge puzzle mania going on right now. There has been one done every day and then we started a 500 piece together.*

*Working hard on getting lots of rest and sleep.*

With that I am off to sleep. Early games tomorrow.

that whole pink thing

Everyone keeps telling me how I need to get used to pink. If you know me at all you know that I am not a pink person. I really don't feel the need to get too many new things since this baby will be born around the same time frame that Harkin was so his clothes will fit her. Um, and we live in northern Vt, where in January it is very cold, so she'll be needing to be snugly warm in one pieces anyways. As she gets older I am sure I will dress her in dresses. I already have about 6 patterns picked out to knit, and I still want to learn to sew. But back to the whole pink thing, I will be grateful for any hand me downs I am sure, but it still isn't my first choice. So trying to get into the mood I picked these cute little socks up at the consignment store for 50 cents. William says they are really red, but they do have a tinge of pink I think. You can't really tell by the photo. But they are more girly than anything we have here, so that's a start I suppose.

riding lessons

We headed to the big red barn for the boys' first riding lesson.  This is something they have been wanting to do forever. They are learning about the care and cleaning of the horse as well as the actually riding.  We will be spending two hours there each time. While waiting, Harkin and I spent time outside and checking out the other horses. He loves them, but from afar. I think it is pretty cool. I would love to learn along side of them if circumstances were a bit different, but I actually wouldn't change what is happening in our life for a minute. So it is all good.

discoveries

On our walk in the woods this morning we came across some pretty neat things. Harkin's favorite was by far the digger. Imagine that-- a big digger right in our backyard. Our neighbors are doing some logging or road building. Harkin was so sad when we had to say good-bye to the digger. But I promised him we would see it again soon. Every time he sees a big truck of sorts he grunts. It is really rather cute. We are so enjoying the cooler temps. It is making our walks much more pleasant.