July Fourth

Okay, I know it's already two weeks ago.  But I thought I would post some pictures of our July Fourth weekend.  I was actually able to get out and do some stuff, thanks to Ray doing all the driving and lots of child minding.  Originally I had hoped to get down to North Carolina to see my family.  The way I've been feeling lately, that wasn't happening.  Instead, we drove north to a great pick-your-own farm for blueberries.

It was pretty hot and I didn't do much picking.  We ended up with about 11 pounds of blueberries.  Not as many as I had hoped.  We had fun, though.  We also picked raspberries...or I should say M and C picked raspberries with Daddy's help.  The rest of us stayed in the car and rested. 

On the way home we convinced the kids to try a more traditional style Japanese restaurant.  Until then they had only been to the teppanyaki type Japanese restaurants which I don't really consider to be real Japanese food.  There was no kids menu so they each got a bento box lunch.  Ray got Yaki Soba which was really good.  And I ordered Teriyaki Chicken, mainly so that if any of the kids didn't like what they had I would have some food to give them.  I didn't need to worry!  They loved the bento boxes with tempura, gyoza, miso soup, sushi, a salad, and of course, rice.  I was really wishing that I had ordered a bento box, too.  Next time we go to the farm we are definitely stopping by there for lunch again!

Homeschooling and other things

Last week was all about finishing up our homeschool year.  I had my county review on Friday so I spent the week getting the kids' portfolios ready and making sure I had all my ducks in a row.  The last two years I only had to do a phone interview for my end-of-year review so I was a little extra nervous this time.  I needn't have been.  The reviewer was very easy going and said everything looked great.  Yay!  Now we can "officially" move into our summer schedule of light school work in the morning and playtime and pool time in the afternoon. 

On Saturday I went to the IHM Homeschool Conference in DC.  It was a nice day out for me without the kids.  I really didn't need to go.  I know what we are planning on doing for school in the Fall.  I've already purchased most of our books.  I guess I've been doing this long enough now that I feel like I know what works for our family.  And not quite so long that I feel burnt out and need to make changes.  So we are in a pretty good spot right now.  Although there is that slight worry in the back of my mind that everything is going to change in a couple of months with the arrival of the new baby.  But we just wont dwell on that now.

In other news... we checked on the nest by the front door today after several days of leaving it be and we found this:

I think there are three little baby birds there, but the kids are convinced that one didn't make it.  It's hard to be sure.  We will keep checking on them and hopefully will be able to tell for certain soon.  It's amazing to think that just a few days ago they were curled up in those tiny blue eggs!

Front yard nature

Yesterday evening we discovered that a robin has chosen the bush right next to our front door as the place to raise her babies.  For a couple of days I've noticed her flying away as soon as we open the front door.  Yesterday, the kids and I finally took a little time to investigate the bush.  And sure enough, this is what we found:

I hope we haven't scared the mother robin away permanently.  The kids were so excited to find this so close to our house.

I often lament the fact that we live in a "sterile" sub-urban neighborhood instead of further out in the country where nature is all around.  This is a good reminder that if we just take a little time and are quiet and observant, then we can find nature here, too.

Summer is here

I'm not participating in Ginny's Yarn Along this week.  Mainly because I have nothing new to report.  My Baby Surprise Jacket is on hold until someone can explain to me how to pick up stitches.  And I haven't even made much progress on any of my other little projects.  I have started reading a new book.  I borrowed Sidetracked Home Executives from a friend.  It describes me to a "tee."  But I'm leery of trying their solution which involves writing everything (and I mean everything!) that you have to do to keep your home running smoothly on individual 3x5 index cards.  Then you somehow organize these cards in a way that you pull a stack for each day and do what the cards say.  And then your house will be neat, clean, and organized.   I'm tempted to try it.  I just have this feeling that after the initial excitement of trying a new system I will be right back to where I am now.  Only with the added disappointment that yet another system failed to help me figure out how to get my house neat, clean, and organized (and keep it that way.)  I did swing by the office supply store yesterday while we were out and I picked up a card file and a bunch of index cards...just in case I decide to try it.

This weekend summer really arrived here in Southern Maryland.  We are still in the middle of a heat advisory.  We didn't let that stop us from spending Memorial Day at our favorite park.  The kids really wanted to take the canoes out on the lake and have a cook out.

Ray is not the type of guy that enjoys cooking out.  As he says, "We have a whole room in our house dedicated to preparing and consuming food.  Why would we want to pack everything up, haul it to the park, cook and eat in inconvenience, and then haul it all home again?"  Once a year, though, he does just this because the kids love it.

When we got home from our Memorial Day activities we discovered that our A/C wasn't working.  It was 93 degrees upstairs in our bedrooms!  The main floor was 89 degrees.  Thank goodness the basement was still cool.  We had to sleep down there for two days.  I am happy to report that we were able to get the A/C repaired fairly quickly and inexpensively.  And now I am planning on spending a day indoors enjoying the cool and possibly trying to get caught up on some knitting and reading so that next Wednesday I will have something to share with the Yarn Along.  (Although, you may notice that my girls are all wearing the summer knitted tops that I finally finished.  Yay!)

Weekend

We spent this past weekend picking strawberries (30 lbs!) and making jam.  I think I was able to make almost enough to last us the year.  When I count the blackberry jam that I'll make later this summer, we should have more than enough to support my kids' pbj habit.

While the kids and I were making jam, my husband was in the city at the final interview and tryouts for Jeopardy.  So sometime in the next 18 months he may (or may not) get called to be on the show.  Whether he gets the call or not, at least he didn't leave empty handed.  He won the mock game at the tryout and won the Wii Jeopardy game.

National Colonial Farm trip

Yesterday we braved the rainy weather and headed over to the National Colonial Farm.  They were having a "green" homeschool day.  There the kids learned a little about recycling, planting native trees, grasses, and flowers, and worm composting. 

J and C weaving coasters out of "plarn" (strips of old plastics bags.)

C getting as close as she dares to the worm colony.  Believe it or not there are about 4,000 red wigglers in there!

Unfortunately, the sky opened up before we were able to get to the far end of the farm.  That's the one place they all wanted to go.  At the far end are some old mulberry trees that they remember climbing and harvesting berries from.  Since we just planted a mulberry tree in our backyard, they were very excited to go see these old trees again to help them imagine what our tree might look like someday.  I could be wrong, but I don't think the mulberries are quite ready yet.  So maybe it is just as well that we didn't see them yesterday.  We will plan to go back sometime in the next couple of weeks (maybe with Daddy) on a sunny day to really explore the farm again and visit those wonderful old mulberry trees.

Snow and Santa

We got our first real snow of the winter yesterday.  By "real" I mean it stuck and stayed more than a few hours.  The kids had a great time playing in it even if it was only a couple of inches. 

And, surprisingly, we only had a few tears getting everyone into their snow clothes.  T had the most trouble and I thought for a while that she wasn't going to go out at all.  But after watching her older brother and sisters having such a good time she decided that she could put up with her snow pants being a little uncomfortable.

 

 

  

 

We also saw Santa this week and T was very brave.  She climbed right up into his lap with no tears this year.  So sweet!

Fall fun

This week we met some of our homeschooled friends at a local park.  It is one of my favorite parks because it is right on a beautiful lake.  The weather was perfect.  Chilly but sunny.  The children raked together a pile of leaves with their hands and feet then took turns running down the hill and jumping into it.

 

 

And a trip to this park would not be complete without playing with the ducks a little.

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Guy Fawkes Day.  Bonfire Night.  Since we happened to be studying this period in English history right now, we tried to have our own celebration here "across the pond" in our own backyard.  The kids made paper guy dolls and we lit up a fire in our new fire pit.  We roasted hot dogs and burned the guy dolls. 

 

The kids had a good time even though we had some trouble keeping the fire going.  In fact, we had to roast the marshmallows over the stove after the fire went out and refused to light up again.

 Fun, fun! 

More Summer Goodness

Last week was my birthday. Since the kids were mum about whether or not Ray was bringing home a cake for me (he did!) I thought I would make my own birthday cake. I've been wanting to make a chocolate cake from scratch for a while now. This seemed like the perfect time. I used this recipe. It was awesome! And very easy. I don't think I will ever buy another box cake. I made some cream cheese frosting, then the girls decorated it for me with colored sugar sprinkles. On one side only because some people don't like sprinkles.

The day after my birthday we went blackberry picking. The weather was perfect. A little overcast and cool. I could have picked for hours more than we did.

The kids ran out of steam a little earlier than I had hoped. Will still picked enough berries for about 3 batches of jam, a couple gallons of frozen berries, and enough left over to eat fresh for a few days. The one thing we wanted to make that we didn't was a pie or tart. We just ran out of berries. I guess I could use up some of the one I froze. But I kind of wanted to save those until this winter when we might need a nice reminder of summer.

The next day was all about soccer. Soccer season is here and the kids had a blast at their first games. Unfortunately, my little point-and-shoot camera is woefully inadequate when it comes to getting action shots half-way across a soccer field. This is the only decent one from the whole day:

Baby Trees!

Our baby trees from the Arbor Foundation arrived last week. The kids were really excited to pick out two trees each as their very own. We will grow them in pots for a couple of years to keep them protected. By then we will (hopefully) have found a good location for their permanent home.