Pumpkins and Pilgrims!

We picked a few of our pumpkins yesterday. These ended up on our rock wall and down by the bridge I just forgot to take some pictures.

We may be getting a little ahead of ourselves but in Georgia's History "class" she learned about Separatists and how they called themselves Pilgrims. So, as you can see we made pilgrim hats of the female kind. Josie ran to the mirror and came back a little disappointed. She said it looks like she has a mailbox on her head.
The pattern can be found here

Little pilgrims digging for potatoes to eat for dinner.

We found a bucket full but I didn't get a picture of that either!

We have high-speed by the way. The computer has been on since this morning as we have tried out all the stuff we haven't been able to do till now. These pictures uploaded in less than 2 minutes I couldn't believe it!!! YAY.

Gma's Birthday

Finally the kids were able to celebrate Gma B's Birthday. Em wanted out of there though.

An Awesome First Football Game

Russell warming up AND having a little pant problem I guess. (#69)

Here he is in the huddle. His coach pushed him out to play and said "Smash somebody!!"

The girls were prepared with signs to cheer their uncle on.

"Go TI, Go TI"

Russell's team was crushed but he came off the field with a smile. He did a great job. Here he is trying to look tough.

Joann don't laugh! AND Stacy my pig noses are showing!

Well here is my kindergartener! She is very proud of herself. No we are not one of those families that wears uniforms while we home school. Georgia wore uniforms to school and we dug some up so that I could have an official first day of school photo for Josie (like I did for Georgia). I have a couple more of her inside that are cute just can't find them right now.

Emeline proved to be a little difficult the first day. I discovered she just wanted to participate. So, I gave her a piece of paper and a pencil and she stood there for a good hour just babbling and writing away!

We searched for a craft to do online and found this cute paper angel at DLTK something or other.
Maybe www.dltk-kids.com

This is a nice aspect of home schooling. Georgia is my mommy's helper and she read Em right to sleep yesterday.

To catch you up

We had a camping trip this past weekend in Grandma G's backyard. It was very fun for the little, and big kids too.

Ben recently got his first car! Great catch Ben.

Another thing that happened recently was Roger's (Cassie's boyfriend) surprise birthday.

Cassie entertained the kids with a foam machine....

...and her many exotic animals!

Wow Stacy that worked!

To catch you up on some of our happenings. This is the kids at Vacation Bible School 2008. I taught the music which I have done every year for over 10 years now.

Em learned all the dances at VBS and still does them.

We thoroughly enjoyed watching the Olympics. Georgia reminded me soooo much of me. She would watch some gymnastics and go right out to try it herself. I would imitate Mary Lou when I was a kid. I had an Olympic dress and everything. I would get gymnast books out of the school library and try to do the same moves in my backyard.

Here she is practicing her balance beam dismount! Fitting that the flag is there.

A picture of my Grandfather blowing out his surprise birthday cake for his 80th birthday party at a family reunion.

Love you Grandpa.

As I said before- my camera is in the car so I will have more tomorrow.

Hello

Wow it has been a while. I have been on blog strike because I got sick of waiting the 30 minutes for 1, yes 1 picture to upload. I was talking to Stacy this weekend though and she told me of a way to cheat to get the pictures to upload much more quickly but, my camera is in the car and I'm too tired to go and get it right now.

We start home schooling tomorrow! We are sooooo excited. The blog will take on a slightly different path now! You will get to see how our early struggles turn into smooth sailing as we journey down this exciting new river of adventure.

Wish us luck!! Love to you all. We are getting high speed by the way (not sure when but we requested service this weekend) so I will be much more predictable with the blog from now on I promise!

Hello

Hello

A walk to the tracks at Gma and Gpa H's house!

Jo says "I found treasure!" Actually Jo it looks like you found junk.

Em really enjoyed listening to the trains from the house so we decided to walk down to wait for one to go by. We heard one in the distance and she was excited, flapping her arms and dancing around. It got a little closer, she hooted and grinned, danced around... We heard the whistle again a little louder and she did the same. Finally it was here and she screamed and dug her little claws right into my back. The conclusion: Em likes trains from afar. *Note Josie!

Cranberry Lake pics

Our arrival at Cranberry Lake

Did you know ducks do tricks. The ducks were sadly to say more tame than our domestic ducks we have at home! This one in particular was fond of Ben and was actually jumping up to get a piece of tortilla chip. Yep ducks do indeed do tricks.

An adventure in the woods!

We took a nature hike a few days ago. First stop was atop a round bale in the field out back. Usually the dog loves to jump on the bales with the kids. We use round bales to feed the horses through the winter therefore we usually have two rows of 6 down by our horse shed. At least once after we get them in place the dog goes nuts and jumps atop them and just runs around the tops of them like a maniac. The kids love it.

We went in search of wildlife and at first all we saw was hundreds and hundreds of frogs that would jump into puddles as we walked by. It was a little gross thinking that our feet were so close to smooshing them there were that many. As far as wildlife goes little did we know what we would soon encounter!

Here is a pretty spot full of ferns.

Our walk was abbreviated because.... The most exciting thing was after we had hiked about 15-20 minutes into the woods I heard a rustle and then coyotes started howling at us. WE WERE SOOO CLOSE EVERY HAIR ON MY NECK STOOD UP. I had Em in my arms and instantly Jo and Georgia jumped on me. We didn't even stick around to see if we could see them we just ran and ran and ran. It has permanently damaged Jo. Every now and then she will hear something like a siren in the distance and come crying to me.

Look what floated overhead!

Look who floated by. They were so close to the house we could have held a conversation.

Isn't it beautiful?

One year the balloon landed right across the road on Brad's parents lawn and on numerous occasions we have had it land in fields right next to the house. When it landed on the lawn we ran over to check it out and watch them roll it up. The "driver" (not sure what you call a balloon pilot) offered to take the kids up a few feet for a ride! They were too scared. I guess the thought of maybe floating away may have been a little overwhelming.