BEACH DAY!

we love the beach!!

LIttle One.

the cuteness, eating a banana. can you see the mush all over her? :) she has graduated to eating Banana's by herself, how fun!

A GOOD (LONG AGONIZING) FEW DAYS.

One long term Dream has come true. We are the proud owners of a ten year old tandem bike that is yet to be named. :) i can't even tell you how much FUN we had on this thing when we went on a date to test-ride it!!! HILARIOUS.



On Friday i took the kids and Aunti K and we picked strawberries for a couple hours. They loved it. (or course!!!! berries everywhere you look, what better entertainment is there???) Then in the afternoon i made pies and tarts with Julia while nap time was taking place. Julia made the tarts all by herself!! I took the trimmings from the piecrusts, and she layered them in the muffin tin, then she cut two strawberries into halves and placed them in each tart-muffin-shell, then she helped me measure out the ingredients for the syrup (and i cooked that) and viola! Tarts!! :)

FUnny Stories: Sam plunked himself into K's lap, and promptly placed HER basket of berries into HIS lap, and declared, "I have lunch" in his cutest sam-voice. :)
We may have failed in teaching sam the difference between green and red (yeah, totally not into colors yet. he doesn't care a smidgen) but we at least made an impression about 'Strawberry Patch Etiquette'. He refused to walk over any plants, and if we stepped over to pick in the next row, he would plead with arms raised for us to help him get over the plants. :)




YES SHE IS STILL AROUND. MAGGIE LOVES TO PLAY. :)

You are perhaps wondering about the title of this post... since the pictures and tales all seem so.... peachy (more strawberryish). Well, the agonizing part was the long, lonesome days without dave. You see, he worked overtime for three days in a row (and then two more days after that where he could come home at his usual time of 7 or 7:30pm) THis means three days of not seeing the kids at all, or maybe for the ten minutes of going to bed time. I find the last two hours of the day (from 6-8) VERY VERY VERY LONG without dave around. By that time of day my resistance to whining, any annoyances, etc, is very low, and so i have trouble maintaining a 'friendly' demeanor with the children. I know this should send me to my knees in prayer for reliance on the Lord, however, i don't always remember that in my 6pm-stupor.... Anyway... yeah. it feels very long to welcome the children out of bed in the morning, and tuck them in at night alone. (along with everything inbetween.)

THANK THE LORD FOR AUNTIE'S AND OMA'S AND TWO DAYS OFF FINALLY!!! :) bring on Monday and TUesday! i am SO SO READY!! :)

our journey

Traveling:
I love to drive. Let me rephrase that, i love sitting, watching, feet up on the dash while dave drives. :)

We did a lot of that this weekend thanks to a great deal on Travelzoo. We visited friends, watched a good friend preform one of his regular shows at a local restaurant, stayed up way later than normal (normal for this mom of three is pretty lame-ly early just so you know!! ), picked wildflowers, ate amazing food (mostly cheese, crackers and meat!! thanks to the Keg and Cheese Secrets ), had wonderful fellowship with good friends, and napped.

it was a delightful two days.

ah. lovely.

Su

Here is Julia's rendition of our family in Playdoh. she did not make herself - which is why there are only four :) haha.





Here are a couple shots of the rehearsal. sorry that the quality is poor. They performed last night. from 7 until 10 pm, and it was a fantastic performance. it should not be called a 'recital' because it didn't feel like the recitals i grew up with. (that would be piano) Long...drawn out... five people playing the same song... you know, you have been there. hahaha. This was a totally different experience. (not better or worse, just different) THere wre 47 numbers, one section was most of group acting out Alice in Wonderland. The costumes were amazing. The quality of the dancers - incredible. For those of you who heard my woes, they are still the same. But the evening was MUCH more than i expected. IT was a delight.

Julia's Teacher is celebrating 25 years of dance in this community. you can feel the unity inside this establishment. There are many families that bond and grow together as their kids dance for 20 years, and then become teachers or go off to University to study dance. Our MP even had a table decorated for Shirley (the teacher), with a plaque congratulating her on all the dedication and hard work of the past 25 years. She has really touched the lives of many kids.

TIRED.

Julia at her Dance Dress rehearsal. :)



We managed to pick berries for 2 hours on the way home from camping. :) yippee!! now i have a lot of berries frozen for the winter months! :)


Turtle!! :) This is a painted turtle.




Left over camping photos. :) enjoy!!


i am tired!!
....and SO VERY READY for a bit of time away from my kids! :) i LOVE THEM, but it has been a while since i've been without them...and i am looking forward to the brain break, the quiet, and the ceasing of constant chatter, questions and quibbles. I DO LOVE THESE THINGS, i just NEED A BREAK! :)

Hmmm.

i love this sight. The speckled blue, the Coleman green....you know it means something good is happening. A camping trek. A freshly brewed cup of french pressed coffee. mmm.

The Freshly brewed (amazing and delicious) french press coffee.
And the roaring lions we found in our campsite. They liked the sleeping mats.

Oma and Opa came for a visit!! :)




I purchased a wonderful Nature Guide for our journeys into the great outdoors. what a great thing it was to have!!! Our walks through the woods became an amazing discovery. Here Julia is looking through it's rich pages....

Dave purchased a child sized fishing rod which Julia has mastered quite easily. (She is more confident around it than i am!! yikes) they caught 3 fish the first time out, all catfish, which Julia then found in our nature guide book!! :) fun. IT is just a catch and release lake, so we didn't keep them. And Julia would tell you that 'we wouldn't WANT to because they taste like BLA!!!'

Here are the photos of Oma, Opa and the gang enjoying an evening at the lake. Little did we know what was to come just moments later.... as the rain, thunder and lightening descended upon us. Thankfully the guys had JUST decided to put up the tarp in case we had a bit of rain.. A BIT OF RAIN! i think i made coffee with the rainwater collected in our pan the next day!! (okay, maybe NOT , but there was a TON of rain!!)

THE REAL COON SKIN HAT.

Our Nature Walk was AWESOMELY fun. Dave was a great trail guide. :) Here he is showing us the coloring on the underside of a painted turtle. He guided us in now to properly hold the turtle as well. Then we carefully placed him on a sunny rock. since that is where they like to lay. :)



Our Home in camping land. ( or UnderWood as Julia and I called the forested parts). Open. Treed. Bushed. Grassed. Peaceful (which is very different than quiet at times). Private. (we felt like the only ones in the park a lot of our stay!)

ADORABLE:

there will be a TON of photo's -soon- from our 2 night camping adventure

To the Woods and Back again.

Today was a great adventure.

aren't all days that way?

We ventured out to a dear friends estate... a place of peace, beauty, and so full of God's grace and compassion and joy. It is wonderful to see a family full of kids that love each other, care deeply about people, and work with servant hearts. They are truly precious.

THis family has rescued a baby deer, no more than 2 or 3 weeks old, and is nursing it back to health. (THey intend on doing all the proper things to ensure this baby is safe and that she stays as wild as she can.)

She is gorgeous. the kids loved her. (I am thinking now that our family pet should have been Sammy-sized to keep him from pestering it so much! our cat is so little that he can pull it around by the tail WAY too easily.. something deer-sized is too intimidating for him to pester....hmmm... maybe i'll get my donkey after all...)

anyway.

love love visiting this family. Their sweet daughters entertained our kids, traipsing about the wet grass, under the majestic trees.... aaaaah.

oh and did i mention... this wonderful visit ended with sam riding a tractor? oh yeah. good day.