First hot day of spring
Time to pull out the sprinkler.
Gardens are starting to get some daffy-down-dillies.
Don't ask my why Pippin had to wear a swimsuit with a floatation device!
Bilbo was not as enthusiastic with the cold sprinkler water and to think he is a winter baby who loves the sub-zero.....
Pheasants
Our wee little pheasants.
Local State Park
Local State Park
This is such a beautiful "rock" park but with such and ugly name but we'll just keep it as a local park.
Frodo
Square Foot Gardening
Merry and Pippin my little wee gardeners. In the background you can sort of see a project going on. The building, which you can see mere corner of, was orginally 2 summers ago being worked on as a summer kitchen. We didn't finish that nor turn it into a maple syrup factory so we have moved it to being shed for gardent things and a little greenhouse... if... we complete this project.
The children enjoyed picking yellow rocket out of the fields, we all thing weeds make lovely bouquets.
Field Trip to Indian Lake
Is this not just the funniest pictures? If you knew sweet little L in the background you'd laugh particularly at the look on her face!
Before we ladies with littles-in-tow even started up the hill to the chapel, some of the children (namely mine!) ran up and back down. Merry and Pippin had to tell me about the adventure. Merry said there was a little house at the top, a little house with a cross on top. The Pipping told me there was a dog house up there. I explained to him that it was a little church to which he chanted "It's a dog church! It's a dog church!" as we tried to pray the rosary.
Mother's Day
Dapper Dan.... err... Bilbo.... I never had al Dapper Dan Doll but I did have Dressy Bessie. I still miss that doll! (ugly as she was!)
Pony Pen
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM!
Sam loves Rock Climbing... on foot... not on ropes. But we thought we'd go to this little park that has a lovely trail up through the bluffs. So we took the day to go on a little hike. First we rode the Ferry over.
We arrived at the park where the trail was to find it barricaded so we went over to another part of the park to play on the play structure.... Bilbo wasn't quite sure about this swirling slide.
Sam however informed us that now that he was 13 he was too big for childish things. I told him I was very glad to hear we wouldn't have to deal with any more childish behaviour either :)
So as not to disappoint Sam we drove around to find a nice trail to hike on. This park has fabulous rocks to climb but if I couldn't bring a stroller I wasn't going to go on that trail. This one was lovely... just perfect....
The best part about this trail was that the children could go off on occasional climbs up the rocks. I'd give them time to climb for a while and whistle them all back. The only reason they won't turn into Pavlov's Dogs is that I don't give them food every time I whistle. I do think Captain von Trapp had something with his varying whistles.....
It really was a lovely trail and just right for a large family as there were trails for the older ones that were more challenging (meaning climbing rocks) and yet I could bring the stroller to contain Bilbo who has not figured out he is 1 not 13.
13 years old and still enjoyable. I've been sitting waiting for all the warnings of "You just wait", I've been warned enough about teens but so far so good.... :)
Visiting
We went to visit one of our homeschooling group families and their house is open enough for the children to do all sorts of outdoor-things inside. Here is Merry riding a bike inside!
Bilbo got a chance to ride the see saw. (Is there a difference between a teeter totter and a see saw?
Morels!
Trillium
More Gardening
We got most of our square foot gardens in on May 8th and then added in some later things like extra radishes and more lettuce later to stagger the growing season and make it last longer. We began work on our Assisi garden but it is still a slow project so all the flowers were dying so I let Merry have them to plant in the corners of our sq. ft. boxes.
We spent a day working on our Assisi Garden which houses our St. Francis statue and soon St. Claire statue. The rocks we are using around the edge were ones the children picked out of the lower field.
Lots of grass which has been the reason for the slowness of this garden. It's thick and firmly rooted.
Hummingbirds
This is my friend the hummingbird. He sits on a branch on a little cottonwood sapling right outside the living room window. I don't think he can be more than 2 inches long, he's so cute!