A is for Apples and Art

With Marty's return to school, I am starting preschool with Dorothy and Lucy at home. I am still in the process of fine-tuning a curriculum for the next year or two, but we are really enjoying all this learning! But it's not all just work around here. We're having lots of FUN, too!

Dorothy loves to draw pictures in her free time. I've been trying to keep a photo record of her creations. Here are some of her latest:

Lucy is starting to get more and more into the art as well. Here is her fall tree project from this week:

We've also been checking off items from our ABCs of fall list. Today we went apple picking! In all honesty, I think I was more excited about the picking part than the kids. Lucy just wanted to eat the apples, and Dorothy just wanted her apple cider doughnut.

Ezra enjoyed his view from my back.

Seriously, my ergo pack saves my life. No way would I get anything else done.

Happy almost Friday!

Happy Autumn!

We celebrated by bringing in our haul of butternuts. I'd say we're good for the next 6 months or so:) We had butternut bread for breakfast, and roasted vegetable soup will fill us up for lunch. I've become a bit obsessed with butternut squash over the last few years, but honestly, what's not to love?

Happy Autumn, all! Now go find yourself some freshly pressed cider, will ya?

You're Invited...

 

almost official

We are looking forward to celebrating the start of autumn on Saturday. In the meantime, we started celebrations early with our first official pumpkin pie of the season!

Our family is definitely in love with the garden's offerings this time of year. We're looking forward to months of winter squash, potatoes, carrots, onions, turnip, beets, kale..etc. I guess we live in the right climate for our tastebuds:)

Have you ever noticed how the end of the garden blazes like a sunset? It's a nice way to say goodbye to summer.

Bring on the shorter, cooler days. My sweaters and mugs are ready!

Happy Friday!

eat your vegetables.

Squeezing it all in.

It is official: Marty left for his first day of the new school year about twenty minutes ago. Our summer with him has ended, a slight chill has entered the air, and we're looking toward the fall months ahead. However, we had an incredible summer with lots of adventures to remember.

We visited the Mystic Aquarium for the first time. The highlight of the trip was the Beluga whales--especially because we love the song "Baby Beluga." They were little hams, posing for the camera and showing off with their toys.

 We also went to the Providence Children's Museum for the first time. I was so excited to find that we do have a good hands-on museum for the girls close to us. I see many trips in our future (especially because we can get passes from the library!).

After the baby was born, the local zoo offered us a free membership for a year. We gladly accepted! So of course we had to take some zoo trips this summer.

And we took advantage of the "Fun Free Friday" at Plimoth Plantation last week. It was pretty insane (everyone else was also taking advantage of the free day), but I still enjoyed learning a little more history. Marty was up at the Temple that day, so I braved it alone with the three kids. We really enjoyed the Wampanoag homesite, but it was so swarmed I couldn't manage the camera and the kids. These shots were the best I could get of our day!

We're so grateful to have our papa around for the summers and all that we have been able to do. Now we're feeling grateful that he has a job to return to and that I get to start preschool with the girls at home. Here's to our next adventure!

Missionary Memories.

This weekend, one of Marty's mission companions from Japan was able to come and visit with our family. He brought along his friend, Allen. The two of them quickly became known as "Uncle Dan" and "Uncle Allen" to our girls. It was a great visit and a fun chance to show them a little bit of New England.

And look what was in the harbor! Lucy's very own boat: the Goose.

Thanks for a great weekend of visiting. We feel blessed to know such good people.

more home improvements

We have a  fairly long stretch of wall between our front door and music room windows that drives me crazy. I don't want another painting there. I don't want a piece of furniture there. But it is just too darn much yellow to just be all by itself. I need to break up the color! I need to add texture! And I'd sure love a way for all our piano students and their parents to be able to hang up their coats in the winter time. Solution?

A panel of beadboard painted light blue, framed in white. Add a few knobs from etsy and a shelf from Ikea, and we're in business! The knobs were the absolute headache of this project. Because of how we had to anchor them into the wall, their placement on the wall had to change from our original plans. But overall, I am happy with the outcome.

Bring on the cold, wet coats of winter. We're ready for them!

Now to complete the projects I have in store for that naked shelf....