SUMMERTIME AND THE WEATHER IS SWEET

We are going to have the best summer ever! Thanks to everyone who helped us create this wonderful life we are living. We are so lucky and blessed to know people like you.

Happy Mothers Day!!

We spent Mother's Day at our local Zoo. The kids loved brushing all the goats and sheep - funny since I can't get them to do it at home!!
Can y'all see my little guys outfit here - his own personal style, a
little of everything.

Pirate ships

We went to see the Hawaiin Chieftan and the Lady Washington while we were in Seattle. They come by our town every year and each time we miss it. So what fun to check them out while on vacation!!Did you realize that you kid could get a summer job sailing these from port to port between California and Canada? What fun!! Unfortunatly they were docked right next to the sea planes. The kids spent most of their time on the boat watching the sea planes take off and land over and over again. Oh well (sigh)...it was free and again, something that we never have gotten to see!

Then we rode the streetcar in a loop - and watched all the construction in Seattle. If you want to see cranes and cement mixers this is the place. After that we hopped over to the Monorail ... which takes you from the Space Needle to downtown Seattle. Hard to avoid all the tourist stuff there! It looked like any city in USA. The next day at the same time the monorail broke down and the tourists were stuck for two hours while the city tried to figure out how to rescue them!

Space Station

Did any of you on the west coast catch the space station fly over the other night? Here's the link so that you won't miss it next time. http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/
or
http://heavens-above.com/
have fun!!
It looked like a bright star flying fast overhead. We saw pictures online of the astronauts working on the station the day before..looks like we have found our next homeschooling lesson!
It was really great to stay up late with just my 6 year old and watch something you don't see every day. 6 is such a great age for learning. It was beautiful to share that opportunity with her and be able to answer her questions without competing against screams of other siblings.

Pictures of our fun!!

Blue eyes doing what she does.

The little fairies kept themselves busy surfing in the wagon!

Snow cone bought with her own hard earned money.

Kidlandia provided a cool place to hang out and play games. 

Oh uh he's mobile!

You hear it all the time, but it really is amazing how different each kid is, and how their personalities seem to start very early....

Today my youngest climbed not up one stair or two, but all the way up to the top floor on his first try! I had no clue he was ready for the stairs. He just kept going up - never looking back. Hmmm I wonder if that's a clue to his personality? 

Of course we searched all over for any working baby gates but they seem to have disappeared into the black hole in the barn.

My other two spent the day outside playing in the dirt .

 I may have purposely skipped the 4th of July this year, but there's no escaping all the presidential chatter even in our lives. Yes even here in the back country we here the news. The other day we watched a truck (I think it might of been a U-haul) roll past with a picture of Mount Rushmore on it. She shouts "Look Mama - those are important people carved into the rock!"

I wonder how she could tell.  And that led us into a home school project all about the presidents. She is really annoyed that Hillary Clinton won't be our next President. She wanted the woman to win. 

Well, I am certainly glad that she is an intelligent home schooled child. I don't know if I could really defend myself against all those people who don't think homeschooling is a good idea if she wasn't so bright and articulate. What do they think I should do? Send her to some public school who's only concerned with passing tests?  Our local high school doesn't have the funding necessary to put HOT water in the locker rooms. What else do you think they might be skimping on?

Actually we have found the perfect little school for us, and we will start in the fall. We are so very lucky. 

107 Degrees F

Today was ridiculous. We closed up all the windows at 3 a.m. and tried to keep the house cool as we watched the temperature rise to 107 degrees!! The kids and I picked black raspberries and made a cobbler for dessert. Our neighbor even picked us up some vanilla ice cream on his way home from town.
So the kids and I said a big thank you to Mother Earth for giving us all these berries. We had planned on canning berry jam all day. But when we awoke at 6:15 (thank you horrible rooster) it was already 80 - not 52 like it was the previous morn.

 So the canning idea got dumped, as did most other plans. 

And we had a great berry cobbler!

Weather in Northern Cali

The fog seems to be keeping the smoke out of our valley the past few days. Today rainclouds even moved in! We will see what it's like in the morning. 

We are packing up for some camping fun this summer. The kids are all excited. There's something so special about summertime, and spending this summer watching these kids race around brings me right back to my childhood. 

I remember eating popsicles at dusk at the top of our tree house. With the misquitos. And catching fire flies once it was dark. Huge parades and a place called Playland in Rye N.Y.

These kids will have their own memories, they won't be in 110 + humidity ones, that's for sure! Yes, folks that's a thick wool sweater he has on.

 

Could of been worse.

Well, today started with a trip to the DMV. As crazy as that can be, we managed to get through it rather quickly. Then off to the grocery store, again without incident. BTW- my son asked the clerk with all the facial piercings at the store.."How you do that, how you get that on you nose?" In his little sing-song voice it was pretty funny.

- So I headed to the gas station where it's $4.79 a gallon.Then started the long drive home. 

Papa called and asked for burritos for himself and the girls. I wondered why he couldn't just cook lunch, but whatever, I ran over to the taco truck, then grabbed myself a blended mocha for the drive. The baby fell asleep, we were all happy.
Then the car started choking, as if all the smoke was making him sick too. And then nothing. So I called AAA, but we don't all fit in their rig! They towed the car and the Mechanic's son came and got us. (Thanks L-!) So we walked around for a few hours until my wonderful mechanic fixed my car ( new fuel pump) and I finally made it home. 

Exhausted and near tears, I dreadfully pulled up to my home (you never know the state of things when you've been gone all day), where I was greeted with a bouquet of daisy's, and discovered that my husband had painted (finally) the kitchen!!!!! And that was part of the reason he couldn't make lunch. 

And.... I LOVE THE COLOR!!

Of course I had picked out the color weeks earlier, but you just never know till you see it.

So the end of the story is...
The burritos I had bought for lunch became dinner, and now everyone's
asleep. Ahhhh........

Weekend trip or Are you really my daughter?

Well we are off to the Benbow Arts and Crafts festival. We are going to camp with a group of wonderful friends. So today, one of our homeschooling projects was to create a list and then pack. Little Blue Eyes wrote her list out, crossed everything off as she packed it and has been ready for 4 days now, her pink leapard print wheelie bag sits on our porch ready to be loaded into the truck. 

I, on the other hand, have yet to find our tent.

Now day 3....counting down!

First of all to my dear friend OliveMe ..who, btw, has the best recipes,  .... I wish I could...no no I WILL be posting a pic of my creative work space when my man returns with my camera.  It's worse.. I promise. Mine consists of the top shelf of my once lovely kindergarten space, a shelf in my downstairs bathroom closet, and a corner of my kitchen. 

Today we took Grandma to the beach. It wasn't too windy and everyone seemed to have a good time. Personally unless the weather is hot but not scorching I really don't like to be at the beach at all. It involves to much mess, no potty ever close enough, and sunburns no matter how hard I try. The river I love, the beach, not so much.

We fed all the animals in a rush and managed to leave before 10 AM .. Which brings us into town by 11, ran a few errands, ate, then it was 1:45!! With 3 kids under 5 EVERYTHING takes forever. Even when it doesn't someone pees or poops somewhere they shouldn't. Between the animals and the kids my life seems consumed by poop. 

On the farm: Our baby chicks are outgrowing our brooder, but the hen house is not ready for them. And surprise surprise...the PEACOCKS are laying eggs already. And I can't find the incubator. I remember putting it somewhere safe. 

yeah.

Quick note:

We take the eggs from the peahens. They nest on the ground, which makes them easy prey. Usually they fly up into our fir trees at night, which is what keeps them alive out here. Perhaps when you think of Northern California you aren't imagining my neck of the woods. We have bears, mountain lions, and everything else too. Peahens on nests on the ground have bad odds at survival. 

Other fun things to hide under

Do you see those little guys hiding in there? They had so much fun at lunch!

Hiking

What a strong brave mommy! My baby was on my back in my Ergo...we all had to climb over this tree which had fallen since the last time we had hiked this road! So glad the snow is gone and we can go exploring around our land again. There are endless old logging roads to trek down, so it's always a fun family affair. I wish we had time to do it more often.