Longwood Gardens

During one of the many gray, rainy and cold days this spring, we went to Longwood Gardens for a field trip.  Although the flowers and gardens were beautiful, you can tell from this post that I mostly took pictures of the 'flowers' I brought with me.

The boys were troopers as my mom and I corralled them from site to site.  There was plenty of space for them to run and be loud when it became necessary.  They also had the idea to create their own "I Spy" picture after I had them pose for the one above.  See if you can find them?

Personally, I loved the conservatory and while we went through it just a tad faster than I wanted, the amazingly intricate and creative kid's section at the end won the boys over too! The entire theme of the children's section was 'get wet'--which I would have been more on board with during a sunny, warm day.

One of the tree houses

An 18th Century Visit

The boys and I have been studying Early American history for the past two years.  We started with Leif Erikson in the year 1000 AD and we have made it all the way to the pioneers moving steadily westward!  A family friend very generously gave us their time share to use in Williamsburg this past weekend.  Our excitement over this colonial history wrap-up was made even more perfect by the Casler family being able to join us!

We arrived at the very large Powhatan Resort late Friday night.  The boys demonstrated an extremely high level of excitement at seeing the condo that would be ours for the weekend.  It was a lot of fun to watch their enjoyment, something I remember whenever I arrived somewhere new and exciting from my own childhood.  Eventually, after every cabinet and door had been opened, explored and exclaimed over, everyone settled down and went to sleep. (I am sure the neighbors were only too glad.)

The weather did not fully co-operate for the weekend, with rain all morning Saturday and cold all morning Sunday but we were still able to enjoy all that Williamsburg has to offer.  We visited the shoemaker, the blacksmith, the tinsmith, foundry, and candlemaker.  Monday morning was truly perfect weather and we were able to visit the cooper (Eli had really, really wanted this one all weekend but was ultimately disappointed in the whole trade) and cabinet maker and palace kitchen.  In addition to all of the trades, we were able to participate in the Marquis de Lafayette's rousing speech to his troops before they marched on to victory at Yorktown in September 1781!  Some people in our small party (large, male adults) started a crowd pleasing 'boo' upon the Marquis mentioning  of the traitor Benedict Arnold.  With a heavy French accent the Marquis responded to these 'boos' with, "Yes, express your opinion!"

Searching for hiding places

Sunday evening we ate at Kings Arms Tavern and had an enjoyable colonial dinner with a yard square napkin to 'make ends meet' and a minstrel to lead us in a chorus about Stewball the racehorse.  It was a fun evening with our own 'boy races' in the Duke of Gloucester street to relieve an excess of energy from our practice of polite manners throughout dinner.

I was so pleased with how much the boys participated and enjoyed all of the historical experiences of Colonial Williamsburg.  Zach decided he would like to be apprenticed at the foundry.  Eli's favorite was the kitchen at the Governor's Palace and the Magazine.  Marcus liked the palace maze and the 'Spaghetti House' and the 'White house' (or Geddy and Wythe houses).  Of course the Drums and Fifes parade is always a hit too!

We wanted to see Jamestown and Yorktown also, but in the end, after three days in just the Colonial Williamsburg part we (meaning-- Marcus) felt that we had seen and enjoyed enough.  So we returned to the 21st century and home.    ***photo credit goes to Krista**

Spring Portraits

Zach

As winter has drawn to a close and we are having more and more days of an early spring, the boys are continuing to make great strides in their school work.  Not only are their academics coming right along but this year we participated in an art class every Wednesday afternoon.  I have particularly enjoyed their recent self portraits!  Even Marcus managed to create one with some minor help.

Marcus

Eli

In March this year we also made our annual trip to visit the Nelson's.  This year while we were there, we took a tour of a maple syrup farm and enjoyed sampling their product along with a huge pancake lunch!

A Big Hungry crew!

The Green Mountains of Vermont!

My Favorite People

Life moves along so quickly.  Each day is filled with homeschool, meals, playtime, fighting, sports and more meals.  Each day is blessing.  Sometimes I see it and sometimes I miss it.  But, I love these boys God has given us.  Even though I did not expect to be homeschooling, and even though I did not expect to be spending so much time watching sports/playing sports/going to sports, and even though I did not expect to be surrounded by boy humor; I wouldn't trade it for the world!

A Warm December

Christmas Season

Our Christmas preparations are well underway for this year.  In homeschool, the boys and I are doing a short unit study on Christmas-around-the-world, looking at traditions in Russia, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Israel and Mexico.  Along with learning the geography and flags, we are reading stories and making something sweet from each country!  Along with our cultural studies we had a special field trip last week which 'kept' us closer to home but actually involved a great deal more travel.  The boys, my mom and I went to hear the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra perform "The Polar Express", it was a delightful and perfect introduction to symphony music!

For our family time together we are doing a formal advent (The Truth is in the Tinsel) which involves reading Scripture and making a small ornament that goes with the text.  It has definitely been a challenge having the ornament-craft ready to go for every night...so far I have only missed 2 but we are still early in the month!

And, of course we also have the decorations for the house, which include the wonderful/exasperating tradition of agreeing on a tree, cutting it down and bringing it home--that's all before you add lights and try to encourage dispersing the ornaments uniformly over the entire tree!  While we walked through the tree farm, Marcus exclaimed with great surprise over every tree stump he saw--pointing out that each one had been cut down.

 Merry Christmas!

Good Friends

A friendship that started in college has continued across the years, states and countries and hopefully is being passed on to the next generation!  These friends have been such a blessing to us throughout all of life's changes!


Last weekend we were able to catch up with them again for a lovely weekend in their home with plenty of baseball and football games played out in their backyard.  (I will NOT be mentioning other games that took place at the kitchen table--whose winners are not important....)  The weekend had the added distinction of being Halloween and our collective sons humored us by becoming Yahtzee dice.  (Thank you Krista for letting me use your pictures!)

Tucked in

One night this week, shortly after Steve finished putting the boys to bed, Eli came to the top of the stairs and said, "Mom will you come tuck me in?"  I said that I thought Daddy had already done that.

Eli responded,
"All he did was pat me!"

A sneak peek

We managed to capture a nice family picture last week, which I am claiming as our Christmas card photo! (An unexpected check mark!)  So you will have to wait until you receive one in the mail to see all of us, but I can show you a picture of its cooperative participants, plus 1/3 of its uncooperative ones.

Mystery of Death

This duck moved into my grandmother's yard last week while she lay dying.  In the 40+ years that she and my grandfather have lived there, never has a duck resided on their patio.  We all took great delight in this feathered friend who made himself right at home among my grandmother's plants.  He was a wonderful distraction and we all smiled at the beautiful tribute he was for her final days.  Many of the caregivers read all sorts of signs into the duck's presence but I merely took as one of those funny, little things that the Lord orchestrates sometimes.

Early Friday morning, I was staying over at my grandmother's house and I was awakened to the caregiver calling for me, she sounded very distressed.  I jumped out of bed to help in whatever way I could, only for her to take me towards the front of the house--towards the duck.  She kept saying, "I think he's dead.  I think he's dead."  Sure enough as I stood looking out the large picture window, the duck was indeed dead.  Here I was, expecting death at any minute, only to find it in an unexpected corner.  I wanted to laugh.  In my heart, I had a good chuckle over this poor bird's death, but the caregiver was really shaken by it and I didn't think my twisted humor would be appreciated.

I do not understand why the Lord brought the duck or why it died a few hours before my grandmother, but personally, I enjoyed it being a part of that week.  I enjoyed it being a part of that process.

Time for school

 With warm weather coming to an end, we snuck in a few more days of this:

Look who's riding the waves!!

Followed by picking crabs for my birthday.... (This is why people have those stupid selfie-sticks)

 And it all culminated with starting another year of school!  

Deep Creek

Way back over Labor Day weekend, we went 'camping' with some friends in Western Maryland.  Our intended camping trip ended up being more like staying in a lovely mountain house, complete with a kitchen, hot showers and real beds!  We did mix up our posh setting with a little hiking and swimming in Deep Creek Lake.  The entire weekend was wonderful but a major highlight among the adults and kids was the atvs that the owners left for our use.  With plenty of fields and forest trails we all really enjoyed taking them out for speed or for exploring.  Zach ended up being a little speed demon and kept trying to go faster--a major shift in his personality!

During the drive home, Marcus made an innocuous request at one point, but I was unable to fulfill it in an appropriate three-year-old timeframe.  He became increasingly agitated and was repeatedly asking for the same thing over.  And over.  And over again.  As you can imagine I was also becoming increasingly agitated in direct proportion to his impatience.  Finally, with plenty of pent up frustration, I said, "Marcus!..."  To which he immediately chimed in, "I know, I know! Chill out!"

My crew.

One day this summer, while I was serving lunch to my guys, I realized that they are leaving me.  Each day is one day closer to their being gone.

While some days this might be cause to rejoice, I was filled with overwhelming sadness as I caught a glimpse of how fleeting this time together is.  It is impossible to imagine a time when they don't need me...for....Everything.  But I know it is coming.  And somehow it seems cruel of each of them to make me dependent on them while they slowly become less dependent on me.  And it is kind of insulting that they would let me get this attached only for them to go off and start their own lives apart from me.  

So I am just going on record, right now, that I don't like it!  And, if it can cause me to cry while we are still 10 years out, I would stay clear of emotional me when the time actually comes!