HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY FERN!

3 years ago, so happy to hold her!
2 years ago, in between "homes" she was the one who comforted me!

1 year ago, our ever increasing joy!Last night before my princess was officially so big!
And today when my baby is 3!! How can it be!!

The princess costume was the first priority this morning, then Abby Cadaby stole the show!
Princesses have to learn all they can!
And what princess does not want to go shopping! :)

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Happy Birthday Baby!!

Our Library!

Our Library was designed by renowned architect Stanford White, was given by John Howard Whittemore in memory of his son, Howard, in 1894. Our town has 11 buildings by the renowned New York architecture firm of McKim, Mead and (Stanford) White. I wish I could have seen it back before making it more "updated", phooey on progress! :)
What my kids do when I say I want to take a few pictures, they just sit down knowing I may be awhile! :)
All around the top of the building is engraved the names of great authors, Shakespeare, Dante... all around the building (at least the original part).

Then when you go in those doors...

It is the Rotunda. I could stand and stare for a long time! Our library is trying to raise funds to restore the Rotunda, I hope they do it right!

There are 4 of those lights, one in each corner, and then the words underneath say...

He danced along the dingy days and this bequest of wings was but a book what liberty a loosened spirit brings he ate and drank the precious words his spirit grew robust he knew no more that he was poor nor that his frame was dust.

Isn't that beautiful!

I LOVE BOOKS!

(And libraries!!)

* Check out my schooling blog, I found the poem!

Fall on the Green!

Running in the raining leaves!
More running!
The colored leaves, farmers market, and one of the churches on the green.
Collecting leaves!
Me and the pretty colors! :)

You may wonder...

How in the world we get all of our millions of leaves picked up in the fall, well.... We buy really cute trash bags and all the neighborhood kids ask to fill them! :) This afternoon Riley and Jake asked for the rakes so they could work on a leaf pile to jump into, as soon as they started a couple of the neighborhood kids showed up. I told Dan to go give them the pumpkin bags, and then another kid showed up. By the end another showed so we had 5 extra kids rake leaves and put them into bags! :)
By the time they made it to the front, they filled the bags and then had a tremendous amount of fun jumping in the leaf pile and covering each other in it, and then jumping out when a car passed by! :)

Who knew something that falls freely from our back yard could entertain kids from age (almost) 3 to 11 for a couple hours (probably longer if the mamas had not come out to call!! :)
They even hung my tree ghosts for me! :)
HAPPY FALL!!

Cuties!

Last night they had a primary talent show at church, both of the boys signed up to show collections, and I got to gab with some friends! :) Here is sweet Fern and her new hair cut (ala mama), she was a little "off" as she fell asleep in the car on the way there. Never good at 6:30pm!
Isn't she just too cute! :)
Here is Jake with his collection, he displayed his dinosaurs. He panted a grass/lake scene and then segregated them on a "meat eaters" and "plant eaters" sides, then I wrote their names. He was quite pleased! :)

Riley displayed one of his drawings, and also his rock collection. Look at those dimples!!

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I had noticed that our BEAUTIFUL play kitchen was not getting as much use lately, it has been in the boy's room but I thought it needed a More central location! So I moved it to the kitchen, and put some of the play kitchen things away. I was thinking maybe the plethora (of a cornucopia) of kitchen things was bogging down their creativity and so I fluffed their imaginations and put a few away! :)

And so Miss Fern enjoyed it today! She found my grandma's apron and thought she should do a little cooking! :)
If only I could look so cute while cooking! :)
She was in a "snappy" mood and enjoyed me taking her picture! :)
And here is my new haircut, in other words don't expect to see me in front of the camera for a while! How long does it take to grow out a really BAD haircut??

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How was your Saturday?

Kent State Park!

We found it!
Ready to go!


At the bottom!
Going up!
1/2 way there!
At the VERY top, the falls start just to the right of Dan in this picture! And then they cascade for 1/4 of a mile! This is where we had lunch, warm minestrone soup!
What we could see from the top!
We then walked across a bridge and then down the wooded side of the falls.
Fern got a bit cold and needed a little mama warmth!

Here we are out on the ledge of the falls exactly opposite from the family picture. It was quite ledgy and a little freaky! :)
This little mushroom was growing in part of a hollow tree!
After the hike we saw a sign for a covered bridge and went to go find it!

Then we drove thru it! :)

Then we saw a sign for a sight on the Freedom Trail and thought we'd go check that out too! :)
And we found John Brown's birth place.
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And then we made it home and chilled.
The End.
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And now Fern has fallen asleep under the couch and I must fish her out and go to bed!! :)

Shopping On The Green!

I love to shop on The Green!

In New England there is usually in every town a central parcel of land that is The Green. Here in our town that is where people congregate for different functions, it is boarded by the two original churches of the town, the city hall, the library, and the "downtown" district. Here is last week as we strolled from the library to the farmers market, every Wednesday we go to the farmers market and then to the library. I always run into other moms and kids, from church, La Leche League, Scouts, or town. It is GREAT! I will be so sad when it stops for the winter. :(
A couple weekends ago we had the Harvest Moon Festival on The Green, it is sponsored by the Boy Scouts from the same troop as Riley's Cub Pack. I told everyone about my great book buys from the library sale there at the festival, but look at this! A little bit back Gina so very kindly sent us her extra copy of The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe (pictures second from the left). And I have always wanted the rest of the set, so when I found many of the others at the sale I grabbed them up! Now I am silly about things matching, and so I was so excited to find two others from the same set that Gina had gifted us!! I scooped up the others so we do not have to wait until I find the matchy, matchy ones. But you better believe if I see them I'll scoop them up! (And if any of you find them at supper frugal prices I would gladly pay you for them.) And then I can just re gift the others back to the library to be sold again! :) But as of now I am only missing "A Boy and His Horse", pretty good since a set of the paperbacks is $45.00 at Barnes and Noble and I think I paid 4 for a $1.00 at the library sale! So a $1.25 and one dear gift and I almost have a whole set! :)

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Look for pictures from our fun trip to Kent Falls today soon!

APPLES!!

The fruits of our apple picking adventure!
The SUPER slicer man!Our SUPER washer and delivery man!
And the cutest thief there ever was! (aka: the royal taste tester!)
And then... 27 quarts of apple sauce!

YUMMMMM!!

*Amazingly all three blogs got updated today so check them out!!

Fun with Us!!

Riley is now officially a Wolf Cub Scout! He had his first meeting last Thursday. He now does not need a parent to go to every meeting with him! CRAZY, how did he get so grown up!!

Fern just cracks me up! :) When she is quite shocked and surprised she will say "oh my goodness" or "what the heck" and then do this! :)
Sorry these next three are a little fuzzy! :)

This week I introduced embroidery to the kids, they had a blast!!

Riley was concentrating so hard!
This went over wonderfully, they had a great time! I was able to get the "Creative Family" book on my dream list (down on the right) from the library, and now I want it even more! It was fantastic!! She suggested using burlap to start learning needlework which was perfect!! So I would highly recommend it! Plus it was a great read! :)

In our kitchen I put up a short scripture that we then work as a family to memorize. Riley is totally pro at this, and Jake seems to memorize it without saying it out loud very much! When everyone memorizes it we all go out for a treat, ice cream bars this time!

So here is Jake saying the scripture!

And here is a surprise! When the boys where saying the scripture to show us they knew it (so we could run out and get ice cream) Fern just started saying it! She completely surprised us! She usually will say it with us when we say it as a family, but who would expect an almost 3 year old to be able to do that!! We were blown away! So here she is!

Last night we got to have dinner and FHE with some friends down the hill. Here are the kids, Jake, Max, Mimi, Fern, & Riley in the tent, I read them THIS great story out of the Friend! (If you go to www.friend.lds.org in the upper right corner you can view the Oct. Friend in PDF format and see the lovely pictures that go with the story!)

I can't wait until this weekend for General Conference!!!