{This Moment}

{This Moment} - A SouleMama Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. We wish you a delightful weekend!

A Wonderful Surprise

As we were getting our day started today I noticed that there was a package waiting for us on our front porch. The girls went out to get it and we all wondered what we'd find inside. Looking at the return address I noticed that it was from my friend Rosemarie over at Sweet Home Days. She is busy packing for their upcoming move to Vermont and came across some things that she thought the girls would like and sent then our way. It was such a lovely surprise! We took each of the books and games out and right away the girls asked if we could play Herd the Sheep. We got it set up, figured out the rules and muddled through our first round. We instantly fell in love with this sweet game.  By the second round we were playing with much more confidence and for the third round the girls felt so confident they asked if we could play with one of the other variations.  The pictures below are of our first round of play. 



We just love how sweetly simple it is (which I find to be the case with many games that come from Europe).  This game is so us and is one that we will cherish for years to come.  Thanks Rosemarie for sending us such a lovely surprise package!  This game was the perfect way to spend our Thursday morning (and evening).  The other game and books will surely be loved and used lots as well.  Thanks so much for thinking of us and enjoy the last little bit of time you have in Connecticut before heading north!  One of these days we'd love to meet up and play!



Our Woodstock

On Sunday we surprised the girls with a trip to the Life is Good Festival.  We were over the moon to get tickets since there were some amazing performers who would be there (Fresh Beat Band and Dave Matthews being the top two shows we were looking forward to seeing) and we loved that it was a fundraiser for the Life is Good company's philanthropy too.  The girls had not been to a concert before, and we did not tell them anything until the morning of.  We can safely say that they did not truly understand what we were talking about until they saw the Fresh Beats on stage! 

My one and only Instagram picture of the day.  The signal there was terrible and I am glad it was or I would have totally used up the text portion of our phone plan that day!

"Mama!  Look!"

It was at this point I began crying.  Watching Grace smile as big as she was smiling at seeing some of her favorite perfomers was just too much for this mama to take.  She kept saying: "I just can't believe they are really here."  It is a moment that I will never forget.

The four of us sang along to every song the Fresh Beats performed.  It was fabulous!

Disregard the guy bending over.  Look at our shadows instead.  That's me handing the iPhone to Dave.  Each of us have a girl on our shoulders.  I have no idea how I managed to take this picture but I love that we're all in it. 

Afterward a little (face) painting was in order.

The Life is Good team truly thought of everything.  Chillville was awesome, all the games were amazing (face painting, sack races, seed spitting, paddle ball, parachute, tug of war, and a sandbox to name a few of the activities, all of which were free(!) that were going on).  They even had a nursing mothers tent as well as a diaper changing area (complete with diapers, wipes, and diaper cream).  Bottled water was being given out for free, or if you brought a reuable water bottle you could have it filled at the Water Filling Station.  The only thing we had to pay for was food, and even then with the amount of amazing samples (all of which were natural or organic) you probably really didn't need to buy food at all!

Dan Zanes.

After we heard Dan Zanes we headed to the car to get the picnic dinner we had packed.  It was a lovely night for a picnic and having the chance to share our "rose and thorne of the day" made the day that much more special (it was thornless days all around).  After dinner we headed back to the festival to get ready for the Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds concert.  As you can see from the picture above we met up with friends for the aforementioned evening concert. 

And here we are snuggled together waiting for Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds to take the stage.  Not the best picture of the four of us, but a picture nonetheless.  Thanks to our friend Mark for taking it for us! 

 

It was a truly glorious day.  Everything about this day was beyong perfect. The vibe of the Life is Good Festival was amazing.  While there were lots of people there it was not overwhelmingly crowded.  I couldn't help but feel that we were among "our people".  On our way to the festival (and again on the way home) I said to Dave: "I feel like this is our Woodstock."  Clearly, I was not at Woodstock but based on what people who went have described I am sure that this had a similar vibe to it.  It was all about love, joy, life and happiness.  It was amazing and we were in our glory.  I truly can't wait to go back. 



{This Moment} An Evening Swing

{This Moment} - A SouleMama Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. We wish you a wonderful Autumnal Equinox!  Enjoy this first weekend of Autumn!

A New Adventure For Grace And Emma

Today was the first day of a new homeschool program at Drumlin Farm.  You may remember that last year Emma was part of the Crickets class at Drumlin Farm Community Preschool.  And while we absolutely adored the preschool and were sad to say good-bye we are so super excited that this new program has begun.  My friend (and fellow Cricket mama) Meredith got in touch with Drumlin Farm to see if they would be willing to run a homeschool program that ran at the same time as Crickets (she has one son who has aged out of Crickets and one son who is still there).  The staff at Drumlin was very excited to be able to do this and thus the Exploring Habitats class was born!  Today was their first day and everyone had an absolute blast (as you can see from the size of the smile on Emma's face in the picture above).  The teacher, Martha, said that the three hours was just not long enough and that she was blown away by our children. She explained that each week a different habitat (pond, farm, forest, meadow) will be explored and once all the habitats have been explored they will go back and check on each of them again to see what changes have occured since they were there last.  Today they went ponding and then after their ponding adventure they went over to the barn to meet the brand new baby calf that was born yesterday.  The girls were so chatty the whole way home about all their adventures today!  And as you can imagine they are looking forward to next week already!  Thank you Meredith for getting the ball rolling on this program!  The girls are over the moon to get to be a part of it!