Summer Begins.....NOW!

 

Oh how wonderful it was to be back to being a homeschool family! It took us a little bit to find out groove again (as homeschooling high school is a different vibe) but once we did it was as if we never took that two year break from it! The girls had an amazing year and grew so much as learners and as people. We saw their confidence return (especially Emma's) and the color come back to their learning and their days. While Parker definitely served its purpose (and Grace made some incredible friends) on the whole it just was not the right place for either of these sweet souls. It has been such a joy to see them return to being the learners that they were pre-Parker and I cannot wait to see what next year brings (though I am really not ready for it to be Grace's senior year either! Gracious, these years went by fast)! xo  

{This Moment} Monday Night

{This Moment} - A 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 are inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments section for all to find and see. We wish you a fun-filled 4th of July weekend! xo

{This Moment} An Ice Cream Run In March

{This Moment} - A Soule Mama 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 are inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments section for all to find and see. We wish you a lovely weekend! xo

Wordless Wednesday::Yesterday At The Dairy Farm

Ice Cream Sunday

Today after the church service there was an ice cream sundae fundraiser to benefit the African Exchange Group at our church. The group is raising money to buy plane tickets for two people from Tanzania to come visit our church at the end of next month. We are happy to have been able to participate in such a sweet and delicious fundraiser for such a worthy cause! And yes, I spelled sundae in the post title "incorrectly" on purpose!

Ice Cream With Grandpa

There's nothing like eating ice cream at night with Grandpa to kick off a new month! 

Happy October, everyone! 

A Marvelous Monday

Today was a rather lazy day, which was totally fine with the girls and I.  Some days just need to be a day spent in your jammies, at home, snuggling and playing and just being.  And we would have been fine with us to remain in our jammies for the entire day had it not been for my friend Betsy posting a message on my Facebook page saying that the farm where she has her CSA still had pick your own tomatoes for $1.00/pound.  Mary and I have been dying to make the tomato sauce recipe (and can it) from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (such an incredible book) for awhile now and at $1.00/pound how could we pass this up?!  So, I called Mary to see if she and her tribe would be up for an adventure, and no sooner did I finish asking the question than she said "yes" and went to go get her littles ready.  So off we went to meet up with our friends in Millis.  We arrived to discover that sadly they were done picking for the day.  Bummer.  But on the bright side they do have an ice cream stand there, so the next logical move was, of course, to have ice cream for dinner!  Perfect for Meatless Monday, if I do say so myself.  

If only we could have brought this wonderful farm kitten home with us!  The girls fell in love the minute they spotted her.  She was, quite honestly, a very tolerant kitty for being so young.  What a sweetheart little Buckwheat was, and we were thrilled to get to meet her.  Someday, sweet daughters, we will have a cat of our own.  Someday...

Ice Cream for Dinner

After naptime yesterday the girls an I went to Berlin Farms (formerly Berlin Orchards).  This was one of my most favorite places when I first moved up here over ten years ago.  I would go, and instantly feel like I was back home. It reminded me so much of life in Bethany, which was comforting since I was newly out of college and far from home.

Berlin Orchards used to be a very hopping place, and then when it changed hands and names it changed too.  The crowds left, and the new owner was left trying to fix the place up and keep it running.  An article in Edible Boston magazine last month was all about Berlin Farms, and so I thought it would be fun to go and see what they were up to over there.

"Mama, I want to ride horses."

Since we were there and the ice cream window was open, 

the three of us agreed that ice cream was definitely in order for dinner.

Good things are definitely happening at Berlin Farms.  The ice cream was as generous and as delicious as I remembered it to be.  The girls and I are looking forward to many more visits.  We hope that those of you who are local will support this wonderful place, if for no other reason than to have ice cream for dinner.

Sleep well, dear ones.
We'll see you tomorrow.

Fun Stuff!

Since I knew that we had a super busy day planned for today, I decided to save our pictures from Friday for today.  Friday was a rather mellow day, mostly due to it being cold and rainy out.  Dave had the day off again (yay!), and we spent the better part of the day trying to figure out something fun to do.  While we were trying to figure out what to do, Grace noticed that our beans had gotten even bigger.

She then got a hair cut from Gramma,

while Emma checked out (yet again) the zipper on Gramma's luggage.

We then said "until we meet again" to Gramma, 

who headed home after a spending a fabulous week with us.

The girls and Daddy played for a bit.  

First with princesses,

and then with the PS3.

After which was nap/quiet time.  We spent much of naptime trying to come up with a fun and exciting plan for the evening, and thanks to Grace we finally did.  What we adults could not come up with in hours, she came up with in seconds!  When she came downstairs after she was done with quiet time, David and I asked her what she wanted to do today.  She replied, "Get ice cream."  Which sounded perfect, and a quick Google search produced a fabulous ice cream parlor in Newton; Cabot's.  I had been there once a couple of years ago, and loved it. It was the perfect place for our evening adventure.   We called our friends to see if they wanted to join us, and off we went.

Dinner was had, and then it was time for the moment we had all been waiting for:

Ice Cream!

My sundae.  

Molly helps Uncle Dave eat his huge sundae.  

Clearly, we all could have shared any one of the sundae's we adults chose.  

Especially this one!

It was the cherry on top of the sundae that was our Friday! 

We hope each of you had a wonderful weekend. 

As always, we'll see you tomorrow!