Pioneer Day

With the help of the girls, we had a great pioneer day...all day. We dressed in our best pioneer attire and bonnets for the day and did a bunch of cooking from "scratch." The girls hunted for eggs and we had to sacrifice our best pig (for scrambled eggs and bacon), we made homemade butter in our butter churn, baked bread without using the oven, ate every meal on a blanket on the floor, and used candles instead of lights. It was great! Ashley also had some really fun pioneer games for us. For dessert we had homemade fresh cherry pie with homemade vanilla ice cream. Ashley also took some pioneer-style pictures....some happy and some serious (because, as you know, pioneers had to wait a long time to have a picture taken...plus life was hard for them). Enjoy!

Sunflower House

One of our new activities this summer was the sunflower house. We planted five different kinds of sunflowers ranging from 12 inches to 12 feet tall....also varying in colors from pale yellow to school bus yellow to red and burnt orange. It was so fun!! It makes for a great place to read, have a picnic, or just lay and watch the clouds. This wanna-be time lapse shows from its beginning in April until about the second week of July. A few weeks ago Ashley counted 130 blooms, but I bet there are even more now that's in full bloom. It's so fun to go cut full bouquets of sunflowers to put all around the house. Yay!

Summer Fun!

A few highlights from this summer....and we still have a month left!!!

We ended school and kicked off the summer with a rousing game of Homeschool Jeopardy...here are a few other activities we've been doing....

Family bike rides....

Playing and working in the yard....

Picking tomatoes....

Look, I can open cupboards now! :)

Sister time on the porch swing...

Hiking Club....once a week we meet up with some friends and go on a hike....twenty pounds doesn't feel like much the first oh, half a mile...but after three...whew...I feel like a wimp...ha.

Tea parties!

Pinterest recipes...

Building forts.....they even slept in that long one for 3 or 4 nights up in the schoolroom...

Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks....

Picking fresh veggies from the garden...

Community crib time...

Looking forward to the rest of summer vacation before school starts again...

Girls Getaway 2014

This year for Girls Getaway we spent an extended weekend in Rhode Island. Christy picked the spot this year and it did not disappoint. It was beautiful, fun, relaxing, educational, and best of all...I got to spend time with my mom and my sister. I loved it!!!

We loved walking along the Cliff Walk following beautiful rocky beaches like this one.

These weeping beech trees were amazing...this one was over 100 years old.

 

Christy walking the railroad tracks by the beach...

Sleepover!!! Every night we stayed up late gathered all together on one bed. Girl time!

I can definitely see why millionaires would want to have a summer cottage here. It was beautiful!!!

 

On one of our shopping excursions, I happened upon this amazing fish bowl display stand. I almost bought it for our dear fish, Merliah, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. But, it definitely gave me some ideas for more fashionable fish display.

I know....she looks like a model, right?   :)

 

One of our stops was the Animal Topiary Garden. This elephant was a favorite...but there were lots more...very fun!

Not only was this white alium beautiful, but I loved how one little flower stood up taller than all the others. I'm sure there's an object lesson there...so I just had to take a picture.

At one of the mansions we toured, there was a separate side entrance for servants and deliveries so they wouldn't use the front entrance. This beautiful circular drive was covered in wisteria and it was starting to bloom during our visit.

 

Walking the gardens of a mansion, right by our favorite fountain (I put that in for you, Christy!)   ;)

What a great Girls Getaway...I'm so grateful for these wonderful women in my life!!