First date since we moved to Georgia

Kennesaw wood

It has been 5 months since we have been out in public sans children, so Friday night we happily left the kids with Emily (whose little brother is in Songbird's class at Monday school), and drove two miles up the road to quiet downtown Kennesaw. We found a place to park, and walked the streets, taking note of the shops and businesses scattered along Main Street. I was surprised by a thrift store I've never noticed before, so we went inside, looking for treasures. We happened upon two 1967, beautifully bound George MacDonald fantasies, The Light Princess and The Golden Key, both of which we do not own and have never read to the children. They are illustrated by Maurice Sendak, in great condition, and cost $1 each.

Happy with our find, we tucked the books away snug in the car, and continued by foot through the town. We came upon a park which we have visited with the children on another occasion, but being alone we decided to venture inland, discovering several small grassy fields, and a few wooded trails. The most remarkable things about the park were the enormous oak trees sheltered within. I am sure they have seen such changing terrain in their lifetime. We even saw a big whitish bird swoop down in front of us, but we were both so surprised we didn't get a good enough look to determine owl or hawk. Either way, it was no doubt a magical bird, perching and swooping amidst old, magical oak trees, in the interior of a magical wood. In fact, I am not entirely sure that if I were to return with the kids the fields and paths would exist at all.

As it was growing darker, we turned back to the town and headed to one of a few local restaurants, the Trackside Grill. Together we had corn muffins, coffee, salad, catfish, meat, and remembered and dreamed until the clock struck 6:30. Then it was back home to tuck the little ones away for the night... 

The next day Hubry read both books to the kids - and they could not get enough.

Trunk or Treat

On Halloween we dressed up and went to a nearby church to participate in their Trunk or Treat festival.  Since Hubry was out-of-town, I decided it would be simpler than trying to go to the free day at the Atlanta aquarium with three littles (though I was definitely tempted).  Since the kids play dress-up almost every day, getting dressed up for a festival wasn't much of a novelty (though the candy was).  The funny thing was that Raindrop took her dress-up clothes off and would only wear a white sweater and white bycicle shorts.  The kids pleaded and pleaded with her, but she had such a specific idea of what she wanted to be....

Fall Festival

The kids and I thought it would be fun to have a little Fall festival in our backyard.  We went out into the world in search of suitable carving pumpkins, marshmallows, candy corn and fire wood.  Then we set to work planning our designs.  It turns out I was the only one who was really able to actually carve into the pumpkins, and the swirly designs the kids drew were virtually impossible for me to cut out with my basic kitchen knife.  So instead we went with triangles....  After we were done carving we lit a candle inside each pumpkin, and then Hubry arrived home just in time to help light to fire.  He even let the kids have roasted marshmallows with candy corn on top:). I love how kids get so excited about things as simple as last-minute homemade Fall festivals.

Visit with Grandparents West

A few weekends ago we went down to LaGrange to visit with the Grandparents and celebrate Daddy-O's birthday.  While there, we spent a lot of time jump-roping, hoola-hooping, racing, walking, and kayaking in the lake with Uncle Jim.  We are blessed to be close enough to visit family again, and so thankful that our kids are old enough to remember their Great-Grandparents.

During our trip, I was able to sneak away for a few hours to visit my sweet college friend, Bethany just a half hour away.  It wasn't nearly long enough, and there isn't a single photo to prove it happened, but it is in my heart :)

Sayings and Quotes

***Little Raindrop is in the cutest stage where she comes up to us with a smooshy face and says with whispered voice, "I love you too much!"  She is definitely the doted-upon youngest child, as we all love her so much.

***Hubry asked Bro last night, "Would you like to listen to GT and the Halo express tonight?"  The decisive answer was, "No, it doesn't really make me have ideas."

***Songbird asked cousin Marit, "Am I your best friend?"  She replied, "Yes!"  "Am I your first best friend?"  "Yes!"  After a pensive moment Songbird responded, "Why?  I'm not really kind to you!"

***Raindrop has started tacking on the phrase, or anything, to the end of statements she wants to add emphasis to.  Some of the cutest or anything phrases have been:
"No, I don't want it.  I don't want it or anything."
 "I don't want my bed.  I don't want it or anything.  Hey, Mapa, where are you?  I don't want it                      or anything!!!"
In the car Songbird was trying to cheer up little Raindrop by singing "Jesus Loves Me."                       When that didn't work she started with the ABC song.  Finally, utterly beside herself,                             Raindrop said, "No, I don't want Bible Tells me, ABC's, or anything!

***The kids love identifying the birds at our bird-feeder.  Every time we have a visitor stopping for a bite to eat, there is general excitement and celebration.  I was surprised the other day when I noticed Raindrop was calling birds by their specific names (and getting them right).  Mama, a chickadee, a chickadee!

Songbird at rest time today

Smile!

It was a long time coming, but she finally lost that tooth!

Apple Season

Last weekend we went to an apple orchard near Ellijay, GA with the Gents.  We picked two smaller bags of apples, and purchased a very big bag of apples (for only $15).  We first guessed how many were in the bag, and Aida wrote the names and guesses on our chalkboard (she likes for everything to be official).

Next we placed the apples in a straight line to count them,

then organized them by 5's to check ourselves,

and finally confirmed that there were 48 apples in all.  Benjamin was the winner (only 2 off), though I decided to give all participants a few candy corn to welcome Fall. :)

We spent the next 2 hours peeling and chopping apples while listening to Classical music (well, the kids lost steam somewhere around apple number 30, but they were a big help. )

It took my three biggest pots to cook them all down, but another hour later

and we had a lot of applesauce!  I left some in the pot b/c it was going to be used immediately in the making of fruit leather (something I've been wanting to try in my dehydrator for a while now).  48 apples (some rather large) ended up making about 11 quarts of applesauce.  11 quarts of applesauce for $15.  Not bad!

I don't have an official picture of this, but there was a big mess to clean up when all was said and done :)

Woodring Campground

Our neighbors (The Gents!)

Pensive by the fire

The audience (as we awaited "the show")

The show

With a varied cast

The first canoe trip (Daddies with the littles)

Beautiful late September day at Carter's Lake

These two played and played

and giggled and giggled

Me and Songbird with the jokesters...
Songbird did paddle a little at the beginning and end :)

Such a crazy creature Hubry found

Welcome to October

Lunch

Acadia

The week before we moved, we went on a camping trip to Acadia National Park.  It was one of those things that we knew we absolutely had to do with the kids before we left Maine, but that kept getting pushed back and pushed back, until time was slipping away altogether.

On our way out of town, we picked up our bikes, and after realizing we could no longer fit all the bikes in the car and on our 2-bike rack, we purchased a new 3-bike rack (which we are so thankful to have).  After all the bikes were situated, we took off on the 3-hour trek to Acadia.  Hubry and I had been to Acadia early in our marriage and done some of the more difficult hikes, but we were planning on keeping things a bit more low-key with the kids around.  We mainly wanted to show them the beauty we remembered, and it was nice that it was in the middle of the Summer so that we could actually go swimming (at a warmer lake and a frigid ocean).

Overall, the trip was well worth the drive, though it would have been nice to have a few more days to meander and explore.  We only attempted one hike, and after carrying children on our backs for a mile straight up the side of a mountain, we decided we better stick to bike and carriage trails from then on out. :)  I mean, we're strong and everything, but that was quite a workout.

We went away with two main observations.  1. Acadia is such an expansive park with a one-way loop around it, that you really end up spending a lot of time in the car driving from sight to sight.  With little kids this can be a bit trying, so we had to scale back our expectations quite a bit when we realized how much car-time was involved.  2.  After having lived on the coast of Maine for a year, Acadia is nowhere near as impressive as it was before.  In fact, we came away feeling like we had seen equally breathtaking views within 20 miles of our humble home.  We were truly spoiled by natural beauty and easy-access to it living in Brunswick...

Here are a few pictures of the trip.

New Bike rack

Our outdoor home

The Fairyhouse

Smores for breakfast (b/c it was too late when we finally got back from swimming the night before to start a fire)

happy, happy

thunder hole without the rushing water

Totally exhausted after the hike up the mountain.  She was a trooper!

We just sat right down on the ground next to our car and made a picnic lunch b/c we were all sooo hungry.

Jordan pond catching fish and frogs

awwww, how sweet :)

Family photo (see those two dots in the background?  That's Songbird and Bro)

Jordan Pond house - delicious popovers with ice-cream on the lawn after a long bike ride after a tough hike... Doesn't get much better than this :)

Happy with a full belly