What a busy weekend we had-hence 3 posts in 2 days! Saturday, Hannah had a 4-H event.  It was a play day show-so no ribbons.  They had so much fun.  Hannah used a horse from the stable she takes lessons at because she wanted to do gymkana events.  Pat had to work, so Hannah & her horse got picked up by Danielle's grandpa.  I went later w/ the other kids.

That's Hannah to the left on the chestnut horse w/ white socks.  Her friend, Danielle, is on the white horse.  These 3 girls were getting ready to play a prank on the Dad who was helping with the barrels & other props.  He's a big prankster-he moved barrels, threw balls, stole horses and rode off with them.  So, the girls rode up to him and threw balls at him.  It was hysterical.

Here's Hannah on Tom.  They played basketball in this event, then ran back to the start point.  I love watching these things.  It was also a dish to pass for lunch & there was lots of horse talk, including the ever present topic of the price of hay & grain. I won't go there right now. LOL  At the show, Jonah rode his skate board & Susanna played on the swings.  Here she is:

Alyssa hung out in the stroller in her little bear jacket:

After the show, Hannah took care of the horse she borrowed at the stable & then went to Danielle's house for dinner.  The kids & I went home.  Jonah mowed the lawn while Susanna & I raked.  The horses were thrilled to have have the grass clippings dumped into the pasture.  Here's Susanna raking:

Jonah helped, too:

Here's the view from the porch-the leaves are getting so beautiful!

Sunday we went to Hollenbecks Cider Mill-we love going there to watch the cider being made w/ a really old press & buy hot donuts, cider, fudge & pie.  YUM!  We go every year w/ our neighbors.  Here's Susanna & Brooke trying to decide which candy to get-that took awhile:

 The rest of the day Pat & Jonah worked on fencing for beef cows.  Danielle came to our house-the girls played w/ the horses & she brought wii from her house.  I don't really understand all the hoopla over this game.  I would think it would be more fun to play baseball outside than to pretend to do it in the house.  There was also a game for Hannah Montana.  I asked them if they could make the girl hit herself in the head & trip over her feet, but no they couldn't do that.  Now, THAT would by fun. Anyway, they had a good time.

I took them to another 4-H event-making a window display at a local grocery store.  I found out that is absolutely the best fun ever to embarrass your children.  Not in a mean way of course.  Susanna wanted to listen to the "Amen" song by Steve Green.  So, she & I sang along to it and the windows were open at an intersection.  She & I really got into it & the 2 preteen girls were looking around & embarrassed because people in the intersection were looking at us.  Well, that really flipped a switch in me-I felt like I was living on the wild side a little bit-LOL.  The more they hid & laughed the crazier I got-and didn't care who saw!  And Susanna was screaming amen each time the song said it-it's fun having a 4 yr old to act insane with you. 

Hannah & Danielle were laughing the whole time & trying to hide under things.   Oh my goodness- it was so much fun.  I can't wait to do it again!  Hannah is now looking for a way to embarrass me, but I told her after her toddler years, she just can't top that. 

And then at the store I accidently knocked over a barrel full of caramel candy w/ the cart.  Then they didn't want to be seen with me anymore.  LOL I took them all to Dunkin Donuts after they were done w/ the store window since I had a coupon.  I really enjoyed hanging out w/ the girls -it was me, Hannah, Danielle, Susanna & Alyssa.

At dinner Pat told the kids the story about the first time he met his best friend's Dad.  Pat was wearing a shirt that said "instant swimmer-just add water".  So, this strange man dumped a glass of water on him!  They loved that story.  Dinner was a lot of fun-I love conversation at the table.  We brought Danielle home after that.  It seems we packed a lot of things into Friday evening thru Sunday. 

Last week we had a little girl named Libby(9) over.  She is Jonah's best friend's sister & their family homeschools, too.  Anyway, she loves horses and had never ridden one.  So, we invited her over to ride.  She had a great time for over 3 hours w/ Hannah- brushing, picking out feet, riding Slugger & even cleaning a stall.  She loved it all & we invited her to come anytime.  I love doing this kind of thing because I didn't have horses as a girl and wanted one so badly I actually felt sick over it.  Hannah enjoys doing this, too.  She hopes to start helping one of her riding instructors w/ therapeutic riding lessons soon.

Anyway, Libby's family has dirtbikes & treated us to an afternoon of dirt-biking on Friday.  Hannah has wanted to ride one for the last year & of course, this was right up Jonah's alley. (This is the family that took him scuba-diving this summer). Here's Hannah:

She was so funny-she was very content to stay in first gear & couldn't remember how to stop.  Here's Jonah:

They also rode the bikes on the many paths in the woods there.  And here's Susanna w/ Ollie-Libby's little brother.

She turned 4 a few days ago-I can't believe it!  We had a really nice day.  The older kids had music lessons early in the morning, which is a highlight for Susanna because there are 2 little girls there for her to play with.  Then Grammy came over to spend the day.  They went to the store to pick out what Susanna wanted for her cake.  On their birthdays, my kids all like to make their own cake-they always pick box cakes w/ ready-made frosting & candy pieces.  Susanna picked Barbie.

Then, Susanna & I left the house just us.  We went to Dunkin Donuts & ate inside.  We went to TSC & she bought a horse w/ her birthday money.  I bought her one, too-along w/ a dog collar & cable & chicken feed.  (Abbie chewed the collar right off of Freya.).  The horses are $5 each & don't break, like the Breyer ones do.  We stopped at a couple other places, too.  It was fun just me and her!  She's such a little chatterbox & informed everyone that she was 4 yrs old that day.  She doesn't normally talk to strangers much, so this was different.

While we were away, Grammy & Hannah & Jonah decorated the house.  Grammy brought all the party decorations. Susanna loved walking thru the door like this:

And the party table:

Daddy brought home pizza & wings and some friends came to eat & celebrate with us.  We sang pretty loudly:

She loved her ariel color & paint book:

Alyssa got into the celebrating also.  I think she would rather have been stuffing cake into her mouth instead of a bib, though!

Happy Birthday, girlie!

The weeble likes to help make dinner like this, too!

This is one of my favorite children's books!  Susanna has loved "rowing" this book thru the Before Five in a Row curriculum.  Here's a few pics of what we did yesterday:

This was a lot of fun.  I had several numbers & several blueberries w/ the pail mat-I put sticky clear protector film on all of it.  Susanna changed the numbers & put the right amount of blueberries in the pail.  I got this from HOMESCHOOLSHARE.

She drew & colored blueberries on one page, then drew a hill w/ Sal on one side and little bear on the other side of the hill. Those are blueberry bushes in the middle of the hill.

This page is of Sal & her mother along with lots of blueberries to can for the winter-and raspberries, too.  Pat whispered to me that her people look like fingers, but I think they are adorable!

We have blueberry bushes, but they are still pretty young & haven't produced much.  Jonah took her to see them and then they went and picked raspberries which we have quite a bit of right now.  They line one of the pastures.  See Susanna's little tin pail?  And that's Casey in the background-he's very curious and probably hopes they have a little something tasty for him to eat, too.

Susanna loves to say kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk.  She can't say otomotopeai, though.  And I'm sure I spelled that wrong. I never heard of that until we did Five in a Row, though!

Guess what-she's going to be 4 yrs old tomorrow!!

I finally have some pics uploaded, so here they are.  I finished sewing some diapers for Alyssa Rose.  She is now in 3-6 month clothing & small-long diapers:

Aren't they cute?  And the nice thing is I am using fabric I already had leftover from when I made dipes for Susanna.

The next is a pic of Alyssa on our meat scale.  She's 15 lbs-probably 2 lbs are those cheeks! LOL

In nursing news, things are going much better...still time-consuming, but better.  We're using the lact-aid a lot now and we've both gotten the hang of it.  Since I'm supplementing at the breast, I'm using the pump a lot less now.  Still need to give her some formula before nursing, but that's ok-I can live with that.

We finished up a unit in Prairie Primer.  Here's a couple pics from doing that.  Hannah & Jonah made johnny cake & we had it for lunch w/ fruits & veggies.  I read that 70% of our diet should be fruits & veggies, so we are working toward that goal.  Not there yet, but getting there.

Those yellow pear tomatoes are from the garden. I planted those 4 yrs ago and they come back as voluntary plants every year.  Good thing because I got little else from the garden this year.  We had yummy raw local honey w/ the johnny cake, which the kids all liked (and me too).

This is a thresher made by Jonah with K'nex.  He designed it based on the description & picture from the book of the machine thresher hired by Pa.  This one might not work too well since Susanna has the horses facing in opposite directions.  LOL.

Here's Susanna with her brand new-all her very own-school back pack.  It was 75% off, too! 

She's keeping her markers, crayons & coloring books in there.  I think she's going to be my neat-nik.  I thought I'd never get one!  Unfortunately, she's only neat with her things-not anyone else's.  LOL  She has to have her things just so in there.

Hannah is loving her Artistic Pursuits curriculum.  Pat works near a nice art store, so he brought home a sketch book, really nice water colors and graphite pencils for her.  She's been happy as a lark making ink & watercolor paintings, sketches and the other day she tried her hand at oil painting.  She's done it before & didn't like it.  But, now she's getting the hang of it.  Here's her rendition of Van Gogh's Starry Night:

This week has been full of trials, worry & discouragement...but also blessings.  My MIL helped out on Monday, so I was able to just take Susanna with me to the farmer's market and then to the park.  It was really nice-I rarely have her alone.  And I got on the swings & stepped in the water & went down the slide with her-I usually push her or just watch.  We also found some staghorn sumac and brought it home.  It was part of our nature studies from Prairie Primer.  The kids learned all about it, but couldn't find any.  I love learning the names & uses of growing things-would love to take a class on that someday!

Also, my SIL, Kelly, sent some surprises-an organizing mom calendar for me & 2 books of fancy stenciling & adorable pens for the kids. 

And then yesterday we got a little package from my mother.  It was a bag of hershey kisses & jel window clings for the kids.  No note in the package-but the bag of kisses said it all.  Made me cry.   I don't hear from my mother a lot, but she always seems to call or send things exactly when I need it.

In case anyone is wondering where I might be (Hi Virginia & Rebecca!), I am treading water this week.  We've had company twice, had MD appts, my dh is out of town, the upstairs shower leaked into a downstairs closet, my vehicle died 2 hours after my dh left (doesn't it figure), one of the dogs got sprayed by a skunk & the baby seems to be going thru another growth spurt. 

Plus the normal cooking & cleaning & schooling & turtle trapping...uh, I guess that's not so normal, but it's been part of the week.  Jonah learned from a neighbor how to trap a snapping turtle in the pond.  He's been very busy trying to trap it & kayaking to the middle of the pond to move the trap & change the bait.  I saw him walking down the hill with an ax to the pond the other day & of course stopped him.  (LOL). He says when he catches the turtle, he's going to chop off the head.  I asked him how he would make the turtle keep his head out, but he's not concerned. 

Our neighbor told him if he catches it, we'll have a barbecue.  I think I'll be providing hamburgers.

I wish I had pics uploaded.  I've got great pics of a painting Hannah did-her rendition of "Starry Night" by Van Gogh-it is beautiful!  Also, Susanna's jars with colored water in them, johnny cake we made from reading Little House, pics from our Nature Studies this week and others.  I'll try to post them later.

Goodness, I have been trying to sit down and blog this w/ pics for several days & each time I try, something calls me away & I leave the screen sitting open for hours without even realizing the computer is on!!  So, finally, here are the pics from canning tomatoes.

We got 3 bushels of beautiful red tomatoes!

Loosening the skins with hot water.

Then, put into the cold water.  I thought the red tomatoes against the blue sink was pretty.

Jonah did most of the tomato peeling.  He really enjoys helping with canning. 

All 3 of these pots are full to the top with tomatoes. I didn't pressure cook the tomatoes-I was just using the big pots. 

I can't believe it's Thursday already.  It sure does feel like the days are flying by me.  Each day is so full and I like to take pics of moments that I want to enjoy more later.  Know what I mean?  That's why I love blogging-this is my form of journaling and saving memories and moments.

I just love baby feet-I wish they didn't grow so fast!

I can't help feeling a little wistful because I've had to put away her newborn to 3 month clothes and she's grown out of her small cloth diapers.  We don't plan on having anymore babies, but I can't bear to give the clothes & dipes away yet.

This is the first pic I've taken of Alyssa Rose in the cradle that "Bumpa" made.  That's Pat's Dad and he died a year ago last month.  This cradle is so beautiful and very special to us since he made it.  All of our children have slept in it, too.  My MIL made the sheets for the mattress and the blanket that is on the baby, which you can't see too well.

Tuesday my MIL came over and helped throughout the day while we did school and canned tomatoes.  I did get some pics, but didn't get the one I wanted since I was nursing the baby at the time.  From my chair, I watched Mom, Jonah & Hannah working on the tomatoes in the kitchen-laughing and talking.  Susanna was at the counter playing with her horses & neighing.  It was really neat & special-I hope it will be a memory the kids keep.  I'll post pics of canning tomatoes another day.

Here's a sweet pic of Susanna having a picnic with dolls & stuffed animals.  She "inbited" Hannah's American girl doll to the picnic. (invited).  She used her wooden sandwich making set for the food.

Ahh...freeze-framed moments-I will remember them and enjoy them.

We had a busy & good weekend.  Hannah had a 4-H camp weekend from Friday thru Sunday-she took one of the horses.  All the kids had horses with them as they went trail riding every day.   Our family was there Friday evening for the bonfire, too-except me.  It was too chilly for the baby & besides-she and I had work to do.

We spent a good portion of our last several days working on breastfeeding.  Between the lact-aid and a different bottle, I think we're on the upswing now.  The bottle is Playtex Naturalatch, slow flow 0-3 months.  She gets a couple ounces of that before she starts nursing.  This combo is working much better.  After a couple days, we haven't needed to use the lact-aid.  If you're wondering what that is, there's a link to it in the post below.

So, while everyone was gone, she & I rocked & listened to relaxing music, which I sang to her, and she nursed away without pulling off and screaming.  It was a beautiful thing & I cried tears of joy and thankfulness!  Alyssa Rose is 4 months old today-here she is:

Saturday was busy w/ chores around here.  I also picked up 3 bushels of tomatoes to can from the farmer's market.  I got their last 3 bushels-almost missed tomatoes this year!

Sunday morning, we all met Hannah at the state park & we brought another horse with us so Pat could ride, too.  It was his birthday & I'm glad he got this treat because he rarely has time to ride.  He had a great time riding w/ Hannah, the other kids & the adults.  I hung out w/ the other 3 kids & another kid & we all took a walk-about 2 miles.

After we got home, Pat's mom, brother & our SIL came over.  They had dinner with us & Pat's birthday dessert.  I made him an ice cream pie which was hard to do because it was melting all over as I worked on it & continued to melt for awhile in the freezer.  Pat was teasing me about it-saying it scared him when he went in the freezer.  It has been dubbed "Nightmare on Freezer Street."  LOL.  I think we'll call it that from now on.  Susanna wants it for her birthday, too.  Here's a pic of it:

It's an oreo cookie crust, filled w/ scoops of french vanilla bean ice cream.  Then, put cherry pie filling all over it, drizzle chocolate syrup all over, then add mini oreo cookies on top.  It was delicious!