Apple Picking with Dad

We've been to Lynd's twice this month and love every apple we've picked! The last time we went, we took Todd along. I was surprised to learn he'd never been with us! I guess we go during the week when it's not so crazy there, an advantage of homeschooling ;)

 Love this one:

 Nick looks like this all through the apple orchard ;)

 We picked Jonathan this time and they are so crunchy and juicy!

 It was a great fall afternoon to spend outside and we enjoyed every minute :)

Best Dad Ever!

September was a bit of insanity! It went by in a whoosh and I have all kinds of fun things I need to get on here, and I'm going to start with this:

A week ago, the kids talked Todd into camping with them in the backyard! We spent the entire evening outside enjoying the fire. It was actually a pretty cold evening so a fire was perfect. I had my doubts about them staying in the tent all night since it was so cold but they all assured me they'd be fine with Dad in there with them ;)

It ended at 2am when Todd just couldn't get Nick to settle down and go to sleep ;) They all came in (much to Brandon's disappointment and my joy!) and spent the rest of the night in their own beds :)

Put-Put

One of the things on our "Summer List" is put-put. There are a couple of places to play put-put golf around here so we chose the closest one and spent our family night there!

We started off with a brief putting lesson from Daddy :)

 Even though the course closest to us is a bit run down, it was still beautiful and we all had so much fun!

 Even this guy, who wasn't thrilled with the whole put-put idea had a great time ;)

It was a great family night! When we do things like this, I'm so glad we take the time to make up a "Summer List" because these little fun things would not be happening in the hurry and rush of everyday life. Summer just seems to fly by and while I have good intentions, I don't ever get to all the things I plan to! It makes me very happy when we carve out time for special things :)

Our New Year's Eve

Wow, I can't believe it was over two weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to posting about it!

New Year's Eve has never been my favorite. I can't tell you how many I've slept through only to wake up the next day and it was a new year even though I didn't stay awake to greet it. But...

it's important to all the other people in my house!


So a few years ago, I set out to make a bigger deal of it than I had been...which was nothing at all ;)

And you know what? It's become a favorite night for all of us! We start the evening with Todd's family recipe of paella. It was/is the meal his parents serve every New Year's Eve and he wanted to continue the tradition which is a win-win for me since I LOVE paella and I also LOVE when someone else cooks dinner! (The recipe I linked is not the one he uses but it's the closest I found. The nice thing about paella is you can toss in whatever meat you wish so our meat choices are different than the ones in this recipe).

Saffron is the key! It makes it that nice yellow color and tastes amazing!

After we eat, we play some board games. Santa added several new games to our stash this year and we couldn't wait to play them! Uno Attack and Scene It Harry Potter were the games of the evening and they were tons of fun!

Brandon kept getting the attack card that says you can't talk. He got it so often it was almost like a running joke!

Our desert for the evening is fondue. That has now become a tradition as well :) This year, because we are gluten-free, we made our own homemade angel food cake to serve with our chocolate. I was worried about how it would turn out using gluten-free flour but it was perfect!

Doesn't it look yummy?? It was perfect angel food cake! This is the recipe I used and just substituted my gluten-free flour blend in place of regular flour. We love Alton Brown! If you don't watch his cooking shows, you should :)


Fondue yumminess:

Kristen goes to a party thrown by a family we know well. I hate the thought of her out on New Year's Eve but it isn't far and she doesn't have to go on any main roads to get there so it works out nicely. They have a theme every year for fun and this year was "Bling in the New Year":

Doesn't she look blingy? Jon added his bling later...

I'm so proud of my gansta daughter and her gansta boyfriend! ;) Wait, that arm looks awfully bare...maybe I'll get her a tattoo for her birthday! ;) hehe They had a really good time :)

Meanwhile, here at home, everyone made it to ring in the New Year!

Megan could not take her eyes off the screen. She was watching that ball drop for the first time in her life and was so afraid she'd miss it! I love that I caught that moment.

It was great fun and a great way to start a brand new year!

The Rest of the Day

The gifting did not end on Christmas morning. There was more fun to be had! Russ and Judy come to our house on Christmas Day to have lunch with us and exchange gifts. I love that our Christmas Days are so laid back and relaxing. We usually need the rest!

To "get" these pictures, I have to give you a bit of background. Recently, during a visit with Russ and Judy, the conversation turned to food. It went from there to food we ate as kids that we absolutely HATED! Just for full disclosure, mine was/is oatmeal. I will not eat it and I think I may have sat at the table for quite a long time as a child because of my aversion ;) I have issues with food textures.

Anyway, Todd's "special" food was/is canned mixed vegetables. He hated it when that was served for dinner, so guess what his Christmas gift was?

 I love the look on his face in that first picture!

 Punk'd!

We all got a huge laugh out of it! That was, of course, just a prank and not his actual gift :) 

We all really enjoyed our time together.

 No, Kristen did not get a stuffed dog...she's just a good big sister helping Megan get that cutie out of it's packaging (what's the deal with packaging?!?) Kristen's gift was smaller! Mine was too! And we had so much fun spending them ;)

Russ and Judy, thanks for coming to our house and gifting us with your presence as well as presents :)

After Mining

As I mentioned, I chose that particular "mining" location because it is in close proximity to other wonderful places. Beautiful places we hadn't been to in a while, adding a bit more fun and adventure to our day :)

Cedar Falls! We actually had several choices though and I think we'll be heading back sometime this fall to see the leaves and take in another beautiful location.

We were blessed with a gorgeous day! I love these late-in-summer days.

It was a looonnngg walk down the hill. 

 Snapping turtles! We actually saw two.

I love this view.

At the bottom you can see the falls and there's a nice little pond of sorts to investigate. 

 They're checking out the other turtle...

 Back up (that's the hardest part! UGH!)

Although we were short one (Kristen had a wedding to go to), it was still a very nice family day and we can't wait to go back!

Mining

Even though we were on a summer break, our kids did not stop learning. Do they ever?? I certainly hope not! Their learning was self-motivated and all I did was sit back and encourage and occasionally help by providing materials or opportunities to fuel their passions. Summers are exciting for us in that way. We can go on whatever  learning bunny trails we want!!

Brandon has always been so interested in science. He was a very early reader and almost always gravitated to science books. I now have a lot of science-type books ;) Now that he's older, he's allowed to use the internet (somewhat supervised!) to help satisfy his unending curiosity about nearly everything science related. This summer has revolved around chemistry and geology for him :) I have to say that last one surprised me. Geology? Really? The study of.....rocks?? But oh how he loved it! He spent quite a bit of time this summer learning all he could. I love that!

A couple of weeks ago, Kristen gave me a brilliant idea. I got up at 4:30 in the morning to see her off on her vacation to the beach. They were leaving a day early to stop at a gem mine at about the half-way point. After she left, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I looked up gem mines to see where they are in Ohio and guess what I found?? A gem mining experience stuck right in the middle of beautiful Hocking Hills! There were others too and maybe we'll get around to visiting more, but this one is pretty close and has the added bonus of having other really cool things to see, which we took advantage of ;)

We didn't tell them where we were going, and you know what? They went anyway! Our kids LOVE to go places; field trips of almost any kind are always exciting and always are at the top of the things they want to be included in our homeschooling lifestyle. Even the old favorites like the zoo, COSI, and the park; they love them all! Anyway...they were so excited when we got there and told them what they were going to get to do!

We all went inside and the very nice lady took us to the shelf that has the different containers of sand/gravel to choose from. We chose the family bucket, then we headed outside to the sluice. They could hardly wait!

 Todd gave each of them a scoop and they got down to business.

 Beautiful gemstones already!

 This is the way I saw them mostly: heads down, concentrating. Intense little miners!

 Todd went through a scoop himself but quickly realized his job would be refilling their trays ;) and that was more fun for him anyway :)

 And, of course, we spent lots of time delighting in their finds!

 The lady inside told us we might have a geode in there, and we did!

 As well as some arrowheads and other fossils.

 Check out that loot! They were thrilled with their beautiful gemstones :) My favorite part of this picture though? The hands. They are Nicholas' and they are still little and soft with a tiny bit of "baby" pudge. I know it won't be that way  too much longer so I'm loving this reminder that he's still little(ish). In the blink of an eye, his hands will be big, strong hands just like his dad's.

 And, oh, the sweetness here! Loving that I still have a tiny 1st grader :)

 Inside, the guy behind the counter put our geode in this and cracked it for us.

 The kids are loving this ting!

The kids had an amazing time! As soon as we got home, they each took their bag to a table and sorted all their pretty rocks. The lady at the mine had given us a card with the more popular gemstones on it for identification purposes (brilliant!) so we spent time that evening looking at each stone.

And you know what? When they got up this morning, the first thing they did was pull out those stones :)