Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Another photo blog

The kids were all enthralled with Uncle Aaron's electronics.

Leah's first day of school(second year of preschool) and her first day of piano lessons. She could not wait for piano lessons to start and is doing very well!

Daddy daughter date to the Brazilian Festival. Leah's favorite parts were riding the train and getting a tiny Brazilian flag.

We all met upWith Mary and Joel at the Peace Gardens




Enjoying some rainy days




Leah and BFF Lily built a "zoo" and wanted a picture

Holy Skeletons and bones! Leah is ALWAYS talking about skeletons and bones the last couple months.So many questions about bones and the skeleton I can't keep up. I am feeling ignorant when it comes to anatomy. It seems to be increasing daily. Good timing as halloween stuff has hit the shelves. And a super surprise coming in the mail next week that should really help.....stay tuned.



Dave caught the super sweet hand rest while picking strawberries


Progress on the deck. The stairs are next.

A new concrete pad for another compost bin. Dave let Leah make footprints all over in it. It will be covered in dirt.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Busy summer photo dump!

It has been such a busy summer. Kate has been is full teething mode. This puts Leah in full frustration mode. And Dave and I spend our days just trying to keep the peace it seems. The upside of this is we get out of the house A LOT to try and distract them both. The downside is we are always exhausted! In the midst of it all the garden(s) have done so well with food production and Dave has managed to build another grow box, finish the goats summer home structure, and build our new deck! All he has left on the deck are the stairs and the railing. We are also now in major Harbour Island planning mode. Just a little over a month and a half now until departure day. We found a super good deal on airfare this year so will be staying almost 5 weeks!!!!! What are we thinking!? It's going to be SOOOOO hard to come home after 5 weeks. Torture. 

What are the kids up to? Well Leah has a best friend across the street she plays with almost daily. I really don't know how we survived before the age of friendship! They have so much fun together. They play for hours and hours(6 hours a few days ago) and have so much fun pretending to be dogs or horses or whatever animal they are into that day. Said friend is 5 and stared kindergarden this year which makes Leah so jealous! Leah started with a new class for fall but still at her teacher Miss Sharon's house. She has 5 kids in her class this year and goes 3 days a week for 21/2 hours. All her classmates will start kindergarden next year. Man I am not looking forward to when she figures this out and learns she has a whole extra year before she can go!

Kate is teething. teething teething teething(see photo below). All I can say is 5 to go. And the molars are already in  so that's a plus. The few things that distract her from her pain are reading,(we do so. much. reading.) bike rides,(pulling 70 lbs total weight with both kids and trailer is a VERY good workout) and visits with family and friends. This means that Dave's parents have seen way more of us than they want to lately. Kate is also busy learning her letters, singing songs and she can recently count to ten! She is much more athletic than Leah was at this age and wants to climb on EVERYTHING!

Here is all the randomness we thought to grab the camera for in the last few months.


Teething pain face

Awwww

They love to dress up with the scarves


Reading...again

Kate quickly learned where all the strawberry plants in the yard are and would go strait to them when let out of the house. She would also lay her hand on your shoulder gently while you picked them for her. It was so sweet and tender! Wish I could have captured it.

Leah with her other best friend Sonora.


A common summer scene.



Having a ball as usual. 


Fun with dragon flies. We get swarms of dragonflies that come out in the early evening. The kids love to try and catch them or watch the cats jump around trying to catch them. This one was injured and fun to see up-close.


Kate loves loves loves the goats! She has spent hours picking up hay off the ground and "feeding" them this summer. Much of the time without pants of course.


very common wildness

Doing each others hair

A Visit from cousins Brooklyn and Jaxson



Kate playing with the first harvest back in July


Thursday, July 18, 2013

Reading for Grandma

We are running out of Bob books!  Leah started reading about 10 months ago and has "passed of" 70 of the 80 available. What will we do!? These books have really been the best thing ever for her. She REALLY wanted to read and Bob books have been perfect! At the rate she is going she will be finished with them in about 4 weeks. DOUBLE DRAT! I have tried to find other books she enjoys but most of them are either way too long for a 3 yr. old attention span or just plain boring. What do you do?

Anyway, here is Leah reading a book for her Grandma Schmidt!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Puppy Love

The girls(and their friends) are greatly enjoying a puppy named Charlie that is staying with us for training this week. She is a super sweet girl with a reserved personality.....perfect for treating like a living teddy bear. The big bonus is she LOVES to play in the water. Great timing for July!