A Weekend In NH

Since Labor Day weekend, our weeks have been full of school and our weekends full of working on the deck. Not that both activities aren't extremely rewarding, but they are both exhausting!

This weekend MiniM.E.'s friend H. was having his 5th birthday so we decided to take a weekend off and drive to NH to celebrate.

We drove Friday night and since the party wasn't until Sunday, we decided to visit my favorite apple orchard Saturday. The weather was beautiful and it couldn't have been a nicer day.

MiniM.E.'s favorite part of the day was the wagon ride to the orchard.

Everyone enjoyed the actual picking of apples- so much that we picked two bushels!

LittleL.G. could have played in the pumpkin patch all day.

There were also old tractors to play on, and my favorite, cider donuts.

In between apples and party we played outside and went out for make your own pizza.

Sunday, we enjoyed running around at the party, chasing giant bubbles, playing in the bounce house and of course, eating cake. Then it was time to drive home.

Low Key Week Three

We had a pretty low key week this week because both the girls came down with a pretty nasty cold. I introduced a more relaxed schedule for school and we just took it easy.

lots of play when the girls were up for it

immunity boosting smoothie mustaches

Mid-week MiniM.E,'s cold was fading and LittleL.G. hadn't gotten the worst of it yet, so we visited MiniM.E.'s old school playground for a picnic with a friend. The girls were really excited to be back.

dual kazooing

Thursday was hot and MiniM.E. thought it was warm enough for some hose play

Friday we took our first "field trip" to the state park where we searched the creek for bugs and small animals. It was a perfect day for animal finding and we caught crayfish, a lizard, a fish, and a bunch of crazy bugs. LittleL.G. wasn't sure about the whole thing, but MiniM.E. had a blast.

Our Big Weekend Project

I haven't been posting much about our weekends because we've been working on a huge project since Labor Day weekend.  We thought maybe it would be a two weekend project, but here we are on weekend three and we still haven't quite finished.

So here it is, project new deck:

halfway through weekend one

the start of weekend two

end of weekend two

after working all weekend this weekend

My parents have been nice enough to drive up every weekend to help. We have little deck building skill, so they have been very helpful in directing the building and my dad has been working hard and sharing his tools. After being home with the girls all day everyday, it has been a nice break to work with the guys and my mom has been nice enough to do the majority of watching the kids. As usual, it became a much bigger project than we expected, but we are so happy with how it's coming along.

And it has been nice to spend the weekends with Gram and Grumpy.

The Second Week of the School Year

Monday was an exciting day for MiniM.E. because we finally made it through the primer she's been reading all summer.  To celebrate, we went to the Dairy Haus for ice cream.

Tuesday we needed some outside playtime so we went to the nearby playground.

Wednesday after school we met our friends at the new coffee shop in town, Kru. By far the fanciest coffee shop we've been to in a long time. It was a great place to take the girls (and Baby G.) because at 3pm there were hardly any customers and they have a great loft area where the girls could run around without bothering anyone.

all six of these cuties. love them!

Thursday the weather was beautiful so we sped through our morning school session so we could make it to the playground again to meet up with some friends.

LittleL.G. on the big girl swing

And that sums up the fun things we got to do this week. The school days continued to run smoothly, though I could tell that the excitement of the first week was fading so we'll tweak things a little for next week. I might have started off a little too strong... but we're still learning a lot and having fun.

How the First Week Went

I couldn't have hoped for our first week of school to run any smoother than it did.  Both the girls seem to thrive on the new schedule, MiniM.E.'s behavior has been fantastic, we are doing TONS of learning and we still have LOADS of time to play.  But, boy... are we all exhausted!

The best part of our homeschool schedule is that the actual academics only take a couple hours.  We have plenty of time to learn about things MiniM.E. is interested in, do lots of art projects, and still fit in time for... 

swimming in the yard:

playdates at the playground:

and less fun things like today's grocery shopping trip... all during the school day.

After week one MiniM.E. loves school and was crushed this morning when she found out we won't be doing school on the weekends.  Too cute!

The First Day of School

I think MiniM.E. and I were equally nervous about the first day of school this year since we are both starting out on this homeschool journey together.  Oddly, even though she knows her teacher and her classmate, MiniM.E. still seemed anxious.  I have been thinking and rethinking and planning and revising and preparing for today for months and my anxiety level has been pretty high.  But today we both just started out excited. 

I really don't think the day could have gone much better for a first time homeschooling mom and a first time homeschooler.  MiniM.E. was super excited to start and was really receptive to everything we did.  We got to take lots of breaks and had lots of playtime, and even then we were done by 2:30.  Homeschooling for the win!

I won't be posting about all the things we do at school here but if you are interested, I plan on posting at least some of the coolest things we do at school here.

And then to celebrate we went out to ice cream with our friends who start school tomorrow and Thursday.  Doesn't get much better than that!

The Last Week of Summer

I can't believe it is already September and Labor Day is this weekend! The summer really flew by with all of our activities and trips. As much as I love summer, I'm sure you know by now that fall is by far my favorite season. Back to school, cooler weather, apple picking, foliage, pumpkin flavored everything... doesn't get much better.

The girls and I couldn't think of a more relaxing way to start summer than by spending it in NH with Gram and Grumpy, the pool, hot tub, trampoline and zip line.

I don't have a lot of photos from our trip because I was just trying to enjoy the girls. It really was just the break I needed because next week MiniM.E. and I both start school.  MiniM.E. will be in kindergarten and I am going back to teaching after my six year stint as a stay at home mom. The good news is I still get to stay at home with the girls because we are homeschooling MiniM.E.! The start of a new adventure for both of us!

Raspberry Picking

Today we met some friends to go raspberry picking.  I haven't been raspberry picking since MiniM.E. was a baby and we haven't picked other berries in a while either because MiniM.E. just wasn't into it- a lot of work for me and a lot of complaining for her.

But we were invited and I love raspberries and we didn't have anything else to do...

And I was so pleasantly surprised! Both girls loved picking berries and picked for more than an hour!

Time for raspberry crumble!

A Week Back At Home

It's always hard to get back into the swing of things after a week long vacation. With all the excitement, late nights, short naps and general lack of sleep paired with the disappointment of being at home and not at the lake, the girls were in rough shape. We tried to take it easy this past week while we adjusted to being back home.

MiniM.E. met a new friend whose grandparents moved in across the street

we rode the carousel

LittleL.G. held Baby G.

The cats went to the vet

the once a year MiniM.E. gets to hold Metzger

we took some neighborhood walks