Serenity in the Mountains

We headed into the mountains on Saturday morning with my mom who is taking a watercolor painting workshop in Boone, NC. She rented a cabin/house with my Aunt for the weeks and we were lucky enough to go with her for a few days. For an added bonus Tony was able to take a couple days off and come too - yeah! The only thing missing was Grandpa, but we will see him this weekend in Florida.

The cabin was awesome! I think I want to live there ! (well maybe not in the middle of winter)

there was a beautiful view from the porch.

THe inside was cozy
The boys discovered some games
Adeline loved this guy
On Sunday we went for a walk on the Greenway in Boone. It is a paved walkway that goes around the park. It turned out to be a pretty day despite some ugly rain clouds lingering overhead.

yes I made the kids sit and have their picture taken. Not too bad - not great , but it will do.
We picked Dandelions. That is Adeline's favorite right now.
played with the most adorable puppies
walked along a stream
crossed a covered bridge
then after hiking up the side of the mountain, took a much needed rest!
Except for the teenager who did what teenagers do - talk on the phone. shh dont tell anyone he was talking to his grandpa .
silly girl
Then on Monday while my mom and aunt were at their workshop we headed to the Foggy Mountain gem mine. The boys were given a bucket prefilled with rocks and gems. They had to sort out the rocks from the gems.
And yes we did find gems!!! Lots of them - rubies, emeralds,tiger's eye, quartz, topaz, labadorite, garnet, moonstone, and a few more. The gems in the plastic round dishes are what the gems look like after they have been cut. Our gems are the ones next to the dishes. We took ours home in the rough. Maybe we will get a rock tumbler and shine them up a bit.
Then we headed to Linville Falls for lunch and a hike. Adeline ate her lunch on the go : )
The view was great from here
but amazing from here!!!
such handsome guys


An awesome vacation in the mountains!!

MOM - if you read this before you leave there - the best place to take your trash is behind the realtors office! hope you are having fun

Out to the country for a field trip

I can't tell you enough how much I love the country. I feel so calm and peaceful as I drive among the fields and trees with houses scattered about here and there. Cows and horses oh my. One day , one day I too will be a country dweller.

Well today we went to the Mcdufie Enviromental Educational Center for a homeschool field trip. We started off the morning with a hike looking for bugs - 100 of them

These little(and big)guys :

plastic ones nailed about the trail. It was clever I thought. They recently had a controlled fire to clear the area so it was looking rather ragged. Thus the plastic bugs to get the kids excited. Ryan found 85 of them - they had a board where they kept tally of what they saw.

We also admired the pine trees growing around the area - Georgia is famous for their pines!


And where you have pine trees - you have pine cones ! Check out this one as big as Ryan's head!
Little miss Adeline enjoyed the pinecones as well, after all she is my little nature girl : )
Then we headed to the classroom and while Adeline looked at the fish
Ryan and his fellow homeschoolers learned about the Monarch butterfly life cycle. They made a cool project showing the cycle and then they headed outside
To make a butterfly
complete with proboscis!
Then all the little butterflies fluttered across the field trying to get each other with their proboscis's
After lunch - back to the classroom to learn about the frog life cycle!
Make a cool mask and bugs
and the fun part - catch the bugs with their tongue.
Last stop was to the discovery room - cool stuff there!

It was a great trip - just the right amount of learning, crafts and play. They kept the kids engaged and moving! The cool part you can go back anytime and fish as well ! I think we will be doing that soon.

Sweet Adeline is One !

I know I have said this before when each of the boys turned one - but where did the time go ! my newborn is a full fledged toddler! It was a year ago that I held my sweet baby girl in my arms the second she was born and have held her ever since! I love everything about her - her toes, fingers, legs, arms, her baby smell, the way she calls out for na-na's when she wants to hurse. The times when I am worn out from all night nursing/co-sleeping - I think about the day she was born and how special she is to me. That gets me through those times. That and her sweet smiling face in the morning.

Oh how she has grown this past year.

Her first birthday crown - hand dyed and hand sewn to match -

Of course she needed a birthday dress mae by mom. fabric carefully picked out for the occasion. I think this shall be a new birthday tradition for my little girl

Her Grandpa took her to breakfast at the beachdiner

After breakfast the boys went off and I got to spend some quite time with my birthday girl. We went for a walk on the beach (well , I walked and she slept in the jogger). Then we walked over the our favorite coffee shop and hung out for a bit.

played in the bird bath

We then went out to eat and came home for cupcakes!

Happy first Birthday my sweet birthday!

Hiking

It was a beautiful afternoon so we headed out for a hike - Florida style : )

Adeline started off in her Ergo on my back, but soon joined in with the walking

Not exactly hiking clothes - but she does look very fashionable

The boys enjoyed it as well

Adeline did a great job and walked quite a bit on her own picking up sticks, spanish moss and leaves. My little one will be a great hiker I think