So Proud!

Watch out!

Today we have video footage courtesy of Ella.  I look so thrilled, don't I?

Painted Lady on Bright Lights Cosmos

You Can't Make a Turtle Come Out

Happy 18 Months!!!

One and a half years already! A(mostly) peaceful day for Hannah's 18 month birthday.  Playing at the pump might have been the highlight of her day.  She was certainly very pleased with herself placing this plastic cup on top of the well after she had watched her brother do it.  

Also, hide and seek!

Homegrowns

Gabriel's cosmic purple carrots
Joshua's potatoes (reds and golds)
Herbs by Mama
Eaten by all!
Joshua fries his small bite size potatoes with salt and pepper and serves them sizzling in the pan tableside!  MMMmmmmm...

Hannah's hiding spot

And because this one is just so cute!!!!!!

I challenge you to look at this picture without smiling!!!!!

We had a fantastic cookie countdown party tonight hosted by our library as the culmination of summer reading.  We danced the Virginia reel, ate tons of cookies and found out we beat last summer's number of books read!  12,551 books (I think)!  Ella, especially, was SO excited!

We also clocked 4 more hours and one picnic more at Mint Springs today.  I am not ready for that place  to close!  Hannah snoozed on the beach, everyone swam, dove and played on the sand, and Joshua caught a couple fish AND unhooked them.  I think that was a first.

More Mushrooms

Pictures from a morning mushroom walk last Monday.  We parked at the Humpback Rocks parking area and hiked down to the Appalachian Trail heading south.  We found a few chantrelles (Tucker has since found many more!) and many more mushroom (and millipede) marvels!

Orange pinwheels~ I love these guys~ delicate, yet sturdy stalked:

Big rocks get a lot of attention, we also have the requested video footage of these endeavors:

one of many millipedes:

The art of mushroom smelling:

Gabriel might be our most interested fungologist.  You will notice he is wearing a plastic bag hat for collection purposes:

What big girls!:

To me this looks like it belongs on a coral reef!:

Canning in the Rain

:: pickled beets
:: carrot habenero hot sauce
:: rain dancing
:: puddley babies
:: river swimming
:: river fishing
:: blts

When We Hiked the Mountain

Introducing my guest blogger Joshua :)  

We couldn't see this toad until Daddy showed us where it was:

I took this picture (Gabriel)
It's a multi-colored lichen:

This is a stink bomb.  It was very stinky:

I took this (Gabriel):

This is the first picture we took:

A leaf mark in a stump:

This was a mushroom forest made of mushrooms:

Daddy and Gabriel and I (Joshua) went on a trail that was three miles.  The trail looked like a mushroom.  We took about five detours into the woods.  We climbed a few rocks.  Big rocks.  We collected some mushrooms.  We lost a hat.  We went back two times to find it, and the last time we couldn't find it.  We hiked up steep hills.  Gabriel was ready to go home.  When we got to the top of the hill, we walked down and then we were at the end.  We looked at the big map and saw the trail we had just hiked.  We got back at noon, and we hadn't had breakfast!