Flea Market Foundlings

I love going to find some kind of amazing treasure at my sort of local flea market. This time, like last time i brought home another orphan quilt. I can not walk away from a good one. They just want a new home.

This one was from the 30's or 40's with some really adorable feed sacks mixed in, and all hand done. I fell in love on the spot!

My other find was this red wire basket. It will eventually be made  into my new dining room lighting fixture (flip it over), but until then i thought it would do a fine and dandy job of holding some of my jelly rolls. I have to say, it is doing a really bang up job.

ps, this new blogger thing stinks!

Leslie

Geek Heaven!

This is one of my favorite pictures from today...Chris got to make a trip to the 5th avenue Apple store. He was more than thrilled. This is a picture of him gazing up from the depths of the store. It is very cool...from above ground it just looks like a big glass box, then you go down a winding staircase and you are in the store, where geeks and nerds abound!!! They all have their silly saying shirts, in red of course for Christmas. He did manage to get a Christmas present out of the trip...he picked it but i am still insisting that we wrap it and it go under the tree with everything else. As a side note....isn't he is just too cute???!!! I love him!


ps..i do have a few fun crafty and sewing things to share but i am afraid if i shared them now that there would be no surprise for Christmas...since i am certain they are reading this...so i promise that i will have a few things to share soon.

Because my Mother Said So

What have we been doing? Lots more than i thought we would be. Somehow despite my best intentions to stay home as much as possible during this over the top shopping season we have been out for some reason or another. All the while wishing we were home.

But, today was an exception to that. Because if you live nearby, a trip into NYC during the christmas season is a must. It is so fun to listen to cheerful, happy christmas blaring from store fronts while people are being rude to one another in the street and horns are honking. Very NY!! The people watching is fun. There are the lights and the pretty storefronts....grand central terminal has a laser light show....there was even a scraggly Santa walking amongst the crowds of people there to see the tree at Rockefeller Center.

Today we headed to the Central Park Zoo, just to prove to Avery that there is more in NYC than just the american girl store. It was small but very fun. We loved the tropical rainforest bird house, if for nothing more than the chance to warm up, because it was freezing today. My glasses fogged up as soon as we walked in!!!

Chris and the kids had a great time posing as animals in the children's zoo. My favorite is the Avery turtle...she looks stuck but trust me we got her out!

Now of course we did stop by to see the tree and what a tree it was. When you stand right up next to it it is amazing how big it is and it looks so pretty. I had the kids stop so we could get a picture with it and without me realizing it i captured the true essence of my son...see that tongue sticking out? Little stinker!

And this is them winding down on the train ride home....plugged in to our respective game/phone devices. They were completely unphased by me taking a picture, never even flinched or bothered to look up. All in all it was a good day....bought a few gifts....avery got to go to the AG store...had a street hot dog and pretzel. See you next Christmas NYC.

I LOVE Old Junk!!!

I had the pleasure of taking a sister trip to visit some really fun antique places in VA. This one was so pink and polka dotty and fun!!! Just imagine it. A whole barn full of goodness. It was perfect there. Be warned, this is a picture heavy post!! and you are going to love every last one of them. :o)
. We did bring the kids, and plying them with lollipops only worked for so long. They were hot and hungry. Not a good combination.

We had been planning on going to some of these places since we drove by them on the way to a homeschool convention several months ago. Right as soon as we saw these amazing places we promised that we were going there, come you know what or high water.
Not a bit of this place disappointed. By chance i just happened to be there the week that this same little town had their yearly antique and craft fair. How prefect was that?
This place and all these piles was and were full of potential. Potential loveliness. Am i gushing? Really, it was that good!!!

One of the main shops in town had a yard full of little antique sheds that were sort of set up like little vignette's. Each one had all different kinds of things....furniture, tin tiles, old frames, old doors, old windows(i especially love these), glass, decorative stuff...everything!

The prices were amazing. So low i was shocked. There were so many things i wished i could get home with me, but they were way too big to get into the trunk of my Outback. It was not going to happen. Beautiful, antique dressers for like 150. Since this is about how much the junk dressers my kids already had, i thought this was awesome.

There were so many things i wished i could bring home with me, but a girl can't have it all...so instead i took lots of pictures and tried to find lots of inspiration. I tried looking at things from a different perspective. I did find a few little wonderful things, but those will have to wait for another post.

Club Week in VA

i know, i am a little behind on the visit to VA pictures but bear with me a little while i play catch up. Colleen and i were wondering what to do with the kids for the week. Well, they made the plan for us. They decided to make a "club" for every day of the week. Quincy helped the girls by making a calendar and a sign up sheet. Very fun...there was scavenger hunt club, book club, space and stars club...and this one day was bird nerd club!!! They really named it that.

The girls had spent a good amount of time bird watching in colleens yard, but we wanted to take them somewhere where they could see some different birds....and we found this exotic bird shop. I would say that they loved it but i don't think that would be true. If she looks uncomfortable in this picture below it is because she is! When they realized that there were such large birds loose, neither was very inclined to be there anymore. But we got a few pictures and they thought the caged birds were much more enjoyable, so all was not lost

Jeepers Creepers!!

You can see why, heebie-jeebies! was in running for the title as well. It has been a busy and long few weeks since we got back from my sisters. I have been dealing with a abscessed tooth, and i totally forgot about our trip to the museum of natural history in DC(i think there will be more pictures to come).

My boy is afraid of nothing....he loves bugs. Unfortunately a little more than i can deal with. But he is all boy so i don't know what i expected. When we were in the Orkin bug display there at the museum there was a nice lady with a cart full of bugs that she was happily handing out for little bug loving boys to hold. He started with that very huge Madagascar hissing cockroach...eeew! And then this very large green caterpillar.

The only bug Avery would agree to hold was the same caterpillar....i think because it did not move much. She took one look at that cockroach and said,"NO WAY!!!". That 's my girl! I love the look on Mitchell's face when the bug lady was telling him all about that caterpillar. He looks so intent and serious.

Lastly he got his little hands on this hug grasshopper. He loved every minute of it. I think these bugs were the highlight of the museum for him!

More Pickin'

finally it let me put some more pictures on the old bloggy. These are some of my favorites from our apple picking trip. I hope that we can go again.

Apple Picking

this is going to be the post that almost never was...i have been trying to get it together for days. It is not a hard thing...just a few fun things about our day apple picking.

About how it happened way to quickly... how we chose a spot and then in 10 minutes we were done. I was trying to pick and take pictures at the same time but it just was not working. I was frustrated. I was trying to have fun but it was hard. In my memories apple picking took some time so there was a bit of a let down when we were done so quickly.

I have one very efficient picker that was banned after he filled the first of 2 bags before any of us had picked even 10 apples all together. And about how when you see the bags of apples in the orchard there does not seem to be many, but when those bags are on your kitchen counter there are way more than one girl knows what to do with.

About how i could not get the computer to work and now i can not get the pictures to load. I have tried 4 times. It is making me nuts. So those pictures will follow soon, my favorite pictures...barring anymore technical difficulties.

Outing

Even when it is hard, because there are always hard days, i am thankful for the flexibility we have with homeschool. Having the opportunities to do school outside the house are so great, but getting to do them with other kids took it to a whole new level for us this week. Lori, if you are reading this, thanks so much, we had a great time!!! One of the coolest finds of the day for our little group of explorers was this snake...everyone thought it was cool....except for Avery. She was back on the trail in a flash as soon as she saw it. Funny girl.

We got chances to sit and sketch what we saw together. We saw cormorants and a great blue heron. Right by the water is our favorite spot to sit and enjoy the birds. I loved that the little ones were also sketching but not what they saw like the older two but, snowmen and smiley face monsters! Cute right?

We also had the chance to cross one of the footbridges on the island where we were having our nature walk and explore the first lock in the Erie Canal system. The walkway by the water shows every lock across NY state...the kids followed that gray brick road right to the end. Mitch was a little tired after all the walking so he laid down on the bench and had a little pretend snooze. Always trying to make his audience laugh!

Bird Paradise

This past week we went on a school field trip to the Berkshire Bird Paradise. It was to reinforce the things we have been learning in science this month. Birds! Birds! Birds! And wow, there was an amazing variety of birds there. We were pleasantly surprised. Avery's life list of birds has grown by leaps and bounds, mine too. These were a few of my favorites. The East African Crowned Crane(i think i got that right) was amazing...it was apparently very threatened by us being there, as it was flapping its wings and making quite a ruckus. We loved every minute of it.

The bird i went there especially to see was the Victorian Crowned Pigeon. It is amazing. The biggest pigeon you have ever seen. It was beautiful.

There were several rescued bald eagles. They are amazing however and wherever you see them, but when you see them close up they are awesome.

I think Lulu the cockatoo was the kids favorite. She talked and danced and was very expressive. She made lots of funny noises and liked to entertain us. This was her best display.