TreasuresInTerraCotta

Two years ago this week we had the pleasure of visiting Boston.  It was the perfect week to see the leaves and explore the city a little bit!  I thought I would make it feel like Fall around here by posting a few pictures from the 2010 trip! Wellesley College from the bell tower      Those little boys are really growing up!  Truman is almost the age of Andrew in these pictures.    Salem, Massachusetts We seem to make lots of trips to pumpkin patches.  This one was near my sister's school and we were a little early to pick her up so we stopped for a few pictures, play and we picked up a couple pumpkins for the college girl.    A small park we spontaneously stopped to visit.  Just because it was pretty.  And because it had this beautiful clock tower. The leaves in the canopy of the tree were so red that we look exceptionally pink in this picture....

We've been learning patriotic songs this year.  Here's Andrew practicing his marching and horn playing to Yankee Doodle.    Did you know that the reference to a macaroni was actually about a fancy hat from England, not pasta?  Honestly, that was new information to me! Not the "Oh, now that you mention it, I remember hearing that before!" but the "I've NEVER heard that!" A little school work in dappled October shade!   We planted beets and carrots in our Earth Boxes.  We also planted corn because we learned about Pilgrims, Squanto, Plymouth, the Mayflower and the miraculous feat those Puritans Separatists accomplished by simply surviving.   We shook our own butter.  We made (super easy) homemade bread. Because Jesus is the Bread of Life. One day we headed to Mt. Lemmon to have a picnic and draw in our journals and have school and study rocks.  Because anyone who hears the words of Jesus and puts them into prac...

We stopped in northern California to spend a day with my Uncle and his family.  He called in some favors and late in the day we headed out to private property, personally escorted by the owner.  We drove West of I-5, and immediately lost sight of anything resembling Los Angeles, Disneyland, San Diego or rush-hour traffic.  Over hills and through grassy fields.  Through no fewer than three (locked) farm gates.   Eventually we ended up on rutted roads more like cow paths. And then we arrived at a "cow pond."  We were told it was full of bass.  And that not just anyone can fish here.  She told us that there were so many bass that they needed to be fished out.  "Anything you don't want, just throw up on the shore...the coyotes will eat them tonight." Calvin threw in his line and caught a fish, first try.  The dog wanted to get the fish too, but Calvin got the honors of catching the first fish.   Virtually eve...