Four wheeling!!!

Both boys LOVE the four wheeler, and Cammy cannot get enough of it. Anytime the barn is open he runs right to it and climbs on. After all these years I finally learned to drive it! My first expedition - Cam and I drove it up to check the mail!!!!!! I feel like such a red neck, but I love it!!! Mike takes the boys out for little adventures on the four wheeler, often to check the fields and the crops he's planted....and they of course love it!!! Here's a recent picture of the three of them:)

Biking adventure....

My good friend Kate and I recently took the kiddos on a biking adventure. Both boys recently got new bikes and we thought it would be fun to get them biking together. We wondered if we were insane when we set out as we were trying cram 4 bikes and a burley into our 2 subarus but it was a really, really fun adventure and the boys did SO great on their new bikes. We were really proud of them. The little ones did well in the Burley too and were very cute munching on their snacks together and "chatting" to one another. We peddled 4 miles (from Leddy park into Burlington and back) down the Burlington bike path and had a picnic on the way....and stopped for a special ice cream treat:)

New neighbours...

Tan had recently been asking what a chickadee nest looked like and lo and behold last week we realized we have new neighbours!!!! A pair of chickadees have hollowed out a home in the neck of one of our deer targets. So of course that target has been retired for a few months while the chickadees are in residence and we're getting to learn about a chickadee nest first hand. We've been taking them seeds and food and leaving it by their new home and we've been enjoying watching them come and go. They are super cute and actually super friendly. They don't seem to mind us coming and going at all.

Baking bread....

Baking is a favorite activity of both boys. It's always very messy when both boys are helping me but also lots of fun. Here's Cam (and Tan in the background) cutting butter for soda bread.

Out biking...

We just got Tan his first bike which he is really excited about. He's doing great with it, and Cam likes to ride beside him on his tricycle:)

Beltane!

Beltane is one of my absolute favorite celebrations of the solar year. And I know we'd found a special place in VT as our community actually has it's own Beltane celebration which is wonderful. We always have our own celebration at home as well. This year, among other things, we made dandelion pancakes sprinkled with violet flowers which were really yummy and you just can't beat eating flowers - it makes every cell of your being so happy:) Then we made our mini maypoles and played outside all day, from sunrise on, a lot of the time in our barefeet because it's finally that time of year again - the boys are thrilled:)!!!

Late season snow in VT...

Last week was bizarre....we started out on Monday in the high 70's and playing in the kiddie pool. By Tues. we were covered in snow and building a snowman, and on Weds we went sledding! It was fun to have a last blast of winter and do all the wintery things one last time. And I think we made our "prettiest" snowman yet as I can't say I've ever before decorated a snowman with spring flowers!!!

Earthday Birthday...

We celebrated Earth Day (Mother Earth's birthday as we like to call it in our house) with our annual trash pickup followed by dirt cake in honor of the Earth -complete with candles and the "happy birthday" song (because you can't have a birthday party without that!). This year we all made a pact to each do something good for the Earth all summer (that we're not yet doing) as our "gift" to the Earth for her birthday. As Tan's gift to the Earth he is taking out the compost for us, and also he is making sure none of the apple cores he eats in the car go in the trash - he "will bring them home and put them right in the compost". This was completely his idea and so cute:) This year we picked up every piece of trash we could find around our whole loop - we've never made it the whole loop before so we all felt very proud:)

Painting the siding...

Tanner helped Mike paint a section siding a few weeks back. He was thrilled to be up on the ladder and a part of such a big boy job. As Mike later mentioned, it didn't exactly make the job quicker, but with kids it's all about the process (and of course the feeling of accomplishment they feel at the end too:)