Front of our house

Tan house with hunter green trim/shutters.

I painted the whole thing!!

I don't think I'll ever want to paint another exterior as long as I ever live...

  

I've stained the deck twice, double coats.  It's not as old as the fence.

 

I've stained that fence 3x too... and it needs triple coats each time!

In the garden post you can see the back side of the cedar fence.

You see the front here on the right side of the house.

We are on a corner lot.

The Garden is finally all in!!

 

In the front here is tomatoes.  There are 6 of 6 different kinds.

To the left all fluffy is chive.

The center has 9 yellow banana peppers.

The fencing along the left is for peas, those seeds went in 2 weeks ago, but the far fence batch all were flooded out, so we had to reseeded today.

Off to the extreme left right in front that you can't see is flat-leaf parsley.

I'll talk about the far end in a minute...

 

Here we are looking at the pea fence.  Growing up the chainlink fence behind the garden are 2 (3yo) seedless green grape vines.  They have cute little grapes started.  Our neighbor there 'kindly' directs all his water right into our garden area!  That's why we had the flooding sooo bad where things got washed out last week.  ggrr...

Okay, the other end.  Now you see the pea fence on the right side.  Along the left is a row of 6 cabbages.  Toward the center of the garden are 6 each of broccoli, califlower, brussle sprouts planted in 2's. (so, 3 plantings essentially.  I did the tomatoes the same way)

It's hard to tell, but there is a row of black-seeded-simpson lettuce in front of the peas.  Right in the center is a furrow we just dug for roquette arugula.  We had it planted, but it got washed out last week with the other peas.  ggrrr....  Luckily the simpson lettuce survived.

So, here is the start of my garden for the year.  Hopefully things don't get flooded out again!

We lost a garden claw in the process...

We'd already lost a hoe too this year.

Conner Prairie Field Trip with Homeschool Group

(old camera today, hence the poor quality photos)

Wow, what a day!!  Conner Prairie in Fishers, IN (just NW of Indy)

It took 2h20min to get there, and an extra 1/2h to get home due to traffic jams.

I'd classify it as a colonial village.

We started out the day going up (I think 387 feet) in a hot air balloon!! 

It's called the '1859 Balloon Voyage' and is based on actual events in Lafayette, IN at that time.

   

Then we went through the Indian reservation camp, and obviously looked inside some long houses. 

 

A Butterfly landed on Sophie's shoe!!! 

 

Off to candle dipping...

And doing the laundry (the boys carried water buckets from the hand pump)

  

3 cousins, aren't they cute!!

 

Wool carding

 

Playing several different games

   

Mowing the lawn!!

 

Petting the animals (goats, chicks, horses, cats, you name it, it was probably pet today by my kids)

 

Fun was had by all!!  We saw 3 different time eras, early 1800's-end 1800's.  We saw 2 different school houses, meeting halls, doctors, blacksmiths, potters, etc. I think the best part was when you talked to them they would only answer as if it were that time period.  ie. the doctor was talking about a new medical discovery, a vaccine to small pox.  Someone asked how antibiotics compare in revelation to vaccines.  The doctor said, 'you talk about vaccines with an s, as if there were more than one, and what is an antibiotic?'

The girls were asked if they could read and write, and the girl who asked went on to say that her paw didn't believe in girls reading, their place is in the home.

It was fun, and eventho it was a LOT of driving it was worth it :)

Last day of homeschool co-op group

   

The day was overcast, but we still met at the park for a picnic lunch and play time.


They went off to play basketball a lot too, but I wasn't walking all the way over there to take pictures... LOL!

It was COLD.  The wind was blowing, so that was the worst of it.  We only stayed nearly 2h.

So, this is the last of our homeschool co-op.  We're disbanding now.  The leaders have kids going into high school and can't concentrate on it any longer.  We have found another group to join tho, so we're pretty happy about that.

Breakfast menu

Sunday-eggs
Monday-granola & yogurt
Tuesday-muffins & yogurt or fruit
Wednesday-egg salad on toast & fruit
Thursday-pancakes & yogurt or fruit
Friday-oatmeal & fruit
Saturday-French toast & fruit

The muffins, french toast and pancakes are all made ahead of time and frozen.  So we just get it out of the freezer and put in fridge to thaw the night before.

My menu for the next month

This is a list of main dishes
(I'll slash them as we eat the meals to see if I follow the plan! LOL)
Sausage/spuds/kraut
Tater-tot casserole
Chicken chili
Cold veggie pizza (crescent roll crust)
Rice meatballs in tomato soup
Teriyaki chicken w/ Asian noodles (went out for Tom's birthday)
Lettuce rolls (tuna salad)
Cardamom roast
Thai chicken & coconut rice
Taco salad
Zuppa Toscana (knock-off Olive Garden)
Twice baked potatoes
Ground beef noodle scallop
Submarine sandwiches
Hamburgers (Memorial Day, gotta do it! LOL) bro's family bought the patties
Sweet-n-sour chicken
Barley tacos and refried beans
Chicken salad sandwiches
Mexican stuffed shells
Lemon rice soup
Baked corn dogs
9-layer salad
Taco soup
Chinese chicken pasta salad
BBQ (or maybe teriyaki) chicken pizza
Fried cabbage & potatoes Indian style
Beef chop suey
Indian butter chicken
Hummus w/ pitas & veggies
Egg drop soup
Chicken caccatorie
Chili con carne
Porterhouse Steaks & mac salad (Father's Day)

Well, that menu time-period is done.  I did fairly well staying on the menu! LOL

Saturday activities

    

More test pics

     

New Camera Test Shots

   

(Kris, that is "Indian Captive" she is finishing up.  She couldn't put it down!!!!)

Wow, no red eye!!  I'm very impressed!