Update in Fast Forward

Long time - no posts! April hits and in our home it's like cresting the very first hill of a roller coaster and it never stops until the first of June - this year was no exception. So here's a pictorial look at what's been happening at the Brown household this spring.

Allan's Ninth Birthday and his first watch!

The Madame Tussaud's figure of President Howard Taft came to his childhood home which is only 2 blocks from us and so we went for a visit. I was impressed - he even had about 8 hours growth of whiskers - I wanted to get a close up but he was so lifelike I felt weird getting in his face to take a picture.

The main activity the boys engage in everyday is all things related to Legos - whoever invented them deserves to have made a fortune!

Stephen has a unique way of folding his washcloths - looks more impressive spread out instead of in a stack I suppose.

And then it was Mother's Day. Another year to mark the day by buying flowers instead of a card. So thankful for the blessing of such wonderful memories. And also a day marking my ninth year of being a mother!

Then there were swimming lessons - because it was still during the school year they were the only ones in the class.

About this time my "new to me" (October?)  camera breathed it's last breath. So I'm now working on trying to get used to a very different camera that was given to me - I miss my Canon!

Then garden season - asparagus first, then strawberries, the blueberries were just planted this year so it will be  few years, and then lettuce and peas. It looks quite different now! 

Below are the blueberry bushes.

This was a sweet mesclun mix that made wonderful salads!

 And then there was a surprise gift of a piano! Allan and Daniel promptly sat down and picked out Amazing Grace and so we have heard it until mommy has decided that lessons have to start very soon to save our sanity!

For whatever reason this year I was ready for the school year to be over before the boys were. Because of a special that BJUP was running, I placed my order for next year the weekend of Mother's Day. I was amazed at the excitement I felt and the boys expressed at seeing those boxes of new books, manuals, clean worktexts, and all kinds of fun stuff. It was like a shot in the arm to get us through the last few weeks. I may have learned a lesson for next year.

Occasionally there is a break from Legos to play with Play dough. I think this is to represent the bird that has taken up residence in a fern on our porch.

I know this is scattered but it gives you an idea of the happenings from April through the first of June. We just got back from a trip to TN and then to NC to go camping (which also involved Daniel losing his first tooth - it's been trying to come out for a month!) and getting a call on vacation informing us our car was stolen. So the past two weeks have been very exciting and as soon as I go through the pictures I'll do another post.

David and Goliath - Told By Stephen's Expressions

Stephen's favorite story and song are "David and Goliath". One day we were having a picnic I just sat and snapped pictures while Philip told the story - his expressions were so funny!

Daddy tells Stephen he'll tell the story of David and Goliath.

A long time ago there was a shepherd boy named David.

While watching sheep he killed a lion and a bear.

His father sent him to check on his brother's who were fighting the Philistines.

At some point daddy missed something important. 

A big giant comes into the valley to mock God's people. David said, "He can't do that - I'll fight him." 

 

David gathers his stones and puts them in his slingshot.

Around and around goes the slingshot and then he let it fly. Pow - right in Goliath's forehead!

Goliath stunned, falls to the ground.

David grabs Goliath's sword....

and cuts his head off.

All in a good day's work!

February

Typically in February I'm enjoying the long dark evenings where puzzles and games coupled with soup suppers create a warm fuzzy feeling while the "weather outside is frightful". But not this year. Instead I'm roaming Lowes on my day off making garden plans and the boys are outside on roller blades. I'm starting to feel as though I've not gotten my proper winter's nap! Hopefully before  winter is over we'll get enough snow at one point to go sledding.

Last week I washed a catalog....mark that down as another first! What a mess......and I thought Kleenexes were bad. Someone had evidently put it on the dryer and when I dumped a large load in it slid in with the dirty wash. Then last night I opened the dryer door and some little boy must have been collecting rubber band. Now if someone would just start leaving cash.......... 

Friday the boys and I cut down a tree by the area where we have our garden. It was a mulberry tree that drops berries in our garden every year making a mess. It was a nice day, we were itching to be outside, we have a hand saw, bye-bye tree!

Philip had to be out of town Friday evening (which is normally our family night) so we made special plans for Saturday late afternoon and evening. Most Saturdays there is a "Snakes Alive" program at the Creation Museum and so we decided to take the boys. We went to the last presentation of the day and there were only two people there besides our family which gave the boys many opportunities to handle the snakes. I held my camera with both hands taking lots of pictures so as not to appear a sissy. I've seen snakes.....killed 15 in my yard last year....thanks but I'll pass. I did get a boa dumped on me though and that was enough to give someone nightmares!

Now this picture..... the yellow thing is "Chiquita", a 5 year old, 100 pound boa, which translates, 100 pounds of wriggly nasty! Don't let the smile on my face fool you.....I'm a very good hypocrite because even as I write this the hair on the back of my neck is standing straight up and my body keeps doing this involuntary shiver!

Whew......since my guys seem to like them so well.....they can clear out any that appear in our yard this summer!

So....those are some of our highlights.....at least the ones I caught on camera!

Happy Birthday Dear Daniel!

Daniel is 5 years old today! What a blessing this stocky little guy has been to our family - always careening from pillar to post and regularly giving us heart-attacks but full of a giving, caring spirit. Happy 5th Birthday Daniel Mark Brown!

His birthday meal of choice was.......hot dogs and Doritos! Whatever! His request for a cake was, "I want a knight cake." So after finding some knights on horses at the dollar store (which I let them play with and COULD NOT find but one to put on the cake), and googling "make castle out of cereal boxes" I came up with this idea and went to work! The castle was actually quite easy, very cheap (other than the textured paint I used!) and he'll be able to play with it again. Today he starting dreaming about having a dragon, hanging from the ceiling that would swoop down over the castle breathing fire....but I draw the line with things hanging from the ceiling!

When we were reminiscing this morning about his birth I said, "Grandma and Pappy were here five years ago today." And Daniel said, "yeah, I remember that!" Grandma Slagenweit actually was in the room when he was born and cut his cord! He was a week overdue so they induced - I don't think I could have gotten any bigger or had him drop any lower! (I was never one of those "dainty pregnant" women)

And here we thought after he arrived our little family was complete! Surprise :o)

New Living Room

This blog post is especially for my mom. Earlier this summer we invested some money in "new" furniture and I've never gotten around to posting pictures of the finished product. The goal of my decorating is to make people feel as though they can relax because it seems like a home. I don't have any knack like my mom and sister for pulling things together and making it look finished but it works for us. Since mom isn't able to travel I've tried to take pictures so that she can "see" what it looks like. This is standing in the kitchen looking into the living room. I love the bookcases! And my fern did wonderful on the porch this summer - I'll probably kill it now that it's indoors :o(

With two full couches it just looked too "boxy" if they were flush with the wall so I angled the one couch and put a lamp behind it since there's no overhead light in the living room and it helps light that part of the room at night.

The wall grouping has all the family pictures. Jennifer and Tonya have sent me new pictures of their boys but I don't have them up yet (project for next week) and I hope to get a picture of Kaylynn soon. Some of these pictures are really outdated!

So that's what it looks like. I'm so thankful for a cozy, yet beautiful home! Sighhhh....I really like it here. Oh, and yes, I know the couch pillows are UGLY.....we'll work on that!

The Great Smoky Mountains

We took a family camping vacation last week to the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. Our campsite was actually on the Cherokee Indian Reservation just a little below the Smokies at Mile High Campground. In June we'd scouted out the area and found site 10 A&B to be exactly what we wanted - at the edge of the grounds where the boys could explore without being in other people's campsites, they could be loud and not disturb anyone, and had all the terrain pluses needed when you're tenting. Perfect spot. We packed and pulled out Monday morning around 9:30. Here are the boys already immersed in the books we'd picked up from the library. They also enjoyed HOURS of listening to "The Hobbit"! It helps the time go so much quicker. Stephen wasn't too impressed with the story except there was a dragon in it!

The drive was lovely and the boys enjoyed going through the tunnels.

Elk have been introduced to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and driving up to our campsite we saw our first one resting in the shade behind a primitive cabin. Later that afternoon, Philip took the boys to the restroom and I was at the site by myself when two very large elk walked right past our tent. Two days later the boys were able to see some and my mother-in-law got some pictures of them.

We had a great setup with the "dinner" tent set up very close our sleeping tent and the fire pit nearby. The only drawback was having the restrooms so far away but that's not much a problem when you have boys!

Daddy playing ball with the boys. Because we were over 5,000 ft. the weather was perfect! Mid-to upper 70's in the day and high 60's at night - Perfect!

Monday night there was quite a windstorm that blew through but our tent was anchored well and it sounded like ocean waves coming up from the valley and rushing along the ridge and down the other side.

Tuesday we did some exploring! We took a picnic lunch to Balsam Mountain and then after eating took a one way, gravel road through the mountains into Cherokee, NC. It's about 28 miles but it took over two hours to travel. The windstorm the night before had blown over a tree across the road. Unfortunately, Philip didn't have an axe with him but he did have a log splitter and was able to cut through enough that we could get by. It was a lot of work! When Philip was done the boys burst into applause saying, "Daddy's a hero!"

The views from the Campground are INCREDIBLE! In the mornings the mist would lay in the valleys and you almost felt like you were in another world, way above the clouds. The sunsets were also fantastic.

On Tuesday my in-laws came to join us. Their pop-up was in the site next to ours. The whole week no one else set up in the other two sites next to us - which was VERY nice! The boys had the whole area to themselves. While they were there - Philip and Pop-pop spent time reading Hebrew together while the boys played -

Found all kinds of interesting things to look at (red and green mushrooms, shelf fungus, and butterflies, Indian paintbrush and other flowers). Gramme was a good source to help analyze what we were seeing.

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Wednesday morning Philip and I travelled to Bryson City, NC to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. It was fun to reminisce about the past 10 years - though it doesn't seem that long, a lot has happened in our lives! The main activity we had planned was riding on the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad. Philip had reservations for first class which included a meal. It was a lovely, relaxing time! We saw lots of beautiful country and the history was very fascinating. Before boarding the train, we toured the museum that had a really neat train display that my boys would have loved!

After sitting all day we both needed some exercise so we hiked to two waterfalls that were very close to each other.

On the way back to our motel we saw this sign and had to take a picture! "Southern Hospitality?"

This post is already too long and there are too many pictures to put up! Philip and I came back to the campsite on Friday and learned that it had been raining since Thursday evening (necessitating a trip to the laundry mat to dry out pillows and sleeping bags) and it stay very misty wet the rest of our stay. Here are some pictures of the boys playing and general camp life pictures. It was a great time! and it's been hard to come back to hot, city living :o) So thankful for family times filled with good memories (some of which I dare not share here under threat of my life!).