You can have a chance at winning a beautiful quilt! Just pop over to the marie-madeline studio for your chance to win!

We had a surprise visit from Grandpa Tim. We were all so happy to see him. The children enjoyed having him around - we don't get to see our family enough! We hope to see you again soon!

Reading

With the girls

The ladies over at marie-madeline studio are having a giveaway, leave a comment and you could win a gracie pattern and the fabric to make the skirt!

How cute is that?!!

We went on our first field trip with our homeschool co-op to Bob's Amazing Corn Maze. We had a great time and we are looking forward to going again.

We got to take a hay ride over to the maize maze (he he).

We walked around the back of the maze to set our stuff down at the bonfire.

And we explored the maze

We made it out no problem. Going back through we hit a couple dead ends!

My little savenger!

The girls would pick up the ears of corn that had fallen on the ground.

Uncle John enjoying the corn, too!

We roasted hot dogs and had smores - they were so yummy!

I loved that this corn maze had no witches, goblins, or jack o lanterns!! We don't celebrate halloween so it was nice not to see that stuff!

This what we saw instead! C3 wanted a picture with the calf! Notice the corn in hand!

Me and Baby C - bonfire is behind us.

The Mills Fam - one of these days we will have a picture where everyone is looking!

The children keep finding caterpillars and bringing them into the house! The kids and Uncle John were cracking up at the caterpillar traveling the world!

The kids made a home for the caterpillar

But later in the day we realized they had escaped! One was on the floor and the other we eventually found...

We did look up what this caterpillar would become and it is a Tiger Moth.  We let the caterpillars back outside so they could hibernate for the winter.

I love fall in the Pacific Northwest! The colors are amazing.

We had a burn pile going this morning, mostly our leftovers from making the coop.

David explaining about the fire, steam, smoke, etc.

The boys intently watching

C3 not wanting to be near the fire!

The children were excited to go see if we had eggs, here is a picture before we went to look for eggs in the nesting boxes.

At the nesting boxes

Eggs!

New hens

Surprise attack!

Tonia and Baby C

Swinging on the gate

C2 lost another tooth!

Uncle John

Blowing grass

Eating grass!?

Awwww

Blowing dandelions

We planted one bagof  our bulbs today.  

Here are some pictures from today!

Team work!

C3 with a bounty of tomatoes and snow peas from our garden. I couldn't decide which picture I liked best so I put both!  We want our girls to know how to garden and grow food for their families when they have them. C3 helps me with the harvesting. I am going to have her help me with the planning for next year of what we are going to plant.

Dahlias - aren't they pretty?

Caitlin is learning the art of flower arranging. This girl loves flowers. I want to have a cutting garden next year, I love fresh flower bouquets too!

Shucking corn

C4 watching intently!

The children shucked the corn and mashed the corn. I rolled up spoonfuls in the husk and baked it.

The finished product, Kneel Down Bread. It is not really bread but more like a corn pudding. It was called kneel down bread because the women would have to kneel down to mash the corn and then it was baked like bread.

They all enjoyed eating their 'bread'.

We are getting our wonderful activity/craft ideas from a book called More Than Moccasins.

C3 turned 4 today! I can't believe my baby girl is 4. She is such a delight and brings a bubbly happiness to our home!

Opening presents this morning. The boys got her some new crayons. One of her favorite things to do is color.

 C3 loves flowers, so we bought her a couple packs of bulbs that her and I will plant together.

Uncle John got her some My Little Pony's. she is in her ballet clothes...

She wanted a purple cake! You can't really tell by the picture but the cake is purple.

There were some magic relighting candles on the cake so she had to keep blowing them out. C2 was looking at all the smoke!

Oh no! Our two dominant hens are roosters!

We are studying Indians for a couple of weeks. Here the kids are making vests out of paper bags. I think it took longer to make the vests then they wore the vests! Oh well they still had fun!

Modeling their vests.

Baby C will be 6 months in less than a week - where does the time go?? She is such a delight. She always has a big smile on her face, and her hair is just so cute it sticks up everywhere! I got these cute headbands and bows to help control her wild hair!

C3 and C4 just love their little sister, they always want to hold her.

Trying rice cereal for the first time. Baby C is eating like a champ!

Our six "chicks" were getting big and in desperate need of a proper coop, well they not only got a coop but a palace! Our friend from church, Pozun, designed and did most of the building of the palace.  Here are some pictures of our "poultry palace".

Here we go!

Fencing

Starting to look like a coop

My workers!

A cute little chick

Getting there

nesting boxes

roosts

Filling the nesting boxes

I have a weather vane!

Bringing the chickens to their new home

Mr. Pozun

The chickens are loving their new home. We should start getting eggs in October. We will probably get about a dozen or so chicks next sping, our neighbors are all wanting eggs!

This was a whole family project, it was nice to do it as a family and work together, I am so glad it is done though! It was every weekend for a month!

Thank you Mr. Pozun we couldn't have done it without you!

C3 had been begging to have her hair cut ever since I got mine cut. So I took her to get a summer cut.

Before:

After:

I have so many things I want to share and so many pictures to share but I can't find my card reader to get the pictures onto the computer! Ugh! I will do a search this weekend!

The chicken coop is completed! Yay! Our hens should start laying eggs in October.

Baby C is rolling all over the place and laughing up a storm. She has such the sweetest smile.

David started his new job within Microsoft and is loving the challenge.

C1, 2, and 3 went to VBS this week and had a great time.

I will look for the card reader and hopefully have some pictures up soon!