Lantern Walk

While I don't have any pictures of our walk, (since it was too dark!) I wanted to share this close up that Joy took of one of the lanterns that we made for the walk.
We spent a whole day baking bread, decorating lanterns with old jewelery, cutting flowers out of old magazines from our "chop box", and it was a beautiful, relaxing, quiet day.
To end it with a trip to my friend's farm made it just perfect. The sky was just about dark when we arrived, pulling in to the sight of a tiny fire next to their pond. A row of lanterns soon completed the scene, and the long row of children singing and swinging their candle lanterns had me wishing for my own lantern walk at our home!
We wove in and out among the fruit trees with our lanterns, and ended the short peaceful visit with all of us hushing to respect the coyotes we could hear howling on the next hill.
I spoke to Janese, so expect next years family dress-up party to start with a horse cart ride at our home, followed by a lantern walk, then off to Janeses' for the food, games and candy!!!

old lady apples

Remember old lady apples? Carve a face into the apple and let it shrivel up. This is Blessings, before the shriveling.

Momma and baby watching the chickens

This is next to the new coop, the baby loves the chickens. We sit and she can be happy watching them for a long time. Normally she is more happy moving around and being very busy. I think the chickens are busy enough for her!!!

The New Chickencoop

The chicken coop that Dean and the children did on our vacation is all done and set in place. You should see how cozy the hens look on their new perches. It's so easy to maintain, that Micah or Isaiah can now do the chicken chores themselves. They feel so big and grown up!!

Fallies

Meet "Farmer Bob", thats what the children call him. His family has been here since before the church at the end of the road collapsed into the ground. You could say this is his neighborhood, the area cemetery is even on his farm.
He and his wife gave the neighborhood an excellent hayride thru the forest on Saturday, we think we counted 26 people.
Apple cider and doughnuts made everyone friends quickly and we stopped for awhile in the woods to play in the deep leaves.
It was too funny how the children grouped to play, immediately (most) of the boys picked up sticks and started running thru the woods like crazy people, with stick duels and all. (probably inspired by the "tall tales" of an indian burial ground nearby) The girls organized themselves into a family and started building a house out of sticks.
By the end of the hayride it was getting dark and when we came down the last hill, which was the biggest, of course, I realized how well Bob knows this land. The sun was just setting,, perfect and red, and when we left the hill, the shadows of the valley were waving us goodnight and this sleepy family scooted off to some very happy dreams.

Babies love food

She LOVES food! Her first cereal was an absolute hit, she is eating cereal twice a day now and everyone is having so much fun feeding the baby sister. It won't last long, she is already "helping" the spoon into her mouth, and will soon spoon for herself I think.

masking ourselves

Guess who is who! fun for those who haven't seen us in a while. We made these as part of our classic curriculum. They look as if they came from some ancient greek play/statue. Of course we changed the original pattern and some of the masks now have beards and funny curly hats! Rebeckah was at school, we missed her, but that's why she's not in the photo.