Visiting cousins.

This is a cousin who lives nearby showing the girls her hammock. It was cold in the shade - they were in a blanket in the hammock.



Just a' swingin'. My husband's on the right, his brother's on the left.



Showing the girls her keyboards.





We had more cousins visit the farm a few weeks ago. Tamari's so gentle that she's always a big (dependably safe) hit.



Hannah and her cousin sharing secrets.

Did I mention Ains has her own fashion sense?

So busy living.

No time to blog it. So here's a snapshot of what we've been doing.

We made playdough. Four beautiful balls of it. Red, green, blue, yellow. Within two minutes it was this...



On the bright side, she's now doing experiments with color using more playdough, markers, crayons, and paint.

Making blackberry-raspberry-carrot-blueberry-pea pie. Ainsley ate it up. Strange tastes, that girl.



More pony drivin'. When it's nice out and the ride is smooth, it's relaxing.



With it being spring time, the farm's starting to come alive. We have bum lambs to feed every day.





The kids are playing on the porch while we dig up garden beds nearby.





Or playing with the dogs while I get ready for the chicks to arrive.



Watching baby goats be born.





Making dinner on the fireplace.



My dad's visiting for a few days starting tomorrow. He's an avid photographer, so I may have some actual quality pictures to put up. Maybe even a picture of me.

Today we...

got a pony cart! Now we can go riding together as a family! Hannah's in heaven. Ainsley's unimpressed. Grayson's snoring.















*Matt's feeling self-concious about the appearance of the pony here and wants me to let you know that she's not really mangy looking in real life - it's her winter coat starting to come off that makes her look so poorly. Just so you know. lol

Here the girls are resting while Matt unhooks the cart.



Matt and I are very pleased with the pony *and* the cart.

Happiness.

For the kids...





For the mom...

Workin' it.

I love this stage when they start getting their own fashion sense.



Hannah always put her outfits together based on one thing - pink. Lots of pink, don't worry about the shade. For Ains it seems to be what catches her eye at that moment and if three shirts, two jackets and a coat catches her eye, that's what she'll wear. If it's a wide stripe tank, skinny stripe leggings and a tu-tu, so be it. Who am I to stop her muse from speaking to her?

Today we...

played with dolls



colored pictures for Hannah's field journal



decorated sugar cookies









and read more books than I can count.*

*slight exaggeration. As an unschooling parent, I *can* count. YES, I CAN! (said in best Obama voice)

Today we...

defied the weather. We're sick of being inside. It's April - mid-April. We've been inside for many months. We defied the chill and wind yesterday. I hope it's warm soon.

We took the wagon for a firewood run, but first stopped at the sheep pen to check on Matt's newest lambs and see if my next goat to kid had had her babies yet. It was a negative on my goat, sadly. Poor thing is looking like I did when I was ten months pregnant. Matt's ewe had two babies, a boy and a girl, and decided that she didn't want to nurse them - the baby in the picture is burrowing under, trying to get to a teat. I've never seen a lamb do that - or *have* to do that before. (I have to admit that as a nursing mother, I've felt like that ewe before.) So I had to climb through the fence to make the ewe stand up so her babies could eat. She did, they did, no more problems.



The girls watched me through the fence, too windblown to want to get out...



until Ains saw the pony.



Ainsley is at the helpful stage, so she was a great help in getting kindling from the firewood silo to the wagon. Hannah's at the chasing kitties, inspecting bugs, picking up rocks, laughing at lambs stage. So she did that.



Hannah wanted to play with the bum lambs and the baby goats - look at these - who wouldn't want to play with them?



While she played, Ains disappeared. When I went to check on her, I found her wandering with Tamari following about two feet behind her. I love that goat. When Tamari stopped to look at me, Ains noticed and decided to coax her along. This is why I say I won't have a mean animal on our property.



We finally walked back to the firewood wagon. This shot of Ains walking with me didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, but there's really no way a photograph can capture that baby's-chubby-hand-holding-on-as-she-explores-the-world feeling, is there?



Hannah's getting much stronger - she actually pulled this quite a ways.



Then I stuck Ains on for a ride and Hannah needed my help.



In the biggest news of the day, Hannah found our property's first flower!



Grayson doesn't care.

Unschooling blog -

New blog to go on my favorites list. I believe I found it through Ordinary Life Magic. I find so much of the best stuff through her blog.

Collecting leaves ... and other little experiences.

For Dale -

Bottled water is, without a doubt, better than tap water.

The best starts at 5 minutes.



Hee.

Kinda skeered.

Ainsley and Hannah were playing on the front porch while I nursed Grayson. When he was done, I went out to check on them. Ainsley had migrated to the dog/goat/sheep area. Right next to the horse pen.

I'm kind of scared for the warm weather to hit. There will be no stopping her.

Just because...

Fishy...

The fish tank at the local hospital has a theme. Here are Dory, Marlin, and Nemo.



Ainsley was fascinated.



We stayed at the fishtank for almost an hour while Hannah was getting her arm x-rayed. (Short story. Small fall, very protective father, little girl now has x-rays of her perfectly fine arm.)