Cazenovia Library and Chittenango Falls

A few weeks ago it was beautiful Spring weather and Joseph had the day off work so we took the little kids on an outing while the big kids were at school.  We went to a public library about 45 minutes from our house that had a museum in it.  The museum was in an old house built in 1830 and in 1880 it was donated to the city for use as a library.  In the 1890s a man who lived in the town, Cazenovia, went to Egypt and purchased an Egyptian mummy and other Egyptian artifacts.  The artifacts were brought back and have been on display for over 100 years at the library.  The mummy was about my size and there is an x-ray of the mummy, too. It was all pretty interesting especially when you consider it was free.

There were other things on display as well.  Most of them were keepsakes from members of the town... hats, old toys and clothes.  There was a reading room with portraits of the original owners of the house and the Frenchman for whom the town was named.  We spent about an hour wandering around the museum before letting the kids relax in the kid section of the library.

In front of the mummy.

Close up of the mummy.

Reading room.  There were multiple fireplaces in the house and they were all unique and very pretty.  I'm not sure what type of rock was used to make them, but if I had to guess I would say marble.  There were white, black, and terra-cotta colored fireplaces.  

Children's toys.

Relaxing in the library.

Lincoln posing with a penguin outside the library.

After lunch we went to Chittenango Falls to enjoy a small hike to the waterfall.  It was our third time at Chittenango Falls.  It had rained multiple days previous to our visit so the falls were full and flowing swiftly.  

Group selfie at the Falls.

Art Camp

Rebecah participated in an Art Camp through the school in March.  It was one day a week for 4 weeks. She had so much fun participating.  Each week the kids drew picture using a different medium.  Rebecah would come home and practice each picture recreating what she had learned at school.

Fox landscape--oil pastels.  Raining shamrocks--paint.

Penguin Reflection Scene--colored pencils

Birds on a Branch--watercolor pencils

Eden--6 Months.

Eden is now 6 months old.  The time is flying by and I just wish she could stay little a little while longer!  At her 6 month well baby appointment she was 14 lbs 3 oz and 25 3/4 inches long.

Edie is a perfect, sweet girl!  She still don't roll over, but she is mastering sitting alone.  She enjoys tummy time so much she is content to look around without rolling over!  She had a few "close calls" this month where I thought she might roll over, but didn't.

Edie sleeps through the night 95% of the time.  A few times I have sent Joseph in to her in the night.  I know if I go in she'll want to eat so I do what's best for all of us and send in Joseph.  Edie will cry like her heart is breaking, but after Joseph holds her for a few minutes she'll go back to sleep.

Just after Edie turned 5 months she started to enjoy bath time.  She now kicks her legs in the water and are happy as long as the water isn't cold.

Sweet girl sitting on the couch!

Aunt Chandra crocheted a baby afghan for her.  I love it!!  Edie now sleeps with it during the day.  She likes to stick your fingers through the holes.  I love that Chandra made this for Eden and me....it's something I don't do so I really appreciated her sharing her talent with me! 

All of my girls have worn this dress!  I love it.  

   

Here are Annika (6 months) and Rebecah (4 months) wearing the dress.

Waking up from a nap in Chan's afghan!

Here she is hanging out on Kimball's bed.

Big girl on my bed!

We love this perfect girl so much.  She truly is living up to her name....delight!

St. Patrick's Day 2017

St. Patrick's Day didn't exactly sneak up on me this year, but it wasn't on my mental radar either.  The night before I realized I hadn't bought any Leprechaun gold so after a church meeting I had to stop at the store on my way home for some "gold".  We usually use Rolos but this year I went with Hershey Nuggets and the kids didn't mind.

For dinner I wasn't excited about spending  a lot of money on corned beef so I just made Irish soda bread and we had spinach burgers to go along with the bread.  For dessert I made a pistachio cake with a pistachio pudding frosting.  It was better than some of the other green desserts we have had over the years.




Lincoln and Annika didn't want to wear any green so they didn't.  I did grab a picture of every else in green at the tail end of the day.

I know the picture frames are really outdated but there's only so much time in the day!

Critz Farms

Last weekend we visited a local farm for a tour of their maple syrup factory.  The tour was fairly small and just in one room, but it was fun to hear about the process that the sap undergoes to become maple syrup. There were little samples of syrup and maple flavored popcorn.  You could also pay for an all you can eat breakfast, but we opted to eat breakfast at home.  (I knew I couldn't eat my weight in pancakes, eggs, and bacon to make it work the $12 per adult and I didn't want to pay $6 for Lincoln and Annika when they might not eat anything or only a few bites.)  I think this was my first experience with real maple syrup and it is good.  The big kids thought it just tasted like honey, but there was a distinct maple flavor to it.  I learned that the color of the syrup depends on the weather the day it is tapped and boiled.  A darker, richer, syrup is produced when the temperature rises or falls a lot during the day.  When the temperature is mostly stationary and on the cold side the syrup tends to be a light amber color.

We also took a ride to the sugar bush grove so we could see the maple trees.  It was interesting to see the trees with the tubing coming out of them and how it is all collected with the help of gravity.  I just thought the entire process was fascinating.  The wagon ride was cold, but it allowed us to snuggle together.  Lincoln especially enjoyed watching the tractor pull our wagon.

The blue line is the easiest to see, but there were white/clear lines, too.

All snuggled together.  It's so hard to get everyone looking at once!! 

Eden--5 Months

Eden turned 5 months old yesterday!  She is such a joy in our family.  Everyone loves her.  She continues to be mellow and content.  She is so mellow that she hasn't rolled over yet and doesn't really care to try.  She is starting to sit for a few seconds at a time.  She weighs about 14 lbs and is roughly 24.25 inches.  

We love her smile and her laugh.  Lincoln is playing with her more and I love to see them laughing together.  It actually melts my heart to watch them.  She sleeps through the night most of the time.  She hasn't started solid food yet.  We aren't in a big hurry.  I want to keep her a baby for as long as I can.  She is a dream come true!  I am easing her into a sleeping schedule on the days we are home and she is doing really well.  She likes to turn her face into a blanket or hood so I always wrap her in something big and fluffy so she can bury her face.

Here are some--a lot--of pictures of her.  I can't narrow down my favorite pictures.  I probably take more pictures of her than I ever took with any of my other babies.  It's just so easy to snap pictures of her with my phone. 

We'll start with pictures of Eden with Joseph and me.  They aren't great of Joseph and me, but they'll work:

Here are her bigger jammies.  They seem so huge, but the other sleeper was getting too small.

 Here she is telling me a little story.  I love her soft, fuzzy hair!

Stroller ride and more smiles!

Playing with Lincoln in the tent.  I think Edie looks like me in the last picture.  I think Edie looks the most like me of any of the kids.

One silly thing that I do that I just need to document is that I sing to her in the mornings.  When she sleeps through the night I greet her in the morning with the "Good morning" song from Singing in the Rain.  My sisters and I loved that movie growing up.  I change the words just a little to fit Edie sleeping:  "Good morning! Good morning!  You've slept the whole night through, good morning, good morning to you!   Good morning! Good morning! You are a perfect girl, good morning, good morning to you!"  I sing it so much that I catch Rebecah, Lincoln and Annika singing the song to Edie, too!  It's little moments like this that bring an extra smile to my face!!