Our November Trip - Part 2 of 2

Looking at the above picture, where do you think we spent day 2 in Cleveland??

If you guessed the zoo, you are correct!!  :)

The lions and we even got to hear the daddy lion roar, is this pic he is hiding.

Huge Elephants

 

 

 

Tall Giraffes

Furry Koalas

Colourful fish, baby dear loved watching them swim.

Outside of the lodge by the wolves.  Here is Balto....

Spent a bit of time at the playground

Happy boy

Precious baby boy!!

The weather was cool, but not to cold.  It was around 8C and sunny.   I think the children enjoyed the zoo even more then the museum the day before.  We saw seals swimming in the water, rhinos running and kangaroos hopping too.  Plus we had a ride on the tram and walked through the rainforest.  I really need to print out the pictures I took that day and put them in an album for our 3yr old.  He loved the zoo and talk about it often when we got back home.  :)

We then headed home the next day.  It was a good trip, the men enjoyed their time at the VSA and we mamas enjoyed our time out with the little ones.  

Our Trip In November - Part 1 of 2

Back in November,  hubby and I, along with our three youngest children went on a business trip. Also on that trip my husband's work partner and his family, who are also our neighbours came along.  We were gone about 4 days and we had an enjoyable time.  On the first full day in Ohio, us mamas took the children (5 total - 5 and under) to the Children's Museum in Cleveland.   We were able to spend most of the day there and the children had lots of fun, although by about 3pm or so, it was showing that nap time had been missed.  We stayed until just before closing and then we headed out to pick up the men who spent the day at the VSA.  (Violin Convention/Competition)

He loves this little tractor!!  They had a farm room all in the theme of the "Big Red Barn".  I use to have that book memorized!  LOL  It was a favourite book at one point with the children.   I'm not even sure where that book is now...

Horses!!

He could only make the tractor go backwards...  I was coming to "recuse" him.

Another room had a water table, what fun!!  :)

A playhouse!!

Grocery shopping!

I think a little small yet to be a bus driver though...  :)

The children also did some painting and enjoyed another larger room that had sets of how people lived many years ago.  It was a fun day!

A Beautiful Morning Sunrise

This morning I was downstairs in our kitchen making lunches for the girls and I heard upstairs the pitter patter of little feet.  I then heard exclaimed, "Mom, look the the pretty rainbow". 

Yes, it was a very pretty sunrise this morning.  I should have taken the camera out with me when I had gone to the barn a bit earlier this morning, then sunrise also included a pretty sliver moon and Venus.  :)  Such a beautiful morning and it feels like spring, but wait it is only January. 

I"m planning to get back into blogging a bit more often.  Even if I don't get many comments, it is a great way to journal our lives and I don't want to forget the memories we are making all the time.  :)

Happy New Year!!!

Gratitude Monday

To join in please click on the above picture and post away!  :)

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It's been a long time since I did this and I've missed it!

Thinking back over the summer I'm grateful for...

# 735 - #770

 A wonderful/busy summer

Horseback riding

Training ponies

 Beautiful sunny days

Hot days

Time at the lake

Camping

Air conditioning

A deep well with lots of water (we had to water the garden and our new trees just about every day.  Garden not as much, but the trees were at least 5 days a week.)

Helpful children

Working in the garden

Harvesting

Husking corn

Working together

 Topping beans

Canning peaches and salsa

Fun times in the kitchen

Campfires

Roasting hotdogs and marshmellows

VBS

Beautiful summer morning skies

Evening sunsets

Strawberries!!  (We picked lots from our patch)
Raspberries

Freezer space

cookie sheets

Parchment paper for baking

Lots of sunflowers!

 Many helping hands

Fun time on the porch hulling the strawberries

Happy chatter

Fun stories

Breezy days

Pretty material

Time to sew

New friends

Children singing

Christian fellowship

Fathers

Canoeing fun (with a friend along)

 I'm sure could share a lot more, but time to start school here! 

I'm grateful for the summer we enjoyed and for the Lord's many good gifts to us.

A Evening Walk in the Woods

We have enjoyed a good week here.  We are back to school and with that brought some changes, big changes.  This year our two oldest daughters are attending school for the first time ever.  I'll share more on that next week, but it sure is different not having them around during most of the day.  We do miss them!

Anyway, this evening the girls had youth group and hubby went to drop them off.  That left just me with the middles and littles here at home.  We cleaned up the supper table and washed most of the dishes and headed outside for a walk back to the bush.

Heading to the bush!

Happy baby, he enjoyed the ride.  :)

Precious baby boy....  I took this picture so hence the funny angle

Tree house stop...

heading down the path/hill.  :)

Monkey vines!!  What fun!

Running down the path...

Tree climbing...

Ready to head home, notice how M on the left has one shoe on and one shoe off, he was coping his older brother who had decided to walk with one shoe off because something kept poking his foot.   So funny in what toddlers copy!!  LOL

Happy farmer boy!

We had a lovely walk through the woods, we ended up walking a bit farther off the trail and we were just heading back to the main trail when farmer boy noticed that his toy airplane was missing from his pocket.  So we all had to retrace our steps to see if we could find the missing airplane.  Before we went on to far, I told the children to say a prayer asking the Lord to help us find this missing plane., which we all did. It was a bit harder because we had been just following a deer trail, so we tried to walk where we had been before, but no sign of the lost airplane. We made our way bath to the path and keep our eyes down looking for the lost little plane.  I search the area where we had stopped for a picture and we searched around the tree they had climbed, but still no plane.  I then reminded the boys about the "monkey vines" and sure enough that is were the missing plane had fallen.  Farmer boy was so delighted!  He treasures his toys and does take good care of them, not like some others here in the family.  We all thanked the Lord for his help in finding this plane and joyfully headed on home.  It was a good walk and we also received a  lesson in how the Lord does hear our prayers even for a little lost red airplane.  :)

The Lord is good!

Silly Post :)

Fun with sunglasses....  or what big sisters will do with sunglasses.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

Oldest daughter and a friend...

Second daughter and same friend...  

Wordless Wednesday (How They Grow)

A Walk in February??

M. with his little "lidlee". that is how he says kitty.

We went for a lovely walk one mild afternoon, it was during the first weekend in February and you just needed a light jacket. We all had such an enjoyable walk and the very next weekend, it was looking like winter with lots of snow and wind. The snow has come and gone since, and as of now we have a light layer of snow and you wouldn’t want to be out in just a light jacket either.

Loving siblings

Playing in a tiny patch of snow/ice

Boys and water.... never far apart

They were all hitting the stump...

Our precious youngest daughter...

A very happy baby and his mama

Baby dear telling his daddy all about his walk

A little boy went "fishing" and look at the big "fish" he caught.

We had a lovely walk, our two oldest daughters were with friends that afternoon, so that is why they are not in any of the pictures.  Didn’t look or feel like February, but it was!