Kids' Activities at the Zoo

Membership does have its privileges. The Treehouse was a fun indoor playspace for members only where the kids could run around and cool off a bit. Michael was a bit old for it, but the rest of the crew had a blast.


Inside a dinosaur egg.


Queen of the Flowers


Ribbit.


To Daniel, everything, even the cushiony center of a flower, is a ball.



The children's zoo was the last thing we did on our trip to the zoo.

A Return to Normalcy

So, tomorrow we return to a rhythm. We're supposed to start school tomorrow--don't tell the kids, but it's going to be a reeeeaaally easy week!--and I should really be in bed. I feel like all our routines have gotten away from us--mornings, evenings, chores, cleaning, menus,everything! And I'm really looking forward to reigning everything back under control.

The blog is crazy. I keep trying new things and can't settle on a layout. Or I try a new layout and it turns out there's something that won't work. So I'll keep working on that this week as well.

So, say a prayer for us. Tomorrow is a day of new beginnings.

Bounty

Tourist Traps

Anyone familiar with Lancaster County knows to stay far, far away from Route 30 during "Tourist Season." For reasons I still haven't figured out, though, we decided to play tourist on our vacation.

First,we went to Kitchen Kettle Village. The samples of jams were soooo yummy. Here are the kids with "Yummie" the gingerbread man.


And decorating their own gingerbread cookies to eat.


The Giant Log o' Fudge!


And then we went to Plain and Fancy for lunch. To which I say Never. Again. Long wait, tons of money, not much food and what there was wasn't all that stellar.


Ah well. It was interesting to see things from a tourists' point of view!

Visiting an Amish Farm

We buy our milk at an Amish dairy and our produce from the Amish as well. We have a large Amish population both where we live now and back in Lancaster, where we are from. Michael will be hitting PA History this year and both he and Katie Grace are very curious about the Amish. Well, OK, to be honest, Michael is a little scared of them. When we explained they don't do television or computers, he kind of freaked out and kept saying "But I don't want to be Amish!" I explained that they don't really take converts, and we're not Anabaptists, but he still is flipping out a bit.

Um... anyway, we decided our "Staycation" in Lancaster would be a great opportunity to learn more about the Amish by visiting a farm.

Some of us, however, could not be quiet during the house tour.


Did you know that you can tell if an Amish man is married or not by the brim on his Sunday meeting hat?


Beautiful simplicity. While the Amish don't hold with frippery, they can have beautiful decorative things if they are also useful. Thus the beautiful quilted potholders. Oh, and calendars with nature pictures. Lots and lots of calenders.


More beautiful usefulness.






And a sampling of Amish clothing for girls and women.


The summer kitchen.




Apparently while I was in the gift shop, Daniel escaped under the fence and got into the goat pen. Color me "not amused".




Nicholas and Katie Grace in an open "courting" buggy.


I do feel the need to make the point that all Amish do not have the same rules. Each Amish community is different and has their own rules and customs.

You say goodbye, I say hello...

While we were with college friend, Chip went to get some gas for the generator. Unfortunately, the gas can spilled in the trunk. It would have cost $1,000 to have the carpet replaced.

We had been having troubles with Carl (our Windstar mini-van) anyway. The service engine light kept coming on and blinking, and no one could figure out why. We had it into one shop three times in two weeks, and a second shop twice in one week. We sank a lot of money into Carl, and he still wasn't working.

Plus, he was ten years old and had 175,000 miles on him.








So goodbye Carl, and hello Pearl! She's a 2006 Town and Country with 28,000 miles on her.



Now to find some bumper stickers...

Before the trip... First haircut!

Before (Poor Katie Grace got her little head chopped off!)



After

East, West, Home's Best!

Oh my goodness, it is sooooooo glad to be home!

We started out on July 27. Every year we get together with a group of college friends for the weekend. They started out as five guys singing together, and grew into a group of 24 with wives and babies and children! We had a wonderful weekend (mostly-- details forthcoming about how a weekend of barbershop and gospel led to a new car.)

From there, we went on vacation. We stayed with Chip's parents and went on a series of day trips. We visited a working Amish farm, the historic sites in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Zoo, and more.
We were home for less than 48 hours when Daniel and I hopped on a plane to Santa Fe to spend a week with Peggy O' Mara and the Mothering moderation team. It was absolutely awesome!

But now I'm home, reading posts and catching up on laundry. And I definitely keep catching myself singing in my heart "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home!"

This week's feasts and festivals, plans and projects

Thank you St. Anthony and Michael, the date book has been found! It was Michael who remembered where I last had it. That kid has quite a memory when he wants to.

The kids are going to Vacation Church School this week. I know it must start to look like I just shuttle them off from one VBS to another (hey, that's not a bad idea!) but really, it just worked out this way. Our wonderful church organist has grandchildren who are Katie Grace and Michael's ages, and this was a way they could spend some time together.

Monday, July 21
Daniel's name day! There are several St. Daniel's, but we decided to go with good Old Testament Daniel of lion's den fame. We may or may not make a lion cake or cupcakes. He won't really notice, I guess, since he's just one.

Tuesday, July 22
Mary Magdelene
Haircuts for Katie Grace and Daniel (his first!)
Also, a swim meet in the evening.

Wednesday, July 23
St. Brigid of Sweden. I have a little booklet of her writings. I should definitely try to read some of it.

This is also the big day our brand spanking new Target opens--whoo hoo!

Friday, July 25
St. James.

Dentist appointments for all in the morning, and then we leave for Grovesmen Weekend. The Grovesmen are a group of 5 guys who met at Grove City College in the early '90s. Now, with wives and babies, we are up to... oh, 24 of us I think? And we still get together every year.

Saturday, July 26
It's my name day! The feast of Good Saint Anne.

A whole pail of blueberries and three more besides...

Nicholas's two favorite books lately have been Peter in Blueberry Land by Elsa Beskow and Blueberries for Sal by Robert McClosky. Our favorite family treat lately is frozen blueberries. So, what better way to spend a Saturday morning then picking blueberries?

I've never picked blueberries before. I had no idea the bushes were so beautiful!



Kerplink...


Kerplank...


Kerplunk... (note Nicholas's bucket... and this was towards the end of the picking!)


Michael's favorite part-- Daddy gave him money for the vending machine and he got a soda to share.


The berries were weighed in this beautiful outbuilding. I think it may have been a summer kitchen at one time.


Katie Grace, as if to say "I can't believe we picked seven pounds of blueberries in this heat!"