My Five Year Old

The day started with a little gourd painting.

My little princess likes to mix the paint colors.

My birthday boy requested a chess board birthday cake...

I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I said "yes."

I've never done a double-layered cake before.

Placing the layers of cake together wasn't the problem.

The tricky part was frosting it.

A note to anyone wanting to make a chessboard cake...

don't put the pieces on until the last minute.

We put ours on as soon as we finished frosting it

and the weight of the pieces started to push the cake out.

My birthday boy was happy with it, which was all that mattered to me.

He requested birthday hats about a month ago and didn't mention again until the morning of his birthday so

I ended up sewing a "crown" from this blog site

 http://www.gsheller.com/2010/06/how-to-make-royal-felt-crown.html

A Harry Potter outfit was his request for a birthday present.

This picture is the next morning at breakfast...he really likes the glasses.

My little man is five.  He makes me so proud.

A Night of Pumpkins

Here's my honey, helping my oldest draw the pumpkin face.

As you can see, there is already a face on the back of the pumpkin.  

If my oldest is drawing or writing and things don't turn out "perfect",

he tends to get a little agitated. 

My little perfectionist.

My little princess is not afraid to get dirty.

My little princess got some drawing help from mom...she wanted hers to be the scariest.

My oldest has been practicing this face for weeks on paper and finally got to put it on a pumpkin!

My special treat for the following day...baked pumpkin seeds.

I baked them at 250F for an hour mixed with a little butter, garlic salt, and onion powder.

Delicious!

Apple Picking

We drove up the ridge to a beautiful little orchard we had never been before...

it wasn't a dissapiontment.

This was the view from the tractor ride to get to the honeycrisp apple trees.

Here are four excited faces with bags ready to be filled!

Wait...where did our helpers go?

The two girls ate apples the WHOLE time we were apple picking...

I think they get that from me:)

Back on the tractor for a bumpy ride back to the truck.

Thank you God for a wonderful day filled with excitement, friends,

and of course, apples!



For My Sisters

My favorite time of year...

Fall

 when temperatures drop 

and the colors change.

This is for my sisters who now live in climates that don't get to witness one of the best

parts of living in the Midwest.

Oh Happy Day!

We finally got to pick up our pork today!

This makes me so happy...we haven't had meat in the freezer for far too long.

The greatest part of this process was being able to see it from start to finish.

The children and I visited the pigs every time we went to the organic farm

that they were being raised at. They even fed and played with them.

I'm happy to say that these animals had a happy life

and my children got to learn where the food they were eating came from,

which is very important to me.

I'm a happy mama with a pantry and a freezer full!

P.S. There is a great giveaway happening right now at http://www.gsheller.com/2010/10/phoebes-sweater-giveaway.html

Exciting

Let me start off by saying that just because the blog name is simple life in the woods...

it doesn't mean life is any less exciting.

These pictures were taken on our walk the day we had a scare. 

My husband went for a run and was coming up our dead end road for a cool down. 

My little princess asked if she could go outside and meet dad.

Which I replied,"Yes, but he's already headed up the street so go through the woods to get to him"

Not two minutes later,

my husband came running in with my little princess in his arms.

When asked what happened, I was told...

There was a black bear not 10 feet from husband. 

The three of them made a triangle.

The bear went up on his hind legs and stood as tall as my husband(who is 6 foot),

which is a pretty sizable bear.

I was shaking...

we had walked up that same path two and a half hours earlier,

which I took these pictures from.

I didn't have any on me besides my camera,

 which wouldn't have helped much if I had to protect my babies.

Just a reminder to me...you live in the woods.

Be aware, especially in the fall, for bear,

cougar(which have been spotted within 20miles of our house),

 and wolves.

I might want to bring something more than a camera for protection

 the next time we venture into the woods.

A Change

Now that my older two are getting bigger,

my husband and I decided to switch the bedrooms around. 

The girls in one and  my first born all alone downstairs in another. 

In the last few weeks, the older two have been arguing all the time. 

On the eve of the move, it was like they were the best of friends-

Holding hands on a walk, helping each other, letting the other pick first

I wish I could say this is how they always behave,

but to my dismay, it isn't. 

I was feeling like this maybe this was the wrong decision.

Would this break that bond that they shared?

 

Until, my first born came out of his shell. 

He told me he was happy he didn't have to worry about her keeping him awake with singing

and doesn't have to keep an eye on her when she got out of bed,

which I think happened more frequently than not.

He even got to set up a little model without fear of it getting ripped down.

My little princess was the sad one the next few days. 

She even got "sick" before nap time, but who was right there for her...

My first born.

Why do mothers worry so much?