Beer...

Last Christmas, Corey got a beer making kit and has made a batch or two this year. We hope he will make more as time goes on. He loves the process and the kids are into helping him out too. Today was bottling day and they were ready to help! Here are a few pictures to see the eager helpers!

Filling

Filling

Capping

Zoo!

We went to the zoo today. We haven't been in a long time, primarily because we live a lot farther away from it that we used to. Today, though, was Rebekah's first time to go and appreciate the animals. She is aware of them and knows about them. Before, she was just a little baby and just kind of looked at them and well...saw them but it wasn't a big deal.

We started out at the flamingos and went down the monkey trail to the hippos, saw the pandas and headed to the exit via the orangutans. All the animals were out and about, doing their own thing, eating and playing. The pandas were out and not hiding, we stood there watching for a long time, no one kicked us out because it wasn't crowded. Rebekah loved watching the hippos, flamingos, crocodiles, turtles and the monkeys. She woke up from her nap and said "monkey?" so cute.

While we were watching the orangutans a volunteer came and talked to us about the different animals we were watching. It was so interesting to listen to her talk about the behind the scenes stuff. Like the walkway in front of the orangutans is above some 'bedrooms' that house the orangutans. They are complete with a toy area and 'homey' stuff for them to live with. I had no idea. I thought they lived outside all the time and now I find out that they have cabins to live and sleep in! Anyway, the volunteer spent a lot of time with us, commending us for schooling at home and using the zoo in part of their education.

Hannah was really excited to have her own map. She used landmarks along the way to find where we are on the map. Totally self-guided. It was kind of awesome to see her do that on her own. She led us through the zoo :)

It was fun, we can't wait to go next time!

Watching the monkeys

Rebekah enthralled with the flamingos

On the hippo

Volunteer talking about orangutans feet and thumbs

Getting to know "Jane"

Hike...

We went on a little hike today. We love to hike to this big wooden bridge and explore underneath. The kids love to try to find the perfect skipping rocks and try to skip them on the water. Today was a hard day for Hannah though, she kept falling and hurting herself. She's OK though. She's a tough girl. Her goal today was to find the perfect rock to skip it more than twice, and she did!

Jumping

Monkey

Determined

Brother & Sister

Leaving

Pickles and olives...

The other day I made pickles! This is the second time I've done it. This time I did two jars because one is sweet 'butter' pickles and the other are sour 'dill' pickles. They are basically the same recipe except the sweet has more sugar than the other. This recipe is so easy to do, I really want to try it with okra and some other veggies like string beans or cauliflower. It takes 24 hours to be ready and they keep for a couple of months in the fridge.

Today we started to process some olives from the tree out in the front of our house. It is a beautiful tree nestled in the corner of our front yard. At this time of the year, it is full of black olives. If we can harvest some of them, that will be another tree that will produce for us. Rebekah helped me pick the olives from the tree, there are a few branches that hang low so she was able to reach all by herself and put the olives in the basket by herself!

The recipe calls for salt brining (not with lye) for 3 weeks and they should be ready to taste after a month, the last week they are in a marinade. I'm supposed to change the brine each week so we shall see how they turn out at the end of November. More info on these to come...

On the tree

In our basket

2 jars to try

Beach day...

We went to the beach today! It was a beautiful day. The weather has been stormy and cold but it was clear and sunny today. There was still a little chill in the air but that didn't bother anyone! The kids love going to the beach, exploring and having fun. Today we joined up with our Funschoolers group which is an awesome outing group. We love getting together with them, there are so many wonderful families and lots of kids to play with.

Soccer and Party...

This afternoon we were busy with 3 soccer games, 3 games to provide snack for and a birthday party for Noah! Whew! We love being able to watch all the games, we are bummed when we aren't able to watch them all on the weekends that they games overlap. Yes, that does make for a quick day at the soccer fields but then one of us misses a game or two. So, today was nice that we got to go to all of their games.

Noah was in a great mood for his game and Hannah and Ben were excited for him too. Noah knew that it was his special day, he was kind of jumpy on the field and he really tried to get a goal.

The kids love when we host the snacks. We were lucky today to bring snacks to all 3 games. They think that it is one of the coolest part of being on a soccer team. Last year the snacks were complete with "party favor type toys" but this year that was not part of it. I, for one, was happy to see that we didn't have to be peer-pressured into assembling goodie bags with toys and pencils and hair ties for each kid.

The party after the games was fun, we invited family and one of Noah's friends. We had a build-your-own nachos bar with tortillas available for anyone who wanted a burrito (that's exactly what Noah wanted us to have for everyone to eat). The boys ran around and around together and had a great time. He scored some awesome presents too.

Hannah and her team at half-time

Noah - the newest 5 year old!

Dude!

Noah is #7 going for the ball

Noah and Ryan talking about something when they should be watching for the ball!!

Ben is #5

Birthday Party cupcakes for Noah

New stuff!!

Happy Birthday to you!

Marissa and Heather being silly

Heather and Rebekah (what a cute smile!)

Noah's FIVE!!

Noah is FIVE years old today! I can't believe it, time has flown by so quickly. I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday. He is such a big boy now, tomorrow he'll be in college. He is thrilled that today is his birthday. It's like it's a giant number for him. It's really fun to see how happy he is.

Cruising through old blog posts I found this one from Jan 2007: Noah Loves... and I thought it might be fun to re-read that and see how much he has grown and to remember what he was like when he was a little over 2 years old.

Noah is FIVE!

Presents!

So HAPPY!

Bates Nut Farm...

We love pumpkin patches. It is a great way to start out this next holiday season, it comes right after apple picking and the kids get in the mood for Halloween and fall.

We had never been to Bates Nut Farm before today and boy was it far! But it was awesome! We will definitely go back. We went with our monthly homeschooling field trip group that we've been with for about 3 years. We got the basic pack and went all over the place. There was a hay maze with stamp stations that the kids went running around trying to find 8 stamps. There were some barn animals and pony rides as well as a hay ride. It was great.

We cruised around with some of our friends and had a great time. Towards the end we went to pick out the pumpkins that we were taking home and they were giant! We were all pretty impressed by the size of the take home pumpkins! We also went over to the giant pumpkin area and ran around the field together.

In front of the hay maze

Hay ride

In front of the store with some of our group

In the loo

Pumpkin girl

Crawling in together

funny kids

it's heavy!

giant pumpkins!

Back yard...

We have a really big back yard and we love to just walk around and look for treasures. That's what Noah, Rebekah and I did today. We started out looking at the big volcano that filled up with water with all the rain we've been having lately. Boy that looks like fun...

We walked all around the back area of the yard. We have started planting lots of fruit and nut trees so someday real soon we will call that an orchard. A previous resident of this house used to do construction so we find lots of strange things around. Mostly they've been buried and with the rain they are uncovered. We have found lots of tiles, glass and car parts and trash. We love hunting fro treasures because each time we do it (which is pretty frequent) we find more! There's no telling what we'll find next :)

Noah and the water-filled volcano

Rebekah checking out some mushrooms

Pretty!

Grasshopper

I caught it!

Treasures we found today!