Happenings at the Homestead

The girls are so cute when they read together. Elise usually ends up doing some acrobatics while she listens but Maysie doesn't seem to care.

This is one of the babies we hatched in June. We're quite certain it's a hen and that is VERY exciting. Her name is Penguin. One of the others we kept will probably end up as chicken soup as it is a rooster.

This cute girl got to go on a date with daddy while Maysie and I went to Pony Camp. She and Froggy were VERY excited :)

We have officially dubbed Monday's as "Cousin Monday". Cousin Taska has a dance class down the road form us and so Auntie Heidi and the rest of the kids come over to play!

We took Brute on his first dove hunt. He was such a good boy and stood by Mark while they waited for a bird to fly over and then when Mark dropped it he would wait for the command and go fetch it in like a pro! We were really impressed. Lots of hunters say not to use dogs to retrieve doves because their feathers fall out easily and it can make the dog prone to biting down on them and ruining the meat. Brute didn't seem to care, he was gentle with the birds and didn't damage them. There were five birds but I didn't think to take a picture til I'd already cleaned most of them.

Oma took Maysie on her birthday date to pick out a present and get a donut. She was so excited, she knew exactly what she wanted, this is her new little dog :) I'm so glad our girls get to make memories with their grandparents.

Maysie and I built a kaleidoscope with a cool kit. It's the neatest one I've seen because you can take the end off and change the objects inside to make different patterns! Of course Elise figured this out right away and we had beads and gems rolling around our living room floor, but whatever. 

I should have done this FIVE years ago! I finally got around to painting the ugly, orange oak cabinets in the master bathroom. They look really nice in this dark brown.

Maysie is my fun-loving child. It amuses me that this need for fun makes its way into every aspect of her life. This is her language arts school book. Because writing normal just isn't as exciting as swirlies :)

Maysie organized a "Welcome Fall" party. We made cookies, had apple relay races and apple bobbing. She is a clever girl, maybe she'll be a party planner when she grows up.

Even Brute got in on the action!

We had the privilege of going to a horse show for Olympic qualifying jumpers...for FREE! It was pretty awesome to see those powerful animals and talented riders making their way over huge jumps. The girls weren't as enthralled as I expected them to be, but in their defense it did go quite late.

I'm ashamed to say I didn't take any pictures of the real horses, but I was afraid to spook them.

The girls and I drove around for quite a while trying to locate the lunar eclipse. It was hiding behind some clouds, but we found it right before it disappeared behind the earths shadow. Elise found it fascinating and was calling it the "awesome moon". This is the only decent picture I got, none of the eclipse pics turned out.

The eye doctor says I have a stigmatism. I have glasses now, that I mostly forget to wear, I'm working on it.

We made pumpkin candle holders. They turned out rather fine, if I do say so myself. The kids painted the inside of the jars and then Maysie and I designed the faces with sharpie on the outside.

Uncle James handed down the camouflage suit that he used to wear when he went hunting with our dad. Maysie looks awful cute in them. We'll have to get her out looking for a turkey with us this fall.