Hooray for Dennis!!!!

Well, we are so proud of Dennis and had a great weekend at his graduation! Heather's mom made it down for the ceremony as well. We spent a whirlwind of a time seeing some friends whom we hadn't seen in awhile, and hitting some of the local favorite eateries...but due to Leah catching a stomach bug, our visiting was cut short and we headed home. Now, as soon as those grades are transferred and a diploma comes in the mail, we will all breathe a sigh of relief!





We also can't believe that Christmas is just around the corner. We have all been enjoying getting ready-decorating our tree this week (although it is not huge, it is the biggest one we've ever gotten), decorating sugar cookies, lots of other baking and cranberry tea making (recipe to follow), gift wrapping, etc... Thankfully this year we have not felt the Christmas rush, and have really enjoyed the season of advent as a family each night at dinner time.

Cranberry Tea Recipe

1 package of cranberries, boiled in 6 quarts of water till popped and soft

1/2 gal. apple cider

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar, depending on taste

2 T. mulling spices

2 sticks cinnamon

orange slices, optional

Strain the cranberries through a mesh strainer, saving the water. Mash the cranberries and push as much of the pulp throught the strainer as possible. Combine in a crockpot or on the stove in a large pot set to low: the cranberry juice, apple cider, orange juice, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon. Tie the mulling spices in a cheesecloth packet or something similar. Sometimes I add fresh orange slices to the pot for added flavor and it looks pretty if serving from the crock, but is not necessary. Brew for several hours (I usually let mine sit in the crock pot all day). Once it has cooked, serve directly, or to save, strain the juice into a container and refrigerate, pouring each serving into a microwavable mug and microwaving to re-heat.

Boy Genius in Training!

Here is a picture of Dennis trying to get anyone to do his math homework for him to avoid doing it himself!!! Just kidding, but Dennis is very glad to have his math class completely finished and just one more test in another class and hopefully he is done for good! We have been doing so many things lately, it has been hard to keep track of them all, but I'll try to summarize a bit:

Kitchen: Heather and her mom finally finished putting up all of the tomatoes from this summer's garden. All in all, it was a year for records: in addition to the salsa already done, 44 quarts of spaghetti sauce and another 15 quarts of just plain tomatoes to be used for soups, etc. There is a picture of HALF of the spaghetti sauce and tomatoes on my webshots page. Now, to find a place to store it all until it gets used up! Next kitchen project, Christmas cookies and other holiday baking with the kids...one of my favorite places to be is in the kitchen!

School: Eric has been plugging away at some very exciting school projects this December. He made a glacier for science and we tested it in the sandbox. We have done fingerpainting for art, and even Leah had fun with that (Bay doesn't like getting his hands messy!) Eric is working on a big written report on the life of George Washington, which is turning out very nicely. We are in the planning stages of a science project for a science fair in January. We hope to be able to successfully tan a squirrel hide our cats brought in for us!

Advent: We spent an afternoon recently at our church's advent workshop. All of the kids got to do lots of Christmas crafts, and Eric made our family a beautiful Advent Wreath for use with family devotions. He even got up and sang some Christmas karaoke (though it took a little bribing to get him up there). We also just went to Eric's home school Christmas music program, which was great.

Field Trip to D.C.

Lunch break in front of the G.W. Memorial

We recently took a field trip with our homeschool coop to D.C. The kids and I took the metro and got off at the Archives station, where Eric got to see the originals of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, all of which he has been studying about in his Social Studies Curriculum. We then met up with our group for a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Most interesting fact from that tour: The Bureau prints about $700 mil a day, 95% of which replaces worn currency that is out of circulation! We then made the long trek back past the archives and spent a little bit of time in the Gallery of Art. Why did we want to go there? Well, since the kids are such big fans of Little Einsteins, they wanted to see some of the art that they are familiar with from their favorite cartoon :) Although it was a cloudy and rain-threatining day, we really enjoyed ourselves, wore out our feet, and learned a lot! I am including Eric's journal entry from his field trip journal. If I can get my hands on my mom's scanner, then maybe you'll see a scanned image of his artwork he drew from the day.

In his own words: "Yesterday, me, Mom, Bay and Leah went to Washington D.C. We drove up to the Metro station and rode for half an hour! When we got off the Metro, we walked across the street to the Archives. We saw the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and lots of others. I liked it a lot. Then we walked to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and saw them make money! Then we walked to the National Gallery of Art. My favorite one was a boy and a shark. We saw the presiden't motorcade go by and then we went back to where we started, the Metro! I think I had a great time at Washington D.C. I hope I can go there again."

Outside the Archives building

In the National Gallery of Art

Snack while waiting for the train

68 Pints of Salsa!!!

My mom and I just finished making and canning 68 pints of salsa from our garden tomatoes this summer. We have found that it is easier to cut up and freeze the tomatoes as they come off the vines, and then turn them into salsa and spaghetti sauce in the fall, when it is more conducive to heating up the house with the canner. We had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, and this is only 12 gallon bags worth, there are at least that many left to turn into spaghetti sauce next week. I am including our recipe, it started out as a family fun magazine recipe, and has been tweaked over the years to make it more like we enjoy.

Salsa

4 large tomatoes
1 diced jalapeno pepper (I use my own pickled variety, but fresh works too)
1 4 oz. can tomato paste
1 cup fresh chopped cilantro, or 2 T. dried
1 diced onion
2 T. lime juice
1 t. cumin
1 t. salt

Chop tomatoes, onions and jalapeno. Combine all ingredients. Serve fresh or process in pint jars at 10 lbs. pressure for 25 minutes. 1 recipe makes approx. 2 pints.

Leah's Striped Dress

Here is Leah's latest outfit. I think it turned out pretty good, it went even faster than the last one since I was familiar with the pattern. I made the little headband with some extra fabric. Another change I made was adding the loop and button on the back instead of a hook and eye.

I have a friend who asked me if you can sew with knit without having a serger; it seems that you can. Although I would say the the places where I had the most difficutly with it being a knit was at the beginning of each seam, the fabric wanted to bunch up and despite my feed dogs being all the way up, it didn't want to feed. I usually had to start sewing a little further down the seam and then backstitch to catch the beginning. Trial and error. I think the other advantage was that this is a pretty heavy duty knit, meaning it is fairly thick, like a heavyweight t-shirt.

Well, she sure is cute and I sure am enjoying sewing for her!!!

Halloween

Here are the jack-o-lanterns we carved this year. See if you can guess who carved which one? The three carvers were Heather, Dennis and Eric. Eric and Bay also each painted a smaller pumpkin as well.

Here's the crew, ready to go out on the neighborhood tractor ride. We have started a tradition on our street, last year was the first, this year was even better and actually a little organized! We invited all of the kids on the street to join us in their costumes for a hay ride on a trailer pulled behind a tractor to do their trick-or-treating. With this being such a rural area, and the houses so far apart, it makes it much easier and not as much walking, as well as it is a great time for the neighbors on our street who don't normally see little ones coming around very often. We enjoyed getting to know some neighbors and their children who we don't normally see. Dennis drove the tractor and pulled behind a friend's trailer complete with hay bales and little pumpkin lights. Everybody piled on and off and eventually their buckets were so full that the little ones couldn't even carry them! Anyways, it was a great time. Heather's mom dressed up as a real hayseed, rotten teeth included, daddy went as Cowboy Dennis, and Heather even dressed up this year, however it really scared Dennis and Leah to see her that way! You'll have to see the rest of the pictures in webshots to see if you can pick her out! Dennis' mom even felt good enough to come over for the evening to see all the kids dressed up and have some dinner and candy.

Field Trip to the Zoo

Our home school group just took a field trip to the Baltimore Zoo. We carpooled with some friends and although it was bitter cold and we ended early due to the rain that moved in, we had a good time! Eric's favorites were the cheetahs and the penguins. Leah's favorite was the elephants, and Bay's were the penguins and the Polar Creeper at the polar bear exhibit. Our group has lots of field trips planned for this year and has already gone on several (though this is our first with the group).

Camping at Kerr Lake

We went on our final camping trip of the season recently to Kerr Lake, NC. We had a beautiful site as you can see above, and there were hardly any other campers, so it was very quiet. Of course our crew makes plenty of noise for the whole campground all by themselves!!!! The foliage was perfect, the weather was beautiful and once the wind died down, we even got to canoe and the boys spent plenty of time fishing on the lake. Our lakefront site was great for the boys because they had all that beach and forest to play in which kept them very busy. We also spent a lot of time walking around and at the playground. No real big adventures, just a break from our busy weeks and lots of relaxation. Dennis and I commented that because we all went to bed around 9:30 and every one slept till about 7:00 that we got more sleep on this camping trip than we have at home in a long time! There are more pictures on our webshots album from the trip of you care to browse :) The camper is closed up and winterized for now and waiting for spring to come before we take it out again. Oh, and we found that a mouse had eaten his way through the canvas in the side of the camper and shredded a blanket we had in there, so we had do de-mouse the place and now we have patched the canvas and installed sonic mouse-deterrents in the camper so none set up house over the winter! That was not a fun surprise.

Leah's New Dress

I just finished making Leah a new dress, it is one of a few more that will soon follow. I decided to try and make the bulk of her winter wardrobe if I could be successful and find a pattern I liked that was easy enough to use over and over again. So this is it, I really like it and it was very easy. It is McCall's # 4908. I got this pink fabric which is a fleecy chenille with an embossed star pattern. It is very cozy and warm. I also got some other knit prints and a purple printed fleece. It took me about 2 1/2 hours to make it, not including time cutting out the initial pattern. That is about the quickest I've ever been able to make a dress I think. It called for a zipper in the back, but I really didn't want to go through all of that, so I just sewed the back skirt completely together and sewed the back bodice together halfway up. Then I finished the edge at the back of the bodice and added a hook/eye to secure the top. It fits easily enough over her head. I also considered using a bit of velcro at the top, but the hook/eye worked just fine. Although this dress looks pretty "dressy", I intend for them to be play dresses for her. I'd like to find a pattern for some tight fitting leggins so I can make some coordinating and so she doesn't have to wear tights all the time! Anyways, there are a couple more pics of the dress on my webshots album if you care to see! Happy sewing!

PUMPKIN TIME

We just went to get pumpkins at the farm on our road this weekend. This was trip #1 with the parents. Trip #2 will probably soon follow with the grandparents, for they want to be in on the fun as well!!! Of course it was great to see them having so much fun running around looking for the perfect gourd, waiting for Bay to smash one as it slipped out of his hand, and hear Leah say "pumpkin!" about 500 times! We were surprised when Eric picked out one of the smallest pumpkins...usually he wants the biggest and best, but this one seemed to make him happy this year!

The weather has just cooled down here considerably, as it probably has everywhere lately, so it seemed a fitting time to visit the farm. We are also looking forward to several fall field trips with our home school group...to the local corn maze farm and also to the Baltimore Zoo. We may even squeeze in one more family camping trip if the weather cooperates! Hope you are enjoying your fall and follow the link to our webshots album for more pics from the pumpkin hunt.

Men's Group Picnic

Recently, Dennis' Men's group had a picnic together at my parent's house. It turned out to be a beautiful day since the first scheduled one got cancelled due to Ernesto :) It was nice to relax and get to know each other's families a little bit better, and as you can see from the photos, our kids had a lot of fun. Leah even did a preview of her Halloween outfit!

It is really starting to get cool and feel like fall...cool enough that we can't even have the windows open anymore. Not quite time for flannel sheets, but it won't be long!

COUNTY FAIR

We just finished up with our local county fair, which turned out to be a big hit for our family this year! Eric, Bay and Heather entered LOTS OF STUFF (Dennis' woodcrafts are too big to enter!) and we won lots of ribbons. Here's the run-down:



Bay: 1st place on a noodle/painted art piece

Eric: 2nd place on a model airplane, 3rd on a wooden table, 2nd on a noodle/painting, 3rd on a drawing of a dinosaur and lots of honorable mentions on other artwork, writings, lego collections, etc.

Heather: 2nd on canned green beans, 3rd on canned applesauce, 2nd on a women's skirt and a dress for Leah



We all had a great time viewing the exhibits, walking through the animal barns (Leah especially love the bunnies), wishing we could get some of the really neat looking chickens, and having ice-cream.



Some miscellaneous news on the kids:
Leah is talking more and more, and is learning to speak up for herself...she is very good at saying "NO!" when Bay tries to take something from her. She is expanding her vocabulary as well, and is getting out some two-word sentences, "Grandma bye-bye", "Mommy shoe" and the one word she has the most trouble saying right now is Eric-it comes out "Icky" He really doesn't like that one!

Eric is doing great in school, and has started up with a homeschool support group once a week. He is glad to be meeting some new friends...he even got to hold the flag for the pledge at the first meeting! He has learned to sing and memorized "America the Beautiful" and is very good at it!

Bay has started to join Eric in his violin lessons, and is doing some pre-Twinkle activites....learning to bow, hold his box violin...and loves to hum the Suzuki songs while playing, but absolutely does nothing on cue or performs for anyone! He is such a character!



Life seems to have been rushing by at an exhausting pace lately...but hopefully this busyness will only last for a season!



More photos from the fair are in our webshots link...

Our Funny Little Cowgirl!

Leah with her new boots, and her new smile! She walks around saying "Boots, boots, Daddy, daddy" which translates to, " Look! I have boots just like Daddy!" If you are taking a picture and tell her to smile, this is the funny face she makes!

New Table

Dennis just finished making us a new dining room table, and we are very excited about it! Whenever we have people come over for dinner, there is never enough room, so now we have plenty of room...I think I calculated we can squeeze 14 around if necessary! I painted the bottom the same color as the walls in our living room, then added 2 coats of polyurethane for protection against knicks and dinks. The top is black walnut from a tree that once stood in our back yard. It is finished with 100% tung oil, 8 coats to be exact!

Next, Dennis will make a bench to match the table to go along one side and we will probably have some chairs made to match by the local Amish folks.

Also I've inlcuded some recent miscellaneous shots of the kids in our webshots album....

Night at the Carnival

The kids just had a blast this past weekend at the local fireman's carnival. Same simple rides as there are every year, but oh so much fun. It was even more fun this year that Leah got to enjoy everything as well. Bay's favorite ride is pictured above, he rode it many many times. Leah loved the train and "dinging" the bell. Eric's favorite was the Tilt-a-Whirl, but that goes too fast to catch on film! Even mommy, daddy, Granni and Gramps rode on a couple of rides, though the last ride I went on with Eric made me sick...guess my stomach's not so young any more! Follow the webshots link to the Carnival folder for more pictures!

Keeping Cool!

We have been trying to just keep cool the last couple of weeks...the temps have soared into the high 90's and heat indexes above 100, so unless water is involved, we have stayed indoors! We enjoyed a visit from Laura, Heather's cousin...eating some crabs, going to swim meets, and just hanging out!

Leah got her cast off this week, so the first thing we did was head to the pool for the afternoon. She was so happy to finally be able to get in the pool, and we all enjoyed the break from the heat. Eric is done with swim team for the summer, and we are trying not to think about school until September. It has been nice to shed the routine for a while.

We took a ride in Heather's parents' boat up the river to a local seafood restaurant. The boys got to ride in the tube most of the way there. There was a beautiful sunset on the way back. The rest of the photos are in the webshots album.

Dennis and a friend took Eric, Bay and friends Nathan and William to an Orioles baseball game this month as well. They had excellent seats, right behind the dugout and first base! It was a great boys' afternoon!

Summer Fun

We have been very busy this last week...the weather is unbearably hot...yet we continue to spend most of our time outdoors in it! There is just so much to do! The kids have enjoyed playing outside in the shady evenings. Eric had 2 swim meets last week and did a great job. Leah is getting better at walking every day, she especially loves chasing Bay around.

We had a bit of a crisis with one of our kittens, Lucy, this weekend. She disappeared on Friday, and it wasn't until Saturday morning when we found her halfway down our road, face torn that we realized that she had crawled up into the wheel of Dennis' truck Friday afternoon and bailed out partway down the road. She is okay, thankfully, except a bit of road rash on her little face. We are all glad to have her back, especially her sister, Luke, who cried and cried while she was gone!

Enjoy the pictures on webshots of our summer activity!

Camping in July

We just got back from a great camping trip in Ohiopyle State Park http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/STATEPARKS/parks/ohiopyle.aspx in Pennsylvania. We were not sure what to expect for July camping, as we normally go in the spring or fall, but the weather up there was absolutely gorgeous! We actually had to turn on the heat in the camper each night it got so cold! There was lots to do, and we didn't get to do it all, so we plan on going there again.

We did enjoy quite a bit of bike riding. There is a great trail that follows the Yaughigheny River that is fairly flat and easy riding. We rode 12 scenic miles one day to a little town called Confluence, PA to have some ice-cream, and then rode the 12 miles back. Views of the river, rapids and even rafters going down, beautiful mountains, rock formations, and old pioneering homesteads were along the trail. Eric was amazing...he pedaled the whole time without complaining. Of course the promise of ice-cream at the end may have helped :)

There were many sites to see along the river as well..the falls at Ohiopyle were amazing, and since we have had so much rain, the water levels were extremely high. We actaully forgot to take a picture of the falls, so here's a link to someone else's pictures. http://www.fay-west.com/ohiopyle/waterfalls/

On the way home we stopped at Dennis' Aunt Jeanne's house for a great lunch and also saw his cousin, Linda and her husband, Ray. The kids loved seeing their great Aunt, and it was a nice break from the long ride home.

Enjoy looking through the pictures in our webshots album!

She's Walking!!!....

on her 15 month birthday...
yes, it's true, our little Leah is finally walking! She just started on Wednesday. She puts her arms out in front of her like Frankenstein for balance, and thinks she is really great! I even got it on the video camera with the help of Eric and Bay.

and then she fell and broke her arm.

yes, it's true, on that same day, when daddy came home she was showing off and fell forward and fell in just the right way so as to break her little arm! We took her to get x-rays the next morning, and then to the orthopedist to get a cast on it this afternoon. She has been a real trooper. Although it didn't cause her too much pain, whenever she would put any weight on it, she would cry in pain and it would buckle under her, so we knew something was wrong. Now she has a bright pink cast that can't get wet (no more swimming for a while) and something to defend herself from her brothers :) J/K As you can see from this picture, she is doing just fine, and was enjoying a little bit of cartoons before bed with her daddy.

Sewing Projects

Heather has been doing a few sewing projects around the house lately. It all started with a foyer shoe bench that Dennis made out of our local black walnut. I made a cushion and slip-covered it, put in a zipper, and put on a few buttons. Not perfect, but it will do, and was really a test run for my next big project, slip-covering the couch!

Next I took some old pajama bottoms of mine and decided to turn them into pajama bottoms for Leah. The first pair turned out beautifully, only one problem, they were too small! Since it was my first time not using a pattern and making something without a pattern, I am not surprised. So, I increased the size, and made another pair, this time I sewed the fronts and backs together wrong and ended up with one skinny leg, and one fat leg, so I didn't include that silly picture! Nevertheless, Leah likes them since they are so soft and silky.

Well, now I was determined to prove to myself that I could make a pair of pants correctly, so I tried once again, and came up with the pink striped stretchy pair with ruffles.

Now that the pants issue was resolved, I went on to finish the curtains for Leah's play closet I have been working on for quite awhile. I got some really nice grossgrain ribbon on ebay for a great deal, lined the edges of some eyelet sheets I had with it, and put in a rod pocket at the top. Ouilah! Curtains! I always love making curtains because they are so straightforward, fun and easy.

Next upcoming project once I find some fabric I like is to make valances in the sunroom.

Click on the webshots link to "sewing projects" to see pictures if you'd like.

BLUEBERRIES and SUMMER FUN!!!

We went blueberry picking last night at a place on our road. The kids had so much fun, even Leah picked and ate when I parked her next to a bush! We made blueberry pie today and are looking forward to blueberry pancakes tomorrow. Want the blueberry pie recipe? I made it up myself, it turned out great! I'll share it at the end of the blog.

We had a swim meet this past week...Eric did a great job. It is a whole family operation...with Eric swimming, Mom and Dad helping out with concessions, Granni judging stroke and turn, and Gramps helping out with starting! Leah's favorite part is all the snacks and Bay just loves to get to play on the playground for hours!

Here is Eric before a race. He took 5 seconds off of his butterfly time and actually did it without being disqualified (he often gets the wrong kick)!! We are very proud of how well he is doing. As you can tell, he loves it.

Our last big bit of news is that Bay is fully potty-trained! YEAAAAAA! Day, naps, night, pee, poop...the whole nine yards. He really thinks he is something. He got all of the stickers on his chart on the first day we did it. I did the potty training in a day method, and as you can see, between all of the drinking, he probably went 20 or so times in one day. He got to call his favorite superhero, Spiderman (aka Daddy) on the phone, and really thought he was talking to Spiderman. It is so nice to have only one in diapers now, and so much cheaper too!!!

Well, our summer is shaping up to be lots of fun. We'll keep the blog updated as more fun happens around here. The garden is keeping Heather busy, weed, weed, weed. Some freezing of peas, and now the challenge is how to get rid of that pesky groundhog! He keeps eating the tops off the green beans and all the tomatoes!

Here is the blueberry pie recipe:

This makes a nice big 10" pie. If you want a regular 9" pie, just cut everything in half, except for the topping.

8 cups blueberries

6T. cornstarch

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 cup water

pie crust for 10" pie

Mix water, cornstarch & sugar. Heat till boiling, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 1 minute till thick. Remove from heat. Stir in blueberries. Pour into pie crust.

Topping:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup melted butter

Mix together and spread evenly over pie.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, keeping edges of crust covered with foil, and a drip pan under the pie in the oven for boiling over. After 20 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes until bubbly and browned.

YUMMMY!

KITTENS!

Eric holding Lucy, Bay holding Luke




Yes, it really is true, the MacQuilliam family has welcomed into their home some animals! Well, not into our home, but into our family! We just adopted 2 kittens from a neighbor and right now they are living in the garage. They are about 7 weeks old, the boys named them Lucy & Luke (although we have no idea on their gender), and are quite cute. Luke has white paws, and is quite the adventurous one. Lucy is all orange and is more reserved and shy, although she likes to be held more than Luke.

Eventually they will live outside all the time and hopefully hunt all the mice, squirrels and other varmits around here. For now, though, they are making their home in the garage, specifically underneath the ramp leading up to our door where it is nice and cool. The boys spend most of their free time out there playing with them, and Eric is learning to feed and take care of them.

Eric with Lucy

Big Girl!

We are so thrilled, and I think Leah is too, that she just learned how to get herself to a standing position today and has been doing it over and over again. She is so pleased with herself everytime, and then she falls down, and gets up and does it again! I guess walking will come pretty soon now!

Warm Weather at Last!

The weather has finally warmed up a bit, and the kids are happy to be outside most of the time. We have just about wrapped up school for Eric (except for Math, which we continue through the summer). Eric and Bay got their summer haircuts...it's all gone!!! Leah's new favorite is pushing her walker all over the driveway and the yard. She feels so independent. Here she is pictured with a clover flower crown mommy made for her. Later it turned into a necklace :)

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Heather just froze a bunch of collard greens and spinach from the garden. We are getting ready to harvest the peas, and have had a continuous supply of lettuce for 2 months now. So far, so good! We now have corn, green beans, tomatoes, squash, and eggplant planted.

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