Wagon Train.

It's really not unusual for a wagon train to go by this time of year. Carroll county has a wagon train society, and our road is a regular on their route. So we have come to expect them every year, usually on Memorial day or the 4th of July. So we were pleasantly surprised when they came down the road, on a monday.
Sequoia saw them first out of his upstairs bedroom window and began yelling the wagon train is coming!! So we grabbed that camera and ran outside to watch them pass. This is the closest we get to a parade.

The kids love it, and wave at every wagon that passes.

Here comes the wagon train!

Kids eagerly waiting for the next wagon. There are always a few stragglers, and just as we think it's the end...there is always a few more.



When Sage saw these spotted ponies, she started yelling "It's a cow! It's a cow!" ha ha.


We watched about 20 wagons pass, and lots of folks on horseback as well. This years wagon train was smaller than usual, making me think we may see them again the weekend of the fourth. This is one of those simple things we have come to look forward to, and enjoy.

Typical morning.

It's 8:30am on a Sunday morning and this is not at all unusual.

Sequoia in a Dragon costume building a jeep with his K'nex set.


Sage riding the horsey she got for her birthday, while dressed as a unicorn.

What can i say? We love dress up.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. ~Albert Einstien

Sequoia's Pottery Class.

During the week, of June 23-27th. Sequoia took a pottery class as part of the summer Enrichment programs. He really seemed to enjoy it, and made some neat clay creations. Unfortunately the teacher had one of her kilns malfunction, and several of the classes creations blew up during firing.

Sequoia with his prehistoric fish.

Using a clay tool in class.


He's very proud of his creations. He learned several different techniques in clay, including coiling, slab making and free form sculpture.

Cherry Picking.

This week, our neighbors across the woods invited us over to pick cherries. They have three huge trees overflowing with ripe cherries just waiting to be picked. Once the crows find the cherries, it will only be a day or two, before they were completely picked clean. So we were encouraged to pick as much as we wanted.

Sequoia has found a new love of climbing fruit trees. i can't keep him out of our peach tree, and he was the first to climb up after those perfect cherries just out of reach. Only once, did he need a bit of helping climbing back down. Sage was happy chasing the kitty everywhere and eating cherries, which left me chasing Sage...i didn't get a whole lot of picking done.

Sequoia and Kenan did most of the picking, and we brought home over 20 lbs of cherries. It barely looked as if we had even touched the trees...they were that loaded!

i'm not sure of the type of cherry, but they are very sweet and we have been enjoying them fresh, and have already cooked up a tasty cherry cobbler and a cherry crisp. We have a freezer packed full, and more in the fridge. i am hoping to sun dry a few, and i'm looking forward to a cherry pie. We feel very blessed to live in an area, where neighbors still take care of each other. We gave them a dozen eggs from our chickens, and look forward to sharing peaches and green beans as soon as they are ripe.

Bowling Party!!

Sequoia was invited to a bowling party, for his school friend Brent. He was happy to see his girlfriend Lilli and his school friend Hunter were also at the party. The kids enjoyed bowling, pizza and chocolate cupcakes!

This was Sequoia's first time bowling, and he was super excited that he got a strike!
He is already asking when we can go bowling again!

Happy Birthday Sage!

i can hardly believe that my baby is already 2! Seems like just yesterday, i was playing in the creek...5 days past my due date, convinced that she would never come out.

She was supposed to be my spring baby, but she waited till the first day of summer, the summer solstice to be born.

Sage's birthday just happen to coincide with a family reunion. So we traveled up to WV for the weekend. It was nice to celebrate with family. The kids had fun chatting with great Aunts and Uncles, meeting new (second? third?) cousins, blowing bubbles, playing bingo and running around on the playground. We enjoyed lots of great food, with great company.
It was a wonderful way to begin the summer.

Descendants of Harold and Opal Weekley.

Berry Season!!!

We are enjoying berry season! Sage loves to help pick and eat the berries. (notice the packed cheeks.)

We've been getting a ton of strawberries, red raspberries and the blueberries have just started to ripen. We are looking forward to blackberries and raspberries in the next few weeks. The plants all look loaded!

Sage loves the blueberries. She runs around the yard saying yum, yum, yum and running up to the blueberry bushes and licking the berries. :)

Cooling off.

For the last week, it has been in the mid 90's. We have all been miserably hot. We finally got a good rain that filled up our rain barrels and buckets and we even have a bit left over to play in.

Leave it to Sage, to find a way to cool off. This tub was full of collected rainwater. i gave it to her with a few floaty boats to play with. She immedietly pulled the toys out and climbed in. (it was clean before she got her muddy feet in it).

i think it might be time to drag out the kiddie pool. :)

Hot summer days...

It' isn't summer yet, but it sure feels like it. It's been in the 90's all week, and really humid for this area. Today we decided it would be the perfect day to hike down and cool off in the creek.

It was a nice hike, always much cooler in the woods. When we got down to the creek, we all went right in. Then we heard a rustling sound in the weeds at the edge of the creek, and a huge snapping turtle came out of the weeds and dove into the water. So we all got back out, and stood there for a minute not sure we really wanted to get back in. In the end, we decided it was too warm for even a snapping turtle to keep us out of the creek. We had a fabulous time.

Sequoia dancing in the creek.

Sage loved the water, and although she was a bit cautious at first, she quickly began spashing and picking up rocks to throw. After about 20 min. She suddenly started screaming and crying "Shark Shark!!" So i took her out, and we played in the smaller creek and spent a good while convincing her that there are no sharks in the creek. She eventually was ready to come back and play again. i have no idea where she developed a fear of sharks (finding Nemo?).

Sage collecting rocks

We found a bunch of these little newts under rocks in the little creek. They were so fast and slimey, i almost didn't get my picture. These are the adult forms of the red spotted newts, in my previous post.

Breakfast visitor.

Earlier this week we replaced our glass storm door with a new pretty green one, after the old one had broken. A couple days ago i noticed that the door looked dirty. It was covered in a fine light colored dusty looking substance that really stood out on the green of the door. i was dreading to think that my door will now forever be covered in dust.

Then i woke this morning to see a peculiar sight. This Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly was licking the glass. The door isn't covered in dust, it is covered in pollen. :)

Early Morning Hike.

We woke to a beautiful morning, and decided it was time to take a hike to release of few of our tadpoles which were now little frogs. It was a bright sunny morning, the dew still on the grass and the butterflies seemed to be everywhere. i snapped this shot of a Mourningcloak butterfly. There were actually two who seemed to be dancing together, but they were quite shy and i had a difficult time getting a picture.

The woods were cool, dark and damp, and most of pictures came out blurry and yet still seemed to capture the mood.

Sage's view from the sling.

We came across this Eastern Box turtle wandering along the trail. Sage had to pat it and kiss it goodbye before we set it back down.

Sage was the one to find this Red Spotted Newt. After a rain, these little guys appear everywhere and with their neon orange coloring that are hard to miss on the green forest floor.

Although tired on our way back up to the house, this morning hike was a beautiful start to our day.