The house at the end of June

We may not have electricity, but just look at those stunning architectural details!

Arches on the back screen porch




Brackets under the gable ends

Corban's 7th birthday party

To celebrate Corban's birthday last week, we had a bonfire at the new house. It's hard to describe how wonderful it was to have friends celebrating with us at the new place. I was beaming the whole time.

I think Corban enjoyed the night. Running around with his friends and eating hot dogs and smores - can't go wrong with that party plan. Then a few friends joined Jack, Jakin, Corban and Annie in sleeping out by the fire that night.









Lauren had a run-in with a marshmallow

Mother's Day/Father's Day

When asked what gift I might like for Mother's Day, my response is always the same: a nap. I usually take naps on Sunday afternoon, but there's something different about the Mother's Day nap. I don't feel guilty even if I sleep for 3 hours. I love the nap.

Jack, on the other hand, chose to run a half marathon up Mt Greylock for Father's Day. While I was napping on Sunday afternoons, he was doing long trail runs to train for this race. I knew he was pretty serious about it when he checked with me a week before the race to make sure the clothes he wanted to wear would be clean on race day. That, and all of those 2 hour training runs. His hard work paid off. His 2:16 time was good enough for 23rd place (out of 157 finishers!). And all of the driving around the kids and I did to cheer him on worked out perfectly as well - we saw him within 2 minutes of arriving at both destinations. whew!

After the run, Jack did enjoy laying on the couch and reading the paper for the rest of the day. But, I don't think he napped.







The day was super hot. Jack's time included a stop at every stream, brook, puddle, or drinking fountain he saw along the way. There was a little pond just short of the finish line. He said he didn't think he would be able to cross the finish line without turning right to soak himself first. He managed to hold off, but he did enjoy cooling off with Lauren as soon as he finished the race.

The summer begins

Here are some pictures that show some of the things we did in June to begin the summer.

A big part of beginning the summer is ending school. A group of home schoolers did a field day to end the year because home schoolers need to have field days too, you know.



June means berry picking! Even without Jack, we picked 29 1/2 pounds this year. That worked out to be about 9 batches of freezer jam, a bag of frozen berries for smoothies, one night of strawberry shortcake and about a week of all you can eat berries.





And the summer doesn't officially begin until we do THE Bonfire. I posted about it last year - this year was our 7th annual bonfire. Good times.



The adults above and the kids below.

Troubles

Jack and the boys have been away hiking in the Adirondacks since Sunday morning. I expect them to be on their way home soon so I'm eager to hear from them. The trip represented a few firsts: most importantly, it is the first real backpacking trip for the boys. Their little LL Bean backpacks were quite full and a bit heavy. Jack's backpack contained three sleeping bags. These three days have also been the first I have had the computer to myself for three full days! The times Jack needs to use the computer to "earn a living" or to get information to "build our house" usually trumps any need I have for the computer. Three whole days! I was going to bang out so many blog posts! I got one done and then lost the capability to post pictures! AHHHHHHH! I've tried over and over with no success. When I click on the icon that usually lets me access my photos, nothing happens. Any suggestions?

Science Fair

If not for my good friend Julie, my children would have very little science instruction in their home school education. However, I did manage to help the kids in putting together projects for an end-of-the-year science fair we participated in with 5 other families.

Annie drew a poster labeling the parts of a plant


Jack built a motor from a kit his Grammy and Grandpa got him for his birthday


Corban built a catapult from his physics set

Memorial Day picnic

We didn't have any major plans this weekend. Jack worked at the house and we spent time with friends on Sunday. For our Monday night dinner, we had a picnic at our new house. FYI: Brats cooked over the fire take significantly longer than brats cooked over a grill. It was a beautiful night and I spent many moments dreaming about next year's Memorial Day meal. Hopefully, we'll be residents of this new place.

Annie loves her new chair that Aunt Ali gave her for her birthday




Munching french fries while we wait for the brats to cook


Girls in sundresses. Can't resist taking pictures of that!





Jakin was with us - he just didn't manage to get himself into a picture. No sundress.