Camping in Charlevoix

This past weekend we had a family reunion up near Traverse City, and we decided to make a weekend out of it by heading more north to Charlevoix to camp. My sister in law had posted pictures of their recent trip up north where they stopped at the gardens at Castle Farms. It is a popular wedding destination with all of the buildings shaped like castles, but the gardens are very child-friendly with a pond full of big fish, giant chess sets, and the main reason we went- over 2,000 feet of tiny train tracks running through a hedge maze.When my sister in law posted the pictures of the trains I knew Jeb would flip, and it was just an hour and a half north of the reunion.

We headed up to a great campground where we were the closest tent to the bathroom (a big plus with 3 little bladders in tow!), showers, running water, and a beautiful view of a lake feeding into a river for just $15 for the night! We had been camping in Indiana the weekend before and it was $30 for one night, so we were pretty excited to spend half that!


After dinner, a walk down to the lake, and then back for s'mores, we went to bed. In the morning we made breakfast and then packed up and headed out to Castle Farms.





I knew the whole family would enjoy the gardens, but this face was the main reason I wanted to come-my boy is obsessed with trains, cars, wheels, tracks, and anything with a motor!





In the middle of the day we went back to the car for a picnic lunch and to change clothes, it had gotten quite a bit warmer!






When we left mid afternoon the kids were all exhausted and slept for a couple of hours. Then we stopped for dinner and did some family exercise before making the rest of the drive home. Our kids are all SO good in the car, it's almost too good to be true. I'm determined to keep road tripping so that they stay this good at it!

Just another exciting day on the farm

Here's a picture of yet another egg one of our silly chickens insists on laying outside of the coop. Every morning, we let them out into the yard, and Dorothy eats, drinks, and then flies over the 5 ft fence to lay her egg. We took out the 5 gallon bucket nest boxes that got so many great reviews in the chicken community (yep, there's a community) and put in a big bin full of grass that she might find more comfortable. But now that she has gotten used to laying outside the fence, she insists on doing that. However, another chicken has also started laying (obediently, in the next box) so now we're getting a white egg AND a brown egg every day!



We had a tree in our back yard that we thought was a crabapple tree, because it had pretty pinkish-white flowers both springs that we've owned our house. Part of the tree is laying down across the ground, which makes it take up more space in the yard. Eric wanted to cut the part that is laying down to clear more yard space, but thankfully he didn't get to it this spring, because it turns out it was an apple tree! The first spring we didn't live in the house, it was still being built, so we must have not noticed, and last year the apple crop in Michigan failed because of a late frost, so we didn't see it last year.


There's also another huge apple tree just outside our property on city land, and the apples are ripe there too. We spent part of the afternoon picking apples from both trees, and I have big plans for canned applesauce.



The kids are really enjoying having an all-you-can-eat apple buffet in the backyard! Each time we go outside has become snack time with beans, cucumbers, and peppers eaten fresh from the garden, and now they have fruit

The white chicken is Dorothy, she has been giving us an egg every day for the past couple of weeks.

And while he hasn't crowed, this guy is decidedly a rooster. He must have heard our rule, 'if you crow, you go' because even though he's doing all the other things that mature male chickens do, he's keeping his beak shut :) This is our last rooster, and we're undecided if we're going to raise babies next year or just add a couple of older hens to our flock.

After he goes we'll be down to 11 chickens, which sounds like a lot but really doesn't look like much running around their yard. We have 2 chickens that will lay white eggs, 8 that will lay brown eggs, and 1 that will lay greenish or bluish eggs. I'd like to add more green/blue egg layers next year, just for fun. 5 of our chickens were bred to be good egg layers and will lay an egg just about every day for the first year or 2, and then production slows down and eventually they'll become dinner too. The other chickens will probably not lay as often, but production will probably slow down after a couple of years too. So every year we'll probably add a couple of new chickens and in a year or so we'll start eating a couple every year too, when they stop producing, to make room for new layers.

Local family and friends, you may be recieving the gift of farm fresh eggs as more chickens start laying and we have a bounty of new eggs each day. They are delicious and cook up so fluffy!

Blueberry jam!

There's a local blueberry farm that has $1/lb Wednesdays. We went with a friend 2 weeks ago, and didn't pick enough to make all the things the kids wanted to make. So last week, we took my mom and went back to pick more blueberries than we know what to do with. We ended up with 13 pounds!


The next day we made jam! My sister and her daughter came along too, but they like to stay out of the internet world, so they're not pictured.

July Randoms

I had this post all typed up and ready to post, and as I hit publish, the program crashed and I lost everything. I haven't had the will to redo it until today, so here are the random pictures and stories from the month of July that didn't need their own whole post.

Jeb was sitting at the table doing school work (we school year round, but that's another post) and Journey had joined him with her paper and crayons. At one point she dropped a crayon and went down to get it, but I was unloading the dishwasher so when she wasn't sitting at the table anymore I assumed she had just wandered off without my noticing. A few minutes later I thought the house was too quiet and she was getting into something, so I called her name. Jeb very nonchalantly pointed down at the bench next to him and said "she's right here." I'm not sure which one of them is sillier, Journey for falling asleep on the bench, or Jeb watching her do it and not thinking anything of it!



The white chicken on the right, Dorothy, started laying eggs for us in July!


2 more roosters joined our freezer.

Jeb has been taking swim lessons and has been doing great!

His swim teacher also has a kayak and taught him to paddle. He was too nervous to go anywhere this time but can't wait to try again.


Vivi got a Chewy Tube from OT (occupational therapy). Some kids with sensory processing disorders benefit from chewing, and it has been great for Vivi!

Journey took a dance day camp the last week of July and had a very cute little performance at the end of the week. Journey LOVES dance, and has been begging to take both ballet and tap this fall. When the schedule came out, it worked out that it would fit into our schedule, and since Vivi chose not to take dance this year, it fit right into our budget.She is super excited to take 2 dance classes and have 2 recital dances. Dance may be her thing, she's already so passionate about learning and practicing her new movies, and she picks up new things so quickly. The first time she tagged along to watch Vivi's recital dance practice in the spring, she was able to do the dance along with Vivi after only seeing it a few times. I often look at Journey and think about the people who cared for her in Ethiopia, and how she was labeled as a special needs child who had an unknown future. If only they could see her now, talking and walking (her original paperwork suggested she may not walk) and DANCING and excelling at so many things!
 

The ever growing menagerie

This is a repost because I thought I had published it and now I can't find it...

It has been one of our goals to teach our kids to be financially responsible. We want them to understand from a young age the value of a dollar, and the value of hard work. We don't give them an allowance, there are chores that they are expected to do as a part of our family. They each have a chore after meals-Vivi washes the table, Journey washes the bench, and Jeb sweeps under and around the table. Jeb also folds/hangs and puts away his laundry. The girls are learning to help with theirs, but it tends to end up with a big game of dress up and less clothes on the shelf than we started with. The girls like to fold and put away washclothes and hand towels.

Beyond that, they do chores to earn coins. We have a cup full of chores written on scraps of paper that could always use repeating, like sweeping, mopping, and dusting rooms in the house, and washing fingerprint covered windows. Occasionally we'll have mandatory chore time, where everyone chooses a chore from the cup and then we spread out to accomplish them. Other times I'll suggest it when someone is bored or if the kids are getting antsy while I cook dinner. If they finish a chore, they get a coin. They like to talk about what they are saving for, and Jeb especially is always asking how much things cost and trying to read price tags at the store. His main goal for the past year has been a puppy, but the temptation of other things sometimes gets in the way, which is a good lesson to learn-if you are saving, but then you spend what you save, you have to start again.

Recently he started asking what other pets there were that did not cost as much as a puppy (thank goodness!) and I told him he had enough for a fish, or a crab, or maybe a frog. We already have an empty fish tank, he would just need to buy the animal and the food it needs. They did a few extra chores last weekend, and we went to the pet shop. Jeb had never been to a pet shop, so it was very exciting for him! We walked through the fish, then down to the crabs and frogs, and Vivi asked where the pets were. I told her fish can be pets, and she said "I don't want a fish, I want a real pet!". I should have known at this point to just stay in the fish section. Just to show them the other animals that you can get at a pet shop, we walked through the reptiles, birds, and other small critters. Then they saw a furry little hamster. "Oh he's so cute!" "How much does he cost?" "Is that the kind of pet you can play with in your hand?" Oh dear. Eric and I mumbled to each other over their heads and decided that they could pool their money and share the hamster. But as we watched him, I didn't think he looked all that active, he sort of just laid there staring at us. We quickly nixed the guinea pigs, and then Eric saw the rats. He has fond memories of having rats as a kid, and the helpful pet shop employee told us that rats are smarter and cleaner and better pets than a hamster. The cleaner part sounded good, but rats need a bigger cage and the cost started going up. We explained the cost of the rat, cage, food, bedding, etc and told them that if they pooled their money and did some extra chores at home to work off the higher cost, they could get a rat.

And so we brought Rainbow home with us that night.


I got home and posted a picture on facebook, and was flooded with people saying that rats can get lonely and depressed if you just have one, and that we should get a buddy. After a quick google, I found that many pet shops and shelters will only let you get 2 rats for that reason. The next morning I told the kids I had good news and bad news. The bad news was that rats can get sad and lonely if they are all alone, and the good news is that we needed to get a rat friend for Rainbow. Oh, the cheers!

And so, now we have Rainbow and Cloudy, and a grid on the fridge with 21 squares next to each kid's name. Before they can earn any more coins to save for anything else, they need to do one chore for each square and pay off these rats. I think when the time comes to buy more food, there may be another small grid on the fridge for them to pitch in again.


So far the rats have actually been fun pets. On day 2, my worry that the cats would kill them was eased when a cat stalked up to the cage and Cloudy bit her on the nose, sending the cat running and pretty grumpy :)

Ragtime Street Fair

Last year we went to Greenfield Village's Ragtime Street Fair and the kids LOVED it! The live orchestra playing ragtime music, the costumed dancers, and the parade of musicians and actors in old fashioned attire that led everyone to the front of the park at the end of the day is still a fond memory for them. So we couldn't miss it this year!





This year had an added bonus of bringing Eric's mom along to give her a birthday gift. There is a glass crafting building where you can watch people make glass flowers, horses, etc, and for a reasonable fee you can learn to make one yourself. Every time we go, Eric says "my mom would love that, we should do that for her" and we finally did. She did enjoy it, and it was fun to watch her make it and then see the finished product later.


We can't wait for next year's Ragtime Street Fair!