In Bloom

I keep having to remind myself that all this rain is good for the garden!

A jazzy sort of day

Today we headed into Burlington to hear some jazz out on Church St. J took a little video with her camera. Burlington has a jazz festival every year for about a week and it was fun to get a chance to take the kids to hear some music.

B wasn't too interested in the music but he was into climbing on all the rocks on Church St.(there are about a dozen). He's been really into rocks lately!

Then there was a stop at the candy store and back home again. The afternoon consisted of playing with neighborhood friends and planning a party for Friday when school is officially out. I'm not sure exactly what they have in mind but they made their own pinata and I've agreed to get candy for it. We shall see!

Here's what we've been up to. . .

Taking a ferry ride from Charlotte, VT to Essex, NY

Playing at the playground in Essex.

Climbing rocks.

Discovering new things to do with a see-saw.

Visiting the Ethan Allen Homestead to learn some local history and play some early American games. In this game, you have to pass the bone behind your back and the other team tries to guess who has the bone when you stop.

J dressed in mid 18th century clothing. Doesn't she look sweet?!

Playing with neighborhood friends.

Celebrating birthdays. B turns 6 on Thursday and we had both sets of grandparents and my sister's family up last weekend to celebrate. My sister also turned 40 on Sunday but she lives in China and could not be with us to celebrate. Happy birthday Cathy!!!

Enjoying time with cousins. We took everyone on a root-filled walk on Saturday by the bay. My three year old niece did a great job jumping over the roots trying to keep up.Pounding on rocks. B literally spent hours doing this on Saturday. I think he was inspired by our recent trip to a quarry.

And visiting the ECHO lake aquarium in Burlington. B is shooting off a rocket here.

J and B are playing in the fog outside the aquarium. The fog is pumped out through these rocks.

Hope you're all enjoying these late spring days!

Flying over Vermont

We watched a hot air balloon fly by as we sat on our deck this evening. This was the first of the season-we are usually surprised by three or four during the summer months. Sometimes they land in our neighborhood and we run out from our house to watch them land. Always exciting to watch! Has anyone ever taken a hot air balloon ride?

We made a quick visit today to Shelburne Farms. Yes, that is the farm along with a school that rents space. Pretty amazing, huh?Right when we arrived we were asked if we'd like to go out to a field with a portable chicken coop to collect the eggs. J said, "Yes!". What do you think B said?B was happier when he saw all the eggs in the coop.I'm not sure that the chickens were excited to see us.Look at all those eggs. Makes me want an omelet!
We washed the eggs and then went into the barn to see the animals.The one black sheep was J's favorite.This is Marx. He's a 1 month old brown Swiss bull calf. This milking cow stuck her tongue out at me when no-one was looking.Then it was on to see the chicks and the chickens. J finally picked up a chicken. She's been wanting to for a while but I think she's been a little scared until today. As you can see, she was awfully excited! We had so much fun that we decided to get a membership. We'll be back!

Chocolate, water guns, veggies, clay

Today we visited Lake Champlain Chocolates factory. It was fun learning about chocolate production and watching them make the chocolates (and, of course, eating the samples).

When we got home J and B wanted to try out their water guns and I thought we could do some art.

I call this one of B's Scrambled eggs and fried eggs.

Then it was time to collect clay at the beach with some friends.

I think I have about 20 lbs. of clay in the car!

Rock of Ages

I took the kids today to the Rock of Ages granite quarry in, where else, but Graniteville, VT. First we saw an informative movie in the visitor center and then went out to the quarry to watch the granite removal in action. Very cool. We saw them lift a huge slab of granite with a crane while we were there. We learned that the granite goes down to a depth of 10 miles underground and that it would take 4,ooo years to use up all the granite at this site. Wow. Of course, I had to get a picture but when I snapped the photo I realized that I had forgotten to put the card back in the camera after downloading pictures yesterday. Ugh. Anyway, here is the brochure and some sample granite pieces we were allowed to take home. I didn't know what to do with them so they ended up in the garden. The grey pieces are from the VT quarry, the others are from out of state.