The holiday season has begun. . .

We kicked off the holiday season with my birthday the day before Thanksgiving. It was a nice birthday spent with my family at Plimoth Plantation and the Mayflower 2 at Plymouth, MA. Unfortunately my uncle in Northern Ireland died right before Thanksgiving and my Mom had to rush off to be with my aunt. My parents' house wasn't the same without my Mom there.

Here are Jeff, J and B on board the Mayflower. 102 passengers slept below deck-it must have been very stinky!

We also checked out Plymouth rock. Not too exciting. It is, after all, a rock.On to Plimoth Plantation. . . Here the museum staff pretends to be living at the time of the Pilgrims. It's always very interesting and amusing.

The day after Thanksgiving we made a quick stop at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. And when I say quick, I mean quick. I think we spent longer at the cafeteria than we did at the exhibits! Our goal was to check out the mummies and the Impressionists before the kids dragged us out of the museum and we did accomplish that. I was there with my sister and her two small children (ages 3 and 5). My 3 year old niece was not impressed with the mummies-she was afraid they would give her nightmares.

Here is a dog and a cat mummy.

Renoir.

So, now Thanksgiving is past and we're on to Christmas. I threw together this Advent calendar last night while the kids watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was inspired by this blog.

And here's the back of it. Made with toilet paper tubes and an Amazon box.

We've also been celebrating advent with our homemade advent wreath.

It's been a very nice start to the holiday season. Hope you're enjoying the holidays too!

19th century farm life

Today we took a field trip to Shelburne Farms to learn about life on a Vermont farm in the early 1800's. Our day started off with a little play.

This woman was waking up on a farm in the 1800's:

This woman was waking up in her room in 2009:

The kids learned about all the chores that were done on a farm in that time period. One chore was making butter. So, we made butter while singing a song to pass the time.




Next, it was off to visit the animals.

The goats enjoyed the brown November leaves.

We headed back into the barn to grind up some corn for the chickens.

And then enjoyed feeding the chickens, picking them up and collecting eggs.

B almost picked one up-maybe next time!

After lunch we made beeswax candles. J and B took their candle making very seriously and ended up with perfectly tapered straight candles. They smell so good!

Here they are with their finished candles.

We also carded wool and spun it into yarn. A perfect November day! Oh, and did you see that the coats were off while we were outside? It was almost 60 degrees and sunny here in VT.

Just the two of us-harvest time

I can't remember the last time I had a few hours out with just J doing something fun. Most days I'm at home with both kids and on the weekend we're together as a family. Today I suggested to J that we head to the local harvest festival (just the two of us) and amazingly, she agreed. I say amazingly because two of her neighborhood friends had just come to our house wanting to play and she passed up playing with them to go out with me. If you knew my daughter you would know how much she LOVES playing with friends. So, I was thrilled.
Out we went to the apple orchard. First stop was the craft shed. We picked up a couple crocheted dishcloths and checked out the train. Then J wanted an apple cider slush. . .yum!

She tried her hand at making cider.

Then we put our order in for Dizzy's home made donuts. We were told to come back in about 30 mins. to pick them up. That was just the right time to grab a bag and head into the orchard.

It didn't take long to fill our bag up with some lovely macs.

We got back just in time. . . here come our donuts!

We ordered powdered, cinnamon and maple.

These could be some of the best donuts I've tasted, all fresh and warm. We picked a spot under an apple tree and gobbled them up!

Before heading home we checked out the marionette show and spoke with someone from the local recycling center. She gave me information about various field trips and activities we could do with our Earth Scouts group and I left very excited and full of ideas. I can't wait to do more of these special outings with J!

Our road trip

Last week I took J and B on a little road trip. Our first stop was Albany, NY where we just spent the night on the way to NJ. I took this picture at 3:45 a.m. It's evidence that when J and B are given more than a single bed to sleep in they end up sleeping sideways(one reason Jeff and I don't like sharing our bed with the kids!)Next stop, Pennington, NJ. We were visiting a friend of mine and her three kids. B was quick to make friends with 6 year old Jack.That evening we caught fireflies. J and B had never seen them before! I loved catching fireflies as a child growing up in MA but I don't know if we're just never outside at the right time but I don't seem to see them up in VT(maybe it's too cold for them???) Anyway, they really enjoyed this activity!And there was the night time bouncing on the trampoline. We had lots of fun-thanks Lisa!Then it was off to Philadelphia to chat with Betsy Ross and see her house.We viewed the Liberty Bell.And saw where the Declaration of Independence was signed.We learned all about Ben Franklin and saw where he lived. The kids are holding up flags that they got while touring historic Philadelphia. There are 13 storytelling benches where you can sit and be entertained by wonderful actors as they tell you a story. After listening to the story they give you a star to put on your flag. This was a great way to keep the kids interested in all this history!We took a Duck tour of the city.And played a lot in the hotel pool. I didn't get a picture but there was a wonderful market(Reading Terminal Market)right next to our hotel. They sold anything and everything you could possibly want along with Amish goods. We had fun there too!Next stop-Mystic, CT. My sister's family joined us there. The first day we went to the Mystic Aquarium and saw the beluga whales.We also learned about piranhas. We took in a sea lion show.
And we enjoyed feeding the sting rays. We decided it felt a little like a vacuum when they take the food from your hand.

The next day we visited the Mystic Seaport Museum. We were thrown overboard by a whale.


We saw a little play about life on a whaling ship.

Here is a picture of the last wooden whaling ship. I think this ship was built in about 1840.



The kids enjoyed going on the ship and seeing how they lived while out at sea.

We saw a wonderful magic show.


We learned that the terms upper case and lower case letters came into existence because in print shops the upper case letters were stored in the upper case, lower case in the lower case.



We learned how to make some knots.



And we played Skittles. B loved this game!



It was a beautiful day at the seaport!

Tomorrow we return to VT.