Random Sunday Stuff

Up early and busy already! Weekends go rushing by so fast. Even though I'm a stay home Mom, I try to get as much accomplished as I can on the weekends so that the week days run smooth!

Yesterday our Girl Scout troop made the banner for us to carry for the Memorial Day parade next week. All red, white and blue and stars with their names on them. I have twelve girls in my troop and I'm happy to say they have all renewed for next year too!

My son brought me home this lovely old wagon wheel from a job site he is on! He works part time for a landscape architect and he found this thrown in a junk pile! Can you imagine??? JUNK?

I promptly planted it in with the chicken/bunny coop garden!

Now I'm just waiting for the coop to get its new paint job...Soon!

Molly Moo Moo just loves sitting on the high chair to look out the window at the coop and the bird feeders. She has a great view from that height!

A couple of weeks ago, we were by some of the projects my husband has worked on. One of the things he does is restoration work for the historic properties in our area. We went by the Gardiner Farm, which he restored last year, to visit and they were planting potatoes. The farm is a landmark but is still farmed the old fashioned way! Here they are pulling out the original potato planter out of the barn for use.

When they saw Caitlin and I were with my husband, the caretaker had a surprise for us! He drove out this old Ford for us to see! It's the crank style! Isn't it cool?

Also, we went to another historic house that my husband works on and they were holding the annual sheering weekend "Sheep to Shawl" festival. The sheep are sheared for us all to see and the beautiful wool is spun on a spinning wheel and loom. It was such a great festival.

We went into the historic houses. George Washington visited here! And during the Revolutionary War this whole area was filled with British when they discovered that we had stockpiled ammunition! 

Such beautiful old buildings. When my husband has work to do at the historic structures, he feels so lucky to do work there.

There were llamas and alpacas besides the sheep and lots of vendors selling items made from their fur. There were also colonial crafts and food. My kind of day!

Have a sunny Sunday!

Beautiful Weekend

I hope you enjoyed your Mother's Day! It was truly a beautiful weekend. The weather cooperated for the most part with our plans. We are all cleaned up outside and ready for planting. Every day I see new blooms popping out of the ground and all the bushes. It's a burst of color all over the yard. We had a harsh Winter but I think our garden is going to be the best its ever been. All my perennials are growing in thick and hardy. I can't wait till they grow and I can cut some pretty peonies, lilacs and roses :) and bring them into the house.

On Saturday we did the Ronald McDonald Walk of Love that benefits Ronald McDonald House. Our Girl Scout troop raised $150. We had a great time not only doing the walk, which I think was about two miles, but having a good time with so many nice people.  If you are ever in doubt about the goodness of people in the world we live in, go to one of these events and your faith will be restored. There ARE good among us...more than we realize sometimes. People giving of themselves, their time and money but not just one day a year but EVERY day. Ronald McDonald House is filled with volunteers young, old and in between making a huge difference in more ways than you can imagine. Our troop is going to be volunteering there in the next school year. It's important the girls understand the process. Any one can write a check and donate. We need to do more. So we raised the funds, we did the walk---  now it's time to do the job! in whatever way they need us.

It was held on the grounds of Old Westbury Manor and Gardens, a beautiful historic estate that I and my family have visited many times. I think I actually did a post about it a couple of years ago :0    Incredible gardens from the turn of the century. It was a great day and our troop was happy to make that contribution to such an amazing cause. Below is Old Westbury Gardens grand lawn. It's breathtaking.

moving on....

We had a great Mother's Day with a dinner that was so yummy! Flounder, chicken shish kebob...so good and then later that night we went to the beach.

Just to dip our toes into the water. First time for this year...

Sun spots on my camera lens above! The sun was setting.

My two loves. And low and behold my son let me take his picture!!! Maybe cause it was Mother's Day and he knew it would make me happy.

We Are Moms

Yes, we certainly are! We are  Moms who wake up every morning with the intention of doing our best for our children .Moms who try so hard to raise our kids right even though sometimes the world makes that so hard to do. Be strong Moms! Moms who love their babies. Even when their babies are bigger and taller than they are.....(like my Billy)

 

 

or when the youngest in the house suddenly went from age 3 to age 10 in a blink of the eye (like my Caitlin has done....how did she become 10? I just looked at her five minutes ago and she was in her bouncy seat....)

 

We are Mommy to our pets, and speaking for myself), those "pets" are my kids too!

 

 

We are there through the good times and the bad. Through the sickness and the health to love and protect and nurture our babies.

 

 

And our reward is to receive the love back. Which is PRICELESS.

 

And if we are lucky enough to still have our Grandmas or if we ARE Grandmas already, well I think that just makes the reward even more special. Cause being called Mom is the best name you can ever have!

 

Now go make some dinner!!!! The kids are hungry! :)    and sit up straight! Your Mom would want you to! Happy Mother's Day!

Sunny Saturday!

Don't you just love it when you wake up and already the sun is shining even though it's really, really early?? What a pretty day we are having here! I'm so happy it's Spring!!! It's been a little harder lately to find some extra time for blogging but I am doing my best to keep up. It just gets that way at times of the year, right? As long as we keep on keeping on!!!  Yard work, errands, school stuff.....

Up above I made these for a dessert the other night! Mini strawberry shortcakes. Love these! I cut up fresh strawberries and add some sugar to them and let them sit in the fridge for a bit till the sugar almost makes like a strawberry juice. Then spoon the strawberries onto those little shortcake shells and with some of the liquid to moisten up the shell and add Cool Whip! So yummy! They are so nice to serve if you are having a brunch. People think you fussed but you really didn't  ;0

Let me see where to start catching up from! Well Miss Molly has been busy...NOT

She sleeps very soundly in case you haven't noticed......I have tenants living in my Lancaster County gourd!

Three sparrows! They are working hard! I take endless photos of them. It's a good choice for a home too. I have to get more of these gourds. This one was just supposed to be for decoration. It has an Amish buggy and says Lancaster County on it but it's just fine for them to enjoy! If they visit the backyard where all my bird feeders are, they would see I hung another! I got this cute tea pot bird feeder from Christmas Tree Shop!

I went the other day with some friends and they had so much fun stuff. I can stay there for hours just digging and looking! I find some of the best things *buried* behind others! Here's what else I got!

These are mason jar candle holders that are adorable. I really wanted the rack for my milk bottles but they don't fit :(  that's okay. I love how it is is and I can never have enough stuff to light up!!!! This was a real bargain too--$7.99! The little patriotic girl here was also $7.99! I bought two of these--one is a gift. I filled her bucket with some stars!

She's so cute! They had Uncle Sam too. I got a few other things but I didn't photo them. A super fun store.

I bought this little butter churn from a Primitive sale sight on the computer:

I'm guessing this was the modern butter churn compared to the other one I have where you stand and churn the butter like the Pilgrims :)   Modern conveniences......

I just can't wait to start my day today :)  Carol and Frankie have been pecking around the yard and looking for greens and little worms to eat. The chicken coop is warm and sunny through the sun roof and when they aren't pecking around , they are being lazy in the hay!

Last but not least I also acquired these two milk cans!!!!A friend alerted her friend that was giving them up to give them to me ! How great is that?? They are in rough condition but I don't mind. I like old and rusty!!!! I'm a prim lover. Rust is our middle name!  I'm going to sand them down and spray paint them burgundy!

Whatever ytou're doing today, I hope it's fun and I hope the sun is out!!! Have a great Saturday!!

Some of This & Some of That!

Saturday evening! Just relaxing after a busy day. We've  been working on our property moving a tree and preparing for our new front walk. Dirt is everywhere.

This lovely tree was next to my front porch but we had to move it to this new location. Our squirrels were using it as a catapult to jump onto the porch roof and onto my main roof and they were biting through shingles, etc. So we had to move the tree. We plan to plant a small tree in its place; perhaps a weeping cherry or a mini Japanese maple.

We are also preparing for our new front walk. My husband wants the dirt to sit for awhile and compact but it will be done shortly. I'm one of those people who have a love/hate relationship with work being done at my house...My husband does everything and he is super neat but I guess it's the upheaval of everything. I love the results though!

Today was a beautiful day! As a matter of fact, tomorrow is supposed to be a beauty too. Caitlin and Billy went to the zoo today! We live an hour away from the Bronx Zoo. Oh, and speaking of animals, Frankie our silkie chicken has been sitting on her egg! Even though she always lays them, she never wants to "own"them. She runs away from them!!!  But for some reason, she has now developed a motherly urge I guess and has been sitting on her egg!After two years of laying!   I'm gonna be a Grandma (maybe)....I still think she'll get bored and abandon it but we'll see.

I made two flower arrangements:

The one above I did a while back in a the stainless tub. Below I just did in a ceramic pitcher I had gotten from AC Moore. Just adding some Spring to the house!

Also added some ivy and lights to my star birdhouse. This is supposed to be an outdoor item but it just doesn't last outside even under a covered porch. I love it indoors behind my butter churn.

That's about if for me! Time for my hot chocolate! Have a great evening!

Easter Party Tradition

Spring has Sprung! .....well it's raining here today but most of the week has been in the 50's and 60's! I see some buds on the trees! The chickens are once again enjoying strolls in the yard and loving the fact there are no ice piles! We already did our Spring clean up, with just some left up front  and will be ready for planting by Mother's Day.        We had a wonderful Easter and the day before we held our annual Easter Egg Coloring Party!  We do this with our special neighbor who lives directly behind us and Caitlin asked another friend to join us as well. We had so much fun...colored three dozen eggs and made bunny mobiles!

The little bunny racers are so cute. Made with twinkies, marshmallows, skittles or m&m's, pretzels, icing and peeps! Below you can see the finished products all lined up.

Caitlin actually made a couple a few nights before the party...

Here are some of the kids...one is missing. hard to catch 'em all sometimes! This is our 16 th year doing our egg coloring together. I plan to color eggs with their children too someday!

I'm loving the mini daffodils too....

Happy Spring my friends!

Waiting for Easter!

Finally I think we are through with the snow! When I posted last on 3/20, we actually got six inches! A couple of nights ago we got another dusting but FINALLY I think we are done! It's all melted! We've started cleaning up outside and some buds are popping up from the earth! So nice to see! And Carol and Frankie were able to peck around the yard and feel free from the coop. It was glorious!

We've been so busy here with family things, I didn't get to do my usual decorating :(  but we are still having our traditional Easter Egg Coloring party! We enjoy having special friends come for egg coloring and desserts! It's been a tradition since my son was an infant. I will be sure to photograph it and show you!

I've been looking on Pinterest for some interesting crafts and found these adorable pom pom bunnies! I have to go to Michaels and get a pom pom maker! Look at these cuties!

I would make them all year round; not just for Easter! I would make puppies and kitties too! Get me to Michaels!!!!!

My Caitlin celebrated her tenth birthday with a bunch of her friends at Claires. Claires (if you don't have one where you live) is a girly store filled with hair accessories, jewelry, pocketbooks, stuffed animals, and every other girl thing you can imagine! Here she is before they did her hair. She chose a bun.

Actually, her two best friends, Jackie and Ashley chose buns too! They felt like Princesses! Claires did hair, make up, games and then they went shopping with gift cards I put in their goody bags! It was super fun!

Then it was back at home for a Sponge Bob Squarepants cake and presents! Lots of fun! Now go wash that make up off Caitlin!!!! :)  You're still my baby!