My Little Ballerina

Hannah loves to dance. Really. LOVES to dance. It doesn't matter where we are, if she hears music she will start dancing. And she's always asking us to turn on music at home so she can dance.
So, I was so excited when I saw in the Parks and Rec activity book that they had a dance class for 3-6 year olds. It was only a 4 week class with 8 sessions, but for less than 30 bucks. What a great way to get her started and see if this is something she really wants to do!
She had such a wonderful time and it was fun watching each session as she would get better and better with the basic dance moves and positions that they were teaching. She even would come home and practice and tell me the name of each move!
Yesterday was the last session and they had a little recital at the end. Hannah was so excited to dress up and do her "show". Grandma even drove up to watch which made it extra special.
Hannah did a wonderful job and it was so fun to watch her and how she really focused on each move...so serious and yet enjoying every bit of it.
I think the highlight for her though was the certificate the teacher handed out at the end...attached to it was a piece of candy! :)
We are so proud of our Hannah girl!

I'm Back!!!!

Wow! I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything up here, but didn't realize quite how long until I got on tonight! May was the last time I posted! I honestly didn't intend on taking a break from blogging, and in fact I've been trying to be more faithful about posting (ha! I know that's hard to believe!). However, I do have a very good reason. It is quite difficult to blog when you don't have a computer to use. Hubby has needed the computer for work a lot lately so he has been taking it with him during the day. And when the computer has been home, then there always seems to be other things demanding my attention and I don't get a chance to get on.
At any rate, I'm here now, and thought I'd just share a little bit that's been going on.

We've been enjoying summer a lot and spending as much time outside as possible. It has been wonderful! We've gone berry picking a couple of times and now have a nice supply of raspberry jam in the freezer as well as some blueberries for pancakes and smoothies this winter. This was my first time making jam, and I must say I think I'm addicted! I was ready to make everything into jam! I'm hoping to get out at least one more time and pick some more while they're still around. We never get too many berries in one trip as it is hard to stay out too long with the girls.

James has been having a great summer staying with grandparents. He's been gone since about the time school let out, and he will just now be getting home this week. And then in a couple of weeks he starts football. He's been dying to play football for the past couple of years now, so this year we were finally able to get him signed up. He got his gear already and is super excited to play. It will be fun to watch him and I'm sure he'll do great since he is totally built like a football player.

Hannah and Ellie have been growing like weeds and enjoy playing with each other everyday. Now that Ellie is getting bigger and more mobile, Hannah is having a lot more fun playing with her. Although, of course, there are plenty of times when she gets annoyed that Ellie is getting into all the toys. They've really enjoyed the pool we got for them. I think they'd spend all day in it if we let them!

One of their favorite toys to play with is a little ride on car. Ellie thinks it's the greatest thing when Hannah pushes her around on it!

We've also tried to get out as much as we can on the weekends and go for a hike at some of the local spots around us. Our newest discovery was a wetland/preserve only a few miles from our house. They have lots of trails that go through the wetlands, and we have gotten to see so many different birds on our treks through. Hannah really enjoys going hiking, and seeing all the birds and plants. Hopefully we'll get lots more hiking in before summer is over.

Our garden is doing well, and we've been eating quite a bit from it. My tomatoes are growing beautifully and finally getting blossoms and setting on fruit. I am just so thrilled when I look out there and see them and think that I started them from seeds! We've had an abundance of peas and I've been able to freeze a bunch for later use, as well as kale and chard. The green beans are finally getting blossoms and I hope they do better than last year. Green beans from the garden are one of my favorites!

That pretty much sums up our summer so far. Just hanging out together enjoying each day. I hope all of you are having a wonderful summer too!

"This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"
Psalm 118:24

Garden Update...a little late....

So I've gotten behind a little on the garden updates...2 1/2 weeks I guess. It seemed like I was so busy with the kids and housework, and when I did get a few minutes, then hubby was using the computer for work. I finally found my chance to get on the blog today!
The garden certainly has grown in the past few weeks!!! It's amazing!!! We have more lettuce and spinach than we know what to do with. I may have to start leaving little packages on the neighbor's doorsteps...hee hee!
I thought we'd be eating peas by now, but the silly things are just growing ginormous, but not putting out any blossoms! Phooey! I'll have to go out there and have a talk with them. It would be nice to have something else with our salads besides lettuce.
My green beans are coming up nicely. Now if I can just keep them from being eaten. There are some sort of critters eating everything this year. Why can't these pesky bugs eat the hundreds of weeds in my yard instead of my lovely garden plants?? Then we could all be happy. Ah, c'est la vie!
The celery is still alive. Not much growing with them yet, but atleast I haven't killed them. I do think they are finally settling into their surroundings and they should be growing more now.
The cabbages are getting HUGE! Hopefully the will continue to do well, and I can keep the pesky bugs away from them so we can actually get a harvest from them.
Cucumbers and cantaloupes are starting to get bigger, and hopefully they can get up and going on the trellis before the cabbages get too much bigger.
Last week I finally got my tomatoes and peppers planted too, so the garden is full now except for a few squares where I think I'll plant some more carrots and nasturtiums and...well, I don't know yet, but I suppose I should figure it out soon.
I am happy my tomatoes and peppers are doing well. They are small, but perky. They didn't die from the transplant!!! Hooray!!! I am only a little sad because a gal I know already has blossoms on her tomato plants that she started from seed. Oh, well. I guess we'll have tomatoes in November!
The raspberry canes are abundant with little baby raspberries. I need to find a net soon to put over them so the birds don't help themselves to a free buffet. Same for the strawberries. It's so exciting to go out and see all of the blossoms and little berries beginning to form. If we can keep all the pests away we should have a good harvest.
I finally got my trellises made for the garden this past week. They aren't anything fancy, but I am kinda proud of them. I came up with the design myself, went to Home Depot and got my supplies, used all my hubby's power tools (oh, yeah!), and put them together. It was so much fun, I'm now looking for other things I can build!
Whew!!! I think that mostly covers it for this week. If I missed something, there's always next week. Stay tuned for more updates on the adventure of our garden!

Princess Hannah is 3!

I can't believe my little Hannah is 3 years old already! That just doesn't seem possible! Where, oh where, does the time go?
We celebrated our little lady in grand princess style with a tea party and her best friends. This was her first actual birthday party. (We have just celebrated with family before.) She was just beside herself with joy and had such a wonderful time. Her granddad sent her a beautiful dress and princess crown to wear which she absolutely loved! It was a truly wonderful, special day, and she enjoyed every minute of it.
The past three years with her have been truly wonderful and special too, and I just can't imagine life without our Hannah. She is a little ray of sunshine and brings so much joy and laughter to our home. I feel so blessed to be entrusted with such an amazing gift!

All ready for tea.

We decorated the table with fresh flowers from our yard, and had a special tea cup for everyone (thrift store specials!)

Princess Ellie enjoying big sister's party.

All of the kids decorated pretty princess/prince crowns that we cut from cardstock...

And pretty bracelets.

Getting ready to enjoy some cake, and so happy to have everyone sing to her.

Sweet Princess Hannah

XOXOXOXOXO
I LOVE YOU, HANNAH!!!

Ellie at 8 months...

Now that she knows how to crawl, Ellie is really getting around. And she's pretty proud of it too!

Garden Update

Spinach salad fresh from the garden!

Our garden is continuing to grow quite nicely, and each week we keep adding more to it. We've been enjoying spinach, and even some lettuce now. I think I've said this before, but it is so fantastic to go outside and get a fresh salad! And nothing tastes better than food you've grown yourself. Soon we should have some peas to add to our salads as the bush peas in the green house box are going crazy.

How does our garden grow??? With peas, spinach, kale and chard and lettuces all in a row!

The mixed lettuce...so pretty!!

The cabbage and peas are doing well. And we now have cucumber and cantaloupe seeds planted in the back row ready to grow up. The cucumbers are just starting to poke through the ground already. Last year we had lots and lots of cucumbers from the four plants we had, so hopefully we'll get another great crop this year. The cantaloupe never did anything last year, so I'm hoping we have better luck this time around. I think last time they got kind of overwhelmed by the tomatoes and didn't get much of a chance to grow.

Broccoli and onions are still doing well, and I've added one eggplant to the mix. The guys don't like eggplant, but Hannah and I thought it would be fun to try one plant. My mother-in-law was telling me that they are really yummy grilled up on the barbecue. And this weekend hopefully I'll be adding the tomatoes and peppers to this bed.

We also got some celery plants from our neighbor that we planted. I've never grown celery before so this should be fun. Gotta love free plants though! Yesterday I stood out in the rain and planted some green bean seeds. Now I just have to get busy and build the trellises for all these plants to grow on!

As for the garden out front, the irises are blooming beautifully, as well as the lavender. More free plants from friends and family! The laveneder was just a tiny little transplant from my mother-in-law when we first moved into our house. Now it is so huge!!! Love it!!

Well, that's what is happening at the Little House in Hillsboro garden this week. I can't wait to take more pictures each week as things start growing. It will be fun to look back and see where we started!

Recycled Art

We have a box where we save things like toilet paper tubes, foil scraps, milk jug lids, fabric scraps, spools, corks, egg cartons and more that we use for art. It's a great way to encourage creativity, and it reuses things that would otherwise end up in the trash.
For our art time the other day I took the box out and this is what the kids came up with:

James' crazy tower.

Hannah's caterpillar.

What are some ways you recycle/reuse??

Great Outdoor Challenge- April 29th

It was a great day for jumping!!!