Outdoor Hour Challenge #10 Picnic

Last week we took the children out to Cedar Valley where John grew up. We had a picnic up at the rodeo grounds. John spent many, many days and nights here playing with his friends. After our sandwiches were finished we hiked a little more than a mile up behind the rodeo grounds. It was so peaceful! The scrub oak was beginning to change colors and the little ones had so much fun!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #3

Two weeks ago we took the children up to Strawberry Reservoir to the visitors center. The kokanee salmon were spawning and we wanted the children to get a chance to see them. Kokanee salmon are fresh water salmon and silver when they are young. When the salmon are mature and ready to spawn they turn red and green. We went up on a Thursday and it was cold! The wind was blowing and there was a slight skiff of snow. Luckily for us that meant that nobody else was up there. We really do not like crowds. We knew we it was pretty late in the season but apparently it was the last day. The Fish and Game wardens were up there and one of them came over and started telling us all about what they were doing and how the fish were faring. It was so much fun! We asked all kinds of questions and had a blast. Thank you to the lovely Fish and Game department.

It was absolutely beautiful up there! I took a bunch of terrific pictures:






















Jack's picture of the salmon:


Christy's picture of the salmon:


Toby's picture of the salmon:


Hannah's picture of the river and salmon:

Happy Birthday Muffin Man!

My little Tobias turns six today. My beautiful boy, my muffin man. Tobias is a sensitive soul. He loves to garden and be outside. He loves blocks and can spend hours building things. Toby loves trains and hiking and digging in the dirt. Toby has requested my homemade mac and cheese, and rolls for his birthday dinner.

Yesterday he started feeling sick and fell asleep in my bed late afternoon. I checked on him a few times as he was sleeping and realized he was running a fever. Poor little guy. Our elderberry glycerin is finished so Toby had the honor of being the first to try it out. He loved it and the other children were very excited to see what it tastes like (raisons, in case you were wondering). He slept well and is feeling a lot better today. Still a bit bright eyed and flushed, but better.

Weekend knitting

Weekends are for knitting around here. I do not get much knitting done during the week with all of the learning and outings going on but come the weekend I knit and watch movies. The children and I watched Dante's Peak, Pride and Prejudice, and Little Women. Christy and I knit and the other children played and colored. I LOVE weekends!

I finished Jack's hat:

pattern: my basic beenie
yarn: Red Heart
colorway: Camo
needles: US 4 & 6

I am getting close to being done with my second sock:




This is the hat I knit for Christy a couple of weeks ago:


pattern: my basic beenie
yarn: Plymouth Encore
colorway: grey and cream
needles: US 4 & 6

Autumn skiff

Autumn skiff
Originally uploaded by Auroraknits

Beautiful things

We have finished up our elderberry study and are ready to move on to October's Lemon Balm! Our elderberry tincture is just about done and we have had a blast shaking it up each day




In knitting news: I knit Christy a hat and am now working on one for Jack. It seems they don't truly appreciate the pumpkin hats anymore. Toby and Hannah still wear theirs with pride and look absolutely adorable doing so. The weather has been nice and cool the last few days and I am blissfully happy! I am also knitting a pair of socks for myself, I am ready to start the heal flap on the second sock. This beautiful autumn-y sock yarn arrived today and I cannot wait to cast on for another pair for me!

Lorna's Laces Trick or Treat colorway:


John keeps mentioning how much he loves his pair of warm wooly hand knit socks and bemoaning the fact that he only has one pair. LOL! I have some STR that I plan on knitting up for him. I was thinking about giving them to him for Christmas but I don't know if he can wait.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #2

We did the second challenge today and enjoyed being still and listening. Lots of giggling was heard as we used our words to describe what we heard. Hannah made a little home for bugs in her wagon.




After our nature time John and the children played basket ball and then soccer. I picked up a couple of pizzas and we ate dinner outside in the shade. The clouds started rolling in and the wind picked up. As I was bathing Hannah it started raining. I LOVE the rain!

John read the last few chapters of Robinson Crusoe to the children while I showered and had some time to my self.

Expanding my craftiness

I knit and tole paint but I have always been afraid of sewing. I can do it a little bit, but it intimidates me. When I was pregnant with Toby I sewed several little cloth diapers and they turned out pretty well and I can sew baby blankets but that is it. I have decided to spread my wings and sew.

This book arrived in the mail yesterday:


I have thumbed through it and I am in love! I picked a project and am going to use this fabric that I bought when I was pregnant with Toby. I had planned to make a ragged quilt but that never happened. This fabric has been sitting in my room for 6 years. Time to use it.


I washed the fabric all up yesterday and then just stared at it. In theory the project is fabulous. I was terrified to cut the fabric. I almost gave up before I even started. After I put the children to bed I busted out the chocolate (for courage) and went to work. I didn't cry. About half of it is cut out and I am not afraid to finish today. I cannot wait to have the finished product!

The Outdoor Hour Challenge #1

John had the day off today and we took the children to a wetland preserve park. These are some of the neat things we saw.

Herbal Roots Zine

I have found such a treasure! http://herbalrootszine.blogspot.com/ Herbal Roots Zine is a monthly zine that focuses on one herb each month. I bought September's this weekend. Elderberry is the herb of the month. This is just so neat! There are so many activities and so much information.

Today I introduced elderberry to the children and we recited the poem and song. I do not know where any elderberry is off the top of my head but we are on a mission to find some so that we can make the elderberry syrup and dye.