Welcome Grammy and Papa!

Alright, I'm finally ready to post some pictures of Mom and Dad's visit and our trip together to Colonial Williamsburg.  Sure was fun.  Dad and Mom spent several days of "everyday life" with us before we all left together to go to Virginia.  I thought I  would post a few pictures of these first few days. 

These are some first greetings on the first evening of their arrival.

This was their first chance to meet Bronwyn! 

Multi-tasking:  Taking a break from cooking, soaking in some sunshine, cuddling new baby granddaughter and looking through a book with another granddaughter.  Pretty good.

Papa, returning from an adventure hike with the boys.  They followed the creek at the bottom of our property, about 1/2 mile to the giant Monongahela river. 

Sunday morning and Millie's birthday breakfast.

Sunday afternoon restfulness in the form of crocheting.

A hug of thanks for a special birthday gift.  This is the end of Amelia's birthday tea party that we had later on Sunday afternoon.  I will post more pictures of that later.

Easter 2013

Happy Easter!

Dying eggs the day before.

Sam and Will helped me brine the turkey in the cooler.  The turkey was a beast: 28 pounds!

Turkey all done!  This was a home-grown bird from our friends' poultry farm.

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Some friends from church, a sweet couple from Peru, spent the afternoon with us.

Girls in dresses and eggs in baskets.

Bronwyn's first Easter.

Samuel took this picture and got a happy face from his sister.

We played several board games while waiting for the food to finish cooking.

Some other folks from church stopped by a little later on.

Carving the meat.

Enjoying all the excitement of guests and holiday time.

I made a strawberry cake for dessert. 

And here's the final product of the egg dying.

Some of them had some fairly intricate drawings on them, particularly the owl on the blue egg in the bottom right.  Fun!

Haircuts for the Girls

 You might know or not be surprised that I do all of the haircutting in our household.  I claim no real skill at it, but I do it to save money.  Part of the reason that I have just let the girls' hair grow is because my only attempts at cutting it myself haven't gone very well.  By the way, I do not cut my own hair either.  Twice a year, I take the time and money to get it cut at a salon.  So, this time around I took the girls with me when I was due for my cut.  I got to watch and get some pointers from the capable and experienced lady who does my hair. 

 Amelia's hair got several inches taken off.

 This was pretty fun for them, because they've never done it before.

 Cecily just got a trim.

Freshly cut hair!  And I learned something for next time!

Collage of Our Property in Early Spring

(Click on picture to enlarge)

10 Year Old Boy!

While we were away...Ben turned 10!  We celebrated at Cooper's Rock when we got back.  More on that later!

Birthday Girl

She'll be six years old tomorrow.  I'm posting early because we will be on our way to Colonial Williamsburg tomorrow.  We're celebrating Miss Amelia's birthday today as a result.  I also will not be posting for the upcoming week due to our trip.  I'll be back next week!

Two Recitals and an Anniversary

 From January through March Benjamin and Calvin participated in a free piano pedagogy program through the university.  Some of the piano majors have to teach 6 weeks of piano lessons to children in the course of their study.  So Ben and Cal got 6 weeks of free piano lessons.  At the end of the time there was a small recital for all of the children who participated in the program to play what they had learned for their families. 

 Ben played two songs, including an abridged Mozart piece.  So nice!

 Calvin also played two songs, and his teacher played a duet with him.

 Their teacher was Miss "Jue."  She is from Malaysia.  The boys were excited about that because they happen to know a good bit about Malaysia due to a Malaysian student who used to attend our church.

 Here are all of the students and student teachers.  In the end, we were very glad that we did this.  It gave Ben and Cal a very good introduction to piano.  Now that they know the basics they've been experimenting with the piano and it's great to hear them playing and enjoying it.

 In the same week, Sam and Will also had their annual piano recital to demonstrate their year's progress.  They got to play on a large grand piano in a big auditorium.  That's always a good experience for them.

 They both did very well.

 This is all of the students and teachers who participated in the recital.

 And this is Sam and Will's teacher, Mrs. Kincell, with all of her students.

Oh, and Peter and I had an anniversary.  It was mostly forgotten in a lot of busy-ness this year.  But we did pass the 16th anniversary of our marriage and we did squeeze in time to fry some steak and for Peter to drink a special, celebratory beer.  The steak was SOOOO good.  Something, you might be able to imagine, that we don't typically eat.  Yum!

One-Handed Dish Washing

 When I came into the kitchen to find Samuel doing dishes with one hand and holding Bronwyn with the other hand, I thought I'd take a picture. 

She did her first dishes!

Calvin, With New Gun, Powder Horn and Hat

Pretty authentic, yes?  :)  Got a real buckskin pioneer at my house.