Ready to hit the books

OK, I'm not sure those were the exact words out of the kids mouths this past Monday, but they did get out of bed and get through five days of early mornings!

Lily Clare started the third grade and was excited to get the teacher that she had hoped for!

Biscuit and Gravy sent her off with some encouraging words!

Every girl needs a little "bling" on her first day of school!  (That anklet has been on her ankle since it was purchased in Costa Rica.  Girlfriend will not take it off....)

Sam is starting seventh grade!  Unbelievable! 

It's gonna be a GREAT year~

Laurie

Dirty fingernails and all.....

So, one of the things that we were most excited about when me bought this property was the opportunity of having a garden. We tried our hand at it last summer and things were ok, but this year we went head-on into a variety of fruits and veggies and not to brag....but it was a HUGE success!  (And to prove that I'm not cocky, I'll refer back to this post  http://moore4u.blogspot.com/2014/01/farm-to-table-moore-style.html  -- my seeds were a HUGE failure!  See, I'm grounded, I accept my faults!)

Well, when the weather warmed up and the ground was ready we started planting.  We planted cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, bell peppers and jalapenos. While we did kinda overdo it on the quantity of some of the plants (our garden runneth over), the quality was perfect!

We loved being able to share our harvest with our friends and I put myself and the kiddos to work and we canned some pretty awesome pickles and salsa, if I do say so myself.  (Dang, more bragging.) 

While our family and friends call our home "a farm", we do know that we are only a speck of the real deal.  But my friends love to drive by and honk while we are out in the garden or pasture and they laugh at me in my red boots and sometimes dirty fingernails.  

But, really? Would I want it any other way?!?!

 Playing in the dirt~
Laurie

Smart words, Audrey!

Time for a little break...

well, a big break actually!  Sam and Lily's Spring Break took us to Costa Rica!!!  This is something we've been wanting to do for so long and it really was a dream come true!  John and I had been several times before, but we'd been wanting to share the experience with the kiddos and we finally got our chance...

Our week in paradise included:

Horseback riding...

Zip lining.....

And lots of swimming....

Our week was full of amazing sights and experiences:

And these two are great travelers!!!

Just give them some electronics and Biscoff cookies and they'll fly anywhere!!!

 As they say in C.R. -- Pura Vida!!!~
Laurie

Oh Home Ec, you are a TRUE LOVE!!!

Sam was so excited to have Home Economics as an elective this quarter! It seems that all of the kids look forward to this class and Sam finally got his chance!  Their first area of study was house chores.  He had a different chore each night for the different rooms of the house and I had to sign off to say that he did it.  This was kitchen night:

Last week was cooking week and their specialty was Monkey Bread.  Sam was so eager to show us his cooking skills that he wanted to make his bread one night after dinner, but I was able to talk him into cooking for us on Saturday morning.  So this is what we woke up to:

And the bread was delicious!!!  Now if we can teach him to scramble eggs and make coffee...

Coming next week!!!! 

 (If you need me I'll be in my closet collecting 

clothes that need to be darned!!)

Proud of my Home Ec Pro~

Laurie

Snow much fun!!!

February brought us several snow covered days; causing the kids to miss seven days of school.  But, if you can believe it, they weren't too upset about that!  We definitely had our fun with:

Sledding,

making snow angels,

 making snow ice cream,

and EATING snow ice cream!

 Hey, look!  They get along when it snows!!!!

We took a ride down memory lane and watched family movies!

The first snowstorm that came through took us all by surprise and it was just one catastrophe after another.  I had my own little panic attack because John was out of town for work, but in the end everything was ok and we all made it under our roof after about 4 hours.  The craziness of the whole incident has made Atlanta the brunt of a lot of jokes and this is one of the best one's I've seen!  

Atlanta Snow Storm!!!

One of the snow storms came on Valentine's day, so we spread LOVE all around!  

Roadside....

in the kitchen,

and since we couldn't get to the store to buy cards, we made our own!  All of us!

And not to brag, but really.....look how creative mine was!!!

So, February was an odd month, but I'm so glad that we were able to have some fun family times!!!

Brrrr~

Laurie

P.S.  One of my favorite pics from the snow.....

And now for a formal introduction!

As mentioned in the previous post, last year's move brought us the adventure of farm life!  I do use the term loosely, but living 30 minutes outside of bustling Atlanta, this little piece of Heaven definitely falls into our farm category! And being on a "farm" you have to have farm animals!  So, say "Hello" to our friends!

This is Beulah!  She is an Ameraucana chicken and lays the prettiest blue-green eggs!

 This is Baby!  We love her black and white feathers!

This is Larry and Curly.  (Yes, we know they are girls...) They are two of our original chicken group that were left after something attacked and ate 3 of our lovely ladies.

This is Rosemary; she is such a pretty buff color!

This is Ramona! She's kinda pushy!

And this is Nemo!  She is the smallest of the group.  You can't tell real well from the picture, but she has feathers around her feet. She's pretty prissy when she walks!

And these are the pretty things these ladies hide for us to hunt for every day!!!! 

And our latest additions....Biscuit and Gravy!  We got these two guys about a month ago and they have been a fun addition!  They are miniature donkey brothers and are about one year old.  To watch them play, you'd think they were puppies!  They run around and chase each other and nip at each other...and even better, when you walk out into the field, they come right up to you and cuddle their head into your arm and want you to rub their ears!

So that is the official introduction to all of our feathered and furry friends.  Oops, don't let me forget this guy:

Our sweet Zac.  He so wants to be friends with the donks, but they are just not interested.In fact, he pretty much falls into their category of "prey".

So there you have it, that's our little world!  We love every inch of it!!!

E-I-E-I-O~

Laurie