Art and Cake

Found this in the yard, the last remnant of this last years Christmas tree:(

The weekend of Father's Day we baked Daniel a double layer chocolate cake and started the undertaking of the patio and the raised beds in the backyard. Our backyard has been a disaster since the day we purchased this house. The people that lived here before us couldn't grow grass in that backyard so I am not certain why we even tried. We did though. Daniel aerated, fertilized, seeded, added soil, watered, waited, watered again, waited and repeat. Sure, we would get beautiful bright green young grass shoots and our excitement would swell, all that hard work paying off! But then the dog would always find them the perfect spot to ether hike his leg and relieve himself on or the perfect spot to roll on to relieve his itchy back. The dog, the four trees that shroud our backyard in a blanket of shade, and the sandy/dusty soil was working against us. So the project begun. Lots of trips to the hardware store and garden centers that weekend, and in between we managed to stop at the little sculpture garden of a gallery in downtown Portsmouth. We were constantly passing the garden on the way to Maddie's school and she always picked out the "disco ball" sculpture so we stopped to get a closer look. The piece was called Spin and had CDs and records attached to it, I was surprised that Maddie recognized a record and told me it played music. We dont have records in the house so I dont know where she learned that. It is amazing what children absorb.

Warm and Water

The wildflowers/weeds growing in our front yard. 

Yay a water fountain! You can see Daniel's work behind Maddie.

The whirlpool created by the intake of the water fountain. This was the highlight of  Madeline's day. She has been fascinated with trying to make whirlpools in her little kiddie pool.

Maddie was a bit apprehensive on board the sailboat. There were random openings in the floor that men would pop out of now and then. Here she is looking nervously down into one of those openings that had a ladder down into the space below deck. I dont know if she was worried that she might fall down it or if someone might come out of it.

Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen!

Four days! Its only four days into summer and already I am longing for autumn, I am pretty certain Daniel is too. The new season has ushered in a lot of change with it. One such change is an overhaul of our awful backyard. Ugh lots of hard work, dirt and sweat. I will be posting pictures of that eventually when we get closer to finishing. In the meantime, we took a break a few weekends ago and went to the Harborfest celebration in Norfolk Va. in hopes of getting some great photos of the tall ships and their sails and some good food. Unfortunately, it insanely packed with people. Getting photos and food proved to be difficult but we did get a chance to step onto one of the ships and take a look around and eat some very greasy, very expensive fish and chips. All and all it was a good time, Madeline got to see a mermaid up close, play with a ship's wheel, and take in the sights and sounds of a water fountain downtown. The highlight of the day for her was the fountain's intake pipe that was creating a whirlpool. She was totally fascinated by it and she begged to go back and see it a second time before we left. Silly girl.

October, so wondrous and hectic

October, my favorite month, is ever so hectic and amazing. The pumpkin patch is by far one of my favorite necessities of the month. Unfortunately a Nor'easter blew in right before prime pumpkin picking season this year and brought with it eight days straight of rain. It was way too wet to actually pick pumpkins off the vines, which is a shame because I love turning over a leaf and finding just the right one. Despite this we were still able to take a little tractor hayride to a small dry field and pick from some preselected gourds. Plenty of fun to be had anyway at the Henley Farm in Pungo, I personally was tickled with their herd of 60 cats that greeted us when we pulled up. And Maddie learned a how to play a mean game of cornhole.

Maddie playing cornhole with the owner of the farm.

Since we picked the pumpkins so early we decided to hold off carving them and instead let Maddie draw some Jack o lantern faces on them with Daniel's help.

out of the studio: Virginia State Fair

When I was growing up Autumn didnt officially start until a day was spent at the Virginia State Fair. Then my sister and I could accept the idea that the summer was over. So with those fond memories in my mind, we scooped up Maddie, packed the car full of snacks and coffee and drove two hours to the state fair grounds. Despite that the calendar stated that it was October and officially Autumn, mother nature must have decided that she didnt want to let go of summer just yet because when arrived it was intensely hot and sunny. So after slathering up in 60 SPF from head to toe, off to the fair we went.

Maddie making her free grain jar which consisted of layers of different grains that grow in Virginia including soybeans, corn, sunflower and cotton.

Daniel, Maddie and I rode the ferris wheel together. Maddie was a bit nervous at first and wanted off but after all the people were loaded onto it and it started to move more she was ok and sad when it stopped.

Maddie feeding the giraffe a carrot.