Miss Emily Goes to the Farm

With summer activities winding down and her husband at work, Miss Emily decided to take herself back to the place from whence she came and see how things were doing. Needless to say, the garden was producing all manner of goodness. 

She dove right in and found some things to take back to the big city with her. 

Lots of things. That were farm fresh and yummy. She was a little beside herself. 

She inspected the new kittens. Or that was the plan. What ended up happening was the kittens wormed their way into her heart with one tiny glance and it was a good thing they were too small to be taken from their mother or she may have come home with more than tomatoes and cucumbers...

They were just so tiny... 

And cute. Ahhh! Ok, back to the story. 

She went back to the big city and started making stuff out of all the things she got from the farm. (Probably a good thing she left the kittens behind...) Side note, sometimes Miss Emily likes to cook just so she can wear this apron. Or should I say Mrs. Emily....

She realized again how much work it is to cook by yourself. 

But she had all day, so she had fun.

And she decided to head back to the farm sooner. And not just to get more produce and check on the kittens, but because of the parts of her heart that live there, and how happy it makes her to see them. 

Day with the Nieces

It was one of those things you say you are going to do when you have the time and then suddenly the time and just the right circumstances get dropped into your lap. Last week I took my darling nieces to the Children's Museum.  

I don't know how moms live without coffee. I decided not to find out and start my day off right. 

They had a wonderful time. I had at least as much fun showing them everything. 

Who knew that fake cornstalks with fake corn ears were so entertaining. I knew there was a reason I wanted to bring them here. 

I was very excited to show Caroline the room of balls, where balls are flying everywhere and being moved through all manner of machinery. It was slightly overwhelming to her at first, until balls rained from the ceiling and then it was all wonderful. 

Melanie the fearless, who spent much of her day trying to convince me that even though she can't walk she should be turned lose with all the other kids. 

There were some areas made just for kids her size. 

It was difficult to get any pictures of Caroline because she spent so much time bouncing around all my pictures were blurry. 

Until we found the paint that is. She could have stayed here forever. 

In the mean time, I worked on my mom skills by feeding Melanie a bottle with one hand and painting this with the other. Well, Melanie did contribute to the painting some before we found her bottle... 

Back to Meme's house for some popcorn. What is the point of being an Auntie if you don't get to feed them junk food every now and again? ;) 

And finally. I officially wore them out. A real accomplishment in my world. Thank you for sharing them with me, Sarah!! 

SUPS

SUPs, or stand-up paddle boards, are quite the rage these days. The boys have been waiting for weeks to be able to rent them. When they finally got their name on the reserve list I suggested we celebrate by camping out too. 

While packing up the grilling out and breakfast stuff I suddenly remembered this awesome bag someone gave us for our wedding. First time I saw it I thought picnic. Now that I know its phenomenal hauling capacities, it has become my new best buddy. 

The lake was beautiful. 

The boys got the hang of things right away. They said it wasn't even really exercise, more like a relaxing motion. 

In the meantime, yours truly found a campsite and picked out a good place for our tent. Trying to pretend we are in the wilderness here... 

Dinner was delicious. 

 After dinner we took the boards out with passengers. Regretfully I don't have any pictures of my man gliding me across the water like a Perisan queen while the moon was rising over the lake. No pictures on my phone that is. I have them forever stored in my mind... 

Fortunately Josh convinced me that we would want to eat breakfast at camp as well and I was able to try out another of our wedding presents, a super cooker campstove.

Fun may last for an evening/night but work comes in the morning. We packed up our gear and headed home, many memories richer. 

Chicago

With our first two days off together since our honeymoon, we decided to take a quick weekend getaway. That decision was easy, deciding where to go was the hard part. After narrowing it down to a few options (probably should stay within the lower 48) family ties won out. 

I mean, who wouldn't want to go hang out with this cutie? 

Josh still needed to check Chicago off his list and it happens to be close enough to see some other awesome people, so we hopped on the bike and headed for the windy city. 

With only a few hours actually in town we decided to spend them in the Museum of Science and Industry, which turned out to be a phenomenal experience. If you are ever in Chicago with some time to spare, it is worth the admission. 

Among many other things, we got to tour this German U-boat from WWII and learn all about how it was captured and the intelligence it supplied the Allied forces. Fascinating history. 

Being true tourists, we wanted a taste of real Chicago. Between all the people on the street we asked and Yelp, we found it. Wow, I will never be able to eat pizza the same way again. 

 We finished off the trip with a lovely overnight in Milwaukee, a quick jaunt through the Harley-Davidson factory and then made tracks for home.  1200 miles and 52 hours total isn't a bad way to spend your weekend. 

Catching Up

I know my blog has been rather silent lately, which is mostly due to both a lack of internet and the Compass summer program being in full swing. Here are a few pictures to attempt to catch you all up on some of the going's on at Compass. 

A few weeks ago we went to Lincoln for our field trip. A stop at the Sunken Gardens for lunch and to see the fish made everyone pretty happy. 

We got to see some giant mammoth skeletons. 

And some dinosaurs... 

We had a splendid time. 

In the last few weeks it hasn't all been fun and games. 

But there have been quite a few "This is why we do this" moments. 

We made playdough. 

Which was probably the most popular activity of the summer to date. 

We have been learning about mazes. 

And taking coloring breaks. 

Every Thursday we write about our greatest adventure of the week in our Adventure Journals.

We have been learning a lot. Not just in the classroom. 

It dawned on me that this is my third summer at Compass. Three summers ago I first met these ladies and we were like (three fingers crossed). 

Gosh, when did they grow up so fast! 

We went to the Durham. Not the best shot of the museum, but hey, we got the important part... :) 

I was put in charge of teaching gardening again this year, and this time our garden is flourishing. One of my students confessed to me today, "I keep picking gardening class because I like to play in the water and the dirt." I told him that was why I liked it too. 

It is crazy to think next week is our last week. It hasn't always been an easy summer, but it has been so full of great teaching opportunities for both us and the kids. Stay tuned for more pictures hopefully after next week!