4th Week of School Pictures

(I have way too much fun coming up with these)

Honey

Biscuit

Muffin

Beans

Sprout

Little House Day

(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

So, way back in November, we finally had the Little House Day I've been planning for oh, 2 years now.

I had so much fun planning it out, and even had a playlist of the fiddle music that Pa played, which I put together by writing down all the titles of the songs named in the Big Woods, the finding them on You-tube. The trick was to put "Fiddle" after the title so you wouldn't have to weed through 100 songs to find the version you want.  I wanted to share the soundtrack, but when I went to pull it up for this post, I found the site had been shut down. Phooey.

My friend Becca and her 4 littles made the trek out here to join us.

We combined Little House In the Big Woods and Farmer Boy. I had big plans for what to teach, but eventually whittled it down to using what you have, not being able to just run to the store, improvising, using things up, not being wasteful. Most of that pertained to food. What can I say, we all like to eat.

I dragged this hutch into the dining room and improvised a little kitchen.

It was my favorite thing.

Becca read a bit about harvest time etc. from the Big Woods before we started.

After reading about how Laura and Mary and Almanzo helped to make butter, and how different their methods were, we made our own. 

Everyone had a turn shaking.

Making do: No cheesecloth, so I used a leftover scrap of my wedding veil material to drain the butter.

We used the buttermilk in the cornbread.

Lots of stirring.

And baked it in my cast iron skillet greased with bacon fat.

While lunch was baking/warming up, we made scrapbook paper quilt blocks. I figured it was the easiest way to include everybody.

The big kids did Laura's Bear Paw

and the Littles did Mary's Nine-Patch.

And then we ate. All recipes (except the sausage) from the Little House Cookbook.

Baked beans...

Mashed Pumpkin, which we then drizzled with maple syrup...

Bean Porridge...

Haha! Just realized I forgot to get out the cloth napkins and these are paper! SO authentic.

We also had venison sausage that I made, the cornbread and butter we made together, and blueberry "pudding" which was really a cake like bread cooked in tin cans in boiling water. It was good.

Originally, I had planned various chores for the kids, here are the boys "fetching water from the well" (A pot for the well, and an ice-cream bucket for the bucket). Unfortunately, with 5 of the 9 children under the age of 4, that got pushed to the side and they all went out back to play instead.

I put together a gift basket for Becca's family with a slate and chalk, maple popcorn, leftover soaps from the baby shower last summer, and some peppermint sticks. Made the basket from brown paper lunch bags.

This was Muff after telling Daddy about it all.

All in all, LOTS of fun, not as detailed as I wanted, but that's alright. Also appropriate that it came right before Muffins Birthday since this was her gift.

Looking forward to doing another Little House Day : )

School Days

We started school last week, and thus the obligatory First (uh, second) Day of School pictures. (and I actually got some I want to print and frame, that's never happened)

During Math This Morning

So glad my camera was close by...

9 Days In

(Well, thats one way to fit...)

Its hard to believe that we brought Beans home 9 short days ago.

Sunday he was dedicated back to the Lord. (thats my brother, SIL, and super cute chunk of a nephew on the far right)


It was one of the nicest dedications, and we should know. I think we've only missed one since we got married.
Monday, B. tilled and leveled the old garden.
To make room for the long promised swing set. It will hopefully be here this week.

I admired the sleeping Baby.

Afterward, Big Sister carried Little Sister...

Then walked her....
Up to Big Brother....
To throw picked up rocks in the pond. Daddy's made the biggest splash.

Later, Muffin, needing attention, helped Mama make chocolate chip cookies. B. has been quietly hinting at them. ("how come nobody ever makes chocolate chip cookies anymore?")

She liked them.
We also started school yesterday. Day 1, GREAT. Day 2 not so great.
These are second day of school pictures. First day didn't happen. Honey's dress (about 4 sizes to big), my mom found at the thrift store. Kirsten's dress, from the American Girls collection, for not even a tenth of what would have been new. (not that anyone cares, but I still get a thrill out of that). Honey got to hold Beans *standing up!*, much to her 5 year old delight.