Food Co-Op and Apple Picking

What a yucky and rainy, but totally fun day we had! We all woke up early this morning, which is a miracle in itself, and drove for 45 minutes down to Clover, SC, to pick up a box of fresh produce. It was $15 for a large box of produce, and the produce varies week to week. Here is what we came home with:

We weighed everything we got and went to Food Lion to compare prices. The same fruits and vegetables that you see would have cost $33.58 as compared to the $15 that we paid. What a deal! (That is if you don't account for the gas it cost to get down there. But we figure that if we get enough people to join the co-op then we could cut the gas costs significantly.)

After we collected our produce we decided to make our drive even more worth while and drove 15 more minutes to a nearby apple orchard. The Windy Mill Apple Orchard. I read online that they offered apple picking, hot apple cider donuts and even hayrides. When we arrived, everything appeared a little bit soggy. To be honest, the girl working behind the counter at the fruit stand looked a little surprised to see us since it looked like it might start pouring at an minute. But we were in a daring mood and decided it would be fun to go apple picking while we were there. They gave us a basket and an apple picker and we headed out into the orchard. It was actually really fun! Here are a few pictures from our apple picking adventure:





Katelyn thought apple picking was pretty cool, but she had the most fun watching the chickens. We bought her a little cup of corn kernels to feed to the chickens and we showed her where all of the hens laid there eggs. One chicken in particular had quite a feast from Katelyn's corn kernels, but we thought she was having a bad hair day and might need a little comfort food.

(Maybe we should have taken the family photo at the beginning,
rather than at the end of our adventure.)

Last but not least, here are a few random pictures from the past few weeks. Josh is now almost 5 months old. I know! We can't believe it either! He is the happiest, sweetest baby. We just started feeding him some solid foods. So far he has had rice cereal and bananas. He is totally loving the bananas. He is starting to roll over. He can roll to his tummy, but he usually gets stuck and can't roll back onto his back! We'll work on that. Katelyn is 2 3/4 years old now. She loves to sing, color, paint and of course watch Disney movies. Recently, Ben has been singing her the song "How Great Thou Art" and I often find her playing and singing the words "I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder" over and over again. It so sweet! We love it!

Katelyn brushing her teeth just after we finished braiding her hair so that it would be cute and wavy in the morning.

"Hanging out" at the park

Kate building a sand castle

Kate and her bean

Our happy boy!

Green Mountain

This post is entirely over due. Last weekend we loaded up the Saturn and made a short trek (about 2 1/2 hours) to Green Mountain, NC. Our little family of four, along with four other families, pooled our money and rented a cabin for 3 nights. The guest list included 11 adults, 9 kids and partridge in a pear tree (well, almost). The cabin was three stories tall and had 8 bedrooms, making it nice and roomy. There was even a playground, a hot tub, and game room with a big screen tv and a pool table.
Anyhow... we all arrived late Thursday afternoon, settled into our rooms and started exploring the property. That evening, the boys built a fire in the fire pit and the kids played on the playground and in the "sandbox" (which was really a horseshoe pit).
Friday, we headed to a near by river and spent the afternoon playing in the water and picnicing on the small beach under the shade a huge tree. The water was chilly, but the kiddos has a great time splashing around and watching the little fish swim around their feet. That night the boys played a little Wii Bowling and we mostly jsut laid around and enjoyed doing nothing.
Saturday morning, we took a 30 minute drive to search for waterfalls. We found a trail and walked about a half of a mile to find a beautiful waterfall. When we got back to the cabin it was time for a birthday party! We celebrate Kate's friend Arwen's 3rd birthday with a Dora the Explorer party. The kids had a great time playing the favor bags that Arwen's mom, Tiffany, put together. After the kids were in bed, we decided it was time to crack open the hot tub.... ohhh it was wonderful. We all relaxed and ate ice cream sandwiches and push pops (yes, I said push pops) and savored our last night of vacation. All in all, it was a FABULOUS weekend and we hope to do it again next year!

The Photo Journey

Kate and her "snowflake" flower

Kate swinging on her tummy

Ben and Kate watching the fish in the river

Josh chillin' on the beach

Sunset from the cabin

Katelyn at sunset

Ben and Kate roasting marshmallows

Kate enjoying her first REAL S'more

Our Family Photo at the river in the Pisgah National Forest

Eddie, Kate, Jack and Riley in the Pisgah National Forest

The Waterfall

Ben and Katelyn walking down from the waterfall

The End!

The Beach and Other Adventures

Our beach trip was a ton of fun, but entirely too short! We are sending a shout out to Grandpa and Nana Bellinghausen for taking us along, even thought vacationing with two little kids can be somewhat exhausting! Katelyn had a blast playing in the sand with Grandpa, Nana and Uncle Brent. I think she would have played on the beach all day long if I would have let her. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to take pictures of Katelyn playing and Josh, well, mostly sleeping. I got a few random pictures, so here you go.

Outside of Planet Hollywood

Katelyn and the Terminator


Josh and Mommy at Planet Hollywood

One extra picture to tack on... the other day I was upstairs getting ready for the day and Kate had gone downstairs to play. After I was all ready, I came down to check on Katelyn and found this...

As soon as she saw me she said, "Mommy, this is a good place to sit." I had no words. We have entered a whole new territory.

One more picture.. this was too cute not too post. The other day, Riley was at our house playing with Katelyn and we decided to make cookies together. While the cookies were baking, the girls pushed over their step stool and watched as the cookie balls turned into "flat balls". Aren't they cute? :)

The Eager Beavers

Kate Gets Her Wish

All summer long our dear little Katelyn has been asking at least once a week (or a day), "Mommy, can we go to the beach?". Usually I respond by explaining, "Well... sweetheart the beach is really far away, it takes a few hours to get there." Being to smart for her own good she often responded by saying, "I'll put my shoes on." :)
Well, now when she asks if we can go to the beach I get to say, "Yes!" We are headed to the beach for a few days. Sadly, Ben has to stay behind to work. But he will get a break in a couple of weeks when we go to a cabin in Asheville, NC, with all of our friends.
Beach pictures to come soon. Til then, have a great week!

Potty Training

Eeeekk... I have been terrified of potty training ever since the other toddlers started using the potty. It seemed like it was going to be an extremely time consuming, messy and frustrating process. So we have been starting very slowly with Kate. I was secretly hoping that one day we would wake and up and she would magically start telling me when she had to go potty. Umm, yea right. Back to reality. After a couple of months of practice, she has nearly mastered "pooping on the paawty" (oh the terminology of potty training). Now we are moving to "peeing on the paawty". I really don't know how to approach this. Kate gets so annoyed if I keep asking her if she needs to go potty. I tried putting her in underwear one morning and sat her down on a "magic carpet" (very thick towel) to watch Aladdin. This tactic ended less than an hour later with a big wet mess. How can I get Kate to like using the potty? I think the next tactic will be humor. How about if I let her wear underwear on her head whenever she uses the potty? I'll let you know how it goes.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph