Reeve's Ship

We are back from our wonderful trip and I have lots to post about that! My goal will be to post at least something everyday this week. LOTS going on here people...exciting adventures are definitely in our future!

Before we left on our journey to North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Indiana Reeve made this ship out of blocks and lincoln logs...

Reeve very much wanted me to post a picture...or four :)

He made about 5 of these ships because we couldn't stop Stella from destroying them. In order to take these pictures Kyle had to hold her hostage.

Rainbow Silk, Dandelion Pizza, & Stella's First Bike Trip

We had a definite rainbow theme going on for Stella's First Birthday. She loves her some color, that's for sure!

The only thing is is that I have a hard time taking her picture because she never stops moving! As a result, all of my pictures are blurry. I'm sure there is a setting I could set on my camera, but lately I really only have time for "point-and-click."

Stella is precariously standing on a folding cot that Kyle thought would be cool to sleep on...I'm actually amazed because he slept on that for two nights straight. Stella loves to climb. Enough said.

She also loves to wear necklaces...yet another dangerous thing for a baby, but she's oh so happy when I put it around her neck. The one pictured here has been pitched because she managed to pry the fake blue jewels off. Now she sports a wooden heart necklace. I don't remember Reeve or Kyle ever wanting to wear a necklace, and believe me I'm not encouraging her...she just comes up with this stuff on her own! She also has an opinion about what she wants to wear...same thing...I never remember Reeve or Kyle caring about what they were going to wear...they still don't. I know I don't, so where does she get it?
Anyway, here she comes to get the camera...

Look at those moves! Stella definitely has her groove on...

Ahhh...here she was still for a moment playing her favorite game of "peek-a-boo"

A friend of mine said she was frying up some Dandelion Fritters. Well I didn't have the patience to fry me up some DandelionCakes, but I did really want to eat some Dandelions, sooooo the kids picked about 20-30 Dandelion flowers and some garlic chives and I cleaned 'em and put them on pizza!
Dandelion Pizza...bettcha never had that before

The kids LOVED it...I loved it...Tommy loved it, and yes even Stella had a little and loved it. Don't spray your dandelions! Just eat 'em :). We've also been eating loads of nettles...anything that calls for spinach I now substitute with stinging nettles...YUM!

We try to use our human-powered (no gas) reel mower whenever possible, but man that takes a lot of time and we have way too much yard. Enter Reeve...

My new lawn mower guy! Love him!

Last, but not least...Pictures from Stella's first bike ride. We went on the Elroy~Sparta bike trail with our homeschool cooperative group. We left from Kendall and had 26 riders (including Stella). It was a beautiful day!

Stella checkin' out Tommy's bike and the Burley

The mission of the ride was to get to the first tunnel...it was about 3 miles from the Kendall depot. Stella did great in the Burley right up until that point.

We should have just taken her out and held her, but once we got in the dark tunnel (1/4 mile long) we really felt like we had to keep going...so we didn't stop the flow of traffic. Of course it didn't help that the kids were all having a blast and making spooky, boisterous, noises throughout the long tunnel.

Once we made it through to the other side we took her out and cuddled with her. Then she rode in the Ergo on my back. Oh where would we be without our Ergo? We rode another mile to a campground picnic area and had lunch. Stella rode on my bike on the return trip.

She had had it with the Burley. She was very happy and content and fell into a deep sleep moments before we got to the tunnel. The spooky noises didn't even stir her.

Kyle was a trail blazer and didn't hang around us slower riders, but we did manage to get a picture of Reeve when he took a water break.

May Pole Celebration at the Kickapoo Homeschool Cooperative

On May 4th we celebrated Spring with a May Pole Dance and Flower Crowns.
We made willow crowns with fresh flowers.

It was a beautiful, but slightly breezy, May day. The 12' May Pole was stunning with fresh flowers.

We marched around the May pole singing songs to celebrate Spring.

Me and Stella on the way to the parade

Stella enjoyed watching and participating

Her favorite thing to do lately is to play with rocks...

Spelunking Trip

On Friday, April 30th, (Stella's 1st Birthday) we went on a Spelunking (exploring caves) Field Trip with our Homeschool Cooperative. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed a nice hike up to the cave located near Boaz, WI (about a 50 mile drive for us).

The above picture was taken on the edge of the cave.
Kyle and his good friend Ben before they go deep beneath the earth.

Pop's Cave (aka Big Bear Cave) is located in Richland County, WI and it is HUGE! I did not venture down into the cave because I had Stella on my back and we didn't have a helmet for her :) (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!).

The cave is 645 feet in length! The group was underground for almost 1.5 hours. After you climb down the rocky ledge, down the breakdown slope you enter into the 1st cavern that has an amazing height of 16'. Reeve and Kyle LOVED it underground. There were huge caverns of 23 feet in height to narrow passages (one was called the birth canal) of 1' in height.

Reeve took the camera down, but we're having trouble with our new camera not liking the old camera's memory card. I just got a new memory card, so hopefully we won't have this problem where when we go to take a picture it says it doesn't like the memory card. Then we have to turn the camera off and on, off and on, off and on, until it decides to like the memory card and let us take a picture. Ugh! So Reeve was only able to take a couple (2) of pictures underground.
Ahhh...here come the brave adventurers returning to the surface...

Stella and I enjoyed our time above ground...walking barefoot in the pine needles...

No longer a baby...now a toddler...on her 1st Birthday!!!

Stella & Some Guacamole and Baby Mary

Stella does not like avocados. We've tried to feed them to her (Reeve & Kyle both loved them as babies), but each time she takes the yummy green avocado out of her mouth, holds it out for us to see (while wearing her most serious expression), and then dramatically throws it onto the ground, which then elicits roaring laughter from her two favorite fans, Reeve & Kyle.
Well we LOVE our guacamole and Stella could not stand the fact that we were all enjoying dipping our carrots and gobbling up the guacamole. Tommy decided to give her a carrot stick and some guacamole...

Could you tell she LOVED it? I am happy to report that there have been no detrimental side effects from feeding her guacamole, and it's now one of her favorites. It ranks right up there with her most favorite food so far....Quinoa & Kidney beans. She also loves olives, oatmeal, brown rice, banana chips, apples, and carrot sticks...oh and she had fusilli pasta w/tomato sauce on her birthday which was a huge hit with her.

Speaking of her birthday I have more pictures to post from that fun day, but I'm having more troubles with my new camera. Now when we go to look at the pictures or take new pictures it says it can't read the memory card...UGH!
Anyway, for Stella's first birthday I made her a baby doll from scratch. It was a ton of fun for me to make and took me about 15-20 hours for this first one...I know I will get faster now that I've got one under my belt. Reeve named her Baby Mary, and I'm happy to report that Stella absolutely LOVES her Baby Mary.
Meet Baby Mary

I ran out of time to make her clothes, so we borrowed Baby Oza's clothes.