Asher Update

At nearly 4 months old, Asher is growing into the look of a Russian Blue, long, lean, shiny -- but we're 100% sure she's just a domestic mutt. 

She loves the girls' feather boa, of course!!

and who doesn't love a nice sun beam?

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

Jeff and I took the girls to the pumpkin patch & corn maze over the weekend, and then we went again with MOMS. I can not believe that I forgot the camera on the first trip; I'm pretty glad I got a second chance! 

Little Miss...

Hay Ride! 

bump, bump. bumping down the hay bale tower. 

Meet & Greet with the piggies after their "race." 

And their favorite: the Corn Box! 

(poor Camila was so tired... she just rolled around in the corn. lol)

Happy Morning Under the Climbing Tree

We've had a couple of beautiful days up here on the hill. And have spent hours in and around our lovely oak trees. Today I managed to take a few pictures as we collected acorns, sticks, and leaves; poked around in squirrel holes, explored dry ponds and creek beds, and climbed a bit in our favorite tree. (this isn't our "climbing tree" but another nearby oak). 

Animated Livvy, telling me some wonderful story.

Asher, playing panther:

"CHEESE"

posing.

Planting acorns.

A Typical Good Day

 No big adventures, nothing special planned, but a nice day -- I didn't take pictures at every activity, but here's a sampler:

Cat lounging on the windowsill at breakfast.

We baked some banana bread, very fun project, the girls were great little bakers, but I did not choose to take my hands out of the project long enough to get the camera involved.  Until after! 

We had several hours of paper play (coloring, cutting, tracing, ripping, writing, etc...) and some fun time outside. While I was making supper I chanced to look out and see Livvie  playing on the patio in her life jacket, (one of the foot stools was a boat... she took me for a ride!) then she started chasing seed puffs across the yard. sweet stuff!

A little music play after supper...

Asher was so worn out she fell asleep grooming her self. LOL

And everyone got to try on Mom's beautiful new rain boots! :)

(different dress, must have been the following night...)

"Painting-Palooza" Playgroup

I lost my mind for a few days last week and invited everyone up to the house to paint. I'm so very glad I did and so happy that so many of my great mommy friends and their well-behaved, creative children came to play! We all had a great time! 

Then we all played in the sprinklers for a while!

Thanks to Angie Bodas for many of these pictures!

Follow-up play: 

learning about the color wheel.

Cranberry Lake (part 11: Pecenco Cousins and Bear Mountain)

We were so fortunate to have Annette and Dave and their beautiful daughters, Molly and Megan make the trek out to Cranberry Lake for some lake house fun - including a great hike to the lean-to on Bear Mountain.

I believe it was my uncle, Peter Mayberry, who remarked upon visiting this part of NYS after living in Colorado Springs for a couple decades:
"a thousand shades of green"
(even at the tail end of summer)

Liv (as do all kids and most adults who hike this trail) hopped from rock to rock for the first half mile or so - making the trail significantly longer and more arduous than the trail guide would suggest. ;-)

pretty ladies!