Little Cabin in the Woods, Part 2

The best thing about our cabin might have been that it was right on the edge of a forest, which made for easy hiking right out our back door.

Our destination: a small waterfall.

We saw a few squirrels and chipmunks, and also saw evidence of larger animals, like deer...

...and possibly foxes. Or a neighbor's dog out for a stroll. Quite possibly a terrier gone feral and living off the land.

We also found some Mystery Poop. It was a real puzzler, so I said (as I took out my camera) "I guess there's only one thing to do!" and Fletcher responded: "Smash it with a stick!".  Dallas had to point out to me that my response to mystery poop was at least as unusual as my son's.

Photo of mystery poop available upon request.

There was some real hiking involved: there were steep parts, lots of rocks and underbrush, and  slippery gravel. Fletcher took a few falls and kept right on going - he's really an amazing little hiker.

We stopped by the farmer's market in Cornwall. They were selling pickles on a stick and I bought one, thinking Fletcher and I - the pickle addicts in the family - could share it.

Yeah, I didn't think that through.

Our pal Spotty enjoyed the farmer's market as well.

Later that day we stopped off at a local winery that had a stage.

Kale and purple potatoes with local goat cheese for dinner, all from the farmer's market. In our family, one doesn't turn up any opportunity to eat purple food.

Biscuits with pecans, bananas and brown sugar for breakfast.

Goodbye, Hudson Valley!

Little Cabin in the Woods, Part 1

We spent three lovely days last month at a cabin in the Hudson Valley. It was up a long gravel road, and we reached it in our...

...fancy new rental car! Fletcher was beside himself when we picked it up at Hertz: "It's so beautiful!'.

The cabin came all complete with a hammock...

...a swingset...

...and a lawnmower, which proved to be very popular. The boy pushed it in circles around the house, having "lawnmower races" against himself.

 

We made some new friends.  

 

 Some had many legs...

...and some had none. Or is that one?

We attended an acorn party.

 

And wandered around a lot.

One evening, we took our lawnmower out for a walk.

On this particular evening, Fletcher only responded to the name "Dora". I was "Dora's Mama", Dallas was either "Dora's Daddy" or Boots, the monkey. He addressed Louisa - who was in a bjorn - as "backpack". This would be very witty you were a not-quite-four-years-old Dora the Explorer fan. I believe that he's seen all of one episode at the gym daycare, but it made a big impact.

We ate giant bowls of oatmeal on the deck for breakfast.

We visited a small farm, where they had chickens...

 ...vistas...

 ...honeybees...

 ...and fudge. Here Fletcher is attempting to show us how much fudge he would like to eat.

 Yes, that's more like it.  He later suggested that he would like a piece of fudge as big as Louisa, who, for the record, weighs a little over 18 pounds.

 Standing! She now spends about half her waking hours standing, sitting, and standing again.

The farm also had mixed berry/apple pie. I tried to get a picture of it before it disappeared, and I was clearly not fast enough.

Random photos from a busy summer

 

We made art with frozen cubes of paint in the backyard. Butterfly wings, just because.

Baby K observes, ping pong ball in hand (and mouth).

Ta-dah!

We created some chalk roads for a town made up of buildings that Fletcher made at camp.

Here you can see Mama Hedgehog driving her minivan to the Frost building. The hedgehogs do enjoy their outings.

 

And then on to the capitol!

Cute baby in a rainbow outfit. Why not?

And more.



Big brother, way back when.

Still cute, still happy.

 
This happened at naptime one day. It's a phenomenon called "Car World". No, not a lot of napping happened that day.

Terriers are a girl's best friend

The best thing ever found on the internet: ivory soap in the microwave, at full power for three minutes. It's like a puffy, scented cloud that you can hold.

Awe-some!

Louisa and her pal Thatcher (five months her junior) size each other up

Louisa vs Thatcher,  Round 1

I think we know who won this one, don't we?

 We took G-Doll to Boggy Creek Farm.

We were chased away from (okay, "encouraged to leave") the tractors right after this, but it was so worth it.

We've had weekly "ride around the park until you collapse in exhaustion" dates with a good friend. These wear Fletcher out so thoroughly that he once asked me, as we drove home afterwards: "Mama, does it look like it's getting dark to you? I think it must be almost
 time for bed." It was noon.
 Please take a moment to admire Fletcher's bike. We've tricked it out with a bell on one handlebar and a sparkly streamer on the other.

Louisa vs Thatcher, Round Two

We decided that it was stripey shirt day.

Happy Stripey Shirt Day, everyone!