Green Dragon/ Eagle and Child... in a clock

You can drink your fancy ales,
You can drink them by the flagon,
But the only brew for the brave and true...
..Comes from the Green Dragon!"

So my beloved brother (who must think I've nothing better to do and all the time in the world...) gave me an empty clock case a year or two(ish?) ago. His suggestion was that I make it into the Green Dragon Tavern from The Hobbit.    

Which sounded like fun.

And then I started looking up pictures of English pubs, and reading about the Inklings (J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Et Al) who used to meet weekly at the Eagle and Child Pub in Oxford England. 

So I kind of made it into both. 

When you open the door, the right side has more of a Hobbit-y feel, with Southfarthing Cider and Ale on tap.

To the left is the Rabbit Room with pictures of Tolkien, Lewis, and a document signed by the Inklings. 

It's quite a cozy little pub.

A miniature copy of 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe' on the chair.

Framed maps of the Shire and Narnia on the walls.

There's a bench to enjoy some long bottom leaf outside in the sunshine.

Or inside.  😉

 

A miniature copy of the Hobbit on the table in the Rabbit Room.

'If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.'

It feels kind of bare to me compared to my other mini hobbit holes, but I'm not sure that pubs are quite as cluttered as hobbit holes.  I'll take suggestions on missing elements!  

What I probably don't need is anymore clocks.  😜😁😂 It's turning into a veritable village and I don't really have room. ha.  Watch, I'll see another one and have a great idea to fill it....

Blessings.

Foraging and Fun

July always passes way too fast. 
There was a duck in our yard one afternoon.  She wandered around for awhile and sat in the violets until I started mowing.   

It was my turn to host sewing club.  Always good motivation to get the house picked up.  :)  I'm sooo not fancy though, this plus some hot sandwiches was all that I served.  (Only a slight step up from baling lunch...) It ended up being a good turnout and a great time.

I went downstairs to switch the laundry load and came upstairs to whatever was going on here... 😂 Perrin manages to convince everyone to give him chocolate chips all the time.

A lovely evening to do the story walk at the park and get Pinky's afterwards. 

It was nap time, so I didn't put his swim suit on.  But of course he had to stand right next to the pool and ended up completely soaking.

More green beans.  Perrin was emptying the bowl as fast as he could.

Apparently the green bean juice was getting on her face?

So Bob and I are not really date night kind of people, but we had a gift certificate to a really nice restaurant, and I really, really, really wanted to eat an entire meal of good food that I didn't have to cook or clean up or have to serve and cut into small pieces only to have it thrown on me.... 

Anyway, Johanna came over to hang out with/babysit the kids and Bob and I went to Connected.  It was so nice.  And quiet.  And the food was really good.  We split the caprese salad.

And then we both ended up ordering the veal with morel mushrooms.  It was amazing.  And also probably the fanciest thing I've ever ordered at a restaurant (I don't get out much.) 😆

Bob took a few of the girls to the woods to check the wild blackberries.  They brought back a few, plus some flowers.

And also some coral mushrooms.

And a giant puffball mushroom!

And some rye from the clearing. 

We spent an afternoon trimming the boxwood bushes and picking up the clippings- it's an enormous, strenuous job that takes aaaalllll day, according to the children.  It does not.  We have 3 small boxwoods and it takes less than an hour.  Bob and the girls also worked on threshing the rye.

Which I was then expected to grind.  haha. 

I don't have an antique light problem, I can quit whenever I want.  😜

 The annual Koch water fight happened.  Mr. Perrin was not at all afraid.

   

 

Water, water slide, water balloons.

Perrin was taking all of the balloons out of the pool as fast as he could.

 

And an ice cream cone. :)  

 

Emmy and Miri and I made rye-n-injun bread with our rye flour.  

 

Ha. Some days I lean more 'Homesteader' than 'Little Debbie'.  Homegrown hash, rye-n-injun bread, sauteed foraged mushrooms...

 

 ...and berry cobbler, all from the garden/farm/freezer/woods.  😜

 I took Emmy and Cadence blackberry picking one evening.

 

 Unlike Bob, who didn't take any pictures of their previous trip, I have a bad memory and prefer to document things like this.

 We picked a few berries and even saw our very first firefly at Firefly woods.  It was pretty exciting.

 

 Miri was drawing a picture of "Wogan and Wiezel and Waylia" and I was surprised/ impressed that they weren't just stick figures. 

 

Perrin and Miri and not usually very eager to get in the water at lake day (which is fine, easier for me!); they spent quite a bit of time crawling all over the stroller with Tess.   

They got in the water the following day when we went to Kaiser's lake.  I did not get any pictures since I was busy with Miri and Perrin, but the kids had a great time swimming and kayaking, and playing in the sand.  😋
Then we packed up for Wyss vacation, but that's another post.

Summer is for vacations and hard work and a healthy dose of fun

Cecily is all done with swimming lessons so she spent pool mornings reading... even while walking to the car.  😆

Every summer it seems like one of the girls needs to keep improving on something academically, and it's a different kid each time, so I make ALL of them do summer workbooks.  Plus it is motivation for getting screen time, etc.  This year's books have 'outside quests' for them to complete and certain children take them much more seriously than others.  Ha.  They had to come up with an Olympics competition that resulted in the neighbors getting to witness an epic sibling fight, and me running losing a three-legged race. Good times.

The library did a life size Candyland again!  It was great fun.

Our favorite Max was manning the rainbow road.

Emmy met her best friend there, and got to spend the afternoon at her house.
We were planning on going on vacation over Cadence's birthday, so we celebrated it the weekend before.  I wasn't as prepared to bake as I normally am... since it was early and short notice.  So I didn't have any powdered sugar to make frosting with, and it was 9 o'clock at night.  But thank heaven for good neighbors, Marci had a bag to lend us and Cadence's birthday cake was saved.  :P  She requested Dragons toys, a waterfall, trees, and cotton candy clouds.  ha.  Ok then. 

She approved, though the cotton candy clouds had melted by morning and were funny looking lumps of sugar on sticks... haha.  Kind of reminded me of how in ancient times people would put the bodies of their enemies on display... but I didn't tell her that.  

We made some new clouds... 😁

Emmy started out making a skirt for Cadence's birthday, but it was too small so she gave it to Miri.  The fabric came from Grandma B's stash.  😊

 

Presents! 

And candles...

And then we packed up everything but the kitchen sink to get ready for Door County.

But first, church and the Sunday School Picnic.  I actually didn't take Perrin to church because his eyes were all goopy again, but not red.  So we brought him to the picnic... I don't think it was actually pink eye, just the tail end of the cold he had all week.

Some goofy girls.

We got on the road bright and early Monday morning.  Or something. 

Perrin was a good little traveler who loves french fries.

There are kind of  a lot of us.

We made it safely and the time passed pretty quickly with Hank the Cowdog and Adventures in Odyssey.  This was practically a last minute trip and when I was trying to find places to stay there wasn't much available for when we were going and for 7 people.  We picked a camping cabin at a campground that had a bathroom and a kitchenette.  The girls loved it.

It had a loft with some very steep stairs that freaked me out.  😝

One of the reasons I liked the campground option was the playground, pool, activity room, and the kids did too.

It was chilly when we got there so we played at the playground and checked out the activity room.

And took silly pictures. 😁

Tuesday morning we went to a really cool Maritime History museum.  It was designed to look like a lighthouse and you started on the top observation deck and worked your way down through the exhibits.  It was quite cold and windy up at the top.

There were just enough interactive exhibits for the kids to not get bored, and us adults thought it was pretty cool too.

Bob made me stop and take a picture at the post office.  It's been a while since I've taken a post office picture.  😜

That afternoon we "hiked" the trail to the beach at Whitefish Dunes State Park.

We didn't have suits on because it hadn't been that warm, but that didn't stop anyone from getting wet.

And very sandy. 

We swam for real at the campground later that day. 

Coloring...

...and card games.

Wednesday we went to Potowatomi State Park and "hiked" the nature trail.  :D  Miri's always up for a good 'nature walk' and the nature trail is about all we can handle with this crew. 

It was really hazy from wild fires, but still lots of pretty views.

There is a picture extant of me and my siblings in front of this very same tower... from about 30 years ago.  It's closed for repairs/replacement so we didn't get to climb all the steps.

We drove around the park and stopped at scenic overlooks.

Back at the cabin for lunch.  Who needs toys when you've got pea gravel?  The girls were great about following Perrin around outside and keeping him out of the weeds and off the road.

In the afternoon we put our suits on to go back to the beach.  And the temperature kept dropping.  *sigh*  It was rather cold and windy, but some of us didn't let that stop us. 

These three mostly stayed dry.

We almost had the beach to ourselves...

After supper, we were going to go to the pool at the campground, but it was closed because of the temperature. 😜 So we spent some time in the activity room instead.

It's a giant connect four!

Perrin didn't want to leave the girls bed alone...

Thursday was Cadence's actual birthday and we went to Peninsula State Park and saw a lighthouse! Eagle Bluff lighthouse.

I'm turning into my Grandpa Schlipf and I can not do heights and steep stairs and spiral lighthouse stairs make me extremely nervous.  

Happy 7th Birthday!

We drove through the rest of the park and found this new observation tower.  It was wheel chair accessible, so we walked up this massive, gently sloping ramp instead of up many steps of a 60 foot tower. 

It was still pretty hazy, so the view was limited... still pretty high up.... note how far back I am from the edge... 😝

Cadence wanted McD's for her birthday, but there wasn't one close by so we went out for pizza instead.  It was really good pizza, but a stressful lunch.  I was very glad that we had brought all of the rest of our food to eat at the cabin.  Perrin wasn't satisfied with snacks... it's very hard to wait when you're one.

Not a whole lot easier when you're 9 and 7 either.

We ordered a bread basket that had all kinds of different breads... and Perrin got really restive, so the waitress (who was amazing) got the littles balls of uncooked dough to play with.  Then Perrin threw his and Miri tried to eat hers, and the pizza finally came.  😂

After a hurried exit from the pizza place we drove north along the coast to the northernmost point of Door County.  We saw the ferry loading up cars to go to the island.

Then we drove back down the other coast and the kids swam again at the pool.  After supper we 'played' mini golf.  I think Cecily was the only one half way trying to follow the rules.

Perrin couldn't quite figure out where those balls were going.

One more silly picture.

And a not very tranquil game of soccer.  😣

Then... the toilet was making funny gurgling noises, so Bob talked to the maintenance guys who tried snaking the line from various access points.  *sigh*  The girls were very worried, they didn't think they would be able to go to the bathroom.  They didn't quite get the concept of a shower house... but since maintenance decided they needed a real plumber and we should avoid using our toilet, they got the full campground experience! Ha.    

Friday morning we packed up to come home... there were a few tears, but they were buoyed up by the promise of more Hank, Adventures in Odyssey, and a movie.   

Overall it was a great trip.  It had all the elements of the perfect vacation, lite.  *Museum *Hiking *Scenic overlooks *Campground *Historical tour *Swimming *Multiple State Parks
The kids loved it, and a good time was had by all.

We came home to rain, which is wonderful, but also humidity. 
Home again, home again... say cheese: Cheee!

Jake and Rachel were in town that weekend so we spent Saturday evening at the farm.  How many cousins can you fit in a tree?

We celebrated Cadence and Logan's birthdays, and met baby Carl.

Bob took this picture.... drawing up house plans surrounded by birthday present detritus.  :P 

Twice now I've found Perrin filling the vacuum cleaner carpet attachment with crayons.  

We went swimming with the Rockes one afternoon.  :) 

I'm kind of in denial that it's already July, but here we are.  The girls helped make a flag fruit pizza. 

And we went to Ron and Kary's for fireworks and toured Nathan and Michelle's house now that they're all moved in and somewhat settled.  Such a little buddy.

Grandma had a fan club.

Uncle Matt brought some fireworks for the kids.

And then root beer floats when the fireworks were over.

Uncle Ron has all kinds of cool animals to look at. oh! mmm! mmm! 

The green beans are already ready.... huzzah.  Unnamed child as they helped me snap beans: you have some really good girls.  hehe.  Yes, I suppose I do. 

On Friday Mom texted that Dad wanted to bale straw that afternoon, but she was working all day and wanted help with getting supper for balers... so Michelle and I volunteered.  😏 They think the pump is the coolest thing ever.

Uncle Matt was unloading hay racks.

Dad and two of Nancy's boys were up in the mow... I didn't even recognize them, they're so old now! It didn't help that they had on dust masks, but still!  When did they grow up??

I mean, this was yesterday, wasn't it?? 😜

 

They were quite impressed. Or something.

It was killing me not to help, since it wasn't blazing hot and humid like most baling days, but I had small children to watch swim in the cow tank. (Also I'm old and probably would have hurt myself or something, plus I hate getting scratched by straw, soooo...) 

And feed snacks.

I'm not the type to do fancy showers and brunches.... but Michelle and I agreed that we can do a Baling Lunch. I mean, we pretty much bought everything so it wasn't quite like the old days, but still.  We were proud of ourselves.  And then it started sprinkling. 

How many cousins can you fit under an umbrella?

Perrin enjoyed his food. 

He was also not at all afraid of the loud tractor and elevator.

He was afraid of the cows, tho.  I'm not sure I would be brave enough to be in the feed bunk that close to their slobbery noses, but Miri didn't seem to be worried.

Troy filled some buckets with corn and basically got the kids to do his chores for him.  😆

Mr. Perrin is an explorer.

Farm days and Baling days are the best days ever.  😊
Blessings.