A few images from one of many fall walks by our home this weekend. We are so fortunate to live among such natural beauty with so little disruption and noise. We love our little secluded plot of land with very few neighbors and even fewer cars. And Mother Nature made quite a showing to further reinforce the awesome.
^^Learning all about Monarch Butterflies, and thus Milkweed. The girls have been helping spread the seeds and thus the food source for these beloved insects.^^
In stereotypical Vermont fashion, we spent Sunday afternoon apple cidering with friends on their mountainside property. We are near peak foliage, so we enjoyed an autumnal palette of color and a sunny day roaming in fields, rocking in hammocks, pressing cider, and munching cider donuts. Weekends like these reinforce why this is exactly where in the world I want to live with these children of mine. This life! Feels like a fairytale – and a delicious one at that.
^^Chinese Lanterns from the garden! They’ll make a beautiful centerpiece all season long.^^
^^We brought apples from our property so we could make up an exclusive Cartwheel Farm Cider.^^
^^Taking after her Doda with that tongue – whenever she works hard or concentrates, it exits her mouth.^^
Three weekends ago (where the hell has this summer gone?!), we once again ventured north to our friend’s house in Poultney, VT for some fun on the lake. We had such a blast the summer prior, that we decide to extend the trip to two days, and it was every bit as smile-inducing as we’d anticipated. Tubing. Boating. Swimming. S’more-making. Life is good on Lake St. Catherine.
Since Sunny went back to school last week, I’ve been experiencing premature fall urges. We visited The Apple Barn in Vermont on Saturday for Maple Soft Serve Ice Cream and Apple Cider Slushies. We then spent Sunday afternoon apple picking at Lakeview Orchard for the earliest apple varieties (Snappy Mac and Williams Pride) and consuming our favorite cider donuts. No doubt we’ll be back many more times this season. We cannot resist ripe, in season, crisp, juicy apples straight off the tree. There’s nothing better. (Spoken like a proper New Englander).
One of the highlights of our weekend included meeting our neighbor’s new puppy – sweet, fluffy, lumbering, wonderful Sounder. A Golden Retriever that stole our hearts. Such a fun Saturday. We took a girls’ trip to Saratoga Springs while James worked ’round the farm, and ended it with a swim and some puppy snuggles.
And Sunday night we were greeted with surprises and PEEP PEEP PEEPING up at the barn. My Facebook and Instagram have given glimpses of the adorableness. More soon… for now, Sounder is all the cute you need. (And a tree frog that James and Ellie particularly delighted in).
Updated with a few more snaps from life on Cartwheel Farm of late. Fairies and flowering picking. Egg sales with Kinder Egg Surprise payment. Penny and Gladdy love affairs. A girl and her pig. And lots of lazy swine lounging in the yard. It’s been a beautiful May.
Life lately has been blissfully spent outdoors. Grass under bare feet. Coloring en plein aire. Swinging high as the sky. Flower picking. Sand between fingers. Grass stained. Giggle-saturated. Life is good-ness.
James and I have been steeped in yard work, and while during said clean up I often find myself grumbling and wondering why on earth I spend my time in this way, the satisfaction I feel afterward? The way I lounge in the kitchen gazing out on our property? Or drive backward up our road to leisurely survey last years plantings (hooray for perennial flowers bursting to life, and blueberries and strawberries and raspberries and ASPARAGUS! that survived their first hard winter)? Or spend my morning walk with the dogs breathing in the tranquility and beauty and budding life? Or sway in the hammock under flower petal flurries? Well, it makes all the sweat and mess well worth the effort.
I do so love our little piece of the world.
^^Penelope pig turning our garden clean up efforts into a cozy bed.^^
^^Frisbee and smoothies and swinging, oh my! And bologna tongues. Lots of pink bologna tongues.^^
^^Inspired by a recent heat wave, all of the flowering trees blossomed en masse. It has definitely been the most beautiful spring in recent memory. This weekend, it was literally raining flower petals all Sunday and I couldn’t get over how surreal and dream-like our lives felt on account of the scenery.^^
^^And lots of napping in the sunshine. Penny is an expert.^^
Sunday was a ridiculously sunny and clear March day. While the air has been cooler than I’d like this time of year, I will never complain about full sunshine and blue skies. We decided to spend the afternoon skiing given the abundance of snow still in our midst. We braved life on the mountain with a three-year old in the name of glorious spring skiing and a taste of the fun to come next year when Kaki learns to truly ski on her own. She’d never been on skis (heck, Sunny’s first time was in January), but she’s eager to do whatever her big sister is doing, so the Cart family loaded up in the mini van and headed 45 minutes north to a wee little mountain for some family fun.
Kaki was psyched. Note the ski leash strapped like a fanny pack around her waist. That thing was a life-saver.
We warmed up with some runs on the bunny slope. And let me just say that these Magic Carpet lifts are far more civilized and less traumatizing than the rope tows of yore. I mean, just check out that climate controlled tent around this particular lift – no inclement weather or harsh winter wind will disturb one’s ride up the slope. Which is mildly comical to anyone who grew up skiing in New England.
I am admittedly a little sad that my children won’t have horror stories of their novice skiing years with rope tow rides gone awry. Kimmy and I have a pretty fantastic tale of a T-bar ride in the Alps gone horribly wrong. The fall was caused by a rousing albeit distracting rendition of Les Misérables’ seminal “One Day More” being sung at full volume by yours truly. And why, yes, I do still enjoy singing musical theater to pass the time during chairlift rides. I can only hope Sunny and Kaki take up the mantle.
Anyway…
Sunny buzzed up and down the Bunny slope without issue or parental chaperone, while James and I got Courtland used to sliding around on skis, and riding down the mountain either between our legs or with the support of the ski leash. Sunny was eager to ride the chairlift to a more challenging hill, and so off we went…
Kaki threw a fit when Sunny and I headed up the mountain. Girl’s got a serious case of FOMO. So James and I decided that we’d venture up with her as well, given that she was “skiing” with heavy parental monitoring and it’d be more fun to stick together.
I will always remember that first chairlift ride up the mountain with Courtland. She was awe-struck and wide-eyed. “Mama, it’s like we’re FLYING!” She proudly waved and yelled at every passing skier below. After settling in to the ride, she was gazing around, swinging her skis back and forth, when she finally turned to me and whispered, very earnestly, “Mama? Where are we going?”
James and I cannot stop asking one another this very question at every opportunity.
It was priceless. She had no idea why we were soaring in the air, despite her insistence that she HAD TO GO ON THE CHAIRLIFT LIKE SUNNY!, and it was such a classic childhood query of wonder and cluelessness. When we arrived at the top, she immediately declared that she wanted to take her skis off, so that took another 5 minutes of negotiation before we were all ready to head down the mountain.
At the end of the day, James and Sunny went even further up the mountain with some friends who happened to be skiing there as well. I stayed with Courtland as my thighs and ass could not take such a lengthy ride downhill with a three-year old saddled between my legs, and we stuck to the shorter trails we’d been tackling most of the afternoon.
Sunny skied, a la her Doda, with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth, a sign of their intense concentration. I fear it may fall off from frost-bite if she doesn’t get that habit under control.
She did great, but had a fairly epic fall in the final moments of the last run of the day. It was a big tumble and I saw her land face first. Kaki and I were watching from the lodge, and it took James a solid 20 minutes to comfort her and get her moving again. Apparently when James reached her, post-fall, she informed James that she had broken her head.
Thank heavens for helmets.
But it was nothing a little après-ski hot chocolate couldn’t remedy.
And a video of Kaki’s inaugural ski. I look forward to documenting her learning next year when she actually takes some lessons, but we’re off to a good start! Vermont winter survival 101 in full effect!
Saturday we went on a grand Vermont adventure, inspired by Sunny’s inaugural Odyssey of the Mind competition at a high school just south of Burlington.
Yes, apparently OOTM is even for kids as young as five. And it was as awkward and adorable as you might imagine. I didn’t have a OOTM program at my school growing up, but I have many friends that did and they got to do some pretty rad, nerdy, awesome projects thanks to the program, so when it was offered as a free extracurricular after school for Sunny, we jumped at the opportunity.
James and Sunny road a 6:30am school bus up to the high school, and Courtland and I joined them later in the afternoon. After watching the five minute presentation by Sunny’s team, the kids loaded the bus back up with their cardboard creations, and we Carts headed a little further north to explore Burlington.
Um, what an awesome AWESOME college town. I can’t believe that I’d never been. We ate great food. Had a great time exploring. And I purchased insane amounts of yarn at a great little yarn shop filled with local skeins. I am officially obsessed and looking forward to our next chance to venture north, preferably in more temperate conditions. And with our dSLR camera in tow. Below, a few iPhone snaps of our tour of the Green Mountain State. We heart Vermont!
^^Courtland was so eager to help and feel a part of the team with her big sister. It was like Lord of the Flies with cardboard in the hallways, though. Mass chaos. A big part of the program is that the kids are self-sufficient and do their projects from start to finish (including loading and unloading the bus) without adult influence/aid. And so, the chaos level was at an all-time high with a group of Kindergarteners let loose and independent.^^
^^The team, presenting their take on the theme “Wacky Weather.” I particularly loved Sunny’s “TV” where she scrolled and offered up different drawings of weather thanks to those cardboard tubes and a long sheet of paper. She’s pictured above showing off a sunny day. How appropriate.^^
^^Playing on frozen Lake Champlain was a huge hit. And the people ice sailing? So bad ass.^^
^^As we passed through Middlebury en route home, James detoured to show me and the girls his summer stomping grounds. The girls had trouble believing that he canoed and swam in that frozen lake – but in just a few years, they’ll experience it themselves. Heyo canoe camp!^^
