harvest

 We get a little something from our yard almost every day.  These are the biggest carrots we have ever gotten.  I added a lot of sand to where we grew them and it seemed to have worked.  Maybe we should have let them go a little longer but it is so exciting once the kids figure out what's under the ground it's hard stopping them.

 The peas will only last another month or so and then it'll be too hot.

I thought G looked a bit like a flower in the garden.

bike riding

F has reached a new milestone, riding a bike with no training wheels.  Oh, the places we can go now!!

Taghannock Falls

The Taughannock Fall are the tallest falls East of the Mississippi River.  They are located near Ithaca.  It is beautiful here but very hilly. This day was quite warm but I can well imagine it becomes very treacherous when it freezes.

Ice skating

 The three older kids got to go ice skating and did very well considering we only do it once a year. 
The younger two had a good time watching all the people go round and round.

Niagra Falls

 The falls were extremely cold.  The plus side was that we didn't have to pay for parking and there were no crowds to compete with and no lines to wait in.  Our little one in blue was yelling something like "I want to go back to the car!"  The baby just snuggled in my arms and seemed to go to sleep.  After about ten minutes of this I started becoming concerned but as soon as we stepped into the greed house he perked up and jumped down and started running around.

 This is a green house I remember going to when I was a little girl.  It is on the Canadian side.  Now we know our passports work!!  The green house was incredible and such a contrast from the outdoors which was frozen and dead looking.

The kids were all curious what this thing was so we had to get a picture before telephone booths are all gone.  I'm not sure they had ever seen one before.

Christmas cookies

 We spent a fun afternoon making cookies with Grammy.

The girls are very intent on making 'mouse' cookies. Here they are adding the eyes and ears.