Boy's With Guitars!

Week four of music class with Mountain Top Music was all about guitars! Electric and acoustic, although the kids only got to play the acoustic!

James went first along with two others:

That is the electric guitar instructor in the back who did some really cool jammin' in the beginning to show the kids what you can do on one!

Here the boys are watching their friends strum along with the electric guitar!

Ethan was up next:
He had a great time banging away and doing "air guitar" as he calls it (although he really did have the guitar in his hands!)

Quick and Easy Brownie Pie

This is an amazingly quick and easy pie that is super yummy! All you do is throw together a brownie mix with some yummy stuff added to it like chips (any kind, we used butterscotch and chocolate in this pic), nuts, coconut, ect. Then pour it into a frozen pie shell and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes! Serve it with ice cream or whipped cream or nothing at all, it is still yummy! I do suppose you could make all this from scratch but that would defeat the "quick and easy" part.

This recipe came from my favorite baking cookbook, A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman, which really is about making things from scratch but she has a small section in the back with a few "in a pinch" recipes. Check out the link to her book here.

Check out more yummy recipes at the Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap.

James' New Wheels

Having outgrown his old bike by quite a bit we had to break down and buy him a new one (with some help from Nana and Bumpa, thanks)! He wanted me to snap a pic to post on the blog so here he is on his new hot rod!

Some Pics From the Basin

Pat was off from work on Monday so we decided to go for a family bike ride.

As you can see from this pic it didn't start out so well! We loaded up the bike rack and set off to Franconia Notch knowing there was a paved bike trail over there and wanting to do something different. But...this tire on Pat's bike was too close to the exhaust pipe on the van! Going up over the Kanc we started to smell a funny smell and then heard a loud "pop". We pulled over and got out to see the tire smoking and a hole blown in the side!! Pat pulled the tire off and we continued over the Kanc in hopes of finding a bike shop that was not going to charge us an arm and a leg to fix this tire! We found one in Lincoln and when the tire and tube was replaced and mounted they charged us a fair price of $29! We thought is was going to be much higher because the bike shop was very pricey and we had not clue about replacing tires!

Finally we got there and started off only to realize the bike trail was full of hills (surprise, surprise this is New Hampshire!), and that we were way too out of shape to be peddling up them! Mollie screamed most of the way (she hadn't been feeling great) unless she had something to eat so we had to keep stopping and giving her more snacks! Once we got to the next rest area we unloaded the kids and Pat went back alone to get the van.

The kids and I had a rest and a snack, here is Emmy and Ethan munching on the side of the trail:

We then set off to explore the Basin while we waited for Daddy to return. This was an under pass that the kids had fun shouting in and making echos!

A cool rock to climb on:
At the Basin:

We chatted a lot about how the water had formed this over time!

I made them pose for some pics:

We found a cool tree growing out over the river:

All in all it was a fun day, next time we will stick to FLAT bike trails only!

Memorial Weekend Yard Sale

Saturday was the day of our yard sale, we joined up with Pat's sister Jenn and had a great day! My sister even came and set up a table for a few hours. The kids did a lemonade stand with their soon to be cousins and sold cookies and bars (thanks to Auntie Jenn). Here are some pics from our day:

Here the kids are posing together for some pics!

A view of the set-up

James and Loyal manning the stand!

We even had lots of visitors! Between family and friends stopping by to see my Mom and Dad (who had just arrived home that morning at 4:30am from St. John) and others who were just out yard sailing there was lots of visiting going on!!

Pastor Henry and Miss Sherry along with Aunt Joan chatting with Pat.

The bugs were definitely out! Here you can see James and my Mom swatting the black flies!!

Here is James crashing in the tarp at the end of the sale!

Fun at White Lake

We hit the beach at White Lake on Thursday with the homeschoolers! They have two new playgrounds and the weather was great!! Here are some pics:

Let me out!!!

James posing on the playground.

The kids even went IN the water which I was not prepared for as you can see they are not in swim suits and I had no towels (thanks Elizabeth for letting us borrow one). I guessed they would get wet and brought a change of clothes but swimming??? Burrrrrrrrr!!! It is still May, and it was freezing even for the feet, maybe I'm just getting old?

Emmy had a blast and luckily the cute little shirt that she got from Auntie Sarah for Christmas worked well for a swim suit!

Mollie was a little unsure but DID get wet (and didn't like it) which is why you see a clothing change in the next pics of her!

Ethan and his pals playing under the playground.

This was an attempt to get them to pose for a pic together but they just wanted to play!

James and Maverick!

Emmy girl, not looking, but cute!

Here comes Mollie! She wants a chance on the big kid slides too!

Emmy up on the bridge!
Again, trying to focus on Ethan but getting the bars...oooooops, sorry Ethan!

Looking down on James!

More Mountain Top Music Fun!

This week the kids learned about the drums! Again the class was well done and the instructor was great! He taught the kids all about beats and notes and then had them tap out a rhythm with their hands and feet while counting the notes out loud. Once they got the hang of the rhythm he let them give it a try on the drum set. Ethan was thrilled, (as you can imagine) here he is taking his turn:

And a short video too:

James got to bang out a rhythm on the bongos! I don't think he was as into it as Ethan but he did a great job! That's Elijah in the back on the drum set!

He wanted them to do their assigned rhythm and stay together! I was very impressed at how well all the kids did. I don't think I could have been a drum player!!

Here the kids are waiting patiently for their turn!
Oh did I say patiently.......all except for Ethan who was being silly with his buddy sitting next to him!
When Ethan saw James on the bongos he just had to have his turn!

And for everyone who is wondering NO I did not get a turn this time either but like I said I don't think I could have been a drum player! The girls and I sat up front and tapped out the beats. Emmy was not feeling well so she was in my lap the whole time!