Our Seven Year Anniversary

Today we celebrated our anniversary with a day trip to the beach.  It's actually only an hour away,  but we spent the entire day there.  We first stopped for lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant,  Akbar Palace. Naturally the girls had a blast playing in the freezing cold Beach and sand,  and then we spent a few hours fishing with daddy and bubby. Both daddy and bubby caught a good size fish, which we brought home,  and bubby scaled and cut up.  Daddy is going to make us some yummy fish curry tomorrow.  We were all tired by the time we got home at nearly 9:00, but we had so much fun. 

Gettysburg PA

Christian flew in from NC last night and we couldn't be more excited!  He's gonna be here for the next 3 months to finish up his high school diploma with the college here,  and then go back to NC. Today on the spur of the moment we decided to visit the Gettysburg battlefield & Cemetery.  What a beautiful place to walk around.  Vaishali got so tired she sat down near the end and refused to walk anymore.  Bubby had to pick her up and carry her to the car, then we went to friendly's for icecream. We'll have to go back with daddy sometime. :-)

A Day in the Life of Preschoolers

I've had a ton of schoolwork/projects to work on lately.  So,  I've had to find things for the girls to do while I'm kinda busy about my work.  Here is a little of what we've done today. 
In the morning we went to play out back,  while I sat in the shade to do a little of my reading assignment. Vaishali caught a moth,  and Anjali found a caterpillar.  We brought those in and made a little habitat for them.
Once tired we came inside and watched cartoons, while I did some more reading.
Next we moved onto art.  I sat out some paper and do-a-dot paint makers,  again I read.
Daddy just ordered me a new set of headphones that was sitting on the counter.  So, next I hooked them up with an ipod and headphones and they happily sat on the couch rocking and listening to music for about 20 minutes!
I didn't think that would last long so I sat up a Christmas village play area on our school table for them to pay next.  This was a lot of fun for me!  I have a china cabinet set up with Christmas stuff in it.  I simply took that out set it up on the table,  lit a christmassy smelling candle,  and set my laptop to play Christmas music that I found on YouTube, and let them play!
When that wasn't fun anymore I have both of them a sink full of plastic dishes to wash.  Fun,  fun,  fun!

Bear Branch Nature Center

Today the girls and I visited the nature center here in town.  They had a few live animals like snakes, fish, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, Monarch butterflies,  honey bees,  turtles, and lots of stuffed critters on exhibit.  There's a cute little playroom and a library room to play in,  and then trails and picnic areas.  We played inside for a while then went outside to have a picnic,  then took a walk on the trail.  On the way home we stopped at Dairy Queen for one last summer hurrah.  Neat place,  fun day, and the kiddos are tired:-)

Jacob's 14?!

I can't believe how much he's grown in such a short period of time.  Happy Birthday buddy!

First Day of School 2013

Last Thursday I started student teaching at a preschool.  The girls will be attending the same school and they're so excited!  Anjali spent the week before carrying her backpack around from morning until night and then sleeping with it!  Here's a first day pic at 3 1/2 (almost 4)

Morning Play Time

Ahh, today is a most beautiful day here in north Maryland!  The sun is shining, not a cloud in sight, it's cool and breezy, the birds are chirping,  the hens are clucking, everything is green and the irises are in full bloom.  It doesn't get any better than this.  I have so much work to do in the house, but we wanna stay outside to enjoy this weather as much as we can! So, out to the front porch we went.  We have a great many mini pumpkins already here on the farm and the girls ask to paint some.  Below is a pic of Vaishali giving me a thumbs up saying "mommy you're awesome". Then I created a Pinterest inspired idea.  A play river made from aluminum foil.  A big hit with the kiddos, but next time I do this I'll get heavy duty foil.  The regular is a little flimsy, but still fun.
Yesterday evening Dinesh and I worked on canning tomatoes and making cucumber bread and muffins.  The girls loved them!  I think ill be making this a lot every summer. 
And a great big thanks to our neighbor Brianna! She came over Saturday to get the girls and played with them for a couple of hours while me and Dinesh got some work done around the house.  They were so tired when they came home they slept for over 2 hours! They even brought back flowers for momma. It was a great and restful weekend.

Peter Rabbit!

I love the Beatrice Potter stories of Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottintail & Peter, and so do the girls.  We have an awesome library system here in our County and were happy to find they were having a puppet theater show featuring those characters.  I told the girls about it last night, so naturally they woke up asking about it.  They are so excited and we had so much fun discovering the new to us Finksburg library.  Last Friday we attended a little carnival at our YMCA, and I hope to attend the 4H fair at the agriculture center next week.  For such a small farm town we do manage to find lots of fun stuff to do near home.  Today the weather was cool and breezy.  A windows open kind of day,  my favorite!  The girl's are taking their evening walk with daddy while I sit on the porch enjoying the quiet,breezy weather and breathtaking views. It has been a great summer!

Summer Fun

I still have so much to share,  but I thought I would do a quick post with a lot of pictures. The girls playing soccer in the morning before itgets too hot, eggs from our chickens finally, flowers and lavender picked from our yard by the girls for momma.

Sunday Scripture no. 2

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; the new has come.
For so long I had a hard time understanding this, and I don't know how to explain it, but it has all come together for me today. I can only say that I guess it has to be the most important thing to you; you can not simply say I want to be different, and then wonder why God hasn't made you different.

Picture from examiner.com