We spent a few days in Vermont visiting my Mom and Grandmother. My Grandmother is preparing to have a hip replacement surgery at the end of August and even though she's stubborn and won't admit it, she is in tremendous pain. She has always been very independent and doesn't like asking other people to help her. She has always been able to drive herself and go as she pleases. For the last few months she hasn't been able to get around like she normally does and now is having difficulty just walking around the house. We are all anxious for her to have the surgery and begin to feel better.
My youngest sister and I took our children and headed to VT to visit and help out for a few days. Mimi(my mom) and Grandmimi(my grandmother) are nature lovers and gardeners. The kids asked as soon as we arrived if they could pick the flowers. Mimi handed each child a pair of scissors and headed outside to cut flowers. The kids loved having their own scissors to cut flowers. Of course my sister was a bit stressed watching her two year old son walk around the backyard with a pair of scissors cutting his own flowers. I'm happy to report there were no scissor injuries and we ended up with lots of flowers.
Here's Nature Girl and I with her cut flowers. Mimi pulled out an array of vases for the kids to choose from and let them arrange their own flowers. Each child had two vases of flowers when they were done.
After cutting and arranging our flowers we headed out for a nature walk. The kids loved this! We found more flowers, rocks, insects and even a few red raspberries to eat on our nature walk. We discovered some burdocks too. As a kid we would gather them then stick them together to create bird nests and houses. Mimi showed the kids how the burdocks stick together.
Nature Girl shows her blob of burdocks. Thankfully when they're green they mostly stick to themselves. In the fall when they turn brown they stick to everything including hair and clothes. I had a few run ins with burdocks as a kid!
We headed off to the beach at a local pond. Yes, you are reading the name right. It's called Ticklenaked Pond. A visit to the pond was on Nature Girl's summer fun list so she had a great time swimming and playing in the sand with her cousins.
My youngest sister and I relaxed on the beach while watching the kids swim and play. My sister BB is great at holding the camera out and getting a good picture. I always cut someone out or get half a person in the photo.
While we were in VT we went to an elk and deer farm near my mom's house. They have machines where you can get corn to feed the elk. One of the elk was very friendly and met us right at the fence. There were also several free range chickens milling about. The kids had a great time throwing the corn to them.
You know the saying when it rains it pours? Well it certainly has been raining and pouring in New England! The yucky weather means playing indoors but that's ok because when it rains it pours has also applied to our swap mail. Nature Girl is downright giddy about another international swap package arriving on our door step!
This photo is a bit dark and blurry but I just loved her reaction to discovering the koala sewing bag that Beth and her granddaughter sent her for the kids sewing kit swap hosted by One Crafty Mumma. Her reaction was so cute in a high squeeky and excited voice she said something like "Oh my God! It's a koala!" And yes that's my fault I say it too! We have to start working on saying oh my goodness, not oh my God! 
Beth included lots of goodies for sewing and crafting together. Best of all she included two post cards of Australia and lots of Australian animals in the sewing kits! I went to my bookshelf and pulled out Wombat Divine and Possum Magic by Mem Fox and we read those. She was excited to see a wombat in a book. We sewed the little orange wombat included in the package, then we checked out Wikipedia for information on wombats and koalas . I printed some pictures and basic information about each animal. It was very interesting and Nature girl soaked up all of the information like a little sponge. After sewing the wombat together she showed her dad what we made and got him to play with her and the wombat. She pulled out her guitar and sang songs to the wombat and even told a story about the Three little Wombats and The Big Bad Wolf. Which was then turned into the Three Little Wombats and the Big Bad Tasmanian Devil since Tasmanian Devils eat wombats. It was so cute to listen to her use her imagination and incorporate in all of the information she had learned! This swap was such a great way to learn about another part of the world! Thanks Beth for putting together such a great package for us. It was way more than a sewing kit, it's been hours of learning and fun imaginative play, so thank you!
A second international swap package arrived yesterday. This one was from Katy at imagingermonkey. Katy was kind enough to swap one of her gorgeous dolls for a mini kite quilt.
Here is Nature Girl the doll and Nature Girl the girl! Check Katy's blog here for more pictures of Nature Girl the doll. I love Katy's creations so to have her make one for my daughter was very exciting!!!! Want your own imagingermonkey creation? Check out the imagingermonkey etsy shop.
