BLUEBERRIES!!!!

At last, at last, the blueberries are in season!!! "Hurray!" says Maddie-Lu!
We've been sorely missing our blueberries around here as almost all of last year's crop in our area was killed off by a late spring hard frost. We are lucky enough to live just a few miles down the road from Snikroc Farm's blueberry patch. We pass their roadside sign every week on our way to cabin and we've been checking diligently. Em and I were delighted to spot the "BLUEBERRY" sign earlier this week ..... they are finally open for blueberry season!
We hit the road relatively early this morning to try and beat the heat. It was actually quite comfortable out there for the first hour or so as a nice breeze was blowing and many of the bushes are tall enough to provide you with some shade for the first few hours of the morning.
Em and I got down to business right away (i.e. stuffing our faces with as many blueberries as we possibly could), while Paul went off dilly dallying and actually started filling a bucket. Geez, some people know how to take all the fun out of picking! Em and I were trying to eat the berries right off the bush, and I do mean right off the bush (no hands, just lips). Em is also working on a new line of lip stick - "Blueberry Smoocheroo."
Maddie was right there in on the action and helped me tremendously with my picking. Em, Maddie and I combined our haul at the end of the morning and brought home at least 40 berries between the three of us. Good old Dad came through in the end though and managed to bring our tally up to a full 2 lbs of berries. YUM! Blueberry pancakes for everybody this week!

Things To Do On A Hot Summer Day - by Emily

So here's a list with some ideas on fun things to do on a hot summer's day (ala Emily)

1. Pretend fighting
2. Make silly faces upside down and take pictures of them
3. Look for dinosaur bones under the ground
4. Play in the swim pool
5. Look for disgusting things under huge rocks
6. Play Calvin ball
7. Look at the clouds and tell what shape they are
8. Real fighting
9. Blast a chicken with a water balloon
10. Climb trees
11. Sell filthy or clean drinks (Note from Mom here - I'm hoping what I bought was one of the "clean" variety)
12. Run away from snakes (if there are any in the backyard)
    
13. Look at the moon
14. Catch fireflies
    

Summer Happenings

It's been a very busy 7 days since I last wrote. Our family was supposed to have gone on a 5 day camping trip to Hanging Rock State Park with some of the other Dream & Discover cabin families. It sure would have been a nice way to celebrate the summer solstice. 24 hours before we were to depart, Paul and I concluded that a jaunt in the woods just wasn't in the cards for our family. I had sent out a sitewide sale notice for MoonDance last week and the customer response was a bit overwhelming. Add to that some large wholesale orders and it leaves me working out in the shop every spare moment of the day. I just had way too much of a backlog of work to allow me to go off and play. The thought of returning to Raleigh to face an even larger mountain of work to climb was just too much. So, home we stayed, but we promised ourselves we would at least take a day off to play.
So, on Friday, the Roth family invited us to join them for a day of swimming and play at their fitness club in Cary. It's a pretty impressive place. Huge outdoor swimming pool with two 2-story water slides, snack bar, shady cabana umbrellas, .... Maddie made her swimming debut, sporting the latest in absolutely adorable infant swim gear. Here she is in one of her favorite poses with Daddy.

Not to be outdone by her younger sister's ravishing beauty, Emily struck some lovely poses for the camera as well. Can you see those lips? That's a plum she's munching on ever so daintily.... I'm pretty sure that these are the kind of photos we're supposed to save to share with her beaus.

We're currently scheduled for one day a week at the cabin in addition to a weekly field trip outing. Our day is Tuesdays and we share the cabin with the Olinger, Levinson, Brodie and Harper families on that day. Just 5 weeks prior to Maddie-Lu's birth, Jennifer Olinger gave birth to their 3rd child, Lucas. We've been friends with the Olingers for several years now (since Emily and Natalie were infants) and Jennifer has worked for me at MoonDance for 3 or 4 of those years with various breaks for maternity leave here and there. In all likelihood, Lucas is going to be a pal of Maddie-Lu's for many years to come. Jennifer and I thought it would be fun to track these two and their various exploits and adventures over the years. Lucas may look a lot older and bigger than Maddie, but it's really only a 5 week difference in age. Lucas is just an exceptionally juicy baby :-) (Moments before this picture was taken, Maddie-Lu rolled over from back to front for the first time!) Here's to many, many more years of friendship!

The True Cause

What better reason to begin a blog than the birth of our second daughter, Madeline Lusa DuBois Vail. Better known as Maddie-Lu, our little girl is now just over 2 months old and changing each and every day. I hope to go back and create some historical blog entries covering my pregnancy with Maddie-Lu and her amazingly beautiful birth. Right now that seems like a rather daunting task so I think I'll just focus on an update for the day.

Maddie-Lu is sleeping in her swing right now. This is an all too rare occurrence as she's usually glued to me for all sleep sessions ;-) She's been little miss smiles of late and I'm sure a baby laugh is going to burst forth any day now.

Here are some pics of her lovely little buddha belly self splashing about in her tub. What a bathing beauty!




The big news around here this week is that Emily decided it was time for a haircut! Completely of her own choice, she came back from a day of play and came to the much overdue conclusion that dealing with tangles and knots and hair in your face is just no fun. At the first mention of a haircut, I immediately offered to drive her to a salon right then and there. I didn't want to lose the momentum of the moment. We left Maddie-Lu with dad and headed out for our first Mom and Emily solo outing since before Maddie's arrival. Em was super excited about it all and decided she wanted a shoulder length cut. This is a pretty radical change from her former goal of growing her hair down to the floor. So, here are the results:
Personally, I think it's adorable!


Well, it looks like my blogging time for the day is coming to an end. I hear Maddie-Lu starting to stir. Let me just leave you all with one final gift for the day.....A MOVIE!!!

A Blog!

For the past 8 or 9 months I've been sending out family updates via email complete with picture attachments and such. I knew all along it would probably be better to create a blog, but just never got around to taking that step. Well, I think today's the day. The idea of having a record of our family updates, daily happenings, homeschooling adventures, etc is just too darn tempting. So off we go!

Ballerina Emily

Em resumed her interest in ballet the other day. Months and months ago Em used to practice ballet to an instructional video on the tv. It's been so long since her last dancing session that she has outgrown all the suitable ballet outfits in her closet. Grandma Lucy to the rescue! When Em asked for my help in getting her dressed for her "performance", I happened to remember Grandma's secret gift. A garage sale find that Grandma Lucy had left as a surprise for Em during her last trip. Em was thrilled!

The outfit fit perfectly and Em was particularly thrilled with the sparkles on the skirt. It really struck me today just how tall Em has grown of late. Look at those long legs! Don't let their thinness fool you. The girl is strong and athletic as all get out!