Fresh Faces

The kiddos have been growing like crazy up here...I'm guessing it's all the tasty produce from our abundant garden harvest this fall. They're learning, growing, helping, and working, besides the obligatory playing, every day.

Ella's in 1st grade this year, minus 2 front teeth (working on a third), and has recently gotten glasses (which she doesn't always wear in her pictures). She's reading copious amounts of books - whatever she can find and way above her grade level. It's nice to hand her a book and say: "Read this to your sister/brother, please!"

Elisabeth is doing pre-school stuff as Ella's been working, and she's easily at kindergarten level in her knowledge base...she still has all of her teeth, and is eagerly awaiting the day when she will be able to get glasses (like big sis).

Peter is stretching out...he's grown quite a bit taller, and thinned out a lot (but still weighs in at a hearty 35 pounds). His languages skills are dramatically improving (full and complete sentences, with some good verb conjugations) - and he's even begun actually speaking on the telephone.

And Andrew....hmmmm.....what do we say about a 3 month old who mostly eats and sleeps (and needs diaper changes). He does LOTS of the eating (he's nearing 20 pounds, by my best guess) and sleeping (last night he did 9.5 consecutive hours!). He smiles, coos, gurgles, holds onto things that get near his hands, and LOVES to be held (by mom/dad/Ella/Elisabeth/Peter). He's been a fabulous addition to our growing family.

So, here's the requested, much looked-for photo of the Hancock Barnhart crew. Enjoy!

A Princess Birthday Celebration

The garden lawn of the Hancock Barnhart residence was the recent setting of an elegant birthday reception for Elisabeth Anne Barnhart, age 3. Attendees included her immediate family - Mom, Dad, big sister Ella and younger brother Peter, her best friend Olivia along with her family - Ms. Julie, older brother Cameron and younger sister Heidi, and Grandma Rowe and Papa Rowe. (Mr. Kit was unable to attend due to Father's Day commitments with his paternal parental figure and his grandfather).

The activities included a luncheon of freshly grilled meats and accompanying side-dishes, a dessert of fresh strawberry shortcakes, some baseball on the lawn, low-flying airplane rides, and gift-opening. All parties involved had a smashing-good time, as evidenced in these photographic records.

Elisabeth and Olivia amidst the wrappings and unwrappings of birthday presents.

Grandma Rowe oversees more gift opening.

Three princesses enjoy an airplane ride ensemble.

Two princesses await their "Princes Charming" in the early twilight hours.

A Day in the Park

The girls spent an enjoyable afternoon playing at the park across the street from our house today. I'm glad we went after lunch, since after nap-time, the rain was pouring down! It may have been our last opportunity to spend there this year...and the girls were thrilled! So, here are a few photos of your favorite girls....(Peter was sleeping in his pack and didn't want to get out and play)...

An August Article About Activities

Just a note to let you know that the Hancock Barnharts have been "enjoying" a rather busy summer. I've posted some photos to my picasa albums (http://picasaweb.google.com/rachel.barnhart/) in order to keep you all visually up-to-speed on the happenings of our lives.
If you'd like to see photos of the 4th of July Barnhart/McCann gathering (Lisa), we've got some there. If you're interested in seeing how honey bees live and work, check it out. If you want to see some beautiful local (Hancock) hiking trails, we've got that covered. If you want to take a quick trip to the zoo, but don't want to actually leave the comfort of your own home, visit our albums. And if you just want to see photos of two adorable toddlers (that's right...we have 2 "upwardly" mobile children in our home as of 2 weeks ago!), there's plenty of those to go around.

(I apologize for being so delinquent in getting these posted, but I figure that it's better to actually post some at this point than to continue procrastinating on it.)

Enjoy.

Snow, Sleds and Statues

This past week has brought great fluctuations in the weather here in Hancock, though our snow has managed to mostly stay on the ground. One week ago, we had "life threatening blizzard conditions" according to the National Weather Service (and that lasted for two days - Wednesday and Thursday) with a high temp of 2 and windchills of anywhere from 15 to 30 degrees BELOW zero. We (the girls and I) didn't leave the house. Friday was a veritable heat wave at 16 degrees and sunny, and Ella asked to go "play in the snow", so out we went, donning snow gear, grabbing a sled, and heading for the nearest hill...our front yard. We spent about half an hour outside enjoying beautiful blue skies and sunshine and white sparkly snow before heading in.


It continued to warm up over the weekend, reaching 32 degrees (and thus melting weather) on Sunday and Monday. Today it took another dive, predicted to reach 2 again tonight. But in spite of the cold, Winter Carnival is in full swing, with the theme of "Scary Creatures with Icy Features." And this was the 3rd annual installment of our youth group's All-Nighter Statue Build in the Barnhart yard. After about 3 hours of snow, water, slush, ice and much fun - we have a very large rendition of Jaba the Hut gracing our front yard.


In addition, the sculptors decided to leave their mark on our front snowbank (next to the road) and made their own version of Mount Rushmore. This one is much more interesting than the real thing.





And since everyone seems to enjoy them, here are a few random photos of the girls, Fletcher and Noelle.

Cowgirls Just Want to Have Fun!

This year we enjoyed a relatively calm All Hallows' Eve here in Hancock. And very spur of the momently, we decided that Ella would get to go "trick-or-treating" with her good buddy Cameron, mostly because Cameron's grandma and grandpa Cischke asked if she'd be stopping by their place. And since there was not much notice (the call came at 4 pm, and treats were being handed out from 5-8 pm), we had to come up with a costume with whatever was on hand. Grandpa Mike to the rescue! After spotting Ella's new horse sitting in it's "stall" next to the toy box, I was taken back to memories of myself as a youngster dressing up as a farmer girl. And since Ella had a clean pair of bib overalls and hair long enough for pig tails, and I could contribute a red bandana, we had the makings for quite the costume. We didn't have appropriate footwear (read: no cowboy boots), but the galoshes stood in - saying that they're muck boots and suitable for mucking out the horse's stall. Ella looked quite adorable, if I do say so myself. And here's some photographic proof of her adorableness. By the way, Elisabeth dressed up in Ella's old ladybug costume, but we didn't get any pictures of that as she spent most of her time resting in her car seat.I thought that perhaps I'd also include a photo of Ella and Elisabeth lounging on Elisabeth's pink blanket the other morning, mostly just because they're so cute together.We were blessed with our first blanketing of the fluffy white stuff this morning. Here are Ella and Cameron "romping" in the snow. (Cameron was very determined that Ella play in the snow with him this afternoon, and even though she didn't have boots on, she was willing to run around the house and play in the white stuff)

A Hancock Barnhart Pictoral Progress Report

Greetings, fellow Barnhart-bloggers. There have been numerous requests for a pictoral update on the progress being made here in the soon-to-be winter wonderland. So, here are a few favorites from my latest batch of photos (the past week or so). I'll include some text as well. Read on......and on, and on, and on....or so the story goes. At least, this one in particular. Here Ella sits through her first reading of "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins" in its entirety. I'm quite certain it won't be her last, though it might be a while before she picks that one out again (it's a bit lengthy for a girl whose longest sentence is somewhere around 5 words).


Elisabeth turned 4 months old on Saturday (the day before Mom's big birthday). Here she shows off her smile and her bear (we photograph her monthly with this bear to record her growth).



To celebrate the autumn season, crazy hours at work, lots of progress on the garage (wait, Mike, I'll get to those photos soon!), and just life in general, we enjoyed a scrumptious Deep Dish Pizza. It made the menu since the recipe calls for it to be made in a cast iron pan. And because it looked amazingly yummy.



Here's what was left of the pizza after we'd stuffed ourselves.



As Steve watched the weather forecasts, we decided it was finally time to finish harvesting our produce from the garden. Ella and I picked tomatoes and peppers on Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday morning we awoke to a very hard frost. Excellent timing, if I do say so myself. Here's what we gathered. (we didn't pick the strawberries, though there were a few ripe ones still out there, and even more green yet! - a 3rd wave of berries from this season)



And last, but certainly not least, the much anticipated garage siding photos. Please note, it's beautifully sunny and the garage siding looks amazing. Great work, Steve! Feast your eyes on our newly sided garage.....Steve wonders how much longer we'll have nice enough weather for outdoor work and whether or not he'll get ALL of the siding onto the garage in that span of time. Just a few more boards to go! (we'll be putting on some paint come spring...it - the paint - will spend the winter waiting in our living room for it's final destination)

Well, that's all for now. Back to work...there's more progress to be made!

A Few Fresh Photos

Here's Lookin' at You, Kid.....

Just a few photos of the project progress here in Hancock. Projects, of course, including the garage (it's pretty much an un-ending project) and the girls, along with grandpa-time.


Elisabeth has to check things out...
a nice summery evening and relaxing on the lawn. Life just doesn't get a whole lot better than this.


Grandpa Mike gets some time with the girls. Ella loves her little sister, sometimes to the point of smothering. But Elisabeth just loves it!


Here Steve and Mike install some of our new trim on the garage. It's not completed, but it sure looks a LOT better than it did before!


Ella ready to throw rocks at Lake Superior. What a relaxing way to spend a Saturday afternoon.


Elisabeth at Lake Superior. Need any more be said?!


Ella enjoys the beautiful summer weather while Dad and Grandpa Mike continue working on the garage. She's keeping a close eye on them (or maybe the camera). The next thing to come out of her mouth (after this picture) undoubtedly was "See it!"rather emphatically, meaning she wanted to see the photo on the back of the camera. Another "cute" 2-year old thing to do.


And that's all for now. We're working on a new website for our photos (photosite has discontinued service, in case you haven't checked for a while), and will hopefully have that up within the month (but no promises!). We've lots to do 'round here getting ready for the snow to fly, so time is in short supply for "playing" on the computer.

New Photos!

That's right, everyone! There are new photos to peruse at your leisure on our photosite. More specifically, there are new Ella and Elisabeth photos on our photosite (along with Steve's addition of the 4th of July and Bike Ride photos). We'll see how well we can keep our photosite updated now that we have 2 kids instead of just one (I hadn't even downloaded my pictures from the camera in over a month!). But for now, enjoy the new photos. And you'll soon get to enjoy Ella and Elisabeth in person - since we'll be down in Muskegon at the end of July.

July 4, A Superior Ride, and The Best Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Ever

The Crumble

Rhubarb: Mmmmm.

Rhubarb and Strawberries: Even MMMmmmier.

Rhubarb and Strawberries in The Best Crumble Ever: Well, I'll just show you the picture.

Mom made this crumble from an acclaimed recipe using fresh strawberries from our garden and fresh rhubarb from our neighbor's garden. It was fantastic. We enjoyed having her up for a few days to help with this kids.


The Ride

Ben also visited for a bit and we were able to fit in a short bike ride to Lake Superior. It was a great day for a ride and we had a great time. I only wish I were still biking the paper route so that I would have been in shape.

We biked along the Portage to Lake Superior at McLain's State Park. As is typical, we spent more time tuning up our bikes than riding. In our youth, this meant getting as much oil in the chain as possible, flipping the bike up on its seat and handle bars, and spinning up the pedals to see how long the wheel would spin while we did laps around the house. Now we don't do laps.


The 4th

Today, we took Ella and Elisabeth to the parade in Dollar Bay. Ella liked the parade and all the floats. Her favorite was the root beer float. Tonight we'll try to take in some fireworks. Ella hasn't seen them up here before and I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that it will be a first time for Elisabeth as well.

You can find more pictures of the parade and the bike ride at our Photo Site: http://sandr.photosite.com/. I'm pretty sure Rachel is planning to update the site with those anticipated Elisabeth photos soon.

Have a good 4th all!