August Break: Highlights from the Farm

As with every year, there was so much to enjoy in our ten days on the farm, I can't believe that another August has passed already!

Waking up in the van with these two faces peaking down from their top bunk,

feeding the cows,

enjoying the garden,

watching the cousins playing and eating together was so special,

There is a drought going on in western North Carolina this summer so there were not nearly as many of these friends of the forest as last year! 

My boy became so independent this summer, taking long walks around the farm by himself for the first time and helping my aunt Janet with chores like loading hay.

These mountain views never get old for me,

neither does exploring the underbrush,

and spending long hours with people that we love!

Now that we live only a four hour drive from the farm we can't wait to visit more often!

August Break: Edisto Beach

We had plans to camp in the van this weekend, so after it was clear the wild wind and rain of Hurricane Irene had passed us on Friday, off we went to Edisto Beach, a state park along the coast to the south of Charleston,

The campground was right on the beach, and the water after the hurricane was very churned up and rough, not a friendly ocean. The beach had a wild jungely feeling to it that I liked,  it was also a sea turtle nesting site, with special protected areas roped off but we did not see any turtles,

The storm had washed all sorts of interesting things onto the beach, we found so many gorgeous whole perfect Conch shells, silly us we did not carry a bag on our beach wanderings so our hands just kept getting more and more full of shells as we walked,

Check out my boy's adult front teeth that are coming in so fast this summer, love that new toothy smile!

At sunset we traipsed back to our campsite with all of our treasures, only to find that..

even with a view like this there were swarms of biting flies, ugh. So we abandoned our beach camping night, hoped in the van and headed out to dinner in the small town of Edisto, then drove home with the kids asleep in the back that night!
There is something that I really like about night driving, with the kids asleep, its so peaceful, cozy and quiet, reminds me of when I used to fall asleep in the car as a child.

August Break: Back to School

I have sunk deep into the August break during our time on the farm last week, and even though we are back home and back to school this week (what!!) we are still drinking in all of the goodness that summer has to offer.
We have camping plans in the van for the weekend, and it looks like we'll thankfully be missing the bad weather of Hurricane Irene that is sweeping the US east coast, so we are hoping for some beach days.
I'm not used to school starting in August, up north it always starts in September, so this early back to school time has taken me a bit by surprise....sure we were ready enough for the early mornings and the making of new friends, but I'm missing my long days with my little ones around all the time. Ah swift delicious summer, its hard to see you go. Lets dive in for just a little longer, while I get used to the idea of having a First Grader and a Pre-Schooler.

August Break: Sunrise this morning

We've been drinking in all of our precious time with dear family this week on the farm, can't wait to share more pictures when we return home later this week!

August Break: Waking up on the farm

Mountain views, 

feeding the chickens with Aunt Janet while still in pajamas,

Forest light.

August Break: Van, again!

As of yesterday we are the proud owners of a VW camper van, again!

I looove VW camper vans, and I can get a little geeked out over all of the different models and types. I owned a 1978 Westfalia Camper model from 1996 to 2002, and traveled around the US and Mexico living in my van for a year, I knew that van so well and loved it.

Frank and I camped a lot in the old van when we were first dating, but when the van started needing a little too much work we sold it with heavy hearts to a friend of ours, as we knew that it was just getting too old to be a good car with kids.

Then, with our move out of NYC in sight this year, we started to think about getting another VW camper, we have always talked about how fun to would be to camp and travel in a camper van with Jasper and Carys.

Almost by chance I found this 2002 model that was for sale right in Asheville, where we come each year for our annual trip to my family's farm.

We drove up to the mountains a couple of days ago. Yesterday we met the wonderful older hippie couple that was selling the van, talked with their mechanic, test drove it on the beautiful mountain roads and made it our own!

We camped outside of my aunt's house last night and looking forward to doing it again tonight! Sleeping in the van feels like the four of us are in the coziest little two story cabin, bringing back lots of memories of my old van, but also feeling so different and new.

Waking up there this morning was wonderful too, peaking out through the curtains, listening to sounds of the forest, and of course imagining all of the adventures that are ahead of us in these new wheels!

August Break: Magic tree house

Along with renovating a Brooklyn Brownstone another of Frank's dreams has always been to build a tree house for his kids "someday"...and suddenly, with our new yard we had lots of trees to choose from and "someday" became "now" this summer. Frank got to work at the beginning of July, first making sketches and reading the Black & Decker The Complete Guide: Build Your Kids a Treehouse (Black & Decker Complete Guide) 

What started with four posts cemented into the ground behind Jasper above, quickly become this...

and then this, all done...

with places for telling secrets,

and playing house.

One of my favorite parts is the clear plastic roof to let lots of light inside.

The next step will be picking out a perfect outdoor fabric to make some window and door curtains, to make it a real "hide-out". Frank also plans to build some shelves on the walls so the kids can leave treasures in the tree house and really make it their own. We are also throwing around ideas for painting the tree house, but getting these two to agree on a color is hard! I'm voting for just little pops of color (turquoise!) here and there.

In a case of perfect timing we have been visiting our local library and reading our way through this fun series, the Magic Tree House Boxed Set, Books 1-28 , about a brother and sister who find a magic tree house and go on adventures through the books that they find inside. So the kids are even more excited to have their own tree house now, as if that were possible.