More at George Ranch

So, here we are where I left off with Ella and the longhorn.  Unfortunately, we missed the cowboy demonstrations again.  The rodeo's coming again in March though so we'll hopefully see some exciting things there.  But, back to the Ranch and the house tours.

Paka and Sophie on the "bus" between houses. 

 The girl and boy beds in the prairie home.  The boy bed is on the right.  Obviously, the Doyle family would not have needed the partition :)

 We got a whole lesson on women's clothing and undergarments.

 pretty girl

 The outside of the 1860's prairie home

 Inside the blacksmith's shop

 Neal, the blacksmith, gave us a 45 minute lesson on exactly what blacksmiths do and how it's done.

He made an "S" hook in the process.  He was very entertaining and it was the highlight of the day.

 Grace face.

 Again.

 And again.

 The bed room in the 1890s victorian mansion

 Outside the mansion

 In the 1930s George home

There was a whole wall of these and other animals.

 Shouting into the rain collector

 Grandma joins in

I wonder if anyone answered back....

That's it.  If you're ever in Houston and have the opportunity, George Ranch is worth a visit.

So much to see, do and learn and beautiful too.

Tomorrow, a post from afar.

Back to George Ranch

 A few weeks ago, the girls and I took Grandma and Paka to visit George Ranch, a kind of historical park situated on a large piece of land in Richmond, TX.  Unlike our first time there a year ago, it was very cold and we were nearly the only visitors which meant private tours of each of the four family homes.  In the picture, Paka, Sophie and Ella are walking up to the 1830's home, the first stop on our tour.

 Watching a demonstration of how to make fire using flint

 Three stoves
To give a sense of how things changed from one house to the next, I arranged the photos of the stoves and tables from the first three houses sequentially.

This one is the "stove" (aka fire pit) in the 1830s home.

Stove in the 1860's home.

(This house was not the actual family home but was brought to the ranch as a model of what it was like.)

Stove in the 1890s victorian mansion

Table and food in the 1830's frontier home

 Table and place setting in the 1860's home

 Table and place setting in the 1890s victorian mansion
The moon-shaped dish in front of the plates was for bones.

 With the all the work there was to do, there wasn't much time to play but here the girls are checking out a few of the toys children might have played with in the frontier home.

 We saw a weaving and spinning demonstration.

 Spinning wheel

 Friend or food?

A natural cowgirl.  "Look--no hands!"

Coming up:  More at George Ranch

And, We're Back!

So, after two weeks without a computer, I got my laptop back, better than ever.  I have a new keyboard, a new CD drive and a new hard drive.  The "geniuses" even replaced things we didn't know weren't working like the place where the plug attaches to the lap top.  It wasn't holding the connection so the battery wasn't fully charging.  Sitting here, it feels a lot like having a brand new computer and we got it all for free because....they were not able to evacuate anything from my old hard drive.  Meaning that my entire itunes library is gone, all of my microsoft word files and any photos I hadn't backed up on an external hard drive.  Fortunately, I had done that recently but I lost all of Sophie's birthday photos and the photo shoots I did for Ella and Madeleine (other than the photos I posted on the blog--TGFF7).  Actually, "lost" isn't quite accurate.  I have the old hard drive and they tell me I can take it to someone who specializes in these kinds of things--an "extractor".  I don't know if that's the official title but that's what they do.  Extract information.  Sounds hopeful.  The photos of Sophie's birthday and the videos I took at the Galleria of the girls' first time ice skating are really irreplaceable. 

On another level--this experience has served as yet another lesson in detachment for me.  God gives and God takes away and, as Mother Teresa said, we should take and give it all with a smile.  I'm not suggesting that God had anything to do with my lap top failing.  Some things are just the annoying byproduct of living in a fallen world (my opinion).  But in this as with everything, my only option is to choose my response.  And honestly, my first response was to be a little depressed and dismayed at my own lack of control and knowledge around technology.  But I am grateful for blogger and the fact that some of our precious photos were saved.  It's the little things.

And speaking of little things....a collection of photos of the miscellaneous happenings around here over the past few weeks.

 Grace lost her first tooth on Tuesday, January 11th.

That night, she realized she had a loose tooth and went to bed wiggling and pulling on it.  She came downstairs a little later with her tooth bleeding and between her and Chris, it came out.  That's probably the least time we've had from loose to out and Grace was thrilled.

The tooth fairy was generous and left a two dollar bill and four awesome bucks for

Toys and Candy on the Park.

(I may get around to explaining the shower cap in another post.)

                                                         

Eating apples is a little more difficult now.

Another Grace moment--she was proud to present one of her pieces of art to her Grandma.

Fun at the track

Trying Mom's shoes

She couldn't walk very well but her understanding of the importance of style over comfort when it comes to shoes is very advanced.

The next few are all "Faces of Ella". 

 This one is "Fish Face".  She can't do it yet without holding her cheeks.

"Please Mom"

"Monster Face"

"Cheesy"

"No" or "The Pout"

We see this one a bit more often these days not that she's a "Terrible Three".

Just sweet

Here I asked her not to smile and she ended up looking a little sad or maybe grumpy.

I like the perspective a lot though.

Doing Core Synergistics with Mama

Sophie waits for her first piano lesson.

Madeleine has been in Virginia for the past few weeks so Sophie took one of her lessons to try it out.

She did well but we decided to hold off for awhile before starting her because she's not thrilled about the practicing part.

The girls curled up with blankets in the living room one day for read aloud time and this was Grace after about five minutes.  It was a good story so she must have been extra tired.

Our good friends and neighbors at their talent show.

We went to provide moral support and lots of cheering.

We hosted an ice cream sunday party afterward.

Mia and Grace about to take their piano theory tests.  Mia's pretending to be scared but is a pro.

The tests were a competition that we had to drive across town to do.

post-test treat

It was chilly but we ordered lunch and ate outside anyway.  The girls stayed warm by playing charades which also provided entertainment for the waiting cars.

St. Agnes was our saint at the last meeting of Little Flowers and it was Sophie's turn to present.

That was appropriate because St. Agnes is a favorite of hers.  Both Daddy and Mia helped with her poster and she did a great job.

Mia, presenting on St. Monica at another meeting.  

The picture she's pointing to is of St. Augustine being baptized.

Here the girls are out selling cookies to raise money for Birthright.  They raised $16.  I was so proud of them.  They started their spiel by educating people about Birthright's mission.  Mia made the cookies they sold--since Madeleine's been gone, she has stepped up a lot as the resident big sis'.  Last week, she made her first batch of pancakes from start to finish.

Stealing Daddy's food

Poor Ella.  She was waiting for us to come upstairs and fell asleep.

That's it.

Don't forget to back up your files!  Tata for now!