Trip to Chautauqua Gorge

Chautauqua Gorge is one of my favorite places. The water is so clear, the atmosphere so peaceful, and the scenery so beautiful that it is a perfect place to visit on a warm afternoon. The water is very cold (year-round), but the kids don't mind splashing around in the swimming holes despite the low temperatures.

Matthew found a bazillion fossils (all cephalopods), though I had to convince him he was not carrying this stone back out of the gorge!

Nolan actually went for a swim in the water, which was very cold. Nolan has so little body fat that he came out shivering a few seconds later. 

Matt preferred to hunt for fossils, so he wandered around the gorge and turned over pieces of shale, looking for different specimens.

Nolan was a little overly cold and tired, so he took one of the paintbrushes I had brought along and "painted" with water. For little guys, this is a great camping or hiking activity.

There were also fish in the gorge, and the boys tried to catch the ones under the waterfall. They didn't have any luck, but it was worth a try!

The rocks were slippery, which always makes me nervous. Matt is pretty sure-footed and he never fell, though I nearly did!

Nolan did a really great job, too, and he never slipped. We wandered upstream to another swimming hole and he did a really good job at navigating the rocks.

Matt never got in the water. He's not my "water kid" and he doesn't like the temperature. He did wade in a tiny bit, though!

We'll definitely head back to the gorge again soon, as it is a perfect place to spend a sultry summer day!

Watching Brave and Making Books

I have been trying to do a fun or educational activity with the boys every day during the summer. We went to see the movie Brave on the first Monday of summer vacation to kick off our summer-o-fun.

I bought a package of card stock and the boys have been making a "page" for every activity we do. At the end of summer, we will bind these together into a book - it not only makes a neat keepsake, but it also helps with reading and writing skills.

Matt's page is below - he drew an arrow flying toward the target, and a bow. He also re-wrote the title of the movie at the bottom of his page, and pasted his movie ticket to the page.

Nolan drew bows and arrows and a bear. The arrows are flying at the bear, who seems to have a rather sunny attitude despite his predicament. Nolan also pasted his movie ticket to his paper.

These pages are a lot of fun, and the boys want to do more activities to fill up their summer books!

A Hike at the Audubon

I love summer because we can do a lot of really enriching, educational activities with the boys. I met a friend at our local Audubon center and we went for a hike in the woods. The boys were thrilled to meet up again (former preschool buddies).

They were very serious while consulting a trail map. Which way should we go?

Nolan was in high spirits. The woods are nice and cool, and he was feeling extremely well. Sleeping in until 10:00am has been very good for the boy. He even volunteered to carry the backpack!

A deer approached the boys as we walked down one trail. If you enlarge the picture below, you can see her behind the boys.

She walked off into the woods after looking at us. The beauty in our area is simply stunning sometimes.

We came across a three-story overview platform, and the boys had a great time climbing to the top to look out over Spatterdock pond.

I am going to be very sad when summer ends. I absolutely love our summer field trips!

Gone Fishin'

There is nothing my boys love more than fishing. We always head down to Celeron park and give them their fishing rods - they usually catch little sunfish and we release them back into the lake.

Fortunately, both boys caught a fish. The weather has been so fair and hot that the fish weren't really biting. Nolan caught a little sunfish after about 20 minutes.

Matt caught a little perch (I think it is a perch) at about the same time. They were both pleased as punch to get their fish.

Matt, in particular, loves fishing.  He had been begging to go down to the lake for a couple of weeks, so he was in high spirits the entire evening.

Nolan enjoys fishing, but since he is still four, his attention span is limited. He wandered over to the playground for a while to burn off some energy.

Matt decided to join in the fun and showed off his growing skills. He can do the monkey bars now, and loves  the little zip line.

We are only one week into our summer break and we are having the best time. I absolutely love summer!

Strawberry Picking Time - Time to Make Jam!

Every June, we run down to Abers Acres and pick strawberries. Since I usually wait until the boys are out of school to go berry picking, we get the tiny berries left over at the end of the season. This is no bother to us, since I turn the berries into jam and can it for use in the winter (there's nothing like that taste of summer in the middle of January).

Matt was very serious about berry picking this year - he wanted to find a lot of berries. More berries = more jam, and more jam is a Very Important Thing in the life of this boy.

Nolan went to work, too. I think he ate more than he picked. It was amazingly hot this year, and he kept at it longer than I thought he would.

Matt settled into his own row and went as fast as he could.

We checked out with $9 worth of strawberries (enough for two batches of jam). We also picked up a quart of cherries on the way out of the farm stand. Nolan helped himself to a few before we reached the car.

I managed to get about 16 jars of jam out of our haul. We are eagerly awaiting black raspberry season to make more jam!

By the way, if you have never canned jam, you should. It is very simple to do - there's a tutorial here:

http://leahlefler.hubpages.com/video/How-to-Can-Strawberry-Jam

Freezer jam is pretty easy to make, too - though we don't have enough freezer space so I can ours.

Niagara Falls with Cousins

The boys' cousins came to visit for one last time, because they are moving out of the area. Since we have no other family in the area, this is a sad event for us. They were our closest relatives, living about 3 hours away. The next closest relatives are about 3,000 miles away.

Our boys, of course, were OVERJOYED to have a sleepover.

Of course, there was very little sleeping. Matt did fall asleep pretty quickly, but Nolan ended up moving upstairs to Matt's bed. Matt was on the couch downstairs, and Austin slept in Nolan's bed. No one slept on the blow-up air mattress. They had a fabulous time, catching fireflies!

On Sunday, we drove up to Niagara Falls to bid them farewell. We live about 2 hours away from Niagara Falls, and we've never taken the boys. I feel slightly ashamed at this fact - we kept blaming our expired passports (the Canadian side of the falls is better), but the American side of the falls has plenty to do, too.

Cousins at Niagara Falls

We walked to Terrapin Point on Goat Island, which has a great overlook of the Canadian Horseshoe falls. For those who don't know, there are two sets of falls: the big horseshoe falls that are in all the movies, and another set called the American Falls. The Niagara River is split in two by Goat Island, creating two sets of falls.

Terrapin Point

We walked around the visitor's center and had lunch, and our dear cousins departed. We stayed for another hour or so, and walked to the Three Sister's Islands, which jut out into the Niagara River. There are signs warning everyone to stay out of the river. The current is extremely strong, and dumps over the falls shortly downstream.

This is no ordinary river.

The Niagara River rages past.

On one of the footbridges over the Niagara River.

We really had a fantastic time, and the boys even learned about hydroelectric power when we stopped by the Niagara Power Authority. About half of the Niagara River is diverted through underground pipes to the hydroelectric plant.

I can only imagine how insanely powerful the falls must have been before a significant portion of the water was diverted away!

Last Tee Ball Game

On June 16, the boys had their last tee ball game. Nolan will play tee ball again next year, but Matt moves up to regular baseball next year (with a pitching machine).

The boys played well - Matt is getting better at catching the ball and will definitely be ready to move up next year. He'll be (gasp) SEVEN years old when baseball season rolls around next spring.

After the game, the boys ran over to the pavilion to get some Tim Bits (donut holes to those of you who don't have Tim Hortons).

Then the coach handed out the participation medals - Nolan was rather excited as he has never gotten a medal before. Matt has a few from ice hockey tournaments, so Nolan was overjoyed to get his own medal.

I have to admit that I was glad the season ended in mid June. Soccer started in early June, so we had a lot of overlapping schedules with the two sports. Our short summers cause a lot of crammed-in outdoor activities.

We did get their baseball pictures on the day of the last game, and they were pretty cute!

So long, Purple Pistons! We're on to soccer for the rest of the summer!