Early spring in New England means the Maple Sugar is running.




We, our family and Josh's brother Adam and Natalie and the cousins, Marina, Alex, and Carly, took a trip to Shelbourne MA and the Goulds' Farm to see the Maple tree sap boiled down and made into maple syrup. The kids enjoyed walking around the farm to pass the time while we waited to eat pancakes in the farm's little restaurant. Before our walk we had to splurged and did something normally reserved for Grandma's house. Ice Cream for Breakfast!!!
Here's a picture of some of us enjoying and extra sweet breakfast of Maple Ice Cream.

(Lft to Rt Natalie, Julia, Alexandra, Carly, Jillian, Jonathan, Marina)


Jonathan, Julia, Jillian, and Marina heading up the hill at Goulds' Farm

Look close (okay really close) and you can see the buckets hanging off the sap taps on some of the trees up the hill.




Jonathan and Jillian next to the wood fired maple sap evaporator.

Jillian had us all laughing, and well a little bit scared the other day. You see she anounced at dinner that she no longer has 8, yes count them 8, boyfriends. This of course pleased her Mom and Dad. Her reason - she couldn't remember who they all were. But.......she does have one. Robert.

Okay, we can deal with this.

Until the next confession hits.....

"I kissed a boy Mom!....Really, honest, I did...Hee heee....no joke'n...Hee heee.....I really kissed him! So that's the boyfriend!"

To which I replied "You did?"

"Yep, I really kissed him!...Hee heee.....and guess where?"

I'm thinking, where? where!? behind the slippery slide, on the monkey bars, during lunch, umm do I want to know?????

"I kissed him right here! (she points to the top of the tip of her nose!), really I Kissed A Boy!!"

At this point she's turning a very nice shade of red, blushing all the way to her ears. She's covering her mouth too because she's giggleing.

Dad tells her to be careful where she's kissing boys, and not to go kissing too many.

Mom is wondering if she really meant to kiss his nose, or if she just missed the real target. And do I really want to know the answer to that?!

Dad is still shaking his head, wondering what to do with a flirtatious daughter, and Mom is now worried about what the next 10 to 15 years are going to be like.

Is it possible to trade one kissing boyfriend for 8 nonkissing boyfriends?

Spring is finally here!! Well sort of. Glad to be in sweat shirts instead of snowsuits, the kids couldn't wait to play outside on this warm day. But, although they were happy about it being warm (and now muddy) they were a bit disappointed to see the snow go. In order to enjoy every last bit of the white stuff, Julia, Jonathan and Grandpa Long made "Babeee snow mans". Of course, tomorrow when they've melted (at least Mom hopes its warm enough to do that) Julia will be a bit sad.

Did you know New England actually has 5 seasons. Yep, Summer, fall, winter, spring, and Mud.

This is Jillian's blog entry.
This is Jonathan, Jillian, and a friend, Noah. We were having fun dropping snowballs on the ground from the swing set. And we were playing Nerf. We were having lots of fun!!

Everyone was asking for this recipe...so here goes...

Hot Artichoke and Crabmeat Dip

1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened

1 C mayonaise

1 garlic clove, pressed

1 can (14oz) artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped

1 pkg (8oz) imitation crabmeat, chopped (1 1/2 cups)

3/4 C parmesean cheese, grated

1/3 C green onions with tops, chopped

1 lemon (for 1tsp zest)

1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Additional sliced green onions

Mix cream cheese, mayonaise, garlic, artichoke, crabmeat, parmesean, green onion, lemon zest, black pepper together, spread in baking dish.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Sprinkle red bell pepper and additional green onions on top.

Serve with pita chips, or crackers.

Here's a few of the little "cuties"

Hey Family and Friends!!!
We have a blog!!!

Thanks to Kari for setting this up or we never would have started.

I've been trying to figure out how to start, and have decided just to go with the latest thing, Janel and Julia's trip to Utah.

Josh (wonderful Hubby of mine!) booked me a trip to see the fam. He even kept the older two home. Which meant he volunteered for bus duty, hair duty (yikes!), birthday party to go to duty, church duty, laundry duty, dinner duty etc....

Julia and I had a great time!! Julia loved playing with her cousins, and getting lots of hugs and snuggles from Grandma and Grandpa.