Kids with a Camera

 Creative use of duct tape and pony slippers to make a horse-drawn carriage

 Beautiful dancing and twirling

 Peter looks extra tall from the vantage point of a four year old!

 Practicing sad faces

A little man with a vision

 The cats really enjoy the greenhouse, especially with the new paver patio!

This is the life!

Turkey Trivia

Peter is raising turkeys this year for 4-H, hoping to sell one at the county fair Labor Day weekend.

 Here are Butch (light one- he's a bully; bourbon variety) and Willie Wonka (he's a chocolate turkey. really. that's the name of the variety)

 And this one's Groucho, as he has dark "eyebrows". He's a standard bronze.

Did you know....?

-Turkey babies are called poults

- young, male turkeys are called Jakes and females are called Jennys

-full grown turkeys are toms and hens

-Turkey poults are dumb enough to not catch on to drinking, unless you put something shiny in their water. Then they're so curious they'll keep trying to peck at it...and get enough water in the process!

- I believe, though haven't thoroughly researched this, that only Toms will gobble.

-These cute little things will reach 18-30 lbs in just 20 weeks!

-We don't really know what sexes these birds are, and might not know for a long time! So we may be having some name changes later on. :)

Made to Create

One really cool way that we are made in the image of God, is that we are made with an amazing desire to create! A friend of ours is in the hospital, so the kids painted him some pictures this morning...

 From Anne, her specialty is "creating" eyes. 

This morning she announced, "I want to be an artist like Marmie when I grow up!"

From Berea- a very detailed "creator"

 from Peter- this was big for him- watercolors are a more ambiguous medium than he's generally comfortable with. He is incredibly precise when he uses a pencil.

And from Tirzah- our colorful "creator" who can be detailed as well...

Here are a few other things we've done...

 both of these were Tirzah's

This is Peter's from awhile ago

Elijah made these silly eggshell planter things for a science project- he drew faces on broken egg shells, filled them with garden soil, planted seeds, watered...now the faces have funny hair!

Happy birthdays to us!

Christian and I celebrated our ever-increasing ages (we are officially getting old, as college students are now calling us Mr. and Mrs.)...

Not a lot Going On

 We've been playing with legos...

 And watching the amazing miracle of metamorphosis (how on earth can evolution account for it? If at any point something doesn't go right, the critter is dead, not mutated!) Anyway. I think God is pretty awesome.

 One of the five butterflies died, I think because I didn't remove the spiderwebby silk well enough that it spun before it formed the cocoon. Sad to see the struggle. :(

 Tomorrow is the big release date, assuming it warms up enough outside. Hopefully they won't lay eggs in the garden. That would not be cool.

More tunnel work

 Silly, occasionally creepy Charlie.

 We have a lot of blue eyes in our family

 Speaking of backward, too big helmets, yesterday was a momentous occasion of the twins going for their first bike ride on the road, and also leaving Peter home alone! We weren't gone long enough for his liking. If anyone finds any good bike helmets at garage sales, we're in the market, by the way. And roller blades/skates for Elijah. Anyway...

Christian's amazing at digging trenches. Seriously. He dug 130 feet of trenches, 30 inches deep. In one day. And now we have water and electric out in the tunnel! Did I ever mention that we met while he was digging a trench in Phoenix? Ah, romance. ;) This Monday will mark our 14th year since we got engaged! I only remember the date because it's St. Pat's Day. And today's Christian's birthday!  So he's celebrating by working long hours. So, there we go and I'll stop rambling now. :)