Birthday 12

 Peter got a hat like Dad's from Marmie and Boppa!

 Nephews!!!

 Auntie Beef and a pile of girls!

 Nieces!!!

 The kids were all thrilled for Cooper and Katie to surprise us!

 Anne is quite the helper these days!

 Felicity's birthday is soon, too. She wasn't terribly impressed with her candle. Maybe she wanted as many as Peter. :)

 Argh! My pirate ballerina.

 F and G gave Christian a nice lens... cup. :)

 Apples to Apples!

Then we finished the evening playing a game that Peter invented/created. Fun times!

Proverbs

Christian is re-teaching his class on Proverbs. Here is a link to where all the classes will be uploaded- the first two weeks are there so far- The Way of Wisdom and Friendship & Proverbs. I hope you get a chance to listen to them! (They are about an hour long each.)

http://www.youtube.com/user/fcfproverbs

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!