More with the Chickens!

I seem to be much busier than I expected to be this summer. I didn't mean to not blog till now, I've just been busy! I am planning a lovely series of snapshots of the progress to getting the rental house painted. Unfortunately, it has rained all week, and there has been no painting. Did I mention the thunder and lightning that comes with the rain? Yep, we've been getting the whole package, all week. I think its grumbled and rained every day this week. Wish us luck on the house painting tomorrow....

In the mean time, here is my new favorite picture of all the children!

They love the chickens. We've had to define what "chasing" constitutes because Marian claims she is not "chasing" them, while the evidence would imply otherwise. She managed to grab 2 of the poor things this day and made her siblings very happy.

The kids got a refresher course on the proper way to hold and pet the chickens. They really do a good job with them, but Callie tends to pull tail feathers while she's in hot pursuit. Not a good thing.

Delaney makes me laugh. She was so excited to pet the chicken. I wasn't sure she would, because she's so scared of most animals. These are really good chickens. Callie kept grabbing the red one's beak, and the bird didn't do a thing. They do not peck or scratch. They just suffer quietly. They'll be glad to see us go, I expect!

Thoughts and Pix

The thoughts and pictures here have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. If you are only interested in cute snapshots of the kids, you may want to scroll right past my ramblings to the pictures.

I have had a fun time enjoying the different atmosphere in laid-back Arkansas, as opposed to the nuttiness which is DC. One of the surprising things I have discovered is a neat little radio station that has some great political stuff on it. One of the things they discussed this week was Liberty vs Equality. It was an amazing light bulb moment for me. They mentioned that people tend to think one or the other of those 2 things is the most important. And while they can mutually coexist for a while, eventually Equality will infringe upon Liberty, or Liberty will infringe on Equality. So, which camp do you fit in? Is Equality more important than Liberty? Or is Liberty more important than Equality. I'm more firmly in the Liberty camp myself. I agree that we are all equal, to a certain extent. However, if I work hard, I want what i have earned. If you are a slacker, you do not deserve a part of what I worked hard for. My feelings of Equality do not extend that far. I do not believe that the government needs to enforce Equality. I think it needs to back off and let us have Liberty.

To be honest, I think this makes less sense now that I've written it and none of you have heard the talk that got me thinking about this, so I apologise if it is not clear. But that's okay. I just wanted to spew out this thought that has been rolling around my head all week. And now I am done!

And on to the pictures of some fun stuff from the week.......

The kids have had a blast playing outside. Somehow we ended up with algae and tadpoles in the fountain again. However, after last years Great Tadpole Rescue, the adults were not going to do a repeat, but the kids were quite actively attempting one on their own. unfortunately, their rescue attempts mostly included scooping water (with the occasional tadpole) and dumping it in the grass or on the driveway. That is cousin Sarah there in the life jacket. Don't ask me, I have no idea!

It started to rain and what did the children want to do? Play in it!! Delaney was such a hoot, running around in the rain.

And they did not let a little downpour interfere with the serious work of "saving" the tadpoles. I don't know if you can see the rain, but it was really coming down. I had to strip down 5 kids when they came in- everyone was drenched, and happy!

We went to the library program on Saturday. It was a cute sing-a-long and it was well done. The girls had a good time. Callie was so cute, getting into the movements and shaking her thing. She and Delaney were picked to come up and help out with the hula. They got to wear grass skirts and flower necklaces. Callie tried to do the movements, but Delaney just stood there- which is a lot more than I expected from either of them.

Saturday afternoon we went to the lake. The weather wasn't too cooperative, but the kids could care less. Delaney had a marvelous time, walking in up to her chin and back out. She dunked herself once, going under and floundering till I scooped her up. I thought she would cry, but she looked at me, big grin and said "I did it!"

We brought a bunch of floats and they liked that. Grandpa was the most fun, but after a while, I think they wore him out!

And here is Joshua, hamming it up for me! He had a good time and we made sure he was sprayed thoroughly with sunscreen. Last time he burned and peeled. No one got any red at all this time- yay!

Animal Crazy.... and just plain crazy!

Marian's very favorite thing about being here is all the animals. She is truly crazy about animals. she loves them... all of them. Not just the cute and cuddly ones either. She likes the reptiles and other funky things just as much. Well, almost. She told me today that kittens are her favorite animal, and lizards are her second favorite. She likes to hold the chickens because they are soft like a kitten though. Conversations with her are always interesting! Today she had the best day ever because it involved her most favorite animals!

We went to her friend Eva's house, and Eva has 2 kittens. I admit, they might be the cutest kittens I have ever seen, and Marian spent about 3 hours just holding and playing with them. She was so happy. The kittens seemed content to be mauled with love as well, so it was a mutual adoration.

Once we got home from Eva's house, Marian didn't quite make it into the house. She saw her nemesis, the lizard! She has been trying to catch this guy (or his friend) for a while now, and today she was finally successful.

But wait! It gets even better!

She found a frog as well! I love this kid. She is so great. She catches her little animals and is so careful about letting them go when she's done playing with them. So the lizard and frog were released back into the wild and Marian was thrilled with her day.

Until now, this had been her favorite moment. While they were canoeing last week, she got to see a lot of animals, but this butterfly was the only one she got a close-up of. Pretty cool, hey?!

And now we move from the animal craziness and into the general category of it......

This was the floor in my room all last week. Joshua slept on the twin bed you can see on the left. I slept on the futon bed that you can barely see in the top right corner. Delaney was ensconced in the corner you can't see, in her porta-crib, and these 3 girls sacked out on the floor. That is Callie, Marian, and cousin Katie. Most nights they went to bed pretty well, but there were one or two that made me about lose my mind (and my tempter!).

Joshua is crazy about Legos. He brought a couple here with us and has had fun with them. I never would have thought of combining Indiana Jones with SpongeBob, but Joshua seems to be having fun.

This is the "Awwww" moment for the day. My baby brother is now a Dad and this is his 5 week old baby. So cute. The kids all loved her and were very sweet and gentle. Callie was so pleased to get to hold her.

Uncle Monkey is crazy! And the kids are more than crazy for Uncle Monkey! I'm so glad I got to see almost all my siblings this past week. Everyone has left but Deborah and her 2 minions, so its not too dull yet, but the house is definitely quieter! 12 adults, 12 kids squished into the house was a lot, but it wasn't too bad. And it was a lot of fun!

Fun with Family

Nearly all my immediate family came to my parents this week. I was sad Jonathan and his clan didn't make it, but we managed to have a good time anyway. I think I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Grandpa put in this nifty tire swing and it has resulted in much fun and much fighting over.

Delaney helped make cake for our party Friday night.

I had to put this in. This is Emma, who must be the cutest doggone 1 year old ever!

We got a ton of fireworks to light up on the 4th of July and the kids had a marvelous time. I'm not big into fireworks, but Uncle Dan, Aunt Miranda, and Uncle Adam are very much into the pyrotechnics of the 4th, and they set it all up and let the kids do some stuff and they all had a great time.

See how happy Callie is?!

Marian wanted the cool stuff, no boring sparklers for her!

Dan and Adam, the fire-masters at work!

Joshua loved getting to light stuff on fire with a sparkler. There was a lit of wizz-bangs and smoke.

Okay, someone asked, and this is the only, and I do mean only, picture of me and my belly, taken just this morning!

I think I'm 28 weeks along now. Something like that. Funny how I look much fatter in the mirror.

We got nearly all the kids together after church for a picture. They were not thrilled about it.

And I admit I have been busy having too much fun with my family to blog much and I'm not planning to do any more right now! I'm off for games and chocolate!

How we have fun in Arkansas!

My parents do not have cable or satellite TV. This means that if its not on VHS or DVD, there is nothing to see on the TV. I kind of like it. And I have been shocked at how little the children (mainly Joshua!) have complained about it. They have done a great job being occupied by other things. Personally, I think it is a bit too hot to go outside, but the kids don't seem bothered much at all. They spend a lot of time in the yard having a marvelous time, and not always in the kiddie pool.

I also took them to a library program. I really like the library here. They have a great kids room.

The kids like to play more than they want to read or look at books, but I'm okay with that. They are having fun, the air is cool and air-conditioned, I'm happy to sit and read while they play!

The library also has a good summer reading program and we attended one of their activities. Joshua did not want to go, but the girls had a great time. There was a balloon man who did some fun magic as well. I was pretty impressed. At the end, he made balloon figures for every kid. And there were a LOT of kids!

Marian got a sword, while Callie and Delaney chose pink dogs. I was a bit surprised by Marian's desire for a "life-saver", especially when she began sword fighting with several other little boys. I had been sure she'd pick an animal.

Marian's very favorite thing to do here is to chase the chickens. She claims she isn't chasing them, she's not suppose to. I must say however, that when I see her running, and there are chickens running, I usually do think she is chasing them.

She just wants to hold and pet them. She spends hours out there with the chickens. Thank goodness they are too young to lay eggs yet, I'm sure they'd stop laying from the stress of Marian.

The chickens are very good natured though. They do not scratch or peck, and sit quietly when she does manage to snag one. And all the children want to pet and hold it. The chicken will submit to being manhandled with good grace until Marian tires of carting it around.

The kids have done a great job of holding the poor things properly, which helps. The kids so far have been gentle with the chickens, and it is pretty funny to see Marian out in the yard with a hen tucked under one arm, just going about her business.

Yesterday I decided to take the kids to the movies. They love the first "Night at the Museum", so I thought it might be fun to take them to see the new one. Ug.

Yep, they did make goofy faces for this. They argued over popcorn, ran around the theater and Callie asked, "Is this real?" very loudly every 5 minutes which annoyed Joshua enough to shout back, "No, I told you a hundred times already!" She was a bit scared as well, and sat on what's left of my lap for most of the movie. I enjoyed the movie, but I think I will try hard to never take 3 of them together again! They were also cranky and rotten the rest of the day.