Never a dull moment :)

We were jolted awake last night by a loud, strange noise in our bedroom. I can't believe it, but we had a bat in our room!! We closed the door and found other places to sleep for the night. Guess all that bed hopping is useful after all. We didn't see it today which isn't surprising since they are nocturnal. Then, at 5:30, it started flying around the house. Thankfully, I had done my internet research and knew that it would find an open door and leave on its own. As the kids were ducking for cover and screaming, I opened the doors and it did indeed find its way out. Here is a picture of it perched on our living room ceiling before it left. The good news is that we studied bats for about a week last year. All that bat knowledge came in handy, and it was pretty cool to see one close up. Of course, it would have been cooler to see it outside the house. Here is a cute picture of our latest family tradition - sundaes on Sunday. The kids get to decorate their own, and it's just kinda fun. What a great way to end the weekend.

I am a mom of boys

It's official. I am definitely a mom of boys. If there was a test to become part of the club, I think I have passed it.

It all started with this fine specimen that Eli caught. A rather large garter snake.

He put it in our outside toy box for safe keeping when he had to go inside. The idea made me a little queasy, but I could deal with that.

Do you know what that snake did in our toy box? He didn't deficate (which is what I expected). He threw up worms. Yep, snake throw up. And guess who cleaned it up.................ME!!!!!

Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.

Another day, another milestone

This little big girl rode her bike to her summer rec class all by herself this morning. She was very proud to go off on her own. I watched her with sweet sorrow. I am proud of the big girl she is becoming but I wish I could keep her little for just a while longer. How can she be big enough to go without me? So, five whole blocks across the big highway and main street. Sigh. And she'll do it again this afternoon and again tomorrow morning. We LOVE living in our Tinytown.

Overwhelmed

I'm overwhelmed. We're overwhelmed. I don't know how people live like this. We are juggling far too many balls right now, and it's consuming our lives. The good news is that it will be over in a couple months. The bad news is that this is going to last for another couple months.

Mark is spending every available moment working on the house. Sarah is routinely napping in the van so I can grab an hour or two to help him. We have started getting a babysitter for her on Saturday afternoons too. The other three entertain themselves out at the farm. Since it has a barn we decided that the property qualifies as a farm.

Anyway, here is a cute pic that I took this evening. Eli and Jonah fell asleep together in Eli's little toddler bed. I can't believe they fit in there together.

And, here's the book I am slowly reading.

The author spoke at the conference I went to last week, and I succumbed to buying her book. The book is affirming our parenting choices as we raise uncommon kids in a common world. It's giving me opportunites to think about what the next stage looks like. I am guessing we will become even more uncommon, and I'm comfortable with that. I like our kids. They certainly aren't perfect, but they are good kids.

The Debate Is Over

and Nature won. Unknowingly, we had an experiment this morning. My Jonah asked for breakfast, and I told him to make his own bagel. No biggie, right? He got the bagel through the toasting process without a problem. Then he checked in to see if I was available for putting on cream cheese. I was still busy, so I told him to do it. How hard could it be? Well.......I hear him looking through the fridge. OK. So he doesn't automatically know where I keep the cream cheese. Mark doesn't know either. Then, I hear him ask Anna if something was the cream cheese. I smiled thinking he was cute for checking. Then.......Anna says......"That's not the cream cheese. That's the caramel." WHAT? The containers aren't the same shape or color. He's eaten bagels probably 100 times in his 5+ years, and he ALWAYS has the exact same type of cream cheese on his bagel. EVERY TIME. NO DEVIATION. Has he really not noticed the container of cream cheese all 100 times? Oh, my. I had to say a small prayer for his future wife. This was a great glimpse into Jonah's thought process. He truly doesn't take note of the obvious.

Just for fun

Random kid pics

A sweet pic of my big girl. Sweet in a very boy way. This jump rope was either a snake or a horse depending on the moment.

Sweet Sarah trying to keep up. She has her must-have accessory (plastic bracelet) on one arm and her favorite toy (an old ice cream bucket) on the other arm.

I couldn't resist this one.

And here's the nasty bug from the other morning. It was a rather large centipede type bug with tiger stripes and hairy legs. Yuck to me, fun to the boys.

Outside our house

You probably don't wonder what our neighbors see, but here are our kids being themselves. Boys collecting bugs. Girls blowing dandelions.

Investigating the soft tar.

Yes, they are laying in the middle of the street. Remember we live in Tinytown on a slooooow road.

The motley crew. Anna & Jonah on bikes, Eli on his scooter, and Sarah trailing behind wishing she could keep up. Our neighbor boy is in the mix on his bike. He's 4 (and yet smaller than 2.5yo Eli), and he would live at our house if he could.

Look who doesn't have training wheels!!

He just took off this morning. We biked up town for a couple errands this morning, and Anna noticed that Jonah wasn't putting weight on his training wheels. So, when we got home, he asked me to take them off. That was that. He has wings now, and he is so excited to be one step closer to Anna.