Catching Up

I cannot believe it has been more than two weeks since my last post. It is odd how summer vacation seems busier than the school year, even though it isn't really.

We have been spending our time getting to know Leif, enjoying Daddy being home for the summer, weeding the garden, and doing some running around. Last week the teens were all at Camp Good News. Amelia was suddenly the oldest at home, and not surprisingly jumped right in to take over the animal care- with Dad's help of course. One night they came in from feeding the goats and meat birds (who share an enclosure) and Jamie owned up that at one point there were NO animals in the enclosure. They were able to round up the 2 goats and 11 chickens in no time, though. The laying hens stopped laying this week when Penguin, a huge black Austrolorp, decided to go broody and set on eggs in the favorite nest box. We went from 7 eggs a day to 1 tiny egg a day-- the only one who still laid was the bantam hen Acorn. I never new hens could go on strike (because they all prefer the same next box and it was unavailable). When Zachary got home from camp he told us we should not have let Penguin set the eggs, but what do we know? I'm sure Jamie is glad Zachary and Nikita are back to take over the animal care again!

This week Amelia and Sunny have been having a blast attending Vacation Bible School. We decided that Micah was not going to attend because he is too prone to taking off, plus he is not completely potty trained yet. Yesterday Jamie and I walked Micah up to the local general store, where he proudly made his first independent purchase-- a bag of M&Ms.

Below are some photos that show some of what we have been doing:

We now have a beautiful new table that was made for us by Mr. G. We have been able to have all 10 of us sit down together only once so far because of Alexander's work at camp, but we absolutely love the table!

This is the first picture of Jamie, Leif, and I. I love how Leif is looking at Daddy.

One afternoon Jamie decided to kick my butt in Scrabble while Leif napped. The triplets saw us playing a game and got on one of their own.

Nikita was given a bag of clothing, and she had fun trying some of the stuff on. Here she is looking like a federal agent-- do we watch too much NCIS?

And she looks far too old in this photo. She is only 14!

Sunny holding Leif. She is bending down to kiss him.

Amelia holding Leif. She loves to sing to him while his diaper is being changed- his least favorite event. (The diaper changing, not the singing)

Leif officially has a belly button and did NOT appreciate his first bath.

Sleeping like the baby he is. Leif is so sweet!