Family Visitors from NY and VA

We had a busy weekend with lots of visitors! Luckily my dad brought his camera and took amazing pictures of the events.
A couple of family pictures on our new front stoop:

Handsome husband:

Mr. Gigglebox:

With all the visitors the chicks and ducklings got lots of petting and attention. The chicks will be two weeks old on Monday and the ducklings three weeks old on Wednesday.

I cannot believe how fast these birds grow.  The ducklings are about twice as large now and their feathers are growing in under their down coats.  I had to upgrade them to the large waterer, but then they started soaking and perhaps strategically? sloshing water on that side of their brooder.  I thought it was going to fall apart any day from water soaking into the cardboard. But I put the waterer on this large "tray" (lid of a plastic storage container) and it is collecting the majority of their splashes. They need to clean out their bills as they are eating and they consume 2-3 times as much water as the chickies.

 We make the kiddos sit down when it is their turn to hold them.

The chicks brooder is so much easier to keep clean than the ducks.

Belly tickles:

Little Miss L is really running lately.  She wants to keep up and see what everyone is doing. She still only has her 6 teeth though. I keep waiting for the bottoms and molars to pop out, but no sign of them yet.

Big sister A is taking a Korean class at co-op school and she sang "Twinkle Twinkle" for us in Korean with the help of one of their Youtube videos.

 Aunt Sara and her kiddos all came up and spent the weekend too.

We tried to get all 12 of the grandkids together for a picture, but it was wild. All the youngest ones were crying for mom and dad.

It got better when we joined the picture.  It was pretty nippy that day so we did not bother with many poses.

Then the kiddos got down to business with a painting activity:

I was going to do a post about this room later, but this picture gives a good overall view of its current state. This is the toy room/schoolroom/sewing room/ mudroom.  Since it has so many functions it's been tricky to organize and there is a lot more to do.  Unlike our old toy room, there were no storage closets or shelving, so we added three Stuva wardrobes, a wall of hooks, and a Stuva (ikea) bench. We are planning to add another Stuva wardrobe, replace the brown fans and weird lights, and build a 4 sided desk/craft table around the supporting beam in the center of the room. It's a great space because there are windows on three sides of the room. (It is over the garage).

Grandpop and Grandma Judy brought Miko.  He is a nervous little guy, but as sweet as can be with the kiddos.

Belly-belly

We have a giant trunk of dress-up clothes in the playroom.  It is very popular.

Our new kitchen worked out great for feeding this big crew.  I just set everything out salad bar style.

 It was amazing to have plenty of room for everyone to move around. The new house is perfect for hosting big family gatherings. Our table fit 12 kids, no problem.

Before everyone left we had a tour of the yard and barn.  There is so much to do outside. It is pretty overwhelming. The landscaping is gorgeous and I am loving seeing all the Spring foliage. Just so many trees! A lot more work needs to be done to get that part of the property in order. Several large trees are dead or nearly dead and need to be taken down for safety reasons. The lumbermen took care of a few of them, but several remain.  The tree guys call the big dead trees "widow-makers". Scary! And there are about 10 trees too close to the house that they did not get to during the time they were here.
Baby L is tasting some of the twigs near one of the huge stumps. Yum.