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.

Recommended Reading: March

We have been reading some wonderful books this month. The Bartimaeus Trilogy has been our car-ride-read-aloud this month.  We are half way through the last book. Bartimaeus is a witty character and it is refreshing to read a magic/fantasy series that is not weighed down by the same old elf, fairy, troll parameters. Plus, the language and and plot is clean and not too scary for the kids. I highly recommend it for boys and girls 7 and up.

We listened to the last two Narnia books in the car during one of our trips, but have since been re-reading the whole series as our before bed reading. It's been fun to clue big sister A in to a few Christian parallels (especially in The Last Battle) and see how she has started seeing the story differently. I love the questions that it raises in her mind about good and evil.

Storey's guides are my favorite resource for each new farm animal to join our family. They are written by experts with decades of experience and full of details and diagrams. I read Raising Chickens before we began that endeavor. Of all that I have read so far, Raising Rabbits, was the most fun to read. His writing style is so down-to-earth.

During our visit to Utah and Idaho over the holidays one of hubby's childhood friends recommended All the Light We Cannot See as his favorite book. More than half of the story is set in St. Malo (Brittany), so of course I felt an immediate connection, having been there several times. It takes place in the years just before and during WWII and the main plot is about a German orphan and a blind French girl. An incredible story, it is history and science, and drama and mystery, all wrapped up tightly in a nest of of loving relationships.  Definitely for grown-ups only though - their is a fair amount of violence, some swearing, and some heavy philosophical thinking.

Family Schooling Summary

Big sister A and I made a new chalkboard calendar for our fridge (chalkboard contact paper and chalk markers). The front of this new model fridge is not magnetic! We are all sad and disappointed. A has started taping her artwork to the front.

A couple more cool projects that they brought home from co-op school -- cycles of the moon, made with oreos from their "Science as Art" class.

Their creative writing/story telling class is called Fantastical Creatures.  They talked about Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Ogopogo last week.  Here is M's clay versions of the Ogopogo and the big foot. 

The boys watching A having her riding lesson. Ever since her fall, she rides the littlest pony. His name is Rolo.  He is a 30 year old shetland pony. 

We had some friends over to visit on Easter Sunday (after I had already made the Easter post). They brought a dessert that everyone could help decorate -- bunny cake!

I think I am going to start calling our driveway "White Way of Delight" (Anne of Green Gables).

 

 We are still not sure what kind of trees these are. I am hoping for a variety of cherry.

 We let the old hens out several times this week.  They are happily laying 3-4 eggs a day.  I think they like it here. I was not sure what Theodore (right side, by the base of the bird feeder) would do... He just watched them.

Baby L on the other hand wanted to pet them all. She is such an animal lover. Lucky for her we are going to have plenty of animals here.

 

 
It's hard to see all that is happening here - some planting of seeds they received in Primary, and M at the far end of the wall reorganizing the rock collection again.

We have found that the soil is different here from our old house. It's surprising since it's only 30 minutes up the road. The ground is a lot rockier, but the dirt is more loamy (less clay).  I planted two baby hazelnut trees this week. It was a bit of a shock to strike rock right under the grass.  Here is a picture of my big rock pile after digging a smallish hole. Other parts of the yard have not been as bad. Maybe there was a landscaping feature here in the front?