Sunday Afternoon and Spring Flowers

 Church dresses a couple of weeks ago.

 It's nice to make the switch to cheerful spring/summer clothes.

 A gap!  She actually lost another tooth since this picture, but she sure was excited about losing this first one!

 We got around to planting some bulbs last fall and so we got to enjoy some tulips this spring.

And some grape hyacinth.  Girls and flowers make me happy.  :)

Early June- Landscaping and Gardening

A couple at church lent us their pick-up this year to get a load of mulch.  Here are Ben and Cal shoveling and wheeling it over to the yard.

And here they are laying it in place.

Once the mulch was shoveled into the side yard and waiting for some direction from Dad, they spent a few minutes making mulch volcanoes.

And mulch tunnels.

Mulching is almost done.

Sam is helping to put a support beneath the air conditioner.

All done!  Ready to take the truck back to Evan and Kellen, with thanks.

Pick-ups make a great place to take group photos.

 Two Littles in their PJ's on the deck one morning.

 Smelling the petunias.

 Kids are so ready to go in the morning.  Well, especially toddlers.  :)

 I love that smile. 

 All my big boys!!

 Best buddies.

 Here is Millie behind the fence that Sam is building around the garden. 

 Peter took the rest of the kids to the park.  Millie and I spent a couple of hours with just the two of us!  All on her own she suggests we have some tea and then she suggests we pick lettuces in a basket.  Lovely ideas.  We had a lovely time.  It's great when they get big enough that I don't always have to come up with the ideas of things to do.  What a special treat was this time with just her.

 Aren't the lettuces lovely?  This was the first time we'd planted some and they did very well.  Calvin and Cecily planted the seeds.

 I love her, muddy feet and all.

June was a beautifully cool month this year.  These pictures capture for me what a wonderful time of year it was.

A Little Something Current

These pictures are from the end of May.  Since I've been posting all the photos from Williamsburg, they're a little outdated.  Somebody passed me a bag of hand-me-downs not too long ago that had this little blue swimsuit for Bronwyn in it.  She doesn't really need a swim suit, but it was cute so we've been putting it on her. 

She was 7 months old in these pictures.

She has graduated from the cradle to this portable crib.  Here is where she spends more than half of her time, sleeping away her babyhood.  :)

And since I'm posting pictures of Bronwyn, here is Her Cuteness in the tub.

A little bit of splashing to learn about the interesting water around her.

A couple of sillies pretending to be sleeping together.

Eli loves his brothers and the feeling is mutual.

Here is Farmer Elijah surveying the crops.

Planting potatoes with Sam.  I don't believe I have posted pictures of the garden yet this year.  In the picture below you can see the strawberry and rhubarb bed that we put in this year, the vegetable garden below that and the fence that Sam is working on building around it.

And last, one of the many fish caught so far this year.  This was the first Walleye that they've caught that was big enough to bring home to fillet.  I'll be posting a picture of Sam eating his Walleye later.

People, Animals, Plants

 A collection of various photographs...I found Eli sitting here the other day.  A perfect seat, really, with an ideal view of all that's going on with his siblings.

 Standing under the lamp's light...

 ...showing off the new gaps in her mouth.  The gap on the right she lost a few weeks back, technically her first tooth to "lose" as the top tooth was knocked out when she was 3.  Then, she randomly lost the tooth on the left, while the one in the *center* was wiggly first and still remained (sigh).  The good news is that it has also now fallen out, leaving one nice, wide gap on the bottom.  She's very proud to enter into the world of "tooth gifts."  Hopefully, we're done losing for a while?

 Baby bird. My kids can't resist picking them up.  William is holding it, showing it to Elijah, whose hair and hands you see, while, naturally, Ben is reaching in from the side to pet it too.

 This was a random black and white photo that Ben took of our current box turtle pet, Mountaineer.  As the kids have found a couple of box turtles over the summer, we've kept them for a few weeks and then released them.  Isn't he cute?

 Doleful looks from a raccoon who found himself en-caged in our trap, set to snag the culprit who kept pulling our trash to bits.  (We safely relocated him to a new forest home.)  I'm not sure which of the kids snapped this picture.

 Photo credit goes to Sam on all of the remaining pictures.  He took the camera out into the yard several weeks back and took several nice photos of growing things.

 Part of the vegetable garden, which did alright, but not great.  The soil needs continued adjustment and we hope to get a couple more trees down next year to provide greater sunlight.

 Our little pear tree did nicely, producing 9 lovely pears.

They made it to a very good size.  We have harvested and enjoyed them all by now.

Some Nature and Gardening

 Sam says these are baby Thrush. 

Ben found these beauties growing near the driveway.

 A fledgling robin that he probably shouldn't have picked up.  It's so hard to resist a chance to get your hands on a real, live bird.

 So here's the garden so far...in the picking-out-rocks and forming-mounds phases.

Everyone likes the dirt.  It feels so good to get good and dirty. 

 Not that we condone the eating of dirt.

A cute, hot little girl.

 The man with the rototiller.

Mounds and rows are formed and we're calling it a day.

"It's time for my bath now.  See you next time!"