Summer Pictures ~ Part Two

One afternoon Susannah was helping me make a pie. She used the leftover crust pieces to make her own little "pies". When she asked to actually bake them, we moved her pies into an oven-safe muffin tin instead of her plastic play pan. :)

I sprinkled some cinnamon and sugar on her pies and she added miniature chocolate chips. She loved doing it and I loved watching her have so much fun!

 Morning girls waiting for breakfast and day-time clothes. :)

Sylvia in the dryer. She looks so much like me and my sisters did at this age in this particular picture!

Some mornings Susannah likes to bring many of her accessories into the kitchen and snuggle on the rug while I make breakfast (Sylvia usually sleeps an hour or so later than Susannah, so it's just the two of us).

Sylvia with a bubble beard. :)  She literally eats her bath soap bubbles if she can!

Building a block road.

My pigtailed cutie.

Visiting with Daddy after he got home late one evening, and of course tasting his supper because Daddy's supper always tastes better!!

Susannah likes to wear a cap and sing "In My Father's House (are many mansions)" from the Steve Green Hide 'Em In Your Heart, Vol. 2 CD.

She also likes to comb/pick hair. :)

 ...and snuggle on Daddy's back at bedtime.

Reading books.

It's a good thing the easel has two sides!  Susannah is painting and Sylvia is "drawing" with colored pencils.

Early Summer ~ Picture Style

It has been a terribly long time since I've given my blog any attention. I have had lots of ideas for posts and have written a few in my head over the past months, but somehow getting the words out of my fingers didn't happen. To give a quick update of our summer, I'm posting lots of pictures. :)  This will be a 2-part post, hopefully part 2 won't be too late in coming.

Our summer started off with chickens. :)  We had been talking about getting chickens for years and this summer the price was right and we scrambled to take advantage of the good deal.  It was so much fun to watch the pullets grow and after several weeks begin laying eggs. We free-ranged them and it was fun to see them clucking about the yard scratching for bugs and worms, knowing they were making some really good eggs.

 Both girls LOVED the chickens and Sylvia especially liked trying to pet them.  Sadly, mid-summer the racoons discovered our chickens and in a matter of one night killed 5 of our 11 (I think...). Knowing the racoons would only come back for more, we made arrangements for our remaining chickens to go board with Daniel's parents chickens in their theft-proof chicken house for the time being. I miss the convenience of eggs in my back yard every day, but we still get all the eggs we can eat from our joint chicken venture at my in-laws (who are only a few miles away). We do hope to rebuild and improve our chicken coop so we can bring our chickens home.

Susannah, and now Sylvia, have discovered the fun of "going bye" in this cupboard in my kitchen. 

Susannah loves to paint on her easel. It doesn't happen as often as she would like, but when I can get things arranged for Sylvia to be otherwise occupied (and not tasting Susannah's paint brushes!) she gets to paint. 

Susannah had her first Popsicle (homemade).

My parents gave Susannah and Sylvia a swing-set for Christmas and Susannah has really enjoyed it this summer. Swinging, sliding and "being a monkey" are building her bravery and muscles!

Sylvia's hair was long enough to put into pigtails. :)  She also quickly learned how to open the kitchen door - the only door with a lever-style handle (which I LOVE). She even figured out all on her own when our indoor/outdoor cat wants to go out, and if Sylvia is in the kitchen when the cat wants out, Sylvia opens the door for her. 

Susannah still loves helping me make things in the kitchen. Sylvia likes to see, too, and one day I managed to get a batch of cookies mixed up with both of them "helping". Now that Sylvia is more steady on her feet and we have a second stool (a bucket full of flour), it works better when they both want to watch.

 Susannah spent lots of time being Baby's Mama. She refers to herself in the third person often, calling herself "Baby's Mama" whenever Baby is the one in discussion.

Father's Day.

This was the year of the 17-year cicadas (or locusts). Sylvia had no qualms about picking them up, shells or actual locusts, and examining them closely. I had to make sure she didn't eat them!

Sylvia went through a shoe-loving stage where if there was s shoe in sight, she had to have it on her now matter where it fit or even if it didn't!

We had some picnic lunches...

The corn in the garden did very nicely this year and we enjoyed it very much. It didn't take long for Sylvia to learn how to eat it off the cob.

Watermelon is a favorite of hers. One evening after we were finished with supper, I found her gnawin on a rind she'd pulled off the table!

...To be continued. :)

What We've Been Doing

Life has been full and fun this spring and for the most part we have enjoyed it. :)

I made Popsicles and Susannah had her very first Popsicle one hot afternoon after her nap. :) 

Susannah gets lots of fun out of the swing she and Sylvia got for Christmas. She climbs all over the swing-set and one day will learn how to pump herself in the swings. :)

Sylvia's hair is long enough for tiny pigtails and she has figured out how to unlatch the back door. 

Shoe swapping on a Saturday morning.

Cousins came to visit!!  Susannah and Marie had a great time pretend cooking with dried beans.

Sylvia and Rachel enjoyed each others company.

It was rainy while the cousins were visiting but that didn't deter me from letting the 2 older girls go romp outside and burn some energy. Bathing suits, umbrellas and mud puddles provided fun for big chunks of time. When they were finished, I would strip them down and rinse them off in the kitchen sink. Much faster than a shower or bath, and efficient since they were likely to go get just as dirty later in the day. :)

Sylvia is very pleased that she can crawl up on this chair all by herself... when the cushion is off of it. 

Last week our pullets started laying eggs! We are finally getting enough eggs to meet all our egg needs! On the left is one of the first pullet eggs, on the right is one from an older hen.

This morning I found 2 of the older hens dead in the chicken pen. I know it was a raccoon that did it from the way the chickens were left. *sigh* It was disheartening and saddening even though the chickens are not my pets. I was mostly aggravated that a coon had figured out how to get in and that he left me with a mess to clean up, not to mention killing my chickens just to leave them lying there!

Well, I guess that's not the happiest note to end this post on, but that is the headline news story for this day. :)  I hope to be back around before too long next time.

Random Bits of What's Going On

Life continues here in our household and we haven't fallen off the face of the earth, just off the face of Blogger. :)  My last post was about my trip the the hospital.  Since then I have been back to the cardiologist for a follow-up appointment and was released from taking the Motoprolol, which suited me just fine because it was giving me low blood pressure (~100/50-60). I felt like I had no oomph or gumph all day, every day.  I was diagnosed with SVT most likely aggravated by decongestants I took for my cold (and that I had taken in the past just fine). So far no more recurrences of the rapid heart-rate and I am thankful for that.

I have worked in the garden quite a bit have have some things in but not as much as I'd like.  I found a toad one afternoon and Susannah loved holding it.

Sylvia is our adventurous one. I am surprised that she has not fallen/climbed out of her crib yet and I hope she never does. Her 1 year molars are working their way in; 1/2 of one has already cut through. After that discovery, I understood her sudden change in sleep patterns. Now she is back to her normal 12-hours at night and an afternoon nap. She LOVES to swing but even more she loves to slide down the slide by herself.

The very biggest excitement of the week was being offered 6 chickens on Sunday, to arrive at our place Tuesday or Wednesday.  We have been talking about getting chickens for a few years, but it had always gotten put off because building a people house was more important than a chicken house.  This past winter we were thinking that this year would be the year.

I pulled out my old jeans, Daniel's Tingly knee-high boots (did I mention that it rained/drizzled all day Monday and Tuesday afternoon?), dragged the pak'n'play outside to contain Sylvia when she was awake, and worked at getting the area for the chicken house (currently pen) cleared out and then the pen constructed.  We had put in the 2 corner posts a few years ago, but everything else I did myself with occasional texts or phone calls to Daniel to find out where certain tools were. My child-hood degree in farming paid off in knowing how to swing a hammer and staple up fence. :)  After 3 days of work different than I'm used to I was well-aware of muscles I haven't used in close to a decade. It was hard work, but it was fun and it is satisfying to see my hard work working well.

The hens arrived Wednesday evening and Susannah is in love with them.  Sylvia has fun watching them, too, and today one was finally close enough to the fence that she could reach in and touch it. I am glad they are friendly chickens so the girls can experience them hands on.  We got our first egg this morning and I'm eager for them to get back into the swing of laying so we can eat all farm-fresh eggs!

Today we went grocery shopping and Susannah asked if she could use a little cart. It was not the first time she asked, but the first time I thought she was ready.  She did pretty well with several reminders to watch where she was going. :) The check-out lane was the biggest test of her self-control, being closely surrounded by so many things to look at, but we made it through without too much hassle.

*Please excuse the grainy cell-phone pictures. :)