Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax, of Cabbages and Kings

"The time has come my friend to talk of other things, of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings. . . "

A few weeks ago our dryer decided to stop drying. . . 

on the first laundry day of the week. . . 

on the first load of laundry. 

Thankfully by fabulous sister-in-law happened to have an extra dryer laying around so we were able to catch up pretty quickly but in order to get the borrowed dryer into the laundry room my Beloved had to take the door off the hinges. So of course the girls assumed he was making a slide for them.

The hole in the laundry room door is a mildly amusing story. It was that way when we moved in. . . see how mild that was.

Really it has come in handy and we have thought about framing it out to look more like the dog door we use it as. We once had a Yorkshire terrier and she used it quit frequently since her food was in the laundry room. More recently Penny has been enlarging it for her own use.

My Beloved's parents and his sister, Aunt Nay, made the trek from Idaho for Suzanne's memorial. It was nice to have them here. Great to be able to focus on other things and know that my kids were in grand hands. Here's Grampy with Ham-Huck.

After the memorial we were all exhausted with aching feet. So we treated ourselves to a foot soak, apparently Beloise missed the memo about it only being for your feet.

Why not eat strawberries while bathing in the mop bucket?

On Monday they headed back to Idaho. Ballerina HAS to watch people leaving our house to see which way they go. I snuck into her dark bedroom to find her peering out of the window. Please disregard the giant pile of clothes by the window I had just gone through the girls drawers and haven't found a place for these hand-me-downs just yet. Also I believe that string is the string from my camera, that's been bothering me for a while. I couldn't figure out what it was . . . funny how I start to analyze pictures once I post them on here. ;)

Later that day it was nice out so we spent as much time out of doors as possible.

Beloise loves when her sister "reads" to her. I love to hear the story change every time.

Apparently we aren't feeding Dora enough.

Here are the baby chicks. . . not so baby anymore. They are nearly all feathers now.

Ballerina has been begging us to roast marshmallows so we finally gave in and blazed up the fire pit for the first time this year.

Yeah she just ate the marshmallow she was supposed to be getting for me!

And in case you missed my mug, here's one for you. . . 

FIRE!! See what happens when I try to pose for you!

Marshmallow face

This is rapidly becoming me new favorite photo of Beloise.

This is a regular occurrence at our house.

Like I said. . .

This crazy dog has her head on my foot. . . she's so sweet. . . we love her. 

Except when she rolls in pungent things and then wants to snuggle. 

Then we love her from afar.

~And So That's What She Did.

Go Play Outside

I love sunny weather. It keeps my house clean. I send the kids out first thing in the morning, call them in for breakfast, send them out till lunch and then clean the house while they nap. After nap time, back outside folks. I love it. Unfortunately we will probably have rain the rest of the week. But while it lasted I took a few pictures of the girls playing today.

We let the chickens out of their new outdoor pen. Let me tell you I was so glad to get them out of the house.  It's a bad sign when people come in the house, sniff and say ooh are you cooking fish? nope just raising chickens.

These two are the more adventurous ones in the group.

Once they determined the coast was clear they all came out to see what they could find. These little guys have grown so much that I think I should re-introduce them.

This is Ethel, the ornery one, a Black Sex Link. She is by far the leader and a very photogenic ham. Every where I pointed the camera she sped over and posed in front of the other chicken.

Here's Chrysanthemum, our Silver Laced Wyandotte. She's bashful but speedy.

Olga, my beauty, she's a California White. 

And lastly, Hazelbell Featherdy, our Light Brahma.

Poser.

The girls love the sand box. I often find Beloise laying down in the sand.

Oh no, I've been spotted, prepare for a ham-moment. . . 

Ta-Da! She's worse then Ethel.

They have been pulling out their fluff to make way for their feathers.

I was trying to get a shot of Hazelbell when Ethel darted over and when I looked at the picture this is what I saw.

Our old girls are still going strong. Laying usually an egg a day each.

Speaking of hams, I wanted to show you what we are doing to the playhouse area but Penny decided to come stretch in front of me.

We have moved the playhouse down on the slope for a bit so that we can remove the bark dust. My Beloved is planning to make a floor for the house to keep it up off the ground. He also reinforced the pathway with a plastic border thingy, since the sand and rocks kept sliding out of place hopefully this keeps it in place a little better. We haven't decided on a new ground cover for around the playhouse, probably grass but I would like to put some flower beds beneath the windows.

We also would like to put in a picket fence along the rock wall with a mailbox on the last post. But I doubt it will happen this summer.

Beloise, back in the sand box.

While I was taking these pictures Ballerina noticed what I was doing and ran over to the sand box mumbling some excuse about oh yeah that's what I was going to do.

The girls love to play restaurant. The Menu?

Eggs and Toast

Chicken and Rice

Chicken Sauce Soup

Cheeseburger

Water

Milk

They also do specialty orders if you ask but be prepared to pay for it.

I said pay not pray.

~And So That's What She Did

Children at Play, Cheap Date and a Chicken Update

I love listening to my children interact with each other. 

Ballerina: Belly what number do you like the most?

Beloise: Green

Ballerina: That's not a number, do you like 3 or 4?

Beloise: 3 or 4

Ballerina: You like 3?

Beloise: Yes.

Ballerina: Okay.

Little Mommy.

This one likes to pull every book off of the shelf.

Spinning and saying I'm flying mom, I'm flying. And yes it was laundry day :).

Her wings? A butterfly headband from her first birthday.

Cheap Date Saturdays!

 Interesting story about this wine. On the night that my Beloved proposed, February 26, 2006, I had a glass of a delicious sparkling wine that I have been searching for ever since. We went to Fred Meyer last night and as is usually the case bought more then we came for and this wine somehow ;) made it's way into the cart. Popped it open today and, if my taste buds have a memory reaches six years back, I do believe this is the very type of wine I had that night. Moscato in case you were wondering.

The sun kept moving due to the large tree in our neighbors yard so we had to keep moving to stay in the heat.
We also added BBQ chips and pretzel m&m's to our chic fare. :) (Redneck . . . remember.)

Crazy, how fast these birds have grown. They have been upgraded to the dogs old kennel until my Beloved can make them a box outside. They have most of their feathers and yes, Ethel is still ornery.

 As you may have noticed we have been avoiding yard work. This week has been about spending time as a  family. Appreciating the blessings that God has given us and marveling at his amazing grace and love toward us. As for house work, if the house is clean the kids are asleep so . . . I don't take many pictures of that.

Guilty conscience much?

Perhaps.