366 Laughs- January 26th 2016

1/26/16

Here's a game for you.

Find the difference between these two pictures.

366 Laughs- January 7th 2016

1/7/16

Oh, no, Liberty!  You ate Michael!




We played with playdough today...
Samuel's guy looks like he's inflated.



He also made an elephant for Ginny.


He also took the pictures of the playdough.  I have lots of angles.

366 Laughs- January 6th 2016

1/6/16

I love my family.
Here's Juliana, snuggled up with a crocodile from the zoo she bought with birthday money last spring, and a big crocodile from Amazon she bought this week with Christmas money, reading the Enormous Crocodile (by Roald Dahl) with Benjamin (Tom's favorite book.)

Love it.  Oh, their names are Chomper and Snappy.



Ginny figured out these little Klip Klop princesses on horses (Liberty has one from last Christmas) just days before Christmas.  They are fun, they ride down little ramps with a little clip clop noise and motion.  Santa found it at a VERY good price and when Ginny got the hang of it, I was thrilled. (Moms have insider info, you know.)  Here she is playing away.  Her big brothers and sisters ALSO have a blast with these.



And then just a lovely photogenic Christopher for you.  As you can see, those front teeth are FINALLY coming in.

365 Joys- December 15th 2015

12/15/15

I love my family's sense of humor.

It's the zoo sleigh.

This happens every year... not this exact thing but some variation of Santa's reindeer getting replaced.

365 Joys- November 26th 2015

11/26/15

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was a day full of family in Illinois, some we hadn't seen in a long time, and some we'd never met before!

Cousin Holly, Liberty, and Monty.

Tom and baby Susie.  He has a way with babies.  Why do you think we've had so many?
He was teaching her about the Royals.  (her family are Twins fans)


Ginny learned about dogs.  Real dogs.  They lick.  And she LOVES them.  Chomper wasn't sure what to think of her.

Timothy found a friend for his moose in Ariana and Grandma's beanie baby bin.


Emilie being gorgeous.


Tabitha holding a baby because that's what she does.  (Baby Susie again!)


The kids' table, with cousin Toby.  Beautiful place settings and great food and family and talk and laughter.  And messes and tired kids and grumpiness, but that's Thanksgiving and we loved it.


And of course pies... always one for every person, plus those who just came for pie.

We contributed the pumpkin and chocolate pumpkin.  An experiment.  Lots of deliciousness there, folks.
Emilie, at this time, was finishing up "Nanowrimo", National Novel Writers Month, wherein she writes 50,000 words in a month's time which could be a short novel.  She didn't want to skip any days and here she is writing away.

365 Joys- October 25th 2015

10/25/15

Ginny is predatory, like her favorite animal, the lion.


She jumps at people.


Here she is with her latest prey.  They are just laying back giggling but right before this, she had completely attacked Liberty.

Oh, and that is a giant fuzzy spider she has in her hand.  Fake.  But giant.

365 Joys- October 15th, 2015

10/15/15

Benjamin and his bearded dragon, Martin.

He's 2 years old now.



He keeps a close eye on me.


He has some great colors!


And of course Jules loves him.

365 Joys- October 6th 2015

10/6/15

Today we dropped everything and went to the zoo.  I didn't even bring my camera.

I did have my phone and caught a few fun moments.

This was Ginny's first time since becoming "aware" of animals and sounds and such.

As much as we love the zoo, it was even more fun seeing it through her eyes.

The only downside were honeybee swarms, including a bee that went up Juliana's nose.
We shooed it off and no harm done.


Ginny watching penguins swim.



Ginny saying "hi" to the tiger.



Benjamin and Juliana in matching zombie shirts.


The hippos at the hippo chat.  We found out they were named "Liberty" and "Labor Day".
That was quite interesting!  Our Liberty was thrilled.  (the pink stuff is watermelon remains)


All the kids on a new bear sculpture at the front of the zoo.

365 Joys- September 25th 2015

9/25/15

Butterfly release time!





Samuel really wanted to do this one.

365 Joys- September 24th 2015

9/24/15

This is what a monarch chrysalis looks like right before the butterfly comes out... I just thought it was cool and snapped a picture.




Less than an hour later...




It was late in the day so we waited to release it until daylight the next day.

365 Joys- September 16th 2015

9/16/15

Just a random pig family, courtesy of Juliana.  (the third pig is behind the big pig.)



And this is how much progress we're making!

365 Joys- September 14th 2015

9/14/15

And here's another monarch chrysalis.

Hooray!






And, this is Timothy's plant Beany.

365 Joys- September 4th 2015

9/4/15

Friday the 4th of September was our first day of school.  It was mostly cleaning out last year's stuff and making room and making plans for this year, but we also discussed routines and celebrated a new life- our monarch butterfly emerged!


 Goofy kids getting ready...

Traditional "first day of homeschool" picture.

Photobombing graduate...





Butterfly... named "Poison" by Christopher who found him.



Christopher letting him go!

365 Joys- August 24th 2015

8/24/15

To quote "Wonderpets", a show Juliana loves, "He turned green, and he shrunk!"


Wow!  Loving watching this process again.  We've had lots of different caterpillars before, but never a monarch.

365 Joys- August 23rd 2015

8/23/15

Wow!  Looks like we got this guy just in time!  Look what he's doing!





Benjamin playing a Ukulele.





Samuel.  Being Samuel.  The essence of Samuel.



No idea what I was going for there.