change-up

 

Things at our house are sorta crazy these days as we wait for the house to close in a few days, but still, on Friday 

We just NEEDED some FUN!

Somewhere to GO! 

AN ADVENTURE! 

Staying home, though much easier just wasn't an option.

If we weren't doing a crazy diet called GAPS right now, we probably would have just looked for a new restaurant, but since I was cooking dinner and we had to eat still, we simply grabbed the bowls that were set on the table for dinner, loaded the pots into my trusty baskets and piled the food, kids and bikes into the car!

If I was brilliant I would have probably packed some chairs and a little table.

If I was thinking much at all, I would have at least packed a blanket, but alas, the car mat was the best I could come up with under the circumstances.

As we pulled out of the drive on our way to who knows where,

 we made a unanimous decision immediately. 

We wanted to eat by the water.

In practically no time at all,  we found water, right in and industrial area we had never been.

AND THERE WERE TRAINS!

Lots of them! 

We ate,

made a mess on the dirt (instead of on my kitchen floor, HALLELUIAH,)

threw rocks into the water,

rode bikes,

enjoyed one another,

convinced one of the train engineers to blow his whistle,

and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

What a simple, extraordinary evening we had with just a teensy bit of effort.

 

It was so worth it.

I just might be crazy enough

young man

We had a growing experience recently.

It was a hard thing to loose the beloved Little Red Hen to an unidentified predator, 

but Justin's maturity impressed me greatly.

He took care of all the arrangements.

 I just watched in awe and admiration of the nice young man Justin is becoming.

 Good bye Little Red. 

You were a good chicken....

Happy!

 

Ketchup!

We had so much fun in April!
Here are the pictures to prove it.

Uncle Kyle stayed with us for a night since he was in the area for an architecture field trip.
He was our first visitor ever!!!

 We took him on walk to to creek! Anna sorta liked Uncle KyKy. Ya think?!

The kids followed him around like he was a celebrity!

Auntie Amanda (married to Kyle) came in 2 days later since she got some time off. She got to see Kyle a few times downtown even!

We drug her everywhere with us for four days!

She went with us to our homeschool co-op and helped in the nursery!

We went foraging for nettles! Amanda wins the prize for top forager. For sure!

We went to the TEN GRANDS concert downtown. It was AMAZING!!! We just wish we had realized we should have worn our evening gowns.

We even got to enjoy Easter with Amanda around!
I think she liked Little Red almost as much as Justin does.

The kids started piano lessons with great excitement!

I'm still trying to figure out how to help them keep that excitement! (Tips Welcomed!)
 It's wonderful (mostly) to hear their music!

Grandma Morris came to attend Justin's baptism and stayed for almost a week!
We loved having her around! It sure was great to have her help so much.You should see the amazing job she did seasoning my pan!

 We can't wait till we can visit her again! 

Justin was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I still can't believe he's old enough, but he was well prepared.  We felt so blessed to have family come from so far and to have our new friends come too!

Grandpa and Grandma Z and Isaac also came and stayed a night to attend the baptism. We took them on a walk down to the creek. I discovered that my Mum likes snakes like my dad does! That made Justin happy.

Excitement around our house!

When I tried to add pictures for an epic blog post on Sunday, I was rejected because I have apparently used up 99.9% of my storage!

 We've been having lots of fun times I would love to share, but until I cough up the money and upgrade my storage, you just get to learn about the current excitement around here!

Several times throughout the day, every day for the past 6 or 7 days there is yet another 

CRAZY RUCKUS 

in our backyard!

 

The girls back there start squawking something fierce, then,

 _LO_AND_BEHOLD_

we get another egg! 

It's like they can't help themselves from being so excited, 

OR they just don't have a clue what has hit them! 

It's quite comical for one of the hens to get all crazy, squawking and hollering, 

then hustle on over to the laying boxes.

The funnest part of it: My kids are incredibly astonished as well, every time they bring in another egg! 

I am too. 

I even got a sign to inform me that we had gotten 5 eggs in one day! 

Oh, the simple joys in life. 

I'm sure the excitement has to do with the fact that we've had these chickens since February and the just started laying because they didn't have enough daylight. I had all but given up on them, but they pulled through, just in the nick of time!

Add caption

 In other EXCITING news:

We have a pending offer on a house!!!

The picture is edited with a 1960's motif since it's from that era! It's still got it's original stove and birch paneling and all but it's in AMAZING condition. 

It's vintage to say the least but we wanted a home in town, with acreage, so this is what we get, and it's just right for us. 

And just so you can sleep at night without wondering, we have 2.5 acres to do as we please.

I'm so excited!

(and a bit anxious too. it's s big decision!)

 

First thing on my list of things to do:

GET MORE CHICKENS!

Second: To build a huge porch!

 

It's going to be a great piece of land for the kids to run free on.

I'm going to need to install a very LOUD dinner bell!