Author: Joyce

Adrian and Mommy Camp

AdrianThis week was Mommy Camp. The younger children and I plan a week full of fun when the older children go to camp. We do things that they like to do the best; like painting, doing chalk art, learning new recipes, and playing at the park.

We did not do everything we planned this week. But the kids and I had a lot of fun.

Last night, we went to the park for a picnic and to play for awhile. We attempted to fly a kite, but we were doing something wrong. Adrian talked about how Charlie Brown rarely keeps a kite flying. I guess he knew how Charlie Brown felt. We played by the water and watched bees around wild flowers.

It was a great week of camp!

Flower Basket

SmileWhile Adrian looked for milkweed to feed caterpillars this morning, Megan hunted for flowers.  She cut enough Queen Anne’s Lace to line her basket with a few purple flowers thrown in.  Adrian found a frog and added it to the basket. Megan thought it made the flower basket perfect.

Grandma and Dash

GrandmaGrandma snuggling My parents and grandma came to visit this afternoon.  While they were here, the neighbor came and yelled, “We have a baby!” Of course, the kids all took off running to see the newest alpaca.

My grandma, who will be 95 on Monday, asked what was going on. Then she said she wanted to see and took off down the driveway too!  She was half way down our LONG drive when we finally caught up with her.  We told her it was a long walk to the neighbors and she rode the rest of the way.

Grandma’s smile was huge as she hugged on the newborn alpaca.  When we asked if she wanted to hold him, she smiled even more.  Even though the alpaca did not snuggle very well, he let Grandma enjoy him for a few minutes before returning to his Momma.

We are very thankful for the newest alpaca.  We have been praying for him a lot.  Mark has been watching for the last month, heading over 4 or 5 times a day to see if he arrived. He was named Dash and weighed 18.6 pounds. He appears to be healthy and is eating very nicely.

Releasing Butterfly

AudreybutterflyI am not sure how many butterflies that Audrey has raised this year.  I know that each one that she releases is hard.  She would love to keep each of them as long as possible.

butterflyIt was time to release her last emerged butterfly and we decided to wait till evening so we could get a good picture of the release.  Somehow, the butterfly tore his wing as we waited but we were not concerned until, after Audrey released him, he  fluttered to the ground and stayed there.

Audrey picked him up and tried again, disappointed that her butterfly was hurt.  He fluttered to the ground again.  Thinking he might never be able to fly properly, we decided to try one more time.  This time, as Audrey released him,  the tip of his wing fell off and he quickly flew away.

Puppy Love

Puppy loveThis weekend we enjoyed having Josh and Angie stop by.  Allan and I double dated with them on Friday night and the kids got to babysit their dog, Enya.  On Saturday, we enjoyed breakfast and just relaxing together and talking.  The kids dog sat Enya again while Josh and Angie attended a wedding.

All of the children enjoyed Enya, but I think that Enya thought Megan was the most fun.