Popping Bubbles

After the boys played in the mud I had them take their shoes and pants off at the door. Micah found the bubbles and started making bubbles for Scott to pop. Scott found a new way to pop the bubbles...WITH HIS FEET! He was pretty good at it. He balanced holding the refrigerator door.
Notice the pots' tops in the background. They had played in one of the cabinets where I keep the pots and pans and had taken them out.

After playing with the bubbles they heard the tractor in the front yard. They were so excited! They ran and watched their dad tear up the front yard and driveway. Notice that their feet point the same direction while balancing on the heater while looking out the window. I had to make sure they didn't touch the cord that gave the chicks their light and warmth.
I just had to take a picture of Scott showing Mama and Micah where they came from. While I was downloading pictures Micah asked, "Where did you come from?" I said, "I came from my mom's belly." Then he asked, "Where did me and Scottie come from?" I said, "From MY belly." Scott then lifted his shirt and insisted that I look and acknowledge that HE has a belly too! He kept his shirt up until I rubbed it and said, "Yeah, that's the belly."

Piles of Dirt

The boys love the dirt that was dug up. Scott used it for a slide (which he calls "WEEEE"), and Micah was having fun throwing the clay against the dirt.

Busy Day

I was very busy cleaning house and pets today. I didn't get to take pictures of the boys, except after their bath before bedtime.

Here are a few pictures of what Simon's been doing today. He dug a hole to install a type of drainage system and is working on covering it up as I type. Micah's been in and out of the house all day, at one point he was covered waist down with some of this dirt Simon dug up. He was leaning back against one of the dirt hills, and with a flapping type of stroke he was grabbing dirt and covering himself with it. I wasn't surprised that he fell asleep a little after 7pm today. Scott just passed out after his bath (no nap today).

Tractor and Surprise!

Today the tractor to level the lawn and dig out the foundation arrived. The boys were ecstatic when the tractor arrived. They were all over it getting grease all over the place. After the thrill was over Simon went to work digging and Micah wanted to be there every second the tractor was running.

While Simon was digging, he noticed something moving in the hole. He walked in with a cute little frog that the boys went nuts over...notice whose little hand is holding the tiny frog (Micah's).
Scott didn't take a nap all day with all the excitement. No matter how grouchy he was he still managed to give me a big smile when I asked for it.

Make me smile

I wanted a picture of the boys just sitting and smiling together, but Scott didn't want to cooperate at the time. Micah was trying to help me "make" Scottie smile. I said, "smile," Scott just frowned so Micah physically tried to make Scott smile by lifting his cheeks. Round two, "smile," I said in a happy voice, so Micah smiled and Scott (being a copycat) forced himself to smile by lifting his own cheeks.

Third time's a charm. I lifted my eyebrows a few times and sang, "SMILE!" There they are, both smiling for a perfect picture.

On a completely unrelated subject, Scott still tries to shake the chicks' box any way he can. This time he puts his head inside the box, grabs the box with his chin and pulls it toward his body. This shakes the box in a sly, sneaky way without disobeying mommy by shaking the box with his hands, which makes the chicks cheep more. Obedience or disobedience? You tell me!

Micah's help

This time Micah was the big helper! He sure did a good job unloading the truck. That day was hot and he said, "Mom, I'm hot. Can you help me take my shirt off...but not my overalls, okay?" There were a few times when Micah wanted to load his dad's shovel so that his dad would unload that load. It didn't happen, but I sure thought it was cute.

We saw a moose behind our backyard munching on some of our organically grown willow buds. You can't really tell, but Scott really is excited about seeing the moose despite being tired, cold and barefoot. Micah, on the other hand, was running wild with excitement and he watched until the moose was mostly out of sight.

Scott's Help

This past week we unloaded a few truck loads of gravel. On the first day, Scott helped and Micah disappeared to the neighbor's yard. At first, Scott used what I think is called a popcorn popper to shovel the gravel.

After his one minute break from pushing all that gravel with the popcorn popper, he decided to try doing it the easy way...with a shovel. Most of the time he'd grab a few stones and by the time he reached the edge of the truck, the shovel was empty. If you look closely you can see one stone at the tip of his shovel, that ONE he managed to unload from the truck! HE WAS A BIG HELP! I was so proud of him! His reward for helping: A BATH! He was so excited!

Watermelon Medicine

There was one day when Micah was sick for about two hours. One minute he was all ready for grilled steaks; next minute, he was bent over in stomach pain. After dinner we all went in to comfort him: Simon read a book, Scott sat beside him and I cut up some watermelon for dessert. During the time he was not feeling well I kept track of his temperature. It wasn't too bad. He just wanted a lot of water. I dont remember when Scott got a hold of the thermometer, but when I walked in with more watermelon, I saw that he was taking the watermelon's temperature.

After the watermelon, Micah was back to his lively old (young) self.

Flag and Mark

Micah and Scott with Flag and Mark

Our Pets

The boys have been excited about their pets. This week Micah and Scott helped their dad find earthworms for the fish and the chicks. Micah named the chicks Flag Chick and Mark Chick. He named Flag because while he was thinking about a name, he saw a flag in his dad's classroom and named it that. He named Mark because it had a black mark on its forehead. Micah and Scott are putting a few earthworms in the goldfish's tank (we lost the fish food and have to find worms and beetles for it to eat). In the second picture Scott is holding two of his rubber duckies (I think in his mind they represent the two chicks). For two days Scott would look for his rubber duckies and then show them to Mark and Flag. He doesn't really care whether they see the duckies now or not...I guess he realized that the chicks didn't care about them.

This week Simon also brought home 4 stick bugs. While transferring them from the cup to the fish container, a couple escaped and crawled up his arm and leg and Simon's leg and arm. They are very fragile and we did not trust Scott to help transfer them. I had to hold him back. They eat romaine lettuce and raspberry leaves and we have to mist their tank every day.

I think the boys' favorite pets are Flag and Mark. We already told Micah that we're going to butcher them and eat them at the end of the summer. I don't like the thought but what else would we do with them? We're going to visit family later on this year and there's no place I can think of keeping them for the winter. It makes sense to me. I'll just invite myself to my sisters for dinner or else eat out that night...I'm already too attached to them now.