Midsummer's Eve/Fairy Party

Last week the kids and I went to Virginia to give Rick's parents one last farewell before they moved to Moscow, Russia-Rick's dad is working for our church there as an area legal council. During this wonderful visit, my niece Claire prepared a Midsummer's party on the evening of June 21st (midsummer's day). The play was taken from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. Chrissie was "the wall" with a hole in which Thisbe (cousin Thomasin) and Pyramus (cousin Isaac) would speak to each other. So, Chrissie's role was to stand still and make the shape of a hole with her fingers,which she surprisingly did. And then there was lovely "fairy" desserts afterward, which Matthew dove into during the play.

Claire as narrator with Marta who played "moonshine."

Chrissie as "the Wall." She had an ivy headband on and there was ivy draped around her body as well. She looked beautiful.

The cast: Isaac/Pryamus, Thomasin/Thisbe, Chrissie/the Wall, Marta/moonshine, Eve/the Lion. And Matthew didn't have a role, but, to be very cute and eat the food, which he did very well.

Caught in action.

"Boppy" and Matthew with food on his shirt. He always has food stains on his shirt.

My sweet Jane.
The farewell at the airport. We're so proud of Bob and KLynn for making this sacrifice to serve for our church. And we can't wait to hear all about their adventures and hopefully we can visit them.

KLynn blowing kisses to the grandchildren.

why chickens?

Since the purchase of our little friends, Blossom, Pepper, and Sunshine (still not sure of that name, I'm waiting until she's bigger), I've had several people ask me, "So, why do you have chickens?" After first I was in shock. The answer seemed so logically I couldn't believe I had to explain myself. The only response that came to my head was "well, why not?" I mean who wouldn't want chickens.
After some contemplation I've remembered why we have chickens: the eggs (another "fun" chore for the kids to do every morning), they eat bugs, even scorpions, which we don't have, but, still a perk, and the fertilizer is wonderful;I never knew I could get so excited about compost and chicken manure.

And personally the best thing about having chickens is because of Chrissie. She used to be terrified of them. Anytime we went to a farm she didn't want anything to do with the little buggers. Even the first day we had them she didn't want to touch the chicks. But sense then...

She catches them
Even if it takes her a half hour; that girl is patient.

She holds them.

And she feeds them, puts them in the coop, and loves them.
Nothing like seeing your daughter overcome a fear.

cooking with matthew

Rick has been out of town this weekend for the annual neurosurgery charity softball tournament in New York City, which they won. Since the kids and I weren't able to go, we decided to make our weekend special with various activities and ended it with making cookies, eating ice cream, all while watching a movie (three rare things...okay, two rare things: the ice cream and a movie....we always make cookies).

Matthew loves to help me bake/cook, especially when it involves "plips" (chocolate chips). Chrissie has become quite helpful and can pretty much do everything on her own. Matthew, however, gets a little too excited. He wants to do everything, which results in an extremely messy kitchen. Typically, I find that Chrissie and I are frantically trying to make the cookies before he has finished off the batter: a fist full of cookie dough in one hand and a fist full of chocolate chips in the other, all being shoved into his mouth, begging for more. Despite eating all the cookie dough before its finished, he gets so excited about the cookies that he shakes his head back and forth the moment I turn on the mixer...odd, but, cute, and entertaining.

Or he starts doing a little dance, which is also very cute. Children are so easy to please.