Stink Bugs

We've had stink bugs in a bug cage now for several months (since February I think) and they've been doing very well. We've lost three of them so far, but we still have several left.....we have lots of stink bugs in our house. They eat orange if you're wondering, they do fine with just the peel, otherwise they love the tiny middle part of the bottom of naval oranges. Just so you can keep your own friendly stink bugs :-) Anyway, Evie brought these bugs to the homeschool co-op for show and tell last week. One of the kids asked how she keeps them from stinking. Her response? "I've trained them not to stink" Yes, my daughter claims to be training stink bugs! Pretty much everyone I've told this to has thought it is hysterical, my first reaction was not that of humor, it was that of terror as I realized my six year old was lying to all the other six and seven year olds who were sure to believe her!

Reading and Spelling

The other day Evie decided to work with Kaleb on his reading. She was on the deck using chalk and started writing words out and telling Kaleb what they were. Then she'd point to them and ask him what it was. It was great because Evie was also practicing her spelling :-) Here are some pictures of the fun!

The Marty Heiser Show

On April 9th I had my five minutes of fame on the Marty Heiser Show. What? You've never heard of the Marty Heiser Show? Neither had I, it's okay. Marty Heiser does the Tuesday morning Bible study at our church with Nathan. He was doing a show on crisis pregnancies and decided to bring in the adoption side of the story. Nathan was sick so he wasn't able to go on. You can watch the whole show here. I'm in the second half. The outfit is entirely borrowed, if you were wondering :-)

things I've heard lately

Monday night it stormed here. Lots of thunder and lightening. Kaleb is the only one currently afraid of thunder storms. He was also the only one who woke up in the middle of the night when the storm was going on. After calming him down and the storm dying down, I put him in bed with Damen, because that helps keep him in bed the rest of the night. The next Tuesday, when Damen was relaying to Nathan that Kaleb had been in his bed Damen said "I woke up and it was like an angel was there!"

The other day Hannah and Kaleb were downstairs playing, I called Kaleb up for bed and he said "I'm playing with Hannah" Hannah responded "You'll have the rest of your life to play with me.....well almost"

This conversation took place in the afternoon.
Me: Kaleb, go potty
Kaleb: I did it today....A long time ago.

Adoption Day

One year ago today we finalized the boys adoption. Since we had ice cream at UCONN on their finalization day, I figured a fun tradition might be to have ice cream every adoption day for them. I received no complaining from the kids regarding this plan, so tonight we had french toast with bacon and cantaloupe and brownie ice cream sundaes! Our neighbor Hannah was over playing with the girls, so we invited her to stay and her mother came over as well since her dad and brother are out of town for Spring break. It was a lovely evening! We are so thankful to have the boys as part of our family!

Summer Fun

This past Sunday was the first real good sunny Spring day we had. It was one of those days where you just can't be inside.

We decided it was warm enough to get out the water...even though it was only 60, it felt much warmer with the sun beating down!

The boys loved the water table and had so much fun with it. 

The girls decided to get into bathing suits before getting in on the fun!

The boys ended up getting wet on top, so off came their shirts!

The kids decided to clean the deck for us. 

Enjoying the nice day!

By the end the kids went and got our big bucket, filled it up with water and went "swimming." They were also asking when our friends were going to open their pool, or if they could go swimming at the lake. Did I mention it was only 60? :-) 

Grandparent Visit

The boys foster parents stopped by last Wednesday for a quick visit. We always love to have them stop and say hi! They are super sweet and absolutely love our kids. They brought hooded towels, sticker books and bubbles for the kids. I discovered that our pellet stove is quite a handy bubble blower.

Here's Evie demonstrating the bubble ability of the stove. It was fun :-) 

The boys made sure to serenade them with some music and the kids had a wonderful time hanging out with Gram Barb and Papa John! We are so blessed to have so many sets of grandparents!

sibling bonding

One of the things I like about homeschooling is the sibling bonding that occurs. It's great, my kids love each other and love to play with each other....at least most of the time it's great. It's not so great when I actually want school to get done. Recent the girls have been having a hard time focusing on school because they distract each other. To solve this issue I moved Hannah to the den to do her school work, thinking if they're not in the same room it would help. It definitely helped resolve the conflict between the girls. They were no longer bugging each other. The only issue was now, instead of poking, talking and stealing pencils they were writing notes. The notes were then given to one of their brothers for delivery. The notes were VERY sweet, and really if it didn't stop ALL school from being done I would have loved to encourage the notes. So continues the life of the ever present mother who has to say "sit down and focus!"

Family photo shoot

Lucas was kind enough to do some family photos while he was here, he even borrowed a nice camera from a co-worker to use! 

It started off with two kids....

Then a third came along...

Ah, there they all are

And then they started escaping again! 

Oh! But everyone wants to be in a picture with Lily!

The Mayer Family

And the much more photogetic Wickham Family

Hannah's Baptism

On Easter Sunday Hannah was baptized! She wasn't feeling very well that weekend (there has been a theme of illness in our house this winter!), so she and Nathan just came to the baptisms that were immediately following Easter service.

Here the pastor is asking her why she wants to be Baptized. 

Here's the group that was baptized on Easter. Six kids and one adult.

We like our baptisms to be more authentic with murky water :-) 

And down she goes

And back up. 

After they are baptized each person is prayed for. 

We then got the wet people changed and headed home for lunch. 

Easter Weekend

Becca, Lucas and Lily came and visited us for Easter. The kids really enjoyed playing with Lily, and so did I :-) As always Becca and Lucas were super helpful and we had fun attempting to make a 3-D carrot cake. Becca and Lucas took all the kids on a walk to the creek while I cleaned up and made dinner on Saturday. Nathan has been sick for the past two weeks, so he had a pretty miserable Easter weekend. :-(
Lucas and Becca took charge of pictures for the weekend so you can see some of the fun!

Here Damen is helping Aunt Becca build a tower for Lily to knock down. 

The boys adore their little cousin!

Evie was also sick Easter weekend, but she enjoyed spending time with her Aunt, Uncle and cousin. Here she's reading to Uncle Lucas and Lily in between nose blows. :-)

It was a team effort to make the carrot cake

Some people were dreaming of the next thing to make while the rest of us were working!

Sillyness in the hallway

You know there has been too much fun when footprints are left on the ceiling! 

Everyone got a chance to walk on the ceiling!

Hanging with Aunt Becca

Selfie!

The bunny cake....it fell down when I tried to stand it up. The head fell off actually, so we just laid one of the two pieces on it's side and Lucas decorated it. Didn't he do a nice job?

It also made a couple eggs. 

You know it's Spring when.....

This shows up at your door.

I forgot to take a picture before taking off the clothes.....Damen had fun outside...or some help from a sister :-)