Birds

I came home yesterday to find three ibises in the front yard. By the time I got the camera ready and got close they were in the neighbors yard. I think they are juvenile white ibises and they must've gotten lost from their group because I've never seen them around here. When I walked out about an hour later I noticed the ibise

s flying overhead and in hot pursuit was.....a Bald Eagle. I had the camera with me, luckily, but he doesn't show up very well against the bright sky. If I zoom way in I can see his bright white tail and head. He was amazing. Huge and pretty. I felt lucky to see him!

This picture needs no words.

Monarchs! I thought our one monarch caterpillar had died but I was wrong. We found a chrysallis under the back porch and brought it in just in time for it to hatch. It came out not an hour after we brought it in the house. Then we went out back to find another one hatching at the same time. The kids got to see the butterflies emerge and we kept them inside for a couple of hours until they dried out and were ready to fly. Then we moved them out into the garden. Ultimately both butterflies hung around on a tree (after a detour onto Aaron's head) for a couple of days and then flew away! Yay milkweed!

Wicket and the duck

Someone dropped off a duck on our street. (Yes, there is a redneck joke in there somewhere, I'm sure!) Anyway, the duck is very tame and apparently likes dogs. Wicket chased him for a bit but then decided to play with him. Ducks and dogs both communicate by biting each others necks and faces so it worked out oddly well. It was very cute. Now Wicket goes out front looking for his duck to play with. The other three ducks haven't accepted this new duck, yet, so he mostly stands in our carport looking for company. Hopefully he will eventually move to the pond.

Aaron's first badge

Aaron got his first badge in Cub Scouts. The first is for learning things like the scout pledge and the law of the pack. For the ceremony they grab the boys getting the bobcat badge and flip them upside down. Interesting ritual. You can't really see his face because of his neckerchief but it's Aaron. He thought it was wonderful!

New posts

There. I did it. Lots of new posts. I like to break them up because blogspot gets wacky if you try to put in lots of pictures and text. You have no control over where the text goes. So, scroll down because there are several new posts from the last couple of months.
I'm been terribly busy with a short-session class I'm taking. It's a semester packed into about 7 weeks so most free moments are taken up by reading Anatomy and Physiology. It works out to about six chapters every two weeks. Luckily, it will be over in about two more weeks. I will still have a lab for the rest of the semester but that is only once a week.
Alex is going to preschool twice a week. He still hates the "going there" part but he seems to enjoy it once he is there and I am gone. It is lovely to have a couple of hours of kid-free time. It's been so long! I can grocery shop without having to visit the train section.
Julia and Aaron are doing pretty good in 4th and 1st. Aaron is selling popcorn for cub scouts. I think there is a way to sell it on-line so I'll have to check on it and post the link.

Texas

We took these on the steps of the Aucoin's new house. It's difficult to get this many people cooperating, as you can imagine. The first is the whole crew, the middle is all the cousins (5 months to 8 years), and the last is just our family (yes, I'm sure you could tell that). We were using some crazy contraptions for a tripod so they are at an odd angle and we were facing into the sun.

Texas

These are from our Texas trip, in August. We went to the beach one evening and the kids got to ride horses and swim. The baby is Sam, Sarah's newest. He was about 5 1/2 months in that picture. You can see Julia had help digging a hole from the toddler set (Katie and Alex). She loved the ocean (again) and stayed in it for hours. The boys liked the smaller waves but didn't care to get smacked in the face with them.

We had the usual August birthday bash for the boys. Alex wanted a Thomas, Lightning McQueen, My little Pony cake. Luckily he decided against the ponies at the last moment once I pulled out a pony. He finds their hair just too creepy to deal with. Aaron had a Lego Star Wars cake with little figures on it having a light saber battle. I don't know how many more years I'll be able to pull off the joint birthday party!

Io

Yes, you have to look at more nature pictures(and don't worry, there are plenty more to come). It's just part of living in Disney World with chickens.

This looked like a nondescript yellow moth on the side of our shed until I poked it. I think it is an Io moth. Since this one we've had a few more around.

Wicket

One evening, this summer, I went to Wal Mart and someone was giving away puppies in the parking lot. This time they weren't pit bull mixes, though, they were little daschund mixes and one needed to come home with me.

We named him Wicket after the ewok in Star Wars (the kids' whole summer mostly revolved around star wars).

He's a very smart puppy and he loves to swim. He quickly learned that chickens weren't quite as much fun to chase as they look and that sometimes they chase back.

Mushrooms

Check out the mushrooms. They're growing in our back woods. I saw the big ones, first, and then found some that were just sprouting up.

Look! Isn't she pretty. Looks like my milkweed finally paid off!

Julia's birthday

I know I'm out of chronological order but I'm just happy to get these up and I came across her pictures first! Julia had a few girls come over for her birthday. Some spent the night. They had a great time jumping in one of our lily ponds and then sliding down a mud hill. Julia just pointed out that each girl had worn her favorite shirt to the party (I washed them all before they went home). As you can see it was NOT a clean activity but they all had lots of fun.

She opted for a cheesecake for her birthday!

Cub Scout

Look. Aaron is a cub scout! He mostly likes the uniform and the idea of badges. So far he has enjoyed it and looks forward to the meetings! He wants to wear the WHOLE uniform to each meeting.

Flowery Branch- a few random pictures

A few random pictures from the GA visit. Sandy (the pom) really enjoyed her visit to the Grandparent's house, as you can see.

Karen and her family came over to see us a couple of times and the kids had a blast (ok, we did too!).

The last picture is the little house that we just bought for a rental. It's cute! It's in Forrest park.

I'm trying to get more pictures up but there is a monkey impeding my progress! I think I'll have to wait 'til naptime.

Athens

Blogger never likes lots of pictures. It tends to break-up text when I add a lot of pictures so we'll see how it goes! When we were in GA I met up with Amy and went to Athens to look around. The kids actually had a blast. They loved the giant magnolia trees on North Campus. They could just walk up the branches from the ground. You can see Julia's enthusiasm for visiting "the tree that owns itself", too. I insisted that we go see it.

They had a blast climbing on the big bulldog that was downtown.

Kindergarten program

Aaron's kindergarten program (graduation) was Friday. The kids did some songs and they got a kindergarten certificate. Aaron decided he was in charge of the entertainment for the viewing audience. During the songs, while the other kids sang quietly (or sat mute) he put on quite a performance for everyone which included pulling invisible props out of his shirt pocket and acting out various things. First there was a sombrero, bongo drum, and drum sticks. Then he put all those back (in his pocket) and pulled out an apron and a set of maracas. All this was invisible, of course. I was laughing at him and then realized that the rest of the gym was laughing, too. Both of Julia's teachers have kids in K so when they went back to the classroom the told Julia how hilarious he was. When I picked her up that afternoon she said "WHAT did Aaron do at the program?!"

He also has a very loose tooth which will probably fall out today. He's excited!

Rain

Here are a few mixed pictures. The kids playing in the rain, Alex with bubbles, and Julia and the irises. It's hard to get a picture of Julia because she runs off as soon as the camera comes out!