Join the military!

We went up to one of the military training camps here and stayed the weekend.  While there we visited the beach and the military museum.
Munchkin with his sand castle, decorated with shells he'd collected.

Sprout checking out the water.  Unfortunately our swim suits got left behind so we couldn't go in and swim.  Boo.

 Copper Princess munching on a bit of pizza.  She has 7 teeth now!

 There were water gun games.

Oh...and did I mention giant artillery?

 WW1 portable kitchen for 250 men with a water wagon.

 1918 French made 2 man tank.  SKINNY....the men must have been thin!

 This is all the room they had!

 Cold war beast.  Made in Russia...owned by East Germany.

 1040's Harley Davidson

 Some of my favourite propaganda posters.  Notice the wallpaper.

 Hitler under the table....

Fat generals at the movies.

 Munchkin's profile.  7.5 yrs.

 A Sherman Crab Mine Sweeper.

 Little Dude on a tank.  9.5 yrs.

 All the boys together.  Sprout is nearly 5!

One of the best conversations I overheard in the van:
Little Dude - "If we buy a house, can Munchkin and I have a room of our own?"
Munchkin - "But Little Dude, when we get married, we'll need bigger rooms!"
Little Dude - "No, we'll have our own house."
Mom - "That's right Munchkin.  Your wife will want her own place, she's not going to want to live with your parents!"

The Copper Princess is learning to get around quite well now.  It looks like she might be an xBox player like her brothers.  Well, one day!

In the meantime she is exploring our kitchen.  Happy to play with bowls and cups.



A couple of weeks back we went to a local-ish park and had some fun.

 There has been a lion fountain at this park for as long as I can remember!  Everyone had a turn..Sprout...

 Munchkin....

 And Little Dude....

 We ran around....and by 'we', I mean the boys.

 There was some walking too.

Then we visited a famous statue of an unfortunate elephant who had been killed many years ago by a train.  Jumbo the elephant.

 Of course I had one child less interested in the elephant and more interested in the tourist caboose on site. 

3 months!

My last post was 2 months ago....and realistically it's been 3 months.  Although our settling in here at Blue Rose Farms has been remarkably smooth with very few speed bumps....one of the bumps has been my struggle to continue to document our goings on while juggling new responsibilities on the farm and at school.  I've had nearly a month off and the juices are flowing again.  :)

First off, Big E's new business venture is going well so far.  The seeds made it into the ground and we're starting to eat the fruits of his labour.  We're looking forward to selling them soon!

 Cozy brocolli and cauliflower....

Delicious Red Tomatoes!

Here is the commercial tomato garden.  Only about 200 plants.

Every garden needs some flowers...ours are starting to appear.

Chicks week of May 25

Soccer has begun!

We were pretty sure that Sprout and Munchkin would enjoy soccer without issue.  Little Dude on the other hand was a different question.  We were pretty sure he'd enjoy it...if we could get him on the field.  Little Dude suffers from some pretty strong anxiety around trying anything new...especially with new people and in a new place.  Soccer hits all three of those.  Sure enough, he sat on the sidelines for the first practice.  Not with his team, but with me.  The next practice was rained out and the following game he skipped due to a toe injury.  The practice after that was cancelled because it was on a holiday.  So I didn't have my hopes up too high for the next game....but low and behold HE GOT ON THE FIELD!  He's now convinced he's pretty good at soccer and he likes playing.  WHEW.

Here's Munchkin at his first practice:

Ready to run!

 Sprout's first practice today.  He has 2 cousins on his team...he made one of them cry today.  So, he might look like an angel but he's got some devil in 'em!

 Sprout's the one with his head down...tunnel vision for the ball.

  What do you do when your little brother is having team pictures and starting his practice?  You play!

 It's especially good to play against Dad!

Chicks the week of May 18

These are the baby chicks you held on April 30th.  In this video they are 10 days old.

We're baaaack!

Perhaps you've been wondering where I've gone?  Maybe not.  Perhaps you've known with an instinctive understanding that returning to full time teaching at a Deaf school would naturally result in extraordinarily restricted personal free time.  Yup.  Extraordinarily.  Restricted.  On the other hand, I do enjoy teaching and I've been seeing some successes that make me want to do the "dance of joy"  (I'm such an 80's kid) in the hall.  It's been six months...I can take it no longer.  I. Must. Record. Life.  I won't fill you in on the whole 6 months...that would take more time than either of us have available.  But I will say that I've seen over and over again the wisdom in the answer we received through prayer to head back to Ontario.  We are sharing the farm with my parents and have had surprisingly few adjustments.  Work is going well and Big E has begun planting his seeds and we are waiting for the little green sprouts to shoot up.  I'm calling them his babies.  :)   All in all, we are so grateful to be back where we can enjoy our families on a regular basis.  Here are some pictures:
Sprout said, "I have pockets, just like a teenager!"  Here's hoping that he thinks pockets are the big draw for teenage-hood for a LONG time!

 Brotherly love with Little E.

 Farm benefits.

 Blurry...but happy.

 Happy days.

 It's not a crop circle...it's what happens when a Poppa on a 4 wheeler with 3 grandsons drives in circles!