Farmer Frank

Frank has kinda taken to this rural life.

He helps with the mowing,

the tilling,

the fowl-ing

(is that a word?)

Here he is letting some of the chicks stretch their legs.

And here he is holding Festus hostage.

Don't worry - he deserved it!

Twinkle Toes

Lily has been taking a

ballet class

since January.

She LOVES it!

Every week

they get to dress up

as a different character.

Did you just say

"ballet"

AND

"dress-up"!?!?!?

Oh yeah!

The Little Mermaid

Sleeping Beauty

Olivia and the red shoes

"Angelina Ballerina"

Phinn's Evil Laugh

Enjoy!

The Return of The Sneaky Bunny

I dont know what

EASTER

and a rabbit

have to do with each other

so at our house

"that sneaky bunny"

hides eggs

while we

sleep peacefully.

Lily was only expecting an egg hunt.

Then she found this: "Mom, that Sneaky Bunny

is just like Santa Claus...

he brings presents too!"
(side note:

YES,

the Sneaky Bunny brought

peanut butter cups...

not everything is for the kids, ya know!)

Phoenix was all over those eggs!

Then Grampa came in

to tell us that

he had just chased

some crazy huge rabbit

out of the yard.

Whaaaat?!?!?

Heehee.

Can you spot the egg in the wall?

Now let me just comment...

this is Lily's new favorite outfit...

which is why it might look so familiar to you...

you know how it is!

This is my favorite photo of the day!

Aren't they so sweet together?

Or maybe it's this one.

Phoenix crawled over to give Lily a hug!

He loves her SO much! And the feeling is mutual!

The following photo

is of the new chickies

that Grampa brought home

when he was tired

of waiting

for our chickens' eggs

to hatch.

So cute!

(except to some...you know who you are!)

Cherry Blossom Festival

I have always wanted to visit DC

during the annual

Cherry Blossom Festival.

This year we packed up the kids,

the stroller

my bag of tricks

and headed into the city.

It was Good Friday

so Frank had the day off too!

Did you know that the cherry trees

were a gift from Japan

to the United States

as a token of friendship?

And that they were sent twice?

3000 trees in 1912

3800 in 1965

That's a lot of blossoms!

I had the whole day mapped out:

check out the Japanese ceramics exhibit at the Smithsonian,

listen to Reggae music by the Washington monument,

participate in the "Bloomin' Junior Ranger" program for kids,

and maybe even get in some paddle-boating.

Here's what actually happened:

We walked all over DC.

Lily and Phoenix loved having Daddy close by.

Daddy loved spending time with his babies.
And we all kept walking.

We posed our kids in trees to get cute photos.

Even if they didn't want to.

Then

we found a nice shady patch of green grass

under the cherry trees,

plopped our bums down

and pigged out on my bag o' treats

while enjoying the scenery.

We made new friends

with our picnic neighbors

including this little girl and her family.

Turns out they are originally from Buenos Aires

so I hable un poquito espanol con ellos,

but are also professors at a local university.

Translation: Frank participated in the conversation too.

And

that was

pretty much

IT.

But then something magical happened:

Beautiful blossoms falling

floating like snowflakes through the air

people smiling, laughing, posing for photographs

and children dancing, twirling

mesmerized by pink breezes

It was so worth all the walking.

What's In A Name?

My little treehugger!

Is it strange that

Lily

is named after

a flower

and she loves...

FLOWERS?

She even took some of these spring flower photos!

Look what Phinn found!!

Is it strange that

Phoenix

is named after a

bird

and he loves....

BIRDS!

His first real sign was "bird"

and he says "burrrrrr"

and signs "where" when he wants to go look for them

-- which is ALL DAY LONG!

Some of his fowl friends include:

guinea hens,

a grey rooster,

a red rooster,

and of course, Phoenix's favorite,

Festus -- the turkey!

Snow Days

More photos and commentary, for better or worse, from the Blizzard of 2010.

It has been a fun adventure being snowed in since Friday night. We turned on the generator early Saturday morning after the power went out. Grampa and Dad began digging out the cars NOT to try to drive out (no chance of that on our lane -- besides the state road wasn't even plowed til Monday morning), but to get to the fuel tanks!

Imagine my surprise

when I looked out the window

to see Frank syphoning fuel from my Dad's Jeep!

No worries, Dad was in on it, too! They were looking for more gas for the generator...it was a bigger endeavor than they expected but they eventually came up with a few extra gallons.

Lily and I have been playing "Go Fish", "Crazy 8's", Legos, Puzzles, etc.

Lily has also been practicing her letters in her journal.

Phinn has been fighting a bit of a cold,

but that hasn't kept him from crawling all over the place;

in fact, this weekend, he has started pulling himself up into a standing position

by grabbing onto the couch, the edge of the tub, or other furniture.

The boy is unstoppable!

Lily, Phoenix and I walked up the lane to visit cousin Megan.

Lily would NOT stop eating snow!

Check out how high these drifts are!

Poor Phoenix was so bundled up that he couldn't move

and I think we were all a bit snow blind.

Besides, eating the snow, Lily also enjoyed nailing me with snowballs!

The chickens finally ventured out of their coop,

but they kept getting stuck in the snow.

It was pretty funny!

More pretty snow photos. It really is a winter wonderland out here!

Being snowed in has been delightful!

Thanks to the gas stove

and a well stocked pantry,

there has been no end to the delicious comfort food:

cookies, cake, and blueberry crisp,

oven-fried pork chops, mashed potatoes,

roasted chicken (store-bought, not from our little flock),

fresh salads, chips and salsas,

bacon and eggs (fresh from the our chickens),

venison sausage, etc, etc.

Yummy!