Garden Painting

 I got the paint out this past month and let the boys do some rock painting.

While I did let them just paint some rocks, I also made a few mementos.

Both of them did handprints with their names and the date on the rock.  Rock painting is one of our favorite things to do and we never run out of canvas.

And I painted my garden door purple.

Sunset on Nall Knoll

We had a lot of rain the other day, a real downpour.  But the weather cleared, the clouds drifted off and we had a gorgeous evening and sunset here on our hill.

This is what happens when you get a downpour and you forget to put the lid on the sandbox.  

The sunset created this really awesome lighting on the trees, but it was hard to capture it with the camera.

Looking off to the garden and the Massey's house.

Irises in my garden.

One of the waterfalls.  

The Twins

We had the twins out at our house a couple of weeks ago.  

It was fun.  Wild and crazy fun.

Enjoying some suckers.  I love this picture because they are so messy and dirty, but enjoying themselves.

"Don't take my picture.  That's enough."  I later found Sadie's sucker stuck to the handrail.  

 

Bath time!

I have some other great photos of them, but they're naked and I can't publish them on the internet.

Then we went to their house and had some fun in the sprinkler.

A cheese grin with a mouth full of hot dog.

And I killed a tarantula.  It doesn't look that big, but it was actually the biggest spider I've ever seen.  And I've seen some big wolf spiders, both out in the country and out at the beach.  Huge.  Just the body was probably 2.5 inches long and 2 inches wide.  

Might I just add that I'm the one that lives in the country.  My sister lives in the city (relatively) and she's the one that gets tarantulas and black widows and brown recluses.  Maybe the snakes out here eat them.  I'll have to save the snake vs spider debate for another fictional post, but I'll leave you with this:  at least my dog lets me know when there's a snake around.  That's a good girl, Chewy.

At the Creek

We went in mass down to the creek the other day with cousins, uncles, and aunties.

This will be Eli's first spring/summer that he will be able to really get in and enjoy the creek, throwing rocks and splashing around.

Abi, Malachi and Silas enjoying the cool water on this abnormally warm day.

Thinking of Uncle Raph while he wears the Looe Life Guard shirt.

My nephew swimming in the hole.

Watching the kids frolic. 

Eli had to get in, as well.  Lynden and I took turns holding onto him and letting him kick his legs in the deeper water.  

Playing in the Pool

I cleaned out our little pool so the boys could play in it yesterday.  Silas jumped in immediately, even though it was full of cold well water.  Eli didn't like the cold water too much, so I added a bunch of warm water to it.  Once it had heated up, he really enjoyed himself. 

Crazy Weather...

We bought eight chicks the other day! 

We've had some bad weather up here lately.  Flooding.  Hailing.  No tornadoes really, though, so that's good.

Hail piled up. It looks like snow!

I couldn't believe it.

Playing Outside

Eli loves the grass.  And the dirt.  And rocks.  It's a hard task trying to keep it all out of his mouth.

But he's happy playing outside.  

As a side note, do you see those little indentions above his eyebrows?  They're from his daddy.

Silas is trying to pick me a flower.  Eli?  He's trying to eat the first flower Silas picked me.

"Hey, don't take my snack!"

"Whatever, there's more where that came from."

Croquet is much more interesting when you let Silas make up the rules.  

I don't win very often, though.  "Mommyyyyyyy.  Yes, you scored a goal.  But it didn't go in the way it was supposed to.  And I wasn't hopping on one foot and singing the National Anthem while you did it."

Eli trying to play, too.

We're just thankful that the weather has been nice and we get to go outside now, as well as living in a place where we can walk outside our front door and find something interesting to do.