Oh, these kids . . .

what blessings!!

See this adorable pic? This is a daily occurrence. Too bad you can't see Sage clearly.

We have this protocol every day. Sometime during the day, I nurse Max to sleep. He is stowed away in his crib and then I call to the older three "Garden time!" We all head out to the garden to weed for a while. The boys have gotten good about it. Nutmeg is . . um  . a little slow. The first couple days the boys complained about it but now that it is routine, they are champs. Basil especially. He worked in the garden with Doug and I this weekend. He was quite a worker. At one point he looked around and said "I'm proud of our garden." Ownership. Such a blessing to hear.

Anyhow, after our short weeding time I dismiss them and usually weed for a bit longer. The three will usually run up to the swing set and sing the Smurfs theme song at the top of their lungs. Crazy crew. :) That's what they are doing in this picture.

This guy is certainly our Doctor Dolittle. The day this picture was taken, he came into the house carrying a butterfly. I lamely tried to tell him that he may hurt the butterfly and it might no be able to fly after that. I tried. But then I got caught up in the fact that the butterfly walked up his arm and perched on Basil's ear. It just sat there forever. I think it would have stayed there all day if Basil hadn't got outside and shaken it off.

Bunny, check.
Snake, check.
Butterfly, check.

This weekend I found a huge frog (or toad?) in the garden. Of course, Basil made friends with him. Then this morning Basil and Nutmeg found a baby bird in the lilac bush. They didn't get close enough to touch him (hurray! I think they are learning!).  But they noticed that's growing in his feathers and just had the ones left on his head to come in.

Frog, check.
Bird, check.

It's all pretty interesting because we are just finishing up our science book from Apologia, "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day." We spent most of our year learning about insects and birds. So its neat to watch all the birds this spring and summer and compare what we see now to what we read about this winter.

Basil is not only super helpful in the garden but he's also tremendously helpful with Mr. Mace. He even changed his first diaper the other day. He's becoming quite the oldest child. We are so proud of him. And .. . he is becoming quite the voracious reader. This weekend he read Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi in two days.

Mr. Mace has been experimenting quite a bit the last two days with getting up on his knees. Such a joy to watch him! We are all just giddy as ever with this fun baby stage!

Sage: I don't have any good pictures today. As you know, Sage is our resident "Master Builder." He wins that hands down around here. He is pure genius with Legos. I've shared a few creations on FB but really I could post on his inventions every day. He astounds us. 

We've also recently been enjoying new facets of Sage. He has never been so lovable and sweet. His personality has been so much more docile and open to learning/trying new things. Daily he has been brightening my heart with his dimply smile. I am excited to see what the next few months holds for Sage.

Nutmeg: Oh, this girl!! I know you can probably tell from the pictures, she is SOMETHING else. Frequently Doug and I just look at each other and LAUGH. She is pure personality. That girl could do anything! Her vocabulary is plentiful and dramatic. The other day I was shopping with her in Old Navy. We were in the dressing room where she was trying on some things for me. Over the loud speakers they were playing some fun, upbeat music. I just about died laughing. Nutmeg was just strutting around dancing and striking a pose like there was no tomorrow. The funny thing is we don't have t.v. stations at our house. So she wasn't mimicking any of that. It was all spontaneous! Such fun this girl is ALL . THE. TIME. (unless of course, you are trying to get her to wear shoes. in which case, run. run as fast as you can. away. far away).

Alrighty, gotta finish lunch clean up. Just wanted to share some fun today.