the petting store and an update

Yesterday I took the girls to the "Petting store" as Esther calls it. We actually went to Devan Greenhouses. And I love going there. Not only because of the great prices and selection. But also a lot because of the huge pro-life sign that they have out front. And a great, helpful staff. And the girls love the petting zoo they have there. I guess because it's a petting zoo and a store is why Esther likes to call it a petting store :)

I have a few photos of the kids with the animals. They had bunnies. And Maria is back to her "no teeth smiles for the camera" ....



And goats. They also had chickens. And i think that might be it... But they had a blast :)

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The kids are all doing really well. Maria seems to be growing up so fast. And wants so badly to be big. I told her that she could choose some things to learn in school. And she chose puppies and ballet. She is loving having the garden in our backyard and loves to eat the lettuce that is now ready. She often pretends that she is a turtle eating the lettuce. One of the very great things about having your own garden and having the kids help with it is that they want to eat the vegetables. They don't ask for snacks anymore. They just go and pick some lettuce :) One thing that Maria and Esther have begun to do is draw outlines of each other on the deck with chalk. It's so fun to see them using their imaginations like that! I really do have to take a picture next time because its so funny and adorable. Maria is always wanting to learn and lately and she now wants to know how to count until 60 so that she can learn how to tell time. She's almost there now and can count until 49. She also always wants to write numbers on the deck and is doing really well at that. I'm so surprised at and blessed by her eagerness to learn! She sure gets that from her daddy who still gets really excited about learning new things :) I'm so glad they're taking after him!

Esther is so much fun as well. She is our funny one. We're noticing she has a great eye. Often when we visit Oma it's Esther that can spy the deer (she calls them "Reindeer" because that's way funner). And loves the I spy books. Especially when she's reading them with Opa and Oma. She spends most of her time outside now. And her imagination never ceases to amaze me. She often rides her bike on the deck and pretends that she is Thomas the tank engine. Or James or Percy. Very fun. She loves to draw and color and copy whatever Maria is doing. She has a great ability to easily copy what Maria draws or writes. I will have to put up some photos of their art these days. As they get older and better :)

Danny is also a lot of fun these days. He spends a lot of time outside now. And doesn't need me every moment anymore. The yard is completely fenced in and he's with the girls and we live in a very quiet, safe area so I can leave him out there for short times. Which is so amazing. He loves the playground. Especially the wobbly bridge. But is terrified of the slide. He loves the sandbox and to dig holes and transport sand everywhere. And waters all the seeds and plants. He loves to do EVERYTHING that the girls do and often makes such a complete nuisance of himself that it's hard to keep any kind of order and still help them build relationships with each other. IT would be so much easier to just separate them!! But that just gets the girls to always want him away from them. Which is terrible for relationship building!For some reason it seems more difficult with him than when I was trying to help teach the girls how to get along. But I imagine that part of the reason is that a lot of the things that the girls play with are difficult for him to play with (Now that Maria is 5 and not 2 like when Esther was at the pesty stage). Oh well. We'll get through it. I'm making it sound like it's terrible and while at times it really is, for the most part I'm quite pleased at how well they get a long.
Dan still doesn't talk much at all. But somehow is able to get his point across. He says things like dog, cat, ball, more, cooka is cookie, and cakoo is cracker, and calls Geddo (Bryant's dad) dodo. but beyond that he mainly points and grunts. Yesterday we were at my mom's and he pointed and her car and said "oma vroom vroom" it was funny. He now tries to repeat things more. So that's nice. One of these days he'll be speaking more. But he understands everything it seems and he follows directions. One super cute thing that he does is he gets my shoes ready by the door for me when he knows that we'll be going somewhere. Or he'll bring them to me when he wants me to go somewhere with him. And he loves devotions time and praying. He always laughs after i say "amen". It's neat that at even his age he enjoys prayer time :)

And otherwise things are good. Summer is finally here!! YAY! Talk about a late arrival!! It took till July to really arrive. The berry farm that we live on is basically a month behind schedule. I can sure notice a difference in my garden now that the sun is here more and also since those huge trees are gone and there isn't the same amount of shade. Oh. I didn't write about that yet. Bryant and Dean and Ed all helped to cut down the 2 huge trees that were in the front of our house. It's SO nice to have them gone!! The house is so bright and sunshiney now! It used to be so dark! And there will be no more pine needles to be constantly cleaning out of the house and yard! I can't tell you how happy I am that those trees are gone. Hmmmm.... I think I'll have to take some photos of the place so that I can see all the differences that come along. And also the kids might like to see where they grew up when they were little. I'm silly like that. I like to know these things. Anyway.
The garden has been a lot of fun. We picked up some tomato plants yesterday and they have little green tomatoes already! It's funny how excited that makes me :) And i bought a final pack of sunflower seeds that will HOPEFULLY make it. I tried a pack in the garden. Only ONE survived. I tried twice more in flats outside the garden. And they both got eaten by something. And so yesterday i planted them in another flat on the deck and covered them with a redneck "greenhouse" that consisted of two baby wipes packs and some tape and saran wrap. haha. I hope it works! A garden isn't a garden without sunflowers in my mind. They're my favorite. Last year at Jason's place they probably grew to close to 7 feet! I was hoping for a similar result this year. We'll have to see, though.