And Then There Was One

I have figured out how to get photo that Micah uloads from his iphone. Yay! Here's some old ones mixed in with recent ones...

Them critters are everywhere

 

Our first fully successful character meet and greets when we visited Epcot with my Dad. Now, the girls are not longer scared (though they occasioally just freeze and stare awkwardly) and are working on their autograph books now each time we go to disney.

Here's from last Friday. Iphone camera is officially inferior in low-light or colored-light situations.

Sweet kids. This is Angela with a friend from church- I got to hang out with the little ones while Daddys took the big kids to splash mountain.

They have a Christmas program going on now where Elsa lights up the castle with her magic ice powers. Silly Natalie was not really asleep.

And these are from our hurrication in Lakeland. We found this family fun center to kill time and the girls had so much fun.

Finally, some grisly news about the chickens. Our neighbor's cat got into their pen out back and killed two of the new chicks. We're working now on integrating Cauliflower, our 7-week-old leghorn, who survived. It's much easier now in our brand new coop! Micah did so much work last weekend to make this suitable for the chickens and so far they seem to be taking to it quite well. The kids, too.

 I'm pretty bummed and will still be looking around for a buff orpington and a barred rock chicken to add to the flock. We'll see when the opportunity arrives! Speck and Red have figured out where to lay eggs in the new coop- yay!- but blondie seems to be molting still. It's been a solid 2 months of no eggs from her, and before that she had only been laying for a few weeks after taking a break due to the heat for all of July and August! Freeloading punk. 

Animal Kingdom and Haloween

Okay, we'll start off with the mundane...

Safety is always the #1 priority with these girls... NOT.

This continues to crack me up.

Our baby chicks are now 6 weeks old. They're feathered enough to live outside but still a bit young to be integrated with the other chickens, as grown chickens will peck and, in extreme cases, can injure, maim or kill new chicks to preserve their own rank in the pecking order. I set up a little cage in the yard for the chicks to spend their days but will plan on putting them in a box in the shed at night for a little while still. That way, they can see one another and get used to each other before I throw them all in the same coop. 

Many of my tomato seedlings are doing well in the garden. I just planted the rest of the seedlings, here's hoping they make it! I've planted a bit of everything with the hopes that at least a few crops will survive the pests, the weather, and the poor soil! At least the beans are doing well. If tomatoes and beans are all I can grow here, I'll become a tomato and bean master.

 Natalie loves learning about letters and writing so much that she came home from preschool the other day and asked me to give her the takeout menu off the fridge so that she could copy some words from it.

Our yard waste from hurricane Matthew finally got picked up. They are still working 7 days a week from sun up to sun down and many folks still haven't had their stuff picked up, so we're grateful that ours is finally gone. The pile was so big it limited the view of the road when pulling out of the driveway. I'm hugely relieved that I don't have to cross my fingers and lay on the gas and hope I don't die every time I leave the house now.

 Watching the claw truck provided some great afternoon entertainment!

My first week teaching Zumba at Rev It Up Nutrition was a huge success. Lots of interested folks came out for the class, many of whom had never done Zumba before. They had a great time and I'm excited to go back. He's paying me well, comparable to what I'd make at a major gym, and it's so close to home. I'm glad this opportunity came about.

Now, to the exciting...

 We got to see my sister and her family the other week. They vacationed in Orlando for several days and we got to hook up with them to play at their resort and then visit Animal Kingdom.

Halloween was awesome. Angela decided last minute that she wanted to be Elsa instead of Minnie Mouse. Whatever, at least it was a costume we had!

 Natalie experienced the joy of sorting candy.

And then last weekend we had a murder mystery dinner. We had trouble coming up with 3 couples from church to invite who didn't have a breastfeeding infant. The friends who came were perfect and we all had a great time. We ate assorted cheeses, olives, bread and balsamic, zuppa toscana, eggplant parmesanm, sweet ricotta and raspberries and it was all delicious.