Hiding in the Trees

Here's the Culprit

Here's the egg stealer running away after finding a lack of eggs in the barn. So now how do we get rid of the critter?

Look! Peaches!

Ok, I admit. I am a bit excited still over seeing actual food growing on our own property. It looks like this year we can expect another large crop of peaches if things continue this way. The pears and apples are also looking great and I've been getting a decent amount of asparagus every couple days. The grapes are looking good (let's just hope the birds don't discover them). The jury is out on the walnuts, raspberries, strawberries and cherries and we need to find a way to keep the darn skunk from stealing chicken eggs. We're still getting about 6 to 8 a day but that is down a bit from a few weeks ago. I still feel we are running low when we are down to only 4 dozen eggs in the fridge. Maybe in a couple years we'll actually get good at this growing/raising your own food thing.

Katie, Princess Warrior

Earlier today Katie asked me to help her put her baby in her sling. After getting her baby tucked safely in the sling, Katie proceeded to add a couple of much needed items. First you must put in the baby's teddy bear. Then you must put in your trusty dagger because no well bred girl goes anywhere without a dagger.
After uploading the pictures from Bryan's camera this evening, I found these pictures and just felt they were perfect for Katie. She is a huge fan of Queen Lucy from Narnia and has to do everything the boys do. She's just likely to do it with a touch of class while wearing a skirt. You just have to love her style.

Camping

Alan took the older boys camping last night with their Blue Knights group.
As the only adult with scouting experience, Alan was elected to start the fire. He managed to get the fire started with only one match. I must admit that leaves me a tad impressed. The only way I can mange to start a fire with wet wood is to use nice greasy Fritos as a fire starter. Hey, with a gaggle of Girl Scout campers watching impatiently a counselor must get creative.
Someone caught a weird looking toad.
They saw lots of geese.
Just hanging around waiting to go fishing.
When you don't own a fishing pole, you can fake it with a stick. Maybe we need to buy fishing poles sometime soon.
The report back I got this afternoon was that everyone had a great time.

Confirmation

Bryan was confirmed last night. One of those wow kind of moments that forces you to sit back and acknowledge that your child is growing up. Here is a picture of Bryan with his sponsor (Grandma Hitchings) after Mass.
We are all very proud of the young man Bryan has become and are sure there are great things waiting in his future.
Yes, it is sometimes hard to get a picture with all of us looking in the same direction at once. At least this is proof that the crew cleans up well. Congratulations Bryan!

Lego Creations

Sean picked out a Lego kit with his birthday money earlier this week. He's been working rather diligently on putting it together ever since. Here's the finished product. I am rather impressed since typically the kids loose interest in these larger creations before they are able to get them completely finished.