Our family is growing...by TWO!!!

Michael has his last week of preschool this week. He has grown up SO much and transitioned from big toddler to little boy over this last year. One of my favorite things about Michael is that he will say probably every other day, "Hey Mom?" and I'll say "What?" and he says "Just that, I love you."

And...We are excited to announce two little brothers joining the family! Let me back up a bit. We had a fun day yesterday at the Got To Be NC Festival, the kids picking 3 rides and having so much fun! Nicole and Jim went on the Ferris wheel and it went quickly for a ferris wheel and I thought she'd be terrified but Jim said she was so brave! There were lots of animals to look at and pet, we got to watch chicks hatching right in front of us and could pet rabbits. When we got home, I discovered online that there is a rabbitry, Martha's Rabbitry, less than 10 minutes from our house.

 

I had the kids watch probably an hour of youtube videos on taking care of rabbits and all about their personalities. I read this pet care contract to the kids and had them sign when I was sure they got what I was talking about. I wanted to be sure they knew this was serious business along with the fun. Nicole got it, Mike mostly got it, and Jake...well, he was clueless.

So later that day we packed in the van (while driving there Josh called, and when I said we were going to look at rabbits he asked "How many does it take to feed your family?" I thought Dad would have said the same thing!) and picked out two rabbits. The rabbitry had a ton of large cages raised to eye level with wooden legs (all outdoors under a shelter) with aisles in between the cages. The owners brother was just finishing up scooping all of the rabbit poo into a big wheelbarrow (the way the cages are designed the rabbits just "go" and it falls under the cage where they can scoop it away. Michael, however, did not get this concept of what occurs under the cage and to get to one side more quickly he just ducked under the cages and went to the other aisle. The owner's brother, who is Hispanic, said a flurry of Spanish warning him to walk in the aisle, kind of in disbelief that Mike would do that. Once we explained it to Mike, he started looking all over his body, and was just sure he'd been pooped on! Not a few minutes later Mike went over to a huge wheelbarrow, loaded to the very top with freshly scooped rabbit doo, and was ready to help and move the wheelbarrow. My only warning was the quick Spanish again and Jim was thankfully able to stop Mike (who had no problem once we explained what all those little black pellets were). I felt really badly since we were just trying to listen to the owner and make a good decision and although Nicole was completely listening and Jim and I were holding the youngest two, Mike was beyond excited about all of the animals before him! He then came up to me and said "Mom how do you open the cages?" Yep, I'm sure we were a rabbitry's worst nightmare. The rabbitry guys were really nice and the brother even let Mike hold a new little bunny. However, it didn't take long for us to put all the kids except Nicole in the car (since we parked right next to it) and finished picking our rabbits.

 

Once we picked the breed we wanted- American Rex- for their temperment and size, Nicole fell in love with this little guy. She named him Chocolate Chip, Chip for short. He was cautiously friendly right from the start and is the bigger and more dominant male. It did take Nicole a little of adjustment to be okay with the fact that he is not a she.

 

And then we chose this guy for Mike since it was the only black bunny in the litter. We've named him Blackie (or Black-ity) and he was very shy but has quickly opened up just as much as his brother. We were lucky to get two brothers that are already bonded and groom each other.

 

One of the best lessons has been patience. We've taught the kids about how rabbits have a prey mindset and don't like to be held since they feel like a falcon picked them up and will eat them. I said maybe someday when they learn to trust us, but it has been great for them to learn to make slow motions, be gentle and wait patiently for the rabbits to come to them. It was especially frustrating for Mike at first, but he has learned so much already. If the rabbit hops by and he doesn't get to pet it, he says, "oh well."

Diana is fascinated by the rabbits and loves watching the action. We have to build the hutch (these will be completely outdoor rabbits) so the rabbits are temporarily in a kennel at night (where they use the restroom), and roam the porch (we enclosed it with gates and pegboard) during the day.

 Rabbits are clean animals, licking themselves clean several times a day. They are active in the morning and early evening, perfect for school kids. They poop a lot for such little guys, but can be litter trained (they're already doing great at that which is a relief!) They do fine in cold and warm weather, we only have to watch out for temps around 90+ to bring them in or turn a fan on. Jim and I spend time each night playing with the bunnies and we have so much fun. I think we got the rabbits for ourselves as much as the kids, but we make sure to have the kids do the chores so they feel the responsibility of ownership. I know the novelty will fade, but we have really enjoyed these little guys so far and they make a great addition to our family.

The Days Go By

Finally got Nicole's picture scanned from her basketball season!

 

For participating in a PTA art contest with a painting as well as a story, Nicole and the family was invited to a breakfast at school. She won 2nd place in her age group (K-2) in her school for her painting and 3rd place for her story she wrote.

Having breakfast in the library was a bit scary. I was glad I'd fed the kids oatmeal before coming, since donut holes and o.j. don't really make a power breakfast! The kids were so good, and despite my fears Jake did not make a mess. Whew!

Nicole took a picture of her certificate, it was sweet to see how special she felt when she was called up. And then after the other kids were all called up, Jake (before I could stop him) walked right up to the front to the lady waiting for a certificate too! Funny kid!

 

Nicole took a picture of yet another tooth gone! This is the second one she took out at school, it's so nice to know her fingers are in her mouth all the time at school. :) And today she mentioned that the tooth fairy hasn't come in two days even though the tooth is under her pillow! Jim said that I could get in touch with the tooth fairy and I said it was probably a busy season for her. Nicole was fine with that.

To celebrate my birthday, some dear friends took me to a 13,000sq ft warehouse with wall-to-wall trampolines. I had fun trying to shoot into a tall basketball hoop, trying to bounce high enough to reach a punching bag hung from the ceiling, and bouncing off trampolines on the side walls. My favorite was doing flips from the trampoline into a foam pit! After a session there, we went to a frozen yogurt shop. I am blessed to have these sweet friends.

Last night, Jim took me to a Tim McGraw concert! The venue was an outdoor amphitheater, and I bought seats in the last row that is actually under the roof. We were so close it was incredible, awesome and unforgettable.

Ready for the show to begin! There were a ridiculously small number of restrooms for the over 20,000 people attending. I don't think I'd like going there again because there was a lot of beer consumed, not as much by where we were seated but if we left our area to go near the lawn or bathrooms it was pretty crazy. I thought it was funny that in comparison we brought our Sprite and girl scout thin mint cookies :) So although the area around our seats was fine, I couldn't imagine being on the lawn and having anywhere near the experience. Also the traffic leaving was awful, it took us an hour to make the twenty minute drive.

There were two opening bands for Tim, and I recognized a song or two from each of them. I recognized a pretty mellow song from this group but everything else was wildly redneck. The drummer was incredible according to Jim so it wasn't a total loss :)

And then Tim came on! Since I've only been to a Taylor Swift concert it was interesting to compare the two styles. Tim hardly spoke at all, whereas Taylor had a monologue introducing almost every song. For Tim, there was a musical bridge, change of background scenery and on to the next song. Awesome.

 

Tim sang a whole variety of songs from his career and I knew most of them, he has so many hits that it was no wonder he didn't need to fill his concert with talking; he could just sing and everyone loved it. There was a huge difference in how Tim performed from Taylor. He didn't dance around or anything, it was more like he was just enjoying singing a bunch of his songs. He'd jump around, walk over to his band and rock out a bit, but overall was just singing his songs.

The screens behind the band would change to be different vistas or effects and that was awesome. They also had cameras on the audience that would show on the screens along with the big shot of Tim singing.

The most personal part of the show was when he had us all sing Happy Birthday to a friend of his who he grew up with that was in the audience. And then this picture was taken during the one song he sat down. For all the rest of them he was standing. I wasn't performing but was still tired from so much standing!

One of my favorite songs was She's My Kind of Rain and the background was a 3D looking rainstorm. He sang it really well and hearing it outdoors with the wind blowing was cool.

The music was loud enough that I could sing along and nobody had to cringe listening :) It seemed like everyone's favorite song was Live Like You're Dying. You could hear the audience singing and loving it. I thought it was interesting that a song written a while back had everyone dancing the most even though he sang a lot of recent hits too.

 

And last, but not least, here is Michael's picture for me. He drew a person then asked "Mom how do you draw bones?" I said I didn't know, so he just added all the bones by himself, adding that he didn't put any bones in the ears or nose. How did my boy get so smart? He's such a cute boy.