Friday, November 30, 2012
gobble, gobble
Guess what came home with Nathan on Thanksgiving? Two live turkey birds! Yee haw! For weeks leading up to T-day, we'd been planning out a crazy "Turkey Chase" as an addition to our Thanksgiving day festivities and as a substitution for actually eating the turkey this year. We'd been planning on renting a turkey or two from our old neighbors to strut around and gobble on Thanksgiving day, and perhaps provide a great turkey chase for some of our brave guests.
Come Thanksgiving morning, Nathan unloads these birds from the car, along with a couple of food and water feeders. Wonder what those feeders are for, I thought. Do the birds really need special feeders if they're just here for the day?
As the day got going, and I was busy with food preparations, I got to thinking about the two large birds gobbling around the yard, I thought about our little fence and half shed that would work perfectly for two turkey birds, I thought about the 2 yellow feeders I saw Nathan unloading, and I thought about some random comments I was hearing that sounded like more than just renting turkeys. So when I had a moment, I caught up with Nathan in the backyard. He was looking over the fence at the birds. "Did you hear about the turkeys?" he yells? We bought them!" Gobble, gobble.
Long story short, his plan didn't exactly materialize as he'd imagined, so he went ahead and bought the turkeys. Turkeys!
Something I've learned about Nathan though, is that his great ideas are almost always just that, they're great! So that was one of my first thoughts. These turkeys will probably be great. Gobble, gobble. As it turns out, they are great. They're lots of fun, the kids love them, and they're hilarious. Gobble, gobble. Elijah likes to take go into their yard and check out their food/water feeders.
He keeps a good eye on them, and the turkeys keep a good eye on him too. Gobble, gobble.
The best part is what I read online when I googled these words "do turkeys keep snakes away?" This is what I read,
"the easiest way keep a snake away from your home is to make the area unattractive to the reptile... Turkeys are surprisingly adept at locating and grouping around a snake. They can harass a snake enough to encourage it to move away from the immediate area." (snake-removal.com)
How about that? Rock on! I'd like some more turkeys for our yard, please! I think these birds could turn out all right after all. Gobble, gobble.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
a couple from the new house
Painting Eva, Elijah, and Zach's room- green to blue! Half of it anyway, 2 walls painted blue, 2 walls left green. Super cute.
Our big backyard, after 100 or so boulders were removed, piles of logs, scrap metal, bricks, lumber, random wooden structures, and one large truckload of trash. Feeling much safer now, though still requiring lots more work. The kids love running around back here.
the last of the pics from Joel's visit
Elijah's not very happy in this one because he split his knee open in a bicycle accident, but Uncle Joel knew just what to say to calm Elijah down.
Uncle Joel with niece, nephew, and nephew.
Super cute little sized swing on the sidewalk!
The boys with Uncle Joel
Crossing the Mekong, headed back into Laos. Thailand on the left, Laos on the right.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Uncle Joel and Aunt Elena are here! Yee haw!
Jan points the way
The kids love Uncle Joel
The first time Joel sees rice harvest. The laborers are few.
Older brother (Uncle Joel) and younger sister (Aunt Elena)
Looking for leeches
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
rollin' with three
These were fun times! Remember this? Nathan had this contraption made when I was pregnant with Zach, so he could bike around with the kids.
The kids loved it, as did our neighbors, who would yell and wave as we'd go by.
Now that we've got three kids, Nathan figured we needed a way to go out for bike rides as a family, so he designed this little trailer for Eva and Elijah! It's awesome!
So light weight, I can even pull the kids along, no problem!
Our new house is close to the mountains now, so here's Nathan biking down a street close by. The kids think it's the best ever!
Our first ride down the road, a group of 6 boys saw us go by, grabbed their bikes, and followed us home. :)
Monday, November 12, 2012
Sat morning fun
Brave like his dad
Zach looking on
Sliding down the sand bank
Getting ready to jump
Going up the river
Getting braver
Ready for the ride home! What a blast!
