Turkey Turkey

The mom turkey carefully watching over her chicks, now 3 weeks old.

The turkeys are quite tame even eating from our hands.

The boys and the animals.

Rounding up the baby chicks for the night.

Weathering the hot weather

It's just plain hot today- so much so that until these hot months roll around again every year, I never quite remember what it really feels like. The temp is reading 99 deg, the heat index is 115, and the kids are looking for a cool down.

 

This year we have a slip and slide, so we're welcoming the neighborhood and anyone who's interested in trying this crazy thing out! The hose connection doesn't match, but who cares when you can hold the hose and spray.

We're not very hard core though as we've put a couple of foam mats end to end underneath the slide. Now that we're half a year into the dry season, the ground is cracking and hard as can be, so the mats are an attempt to add a little padding for the kids.

 

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Dad's binoculars are so cool

Homemade masks from our masquerade party

Goodbye to Bear

The kids had to say goodbye to one of their goats as 'Bear' had become too mean to keep any longer. Eva had an especially rough time, but after we had brought the goat to its new home, the hardest part was over. And Eva was so relieved to see that Bear had a new great home with lots of room to run around.

This leaves us with 'Lucy' who is a great little goat for the kids to take care of.

Stubborn, though!

Definitely good for the kids.

 

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I could get used to this...

This afternoon I looked up from my work to find Eva working with Zach at her desk. First she was teaching him how to pronounce the 'th' sound correctly, then how to count by 2s, then some math problems, and he was really into it, throwing his head back and laughing whenever something was funny.

 

 

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Walking the cow home

Hair cuts for the 100 deg weather!

Where does she get this?

Eva sure loves our animals- before it was the turkeys and the goats, and now it's the turkey poults too. After listening to a book I was reading out loud to her that mentioned training calves, she's been out with Lucy (her favorite goat) working on getting her to come when Eva says the word and feeding her mango leaves as a reward. She puts in a lot of time trying to train Lucy, climbing trees to get more mango leaves for Lucy, and listening to Lucy. Eva recently told me that she's figured out part of the goat language already. :) Now that the turkey poults have arrived, her favorite thing is to sit quietly in the turkey coup and just watch. Then she'll quietly leave and head over to make sure the goats have water or Lucy has leaves and then after a while it's back to the turkey poults again.

 

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Getting ready for tomorrow's Masquerade Party!

Home made plaster mask- Eva did a great job.

Eva now painting the mask made in the above picture. Stay tuned for the final result!

 

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Ten Tiny Turkeys

After four weeks of waiting, yesterday was finally the day for ten little turkey poults to emerge from their eggs! Such cute little fur balls they are, and the kids already love them to pieces.

 

 

 

 

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A 24hr step away to rural Laos

Kids watching the tobacco fields early in the morning. 

Jan and Kids crossing the bamboo bridge on the way to get in the boat.

Eva and Elijah strategizing their journey through the cave.

Jan & Zach

Jan and Kids - Yehaw, we made it through the cave!

Some Village kids saying hello

On the return trip Elijah's prepared!