Never ending story of our week....

We had a great week this week (about the opposite of last week thankfully!) I took a lot of pictures and am loving sharing them!

Guess who?

If you guessed Lowen, bingo!

So I don't know if you grandparents remember(how could you forget?) when Lauren was a little over two years old, She started losing her hair by the handfuls. Not balding, just shedding like a wild cat.

Well, then a few more months after being two, it started growing in in patches of new growth (that stuck straight up and her hair looked like an 80's rocker mullet. remember? its all coming back right?).

Now that were finally past that, she's on to something new again:

her roots are growing in SUPER curly!!!!! Her hair starts out curly at the top and then flows into straigh/slighty wavy ends. Its the funniest thing! On some days, she looks like her head grows dreads! Always something new with that sweetheart

Her party on top.

We spent A LOT of days (4 out of five to be exact) waiting for the rain to stop and the sun to come out!


We had Claire's "friend" Mason come visit so his mommy could go grocery shopping.
Thats about as friendly as it gets when your a couple months old!



We planted tomatoes, sunflowers, green beans, and nasturtiums.

Yes, The background to this picture is my current street.

Hopefully we will be joining the civilized world again this summer with a brand spankin' new street (and sidewalks all the way around the block!).

More seed planting...

Recently, our coffee center has had a shared space with our new wildlife observatory.

Tadpoles, Praying Mantis', and Coffee.

Frog mantis cafe? Okay, you think of a better name!

We discovered that our smallest tadpole is budding with new appendages. This was surprising because I would have guessed it to be the bigger ones to bloom first.

In a few weeks we should see a couple hundred praying mantis' eat their way out this egg!

Our Mantis egg

We went on a home school trip with a group of homeschooling families to a lavender farm. Her farm breeds praying mantis and wild tree frogs (you know the kind with the red eyes?). Anyway, we have a mantis egg of our own and were hoping it hatches.

We learned from the Lavender lady:

1. Mantis eggs need to be at least 70 degrees for a sustained period of time before they hatch. We have them inside, but it may be a while!
2. Once hatched, they will eat ANY kind of bug (including each other if they're desperate!
3. When mating, the female mantis may eat the males head (multi- tasking right?) and then when finished mating, she'll finish him off!

Anyway.......

We went to the boardwalk for some pizza and bike riding In the clouds/sprinkling rain

Silas did a great job sharing his bike with friends ;)

Funny things Silas said this week :

Mom, did you know that I am a famous Chuck-E- Cheese Basketball player?

The day I made bacone for breakfast: " bacon is my heart. Bacon is my wolverine" The boy loves his bacon.

Also, Jake and I walked into the living room to see Lauren sitting on Claire's back saying:

"Woo hoo! giddy up!"

Talk about heart attack and a half!

And Last but not least, Caire. Sweet Claire. Announcing the newest members of her body:

Teeth!!!!!!!

Two of them, right in the middle of her mouth.
She also has mastered the army crawl. When I figure out how to post videos, I will surely share it! She has been so sweet (and clingy!) this week! She has a contagious laugh and it has been coming out more and more lately.

This week, I fell in love with staying home all over again! Watching my kids learn, encouraging them to learn more, and being able to love them 24/7, is something I just wouldn't give up.

God is so good to my family! Oh How he loves us! I am so thankfu for new and better weeks. Last week was a struggle, but this week has been such a great week.

The Lord is my strenght and my Song.