Cat Flaps

Oh my.  I'm so seriously behind in my blogging, and as silly as it is, it really stresses me out!  You see, I'm not a scrapbooker, an album-maker, or even a print-printer, so this is my way of documenting the Mobley comings and goings.  And as I am of the generation that feels the need to document every moment of life (especially of the kiddos), when I find myself months behind I just don't know where to begin.  So I'm going to sit down right now and do some speed blogging to get caught up before Andrew's 6th birthday, and henceforth I shall strive to remain less than 4 months behind at all times.

In April I flew out with my parents to visit Bradley in LA for nearly a week and it was wonderful!   Phil stayed here with the kids, darling man that he is, and Nannie came for the days he was traveling for work.  A million thanks to them both for the gift of such a special time.

We stayed with Bradley at his apartment and he was adorable.  He and his roommates slept on couches and floors so we could have real live beds and rooms with doors, he cooked breakfast for us almost every morning, and he filled our days with exciting Californian activities.  Look at him ... isn't my baby brother handsome?  I think he's a cutie.

Phil and Andrew spent many a weekend working hard in the garage building the chicken coop for our sweet girls.

 We did a round of swim lessons at Dynamo - been very impressed with their teachers so far.  Andrew and Elsbeth got to be in the same class, and to their great delight, their other classmates were Edgar* and Poovey*, two of their very best friends.

The Lord gave us such a beautiful spring.  Lots of flowers and birds and days that remained at the perfect degree of warmness.

Andrew took part in his school's annual Mayfaire Festival, which was adorable from beginning to end.  How do you like the renaissance costume I whipped up for him totally last minute? (A million thanks to Julianne and her awesome suggestion.  I was in a panic since I found out the day before that he was supposed to be in costume.  Some burlap, leggings and a glue gun ... voila.)

Mr. Thatch and his whimsical crew came over and dug out a vegetable garden bed for us.  Yahoo!

Extended Mobley family came for a weekend to visit.  Got in some good cousin /aunt /uncle /grandparent time at the Botanical Gardens, Legoland, and the GA Aquarium. 

TFO and I went out to support Team Red for Andrew's Field Day.  Blogger is being spastic with my pictures and I lost the one of Andrew all painted up ... blast.

Andrew started earning minutes to play on my iPod by reading to Elsbeth.  So sweet.

We were finally able to get some blueberries off our bushes this year before the birds ate them all!

Got a pile of mulch delivered, which ended up being hugely entertaining to the wee ones.  They decided to be King and Queen of the Mulch Pile (Andrew made them both crowns).  Things like this make me deliriously happy.

Picked strawberries, blueberries and blackberries at Southern Belle Farms.

A bunch of youth from our church came over to move our coop outside, paint and roof it to earn money for a missons trip to Peru. 

Tragedy struck and two of our chicks got sick and died.  :-(  We found Gretel dead in the corner and I rushed the fading Susannah to an exotic vet that was willing to see a chicken.  This place was fancy and full of birds that probably cost more than my car, so even in them midst of my sorrow, I had to smile when the doctor rushed my $3 baby chick to the back to give her oxygen.  They weren't able to determine what was wrong, so Phil and I spent the evening holding Susannah on the couch, occasionally pushing her beak open to put in some formula only to have her die during the night.

I was pretty sure the rest of the girls would follow suit, picking up whatever illness the others had contracted, but they were fine!  The other 6 started getting rides outside each day in the wagon for some time in the back yard.  I especially like Elsbeth's outfit here - she's very into dressing up these days.  I think the Minnie ears go nicely with her beloved orange Home Depot apron.

Some blow-up pool time to cool off.

Green beans from our garden!  We were wildly excited.

I took this picture of Miss Pettigrew weeks ago to show how much the girls had grown, intending, of course, to blog about it that day.  The chickens are probably twice this size now.

Our little ladies  moved out to the coop full-time and they love it!  Got to get  a better shot of the coop.  It's beautiful.  I'm so impressed with my farm man!  

Tragedy struck again last week when a raccoon got into the chicken run and killed two more chickens.  They'd been living out in the coop for weeks and often chose to sleep in the run rather than inside the coop if we didn't physically put them in it.  The kids and I were on a beach trip with my family, and Phil's work schedule was packed, so they had several nights outside in what we thought was a pretty secure fenced in run.  A raccoon found a gap between our wire wall and the plastic netting on top and poor Phil had to put to rest the remains of Nadine and Rosemary. He  has since spent many hours reinforcing the run (which he has now named Fort Rosemary).  We're also making sure they're safely shut in the coop every night.  Tough learning curve.  Horrible mean old beastly raccoon.

To lift our spirits, we decided to place an order for some more chicks to replenish our flock.  Andrew felt strongly we needed to get the exact breeds we had lost and name them the same names, so Gretel II, Susannah II, Rosemary II, and Nadine II (plus 2 Plymouth Rocks!) will be arriving at the beginning of September. Yea!

The kids and I spent last week in Myrtle Beach with Nina and a bunch of my extended family who I just adore.  We had a wonderful time and Elsbeth learned to swim!  I forgot my camera, though.  Boo.  So I'll end with an awesome picture of Elsbeth in full dress-up mode.  Joy!

*names changed to protect the innocent