Getting ready for the big jump

All of the excitement and anticipation leading to this!

Leaf Day! Fun that all three kids "get it" Even Lydia liked romping through the piles

K'nex and LEGOs in the living room. They are busy for hours.
Caleb running in Fall Soccer

Sleeping beauty. Lydia does pretty well putting herself to sleep. This night I asked Caleb to send her to bed when he came upstairs. He had been reading to her while I took Josh upstairs. The light was on in my room, so she decided to put herself to bed in my bed. She's so cute!

Saying hello to Benjamin after a long absence. She was so excited to see him. He's so on the move he didn't truly appreciate her sentiments.

This funny girl likes to change her clothes! Here she found her basket of swimsuits. She actually started (on top of her regular diaper, thankfully) with a swim diaper and top. Then came the wet suit. Then another swim diaper, and you see her here working on the second swimsuit.
She gave up on the swimsuits, after all.

What a character!

What's in the bag?
Scott's Aunt Hilda came for a visit. She brought with her the grandson of her father's brother who is visiting from Germany. We enjoyed talking with Joachim, and Scott showed him around the farm. When it came time to cut the heads off these chickens he slinked away from view. Scott wasn't too thrilled about the activity either. He would have gladly passed the axe to someone else. Dad conveniently had somewhere else to go before he had the chance to do it himself. The occassion was Hilda's visit. It's time to slaughter these chickens, and she was glad to take a few off their hands.

A chicken with its head cut off. I cannot believe how the boys laughed and laughed watching this dead chicken flapping around. There was only a mild sense of fear, and obviously it didn't stop Joshua's curiosity. This is a video of the second slaughtering of the day, so everyone is a little more relaxed, and Lydia of course, is oblivious, just enjoying the time with a farm animal.

Caleb and Josh each pick up a lifeless chicken

And work on pulling some feathers.

Now, these were old hens - 5 years about- they haven't laid this year at all. So, an old hen can be tough to pluck. They were dipped in boiling water for a few seconds to make the plucking easier.
Lydia watches Aunt Hilda work on her bird.
The boys check out Mom's work.

The boys are fascinated by the project, but not jumping out to help.
Mom's got her bird pretty well plucked.
The extent of my help was holding the feet of one of the chicken when Mom first lit the newspaper to singe the hairs off the skin after plucking. Here she holds it over the smoldering fire one last time. This is just a quick thing.
Then the cleaning or "dressing". Pull out all the insides. Of course, save the heart, liver, gizzard - the good parts - for boiling and putting into the dressing. Wasn't this fun!

This is one of those shots where the situation was so cute. I took a million digital photos because I can, and I still didn't get one good one. They were watching The Cosby Show on the laptop, so there was never a picture where they were all looking at me.

Caleb entertaining everyone, reading a book about dog breeds. Hmmm... sounds fun.

Making applesauce
Caleb stuck it out till the end. After a while the other two just wanted to eat it.

I was invited to sing in a program at the Palace Theater in Hamilton. I was the Soprano Soloist, and among the arias sung was Quando Men Vo from La Boheme. I did Pilates faithfully during the two months prior to the performance so I could have all the breath support needed for this challenging piece. The two preformances went well. I was pleased with the outcome. (Listen to my favorite opera singer version of Quando sung by Ana Netrebko on Youtube)
Scott was away in Washington DC visiting his brothers this weekend. Thanks to Kathy for sitting with our sick kids during the show.

For months Lydia has been selecting her own clothes to wear, but recently she has begun selecting Joshua's clothes to wear. She'll go upstairs and choose from his drawers - usually PJs. Here she sports a pair of shorts on top.
So hard to decide. Here she tries two pairs of shorts - two legs in one hole, of course.
What to wear?
Now, if I could only do these snaps myself. You may notice that there was a cause for this mid-day clothing change. She was helping with dishes and got her shirt wet.

The little singer.

Daddy and Josh rode bikes as home teaching companions to an appointment
Great to have this sandbox close to the house. Lydia plays in it the most now.

Spending a lovely Sunday afternoon in the back yard.

Someone at the playground taught Lydia this face.

Normally, it's against the rules for anyone to play on the top bunk - because I am afraid of someone falling off. Sometimes when the boys are at school I'll pretend I don't know she's up there (until she calls me to help her down). I'm letting her practice being up there safely on her own.

Lydia games! She instinctively knew she should gallop when she climbed into this thing!
Building.
Arranging