Rainbow Days

Time marches on! I can't believe we're already in full summer. We saw the most beautiful double rainbow a few weeks ago, right over our beautiful yellow house. It felt amazing and spectacular and like some special sign just for us. A few snapshots of these days:

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• Abe and Gussie and a bear.

• Gus with…a pacifier? He hasn't actually been fond of the pacifier, nor has he started sucking his thumb…how strange! The last six children have all sucked either thumb or fingers. Anyway, the girls found this pacifier and gave it to him and he chewed on it thoughtfully for awhile, so they proudly took a picture.

• Seb holding all four of his younger brothers on his lap. I'm amazed no one protested.

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A long-legged frog. Are his legs getting a little fatter? I like to think so.

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• Junie after taking her hair out of a bun.

• Goldie with roses in my mom's yard, when she got to stay overnight at my mom's house. We had hardly gotten to see my mom through quarantine, so she had the younger kids sleep over in sets of two. They LOVED it!

• Post-shower girls.

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• Gus eating a foot. He has two teeth now, so I'm surprised it doesn't hurt him! Serves him right if it does, though.

• Inexplicable bunny ears

• Clasped baby hands

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Oh, Ziggy. Who is this boy going to be? He is utterly…I don't even know. Monkeyish and incorrigable. His cheek is scratched (this time) from falling off the porch into a rosebush.

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• Sweet little lambie in a lambie suit. 

• Sweet little lambie in the act of coming out the neck of his gown. This feat has not yet ceased to amaze me.

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I love where we live so much, and I love this time of year! It is almost constantly beautiful outside, especially in the evenings. I can't get enough!

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Boys and some things they do:

• Teddy with the rubber-band-powered Mars Rover he made. He's just so in love with Mars Rovers, I can't stand how cute it is. Such a HAPPY Mars Rover, too!

• Ziggy "working" very seriously on the fire hydrant near our house. He does this for hours. With or without pants.

• A bunch of things some monkey planted in one of our flower pots. Note the screw among all the sticks. Think they will grow?

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Siblings. Aren't my kids lucky to have each other? Sometimes they fight and quarrel so much that I forget what a blessing a big family is and will be to them. But it IS! They snuggle, giggle, go on adventures together, make up the weirdest little games…it's wonderful.

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• Sam playing with his girls on Father's Day. He's the best.

• Seb jumping over dirt hills on his bike—which has become a new obsession. He's getting good at it! I am constantly being asked to come outside and watch his latest tricks.

• More beautiful skies and clouds 

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Longest Day of the Year! Here is the sky at 5:23 a.m., and then during our campfire at 9:11 p.m.  I have more pictures of this to post later.

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A little more about this amazing Seb: I'm in awe of the way he gets excited about something…and then WORKS like crazy at it. Remember all his homemade drum sets? And his aspirations to buy a real one someday? He has been saving up since the beginning of the year, doing odd jobs and yard work for neighbors and mowing lawns. I thought it would take him AGES to have enough for a drum set (and I was okay with that…fearing for our collective household noise level…), but he found a used one in the classifieds, and the price was right! I've hardly ever seen him happier than the night we brought it home in the van. How could I forbid what he'd worked so hard for? And he has been so great with it, asking me for a list of times of day it was okay to play, and sticking quite strictly to it. He still practices rudiments and stick control faithfully for an hour every day—it's crazy! What kind of person does that instead of just rocking out to his favorite songs? :) 

These days are good. We are blessed.