Camels and other surprises

The other Saturday morning I was sitting in my room reading when Teddy and Goldie came running in saying they saw a truck drive by. With a camel in it.

!!!

I told them it probably wasn't a camel. Maybe a horse. Or possibly a llama?

But then I went outside, and sure enough there was a camel being unloaded from a truck at our neighbor's house! Along with a whole bunch of other animals. And our neighbor called out, "It's Winnie's birthday party! Get your kids and come over!"

Well, we didn't need to be asked twice. 

They had so many fun animals! Daisy got to hold a wallaroo (I don't even know what that is…kangaroo + wallaby maybe?). They had a wallaby too. And ponies, a baby calf, a hedgehog, a chinchilla, chickens, ducks, bunnies, a pig…it was amazing.

A bunny for Teddy

A pig for Junie

We brought Gus over and he was quite pleased.

He liked this sheep. (One second after this picture was taken, he leaned down and BIT it! Right on the back!)

He tolerated sitting on this pony.

And he had fun chasing these ducks. 

Ziggy was a tiny bit nervous about petting the animals. He held back behind his sisters a bit…

but eventually became braver. After a couple hours he was an animal-petting machine!

But the camel! It patiently gave rides all morning, up and down the street. Who would have ever thought the kids would get to ride on a camel! It was so cool.

Other than the dizzying excitement of the animal birthday party, here are some other things we've been doing:

Daisy and Junie haven't dressed alike that much for a little while, but recently they made up for it by wearing everything exactly the same for an entire week. Right down to the strands of hair escaping from their braids! As if it weren't hard enough for me to get their names right.

Windy day—Daisy trying unsuccessfully to fly a kite while Goldie throws her blankie in the air.

There was a man using a leaf-blower across the street and Gus stood at the window and watched him, totally fascinated, for 20 minutes.

The weather has been all over the place. Here is the snowy hill.

Gussie being tickled and Ziggy looking on, amused

A nice day—nice enough to swing!

Cold day for snuggling on the porch swing

Our ward has started having Primary over Zoom, which is…interesting. But cute. Ziggy's Sunbeam teachers brought over this little sunbeam sign for him to hold up during introductions. Instead, he held it up dutifully for the entire meeting. It was the cutest thing ever.

Another of Zig's winning outfits. Two hats (bear hat/tricorne hat). And big "glubs," as always.

Sleepy Gus.

Excited Gus.

I was so happy to see the sun coming in through this little window in my room! I have prisms hanging up there, but the sun doesn't come in that way through most of the winter. But one day the angle had changed enough that we saw rainbows on the wall for about 15 minutes. Hooray!

Do you want to know what Gus' first word was? POKE. That's what. He said it while he was poking Sam. So I guess it's only fitting that he loves reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Every baby loves to poke his finger in those little holes! You can see that Gus has his poking finger all out and ready.

Boys licking the beaters at Grandma's house

Junie with a stack of duct tape on her arm

Headphone twins

Ready for church!

We are learning about the Revolutionary War for homeschool right now. We played a game where I timed the kids dressing up as minutemen and racing each other around the house. Super fun.

Also fun: Gus and Goldie playing some game where they…give each other…a sock??

Very fun.

Hot cocoa bar for Family Home Evening. (The bag of bunny food on the counter isn't part of it.)

Ziggy wearing a bear hat. Over his face.

The weather was SO beautiful for almost a week. Sam and I went out for date night one night and left the kids having a pizza picnic on the hill. It all looks fairly innocent and above-board…

until you see this baby Gus holding AN ENTIRE PIECE OF PIZZA! Not good!

And we'll end with a few more pictures of Gus, running into his sisters' arms and chortling and looking entirely more like a little boy than he ought to!