Chloe and "Pepper". Avery found this little catipiller at church while Daddy helped work on the new building. Chloe carried him around all day, then he quickly spun into a cocoon while she napped. We weren't sure that he was totally ready, but we think he was scared for his life after being handled so much. Hopefully he'll make his great change for us to see:)

Blue Velvet. This beautiful damsel fish came with our tank. He is fast, spunky, and has the most beautiful colorings. However, he's a tank dominator! He tends to be a bit agressive, so we had to carefully choose his tankmates. Thankfully our aquarium man helped us make good choices of fish that will stand up to him. Now that they are all settled, the others have to stand their ground, but everything is going well and we're enjoying our little beauties.

Avery's choice was a piar of these blennies. Fireball and Firecracker team up to run Blue Velvet away when he's bothering them. We love thier little fins that they raise up and down as they move about.

This little fella was AJ's choice. He's a beautiful purple and yellow, the picture doesn't do him justice:) We had to pick fish that could really stand their ground because Blue Velvet is a bit of a dominator. This little guy will take a little pushing, but then opens his mouth almost as wide as his head is big and gives it right back to BV when he's bad. We're still waiting on a name, AJ remembers there being this type of a fish in the tank with Nemo. Anyone remember his name???

Chloe's fishy Rhinomey. This little guy isn't as colorful as the others, but with his little horn and his rhino looks, he's a winner with Chlo-lo!

Happy Easter! We chose not to celebrate Easter with the typical Easter baskets of candy, but instead treated the kids to a small saltwater aquarium. It's a used, but well established tank, that has been wonderfully easy thus far:) Happy Easter and Praise God our Christ is risen indeed!

Auntie Danielle and Uncle Kyle come for a visit. Can't believe my brother is now driving and my 8 yr old sister is nearly as tall as I am! Life goes by way too quickly!

Anthony and birthday, Chloe. Happy 2nd birthday to Chloe!!

Good Morning to You!! We were shocked to look out our window in March and find these visitors eating Avery's clover! I had just planted veggies in the other 3 garden boxes the day before, and was shocked to find that this deer family left all the tender new veggies alone and went for Avery's cover crop of clover! Now we've had quite a variety of animals visit...copperhead snake, box turtle, red fox, and now deer:) Yeah! Let's just hope they continue to steer clear of the fruits and veggies!

Cute shot of the kids:) Gotta love em:)

Sweet Chloe is 2!

Beautiful Avery 6.5.

AJ is now 8!!

One of AJ's assignments for yesterday was to write a short poem. It needed to have three rhyming couplets and was to be about a chicken. He groaned, fussed and complained. Mind you this is the first poem he has ever had to write. So, after much brainstorming and laughter, here is his masterpiece...

My Chicken

Oh how I love my chicken.

He is so finger licken.

My chickens have two beaks.

When they poop it really reaks.

My chickens have a coup.

In there it smells like poop.

I really thought we had past the oral/anal focal stage:) Guess not!

AJ and Avery standing on a mountain of snow. While visiting in Ohio in March, we had a blizzard! 13 inches of beautiful snow! We were thrilled...till it cracked my van's front winshield:( Anyway, the kids totally enjoyed all the snow and snow play.

Grandma Bic and her amazing idea to keep dry in the snow...garbage bags over your shoes and up your legs! By the end of it, we all had our own pair to keep dry while digging out of the snow!

Chloe in one of her favorite morning outfits...a hairbow and heels:)

A nice family shot at The Ft. Fisher Aquarium.

Avery, Anthony, Chloe, and AJ take a stroll. Note the new haircut Anthony is sporting...it was a bit of a misunderstanding, but it's here to stay:) He had gotten a bad cut, where they left it "bushy" around the sides. He said to me, "Take it all off"....meaning the bushiness, but I did as he said and after the first strip down the middle, he was a bit stunned and said, "Hey! You shaved my head!". The kids were a bit freaked out the first day. AJ actually screamed and hid from him! We're all used to it now and he's okay with it now too:)

Little Yellow and Black frog

Crabbie!

Avery, Chloe, and AJ view the tank from the tunnel. They have a neat little cove you can crawl into and it makes it seem like you are in this two story tank.

With homeschooling, we were able to visit the Ft. Fisher aquarium during the week. Our kids were the only kids there, so got ALL the volunteer's attention. They were able to touch so many creatures in the touch tanks, as well as ask tons of questions and learn so many neat things. We later went to the beach where we found some exoskeletans of the horseshoe crabs...something we had just learned about at the aquarium.

AJ braves the alligator statue. It looked so real!

An octapus at the Ft. Fisher aquarium