Summer so far

• We sold our chickens the day after Memorial Day. We ended up with 92 (of 104) so we had a much better year than last year. The weather helped a lot as they were able to be outside a lot more. I would like to give special recognition to the HUGE rooster that decided to die around 9pm on Monday night, approx. 10 hours before they left the place......he looked just fine at like 7pm when I was back there. Stupid, stupid birds. They were a perfect size and all much closer to the average weight (5.5lbs) this year than last, when our range was anywhere from 4.5-9 lbs and I think the average was over 6.5lbs. For the last few weeks they were eating a 50# bag of feed a day. Yikes. We kept a bunch for ourselves and easily sold the rest! 

• Both boys had dentist appointments. This was Levi's first time visiting the dentist. When I first took Charlie when he turned 3, I remember being stressed about whether or not he would cooperate, etc. Doctor appointments, dentist visits, hair cuts, other activities all seem a bit easier to get Levi on board for because he wants to be like Charlie or Charlie has that been there, done that attitude and assures Levi it will be fine. It may be a bit more chaotic hauling everyone in at the same time, but it's worth it! The dentist appointments went great. They sent the kids little letters and a picture of them with the dentist and it was a nice little follow up. Levi is especially proud of this.

• Charlie still rises with the sun. Meaning he's been waking up earlier & earlier as the days get longer. But he goes to bed quickly at night time, so whatever. He also is practically begging for nap time come 12:30. I think no nap time will be his most difficult transition for kindergarten!
• Charlie learned how to ride his bike! We bought him a little used bike last summer and bought training wheels for it. But they didn't really fit right and there was no place for him to ride at our house. He would quickly get frustrated and we tried convincing him that it would be easier to just forget about the training wheels. One day he was playing around with the bike and this time he was kind of getting it (sans training wheels). He went a few times for a few feet and it was so fun to see his confidence increase with each success.  Grandma was up visiting and he was showing of to her and she offered to buy him the next size bike because the other one was pretty small by now. The new bike came with training wheels but we just took them off immediately as it is more difficult with them on the gravel I think. He took right off and has spent hours riding his bike up and down the short driveway. It's pretty crazy how quickly he caught on once it finally clicked.

• He is now obsessed with riding bike and asks all day long to go for bike rides. We bought a used bike trailer so that we can all go along. 
• We spent a week down at the red farm while Erik was at National Sales mtg. We stayed busy helping grandpa & ryan with chores,  riding Sue's horses and visiting Great Grandma, playing with Haiden, checking on Tyler's pigs, visiting baby Emily and getting up way too early.  

•  Right before we left for our "vacation" to the red farm, we put our house on the market. Pretty much every spare moment the 3 weeks prior to that was spent cleaning, organizing, or fixing in preparation for that. We figured by going to the red farm we would avoid having to clean for any showings. We've had a few showings but we're still waiting...

• I had to work the first week in June for pretty much the first time since Nora was born. Not a fan. Gma got her to take a bottle 1x and then after that Nora decided that was a really terrible idea and refused. 
• Lots and lots of trips to various parks in various towns.

• The boys are obsessed with eating outside (encouraged by me - less clean up that way!). They are also loving any meals served on a stick (almost daily fruit kabobs around here) or in a muffin tin. I always thought muffin tin meals seemed like such a fun idea but I just envisioned Charlie freaking out about lunch NOT being on a plate. But he must be lightening up a bit because he loves it. It's a great way to clean out the fridge too and give them a bit of everything. 

• Levi's imagination is awesome. It is a little scary to think about how quickly he can throw out answers about his imaginary play. He has 100 pigs & sheep in the shed and milk cows, heifers and calves. They have names and he feeds them all of the time. His friends Jessi Pepper & Tiffany help him with chores when he's not home or he will just "do it when he gets home". He's always checking in with his grandpas on the phone or taking his tractor to pick up items for his animals.