Kid-tested and Mother-approved?

Thomas and I broke the house in (gratefully nothing in the house was broken) with a visit from my sister and her three boys under the age of five!  It was a wild week, a full-immersion into our life of fun, occasional power outages, mud, sun, Fire Station, a visit to the neighbor's chickens (that provided our morning eggs) and even a trip to the lake and the river.

I tried to prepare for their arrival with a trip to Costco and a trip to the library.  The first evening was pretty low-key, and our second day together was a great day for exploring around the property and making tia bread.  There were numerous trips to the pond to see the frogs, that somehow heard us coming, so we mostly saw the splash they made jumping away from us.

The second day ended with quite a surprise - a power outage from 6 - 7:30 pm.  The rice finished cooking on the wood stove, but the tia bread didn't really get to bake long enough.  After a dinner of tuna sandwiches and coloring by lantern/candle light, the boys were grateful that when the lights came back on in time for bed time.

These boys love to read, and I found some winners.

Wednesday we visited the lake and the fire station.  Thomas took the boys for a ride, and I dressed them up in hats and bunker gear.  Maybe I can get pictures from my sister, as my camera battery chose a bad time to die on me.

These boys wandered around with grocery bags picking up all sorts of treasures: 

rocks, pistachio shells, dead crawdads, sticks, and shells.

Admittedly, their mom and tia picked up a few rocks, too.

Baby Isaac enjoyed the lake...the only one to bear his toes and walk in, though the others got a little wet in the pursuit of their treasures.

So poetic - a pair of men waxing romantic under a tree about all sorts of life's ponderances.

Our last day all together we went to the river for a picnic.  The boys just love being out in nature.
  

I'd made the boys some capes, though I hadn't finished them all.  During nap time, I was able to finish the rest.

super hero or villain - either way he didn't feel like napping, so....

he helped his tia sew.

It was sad to see this wild bunch go, though I am glad they got out before the rain and snow the next morning.  I moped around for the weekend, which is pretty normal for me after company leaves, though with the weather being snowy, it made for a perfect restful movie-marathon by the wood stove.

A parting gift - watering the grass before hitting the road!