Hermies!

We happened to pass a mall kiosk selling hermit crabs a few weeks ago, and voila, we now have a crabitat:

No, we didn't buy them that day on a whim. That's not how we do pets around here. Laura was totally interested in them, so we helped her research how to care for them and how much everything costs. She voluntarily invested some of her own money when I wouldn't spring for the extra 3 plants or the fancy half-log. So now we have 3 hermit crabs.

Meet Laura's crab: Delilah. She's not very active in the crabitat, but the bravest when we take her out to explore.

Jim's and mine is thus far unnamed. Sometimes he's Mr. Crabby Pants, sometimes Elbert. I secretly want to call him Spongebob, but that's not a show we really encourage around here. He's the most active in the tank and the only one we've seen eating anything (here he's eating an almond and has been working on it for at least an hour).  But he seems kind of nervous outside the tank, always looking for a hidey-hole.

And Adam's crab, whose name changes daily but is most often "Clocky", promptly buried himself completely the first night under the log and we assume he is molting. We hope he's still hanging in there somewhere, but it takes at least 2 weeks, sometimes months. Not much to say about his personality yet :)

We tried to find crabs with unpainted shells because it is supposed to be better for the crab, but we could only find 2 stores in the area that have crabs. One had healthy, well cared for, painted crabs, and the other had sad, dirty dead crabs. So we picked the painted ones. We read they would change their shells immediately, but so far, no one has switched. Laura watched one try out a new shell a few times (and got a good look at his icky backside. Seriously gross!), but he opted for his previous shell. Maybe when Adam's emerges, he'll try one of our offered shells. 

Nobody has been pinched yet. We watched a crab pinch the bejeebers out of the store clerk who was helping us and we promptly returned that guy back to the tank. But so far, ours are all quite friendly and will crawl across your hand without even thinking about pinching. I hope we continue to like these guys. With proper care, they might live 10 years! Um...yeah. Hope we like them. So far, so good! 

Family Reunion

Wow, it has been a crazy, wonderful week! The last of my visitors recently left and we are back to just our little family. My parents, sister, and brother, wife, and their kids were here for 6 nights of fun fun fun. I have been thinking and planning this week for a full year and was wondering how all 13 of us would fit in our house, but it seemed to work out very well. I was so amazed at how well the cousins interacted. Laura and Adam were in heaven having all the playmates around day and night! It was fun to see them mix up the combinations of age and gender and it seems like all combinations worked well. And when anyone needed a break, it worked out for them to seek out their own quiet place to recharge, including me. I just hadn't expected to be so sorry to see them go! We went to the beach, on a hike and picnic, to the MOA, and played a lot around our house. The weather was pretty nasty, with heat indexes of 100+ every day, but we mixed up our play with Wii, sprinklers, pool, beach, and morning time outside. We invited even more family over for an ice cream party one night with the Minnesota branch of my mom's family, a total of about 30 people! All this entertaining is a big deal for me. But it all turned out well and everyone seemed to enjoy the chance to catch up with each other. On the 4th, we had some kid-friendly fireworks courtesy of Jim and a total of 80 boxes of Pop-Its. It was a week of non-stop excitement, but I was amazed at how relatively stress-free it all was for me. I think it might actually be nice (in this case, with these guests) to be the host and not be the one traveling. I always thought I would dislike that role, but this week changed my mind. Thank you all for visiting, come back anytime. I truly mean it!

MOA Log Ride

Laura's old favorite roller coaster at the Mall of America was a pretty fast orange one that went all over the park. But, she has moved up to the Log Ride and all others have taken a backseat. (It sounds like we go all the time, but really, we don't. I bought a large amount of points on sale one time and we're burning through it at about the rate of one ride each per month.) 

She looks terrified, but she's always smiling at the end :)

Fun at the Beach and Barb's Parade

We had a big day today! At the beach by 8:30 AM and still watching my cousin Barb's parade at 7:30 PM! OK, its not technically her parade, but that's what we call it because she hosts a party every year and we get really good seats and lots of candy. Anyway, both kids were pooped tonight and went right to sleep. 

Goofy Family

"What would you like, ma'am?"

Pin the Wart on the Foot

Homemade piñata for the Happy No More Warts Party for Laura

Watching the Venus Transit

Picking 14 pounds of strawberries at Sam's Farm.The kids were sooooo much more help this year than years past!

Elsewhere in our yard

Native Prairie or Weed Patch??

A couple years ago I got sick of a patch of weedy grass that no one ever played in or even really looked at because it was sheltered from the road and neighbors by several spruces trees. I thought: Native Prairie!! So we covered it in black plastic for a year to kill everything and spread a seed mix appropriate for our area. Last year, we followed the directions to keep it kind of short to give the slower growing plants a chance. This year, we've let it go. I get excited every time something blooms and I have to take a picture. I hope we aren't harboring any weeds that are too noxious. So far, only a few curious questions from neighbors. No one seems too put out by they 3 foot tall unidentified plants.

We cut down a sick tree, and it became the kids' "grove". 

Chuck E. Cheese pictures #3

Chuck E. Cheese pictures #2

Chuck E. Cheese pictures #1