Baby Bunnies

 

Guess what we found while doing yard work in the early Spring?  We found a nest under one of the pine trees.  There was a lot of fur, no mama, and one dead baby bunny (it looked like a broken neck and a recent kill because the body was limp).  Not far from the nest we found two babies hiding and scared silly.  So I now have two little girls exclaiming "no mama" in a way that you know it relates to them.  Being placed in this predicament, Karl said to pull out the brooding box we made last year and put them in there.

 So added to our already busy days of soccer, we were now caring for orphaned baby bunnies.

 

Every day they gave them fresh clover and water.  The bunnies were being tame for awhile, but Karl and I noticed they were starting to get rambunctious.  The two were starting to jump and reach about 2 inches from the top of the hutch.  We knew we needed to let them go.

 

After a few weeks of explaining how they are wild animals, they are not babies anymore (grow faster then people), and they were not happy being caged, they agreed to let them go.

 

To make the transition even more difficult, it was a rainy day.  This was showing their inner turmoil as they let them go.  Bella choose an area near the wild parts of our land behind the fort.  She felt it would give lots of cover and food as they readjust to being wild bunnies again. 

 

 

Then guess what happened, we found another nest, only this one was not abandoned as we saw momma coming to a fro to care for the babies.  After this picture, the next day, the nest was empty.  Either momma bunny moved them or a wild animal got them.  But now the girls think all the wild bunnies are their bunnies.

Daily Life with Keva and Nature

Christine Loves watermelon!

 

Keva Blocks are back in the spotlight again!

 

 

Going on Nature Walks to the pond.

 

Several Canadian Geese have taken up residence in the pond.

 

More turtles are around.  I found one under a pile of wood.  Karl found a snapping turtle in the garage!  I hope this will motivate a thorough cleaning which has been pushed on the back burner as we deal with our changes and closing up the school year.   

Painting in Water Colors

Working in the garden and orchard

 

Trying to teach the girls about good and bad bugs in the garden.  They thought worms were bad, "Yucky and Dirty".

 

Criselda has gotten very comfortable with the dogs now.

 

Some weeding action here!

 

Who says working in the yard has to be boring!

 

Giving the trees some organic fertilizer!

 

Look how strong I am!  Christine is an animal when it comes to working in the garden.  She can go for hours!

 

Bella spreading mulch!

 

Anton weeding.

 

I use old papers under the mulch to be a weed block.  It really cuts down on the weeding later in the season if I do this first!

Even the chickens had some time in the garden, only they were prepping the veggie garden beds for planting by flipping the soil and eating bugs.  Way to go girls!!

Busy Times

Sorry I have not been keeping up to our extended families and friends.  We have been doing a lot of growing and changing in our family.

 

The Three girls after Bella's Soccer practice one day.

 

Having fun on the swings on the fort.

 

 

We met up with some friends at the local park on a particularly warm Spring Day.

 

Afterwards we went to the grocery, "Food Store" to pick up ice cream and watermelon.  Christine loves watermelon and prays for us to not run out!

The beginning of the firsts

 

Finally home and now it's three girls in one room!  There was lots of giggles and talking which was obvious the next day when Karl took them to Bella's horse back riding lessons.

 

This time there was no Dramamine or Sea Bands.  Guess what, no car sickness!  Karl thinks it is the driving and smells of gasoline that caused the sickness.  However, we still have some Ziploc bags in the vehicles just in case!

 

First American Ice Cream!  OK, the girls are use to having purple ice cream, it's cream mixed with a purple yam.  So when Anton was asking the girls in our Skype chats what was their favorite flavors, they looked confused and drew pictures of purple ice cream on cones.  Bella brought out the ice cream on the second night.  Karl and Anton were at Scouts, and I thought we should start easy, plain vanilla.  It was truly fun to watch them eat it.  They would take a small bite, smile, shiver as it went down, giggle, them take another bite.

 

After they finished, I had them snuggle up under the big blanket while I turned on the gas fireplace to get them warm.  That was a huge first also.  Christine practically jumped out of her skin but then wanted to know how, what, why, etc.

 

 

With so much excitement and still jet lagged, the girls fell asleep talking holding hands on one twin bed.  They slept like that all night.

 

 

So, Anton eager to have another chess player in the house, tried to get Criselda to play him.  We told him it was too soon and maybe checkers would be better.  Christine has a new love, the dogs!!!  She loves them!!!

 

 

This was their first reaction to Magic School Bus.  Christine is a sponge at soaking up things and like any possible future science person, wants to know how things work.  Watching Magic School Bus was a low key, nonthreatening way to get the message across.  Christine is more nervous about her English than Criselda, but she understands more than she says.

 

 

 First snow!

 

It only took one ball from big brother for the two to catch on!

 

After about an hour, they were all chilled and coming in to get warm and dry.

Bella introduced hot chocolate with left over candy canes.

Coming Home

                                          

 

 

 

It took about two hours to get through check-in, immigration, exit fees, and security three times!  Our flight out was at 8 am, so their deer in headlights look is quite a combination of several things; leaving everything they have known, first airplane flight, not enough sleep, Dramamine, long lines, pat downs, etc.  Christine is much more the adventure girl, so she really was focused on the airplane and some fear of motion sickness.  She was the heavy puker for the car ride from Rohoboth to Manila.  I used five Ziploc bags!  Criselda is more concerned with a fear of the unknown.  Being use to being one of the leaders at the orphanage, she was out of her comfort zone.  Criselda literally clung to me for comfort and clues on what to do next.  It was a decent flight, 5 hours to Japan in which the girls slept through most of it.  To everyone's delight we all kept our cookies inside our tummies too. 

 

So a little sleepy, but only an hour and half to get through security, find our gate, experience a bathroom with multiple options that the girls had never seen before.  Yes, the hole in the floor made them gasp the first time too, which I calmly pointed to the sign on the door for the "Western styled" potty saying that is why we were waiting in this line to go.

 

 

After studying the planes waiting for our flight to board, the girls had had enough of Japan but getting psyched up for a 13 hour flight is pretty hard to do.

 

 

Eventually we got to board and found our seats.  Being through one flight, Criselda was now a little less scared, but still sleepy with a fresh dose of Dramamine.

 

 

Christine got her monkey all ready for this flight too!  Yes, being the techie girls, she had the screens all figured out from the flight before, it didn't take her long to find all the Disney movies she had yet to see like Brave!

 

Yeah!  Finally on American soil!  We spent over two hours getting through the immigration lines in order to process our daughters' immigration packets and visas.  The nice lady asked the girls to cross over the line once she had them fully in the system.  She then exclaimed, "Welcome to the US!  You are now in the country!"  However, the girls were more concerned with finding the dogs that sniff the suitcases for contraband as we saw the video about them and their training for a full hour!

 

OK, Christine looks less than thrilled.  But would you be if you had been traveling for 27 hours if you include the time from the hotel to get to the first flight.  She was also FREEZING!  her little body had not experienced weather below 60 degrees and it was a whopping 45.