Today we got up and went to Hidden Villa.  We only stayed a couple of hours because Nate had a 12:00 birthday party to go to, but it was amazing.  First we visited the chickens and their babies.

Then we saw the mama pig and the ten piglets.

I love the old buildings at the farm; especially the greenhouse.  I call it beach glass architecture because it is worn in all the right ways.

The farm cat (I think one of a few) sauntered by, and I got Willow’s bounce.  Can you see it? 

Our old friend the turtle still lives in the pond John put him in two years ago.  Some kids found him in the creek, and since he’s not native, John found him a home in the pond.  The green stuff is duckweed.

The garden was breathtaking.  The kids ate flowers (with grown up approval) and made some gourd music.  We saw a red tailed hawk, too, but the picture the kids begged for didn’t come out too well.  It was just a little smudge.

The path that goes from the parking lot to the farm (and lots of the farm, too) was really muddy from all the rain.  The girls did lots of splashing, and Willow thoroughly enjoyed herself.  Be happy you did not hear her shrieks as we took her out of the mud and carried her to the car. 

I’m so glad we went, even though on paper it seemed we didn’t have the time.

The latest audio book for the boys bedtime has been an 8 hour history of Lewis and Clark.  The fact that they are so interested in history makes it okay that Lexy learned a little about venereal disease, and that Lewis, as Lexy puts it, "either committed suicide, or else he was sleeping with a woman who was married and the husband caught them in bed together and shot him and she helped him cover it up."  He thought it was strange that the native men sometimes offered their wives to other men.  "Naked!!  Naked wives!!  With no clothes on!!"  Thankfully, he also learned that snyfullus is a really bad cold.  And that he’d better not ever ever catch it.

Heh.  That reminds me of a funny thing.  When Lex was first learning to talk, I got laryngitis.  Shortly after that, Lexy came down with a cold or something, and he said, "Mom, I have the gitis."  Of course, whenever we get sick now, we call it ‘the gitis.’  Totally unrelated, but soon to intersect, we teach the kids proper names for their body parts, but let them use whatever words (within reason, you know) they’re comfortable with.  The boys pronounce the word vagina with a b sound, and say it, "ba gitits."  Rhymes with the other gitis, which, due to it’s origin, rhymes with laryngitis.  Sophie, being younger, also says ‘bagitis,’ but when she’s referring to that part of herself, it’s her ‘bottom.’  SO when John got sick he told Sophie that he had the gitis.  She looked at him and asked, "Papa, you got the penis or the gitis??"  Maybe you had to be there. 

Good news!  Willow’s insurance has been extended.  My health coverage situation may be really cruddy, but I’ll call to check on the one little glimmer of hope I saw after reading the letter four times.  It’s enough to give you a headache.