Lovely, Lazy Summer Days

We are having a great summer with Jake and Sarah!  I know there haven't been many posts or pictures to let you all know this...but that is because we are too busy enjoying our family time to POST the pictures! 

Admitedly, we have not gone a lot of places or done a ton of interesting things.  Josh works more than half the time, so we are often at home....but what rich times we are having together!  The little boys love Jake and Sarah so much!  These two pictures were from the first night they arrived...it was as if no time had passed at all!  The closeness these four share, despite enduring months apart, is priceless.

One thing we did even while Grandma Barb was here, was test the theory that if you set out a bowl of sugar, the small black and yellow Bananaquits would flock to it.  On the first day, we had two.  On the second day, about six....by the third day....probably close to TWO HUNDRED birds!!!  They would roost in the trees and on the balcony furniture, waiting for their turn at the bowl.  It was incredible!!!  We were all mesmerized and hope these pictures capture a little of it.  (After a few days of cleaning up bird poop, we decided to stop putting the sugar bowl out!)

The sugar even attracted the much larger and more musical Troupial!

 Most of you know about our hermit crab adventure with Pete and Paul.  Well, on our walks to the beach lot near our house one night, we found dozens of smaller crabs and Jack insisted on bringing them all home (held in Mommy's shirt!).  We had to put them into two big containers and when we counted...we saw we had about 40 crabs!  We had some empty shells that were decorations here and Jack got to see a crab leave its own shell and go into the new shell...right before our eyes!  However, we realized these guys need to be free to find their own food and new shells, so the next day we let them all go....even our beloved Pete and Paul.  Jack occasionally says during the day, "I miss Pete and Paul, Mom."  We all do.  We've never found a crab even close to the size of King Paul!  (One last hermit crab post to come....)

 The tiniest hermit crabs look almost like little spiders.  Jack thought it was hilarious that they would hold on and climb up his shirt!

The boys love to do whatever the big kids do.  Sarah, our music lover, enjoys listening to Music Inspired by The Story (which we highly recommend) and she is happy to let Jack listen in, too.

 We all like to sit and laugh at George's silly antics!

 Jack loves his big sister...and the two of them spend lots of time at the desk, drawing and coloring together.

 Jake is our chef!  He just lights up when he is in the kitchen, or pouring over recipes and planning  meals.  So we let him go to it!  His other great love is Brian Jacques' "Redwall" books.  After reading that they were great books for teens (especially those interested in animal fantasy, which Jake LOVES), we started him on the books last summer.  There are 22 in the series and now - after earning allowance last summer and getting them as birthday gifts...he owns all of them!  The first thing he ever told us that he loved about the books, was the descriptions of the food.  He said he'd never read a book with such vivid explanations of tastes and appearances.  We researched and found out that this was for two reasons.  1) Brian Jacques grew up in war-torn England after the Second World War and he was often hungry.  He loved to read, but he was always disappointed when authors just left it at "...and the knight rode off after a sumptuous feast...", with no description of the foods!  2) Brian Jacques used to be a milk delivery man and one of his favorite stops was at a school for blind children.  He would stop and tell them stories and, knowing that descriptions of sights would mean nothing to them, decided his stories would be rich with descriptions of tastes, smells and textures.  Jake is just passionate about these books...and we are all sad that Brian Jacques died, so there will be no more Redwall books.  However....I was delighted to find that there was a Redwall Cookbook!!!!!  We bought it for his Christmas present, and he has been happily picking out recipes all summer!  We've already had "Shrimp and Hotroot soup" (which he is making below), "Savory Carrot cakes" and other things. 

And...he's decided that the British custom of afternoon tea is too delightful to skip, just because we are 21st century Americans!  So...we've instituted afternoon tea time.  Jake made "Autumn Oat Favourites" (oat crisp cookies) and we all enjoyed them with some tea (or hot chocolate for Sarah and Jack and George)!  We like this new tradition!

The Brothers... 

On our evening walks...

 Throwing rocks into the sea...

Building a castle...

Sarah has expressed an interest in learning calligraphy...something I was taught when I was in 5th grade.  So, we dove in...and she is writing BEAUTIFULLY already!  She is a natural!

A little one can always be found close to a big kid!

 The thing we do most (aside from talking and just enjoying each other) is read!  We are a family of readers and books can be found scattered throughout the whole house.  We read our Bibles together, we read missionary stories, we each have our own favorite books to read and we really enjoy reading aloud books together as a family.  This summer, we've read some great missionary stories, Treasures in the Snow by Patricia St. John and we are currently reading another of her works, Twice Freed - a novel about the slave Onesimus who is mentioned in the New Testament book of Philemon.  It has really made this era of history and the new Christian church come alive!  Patricia St. John's books are wonderful - perfectly suited to be read aloud and enjoyed by parents and kids.

 Though we've decided not to keep any more hermit crabs, we still like to look for them and take pictures of interesting ones. 

Jake and Sarah aren't huge fans of the crabs, but they've both gotten used to them and even pick them up occassionally!

 Sarah will only touch the teeny tiny ones!

 We've discovered a new beach on the northwest point of the island with calm, clear waters - perfect for Josh's beloved pasttime of paddle boarding!  Jack loves to go out with Daddy and even loves to "snorkel" and look for fish.  He is a fish himself and is very comfortable in the water. 

 Jake and I both tried to paddle board....he had a little more success than I did.  Though on his first try, he forgot to get the paddle and almost floated out to sea!  (Just kidding, he wasn't far and he was able to paddle back to shore.) 

 Though Sarah did get in the water a little since it is clear, she prefers to sit on the beach quilt and read or observe from afar! 

And Georgie, always at home by the sea, likes to take naps on the quilt!

 Another fun thing we got to do recently was have a small birthday party for our friend Sebastiaan.  You may remember him from other posts of our Sundays at the Siloam orphanage.  He is the good buddy of Jack and George, and he turned 10 on July 3rd.  So, we had his whole family over for a pool party.  The kids all had fun with dozens of balloons we had blown up in the house!

 Bas enjoyed his birthday cake (which we had to move inside so the wind wouldn't blow out his candles)!

 And so did Sharon and George!

We have more things planned before we head to Ohio on July 24th...so stay tuned!  We are so grateful for these beautiful summer days we get to spend together as a family.