my boys

I'm sure you're wondering, like we were, how the boys are doing back home just halfway through our trip. Hunter is with my friend Ashley and her family of eight children on lots of land out in the country. He's having a grand time and probably won't want to come home with us when we go to pick him up.

I thought I would share some parts of the emails I'm getting from home (plus I'm too tired to do justice to our BEST DAY YET today, so that will have to happen tomorrow). And you can see a glimpse of what great friends I have:

Your one boy is fitting in perfectly. No trouble!!

He is in charge of feeding and watering the chickens. (doing a great job) And he and Weston bottle the baby goats. Fun!

Hunter has also taken on the "egg collecting" each day. We have showed him where to put them in the fridge. He lets me know each night how many he gathered. Very proudly. The first day he gathered 3 at one time. Weston put 2 of them in the fridge and Hunter kept one in his shirt. He came to me and asked if he could keep this one egg. I asked him what he wanted to do with it. His reply, " I would like to hatch it into a baby chick!"

Of course, what was I thinking?!

Thursday, it was nice enough to go Eagle's landing and they all decided to take a dip in the very cold water - melted snow.

He loves wrestling Caleb. It is hilarious. He thinks he is all tough and courageous to go after Caleb. He yells to everyone else, "I caught him!!" And then Caleb carries him off and the wrestling begins. Lots of laughter.

There is no sadness. I know he misses you and the brothers but so far he has stayed pretty busy and has not had time to think about it. He has been a real joy and goes with our family's flow. So glad we were able to keep him with us.

Here's portions of emails from my friend Christa who has Sauce, Rufus, and Squirt. I was particularly anxious to see how she was getting along since her husband happens to be in Taiwan all week:

Your boys are awesome. They miss you (they mention you more than Kenyon)! Squirt has been so stinking sweet. He has been a trooper and has rarely fussed at all. He is definitely attached to me, but I like it! He loves playing with balls and seems to have a ball in his hand more than anything else. He has been taking extremely long naps - I think he is dreaming of mommy and daddy and doesn't want to wake.

And, he eats a ton! So far, Sawyer and Squirt are out-eating Sauce and Rufus. It has been snowing - I hate it! But, the boys seem to like it because that means they get to play the Wii. They told me to try to talk you guys into getting one. I am pretty sure Sauce will play college golf. He is amazing at the golf game. Just so you know, I am limiting the time spent on the Wii because I think Sauce could play all day - just switching from baseball to golf.

Rufus is missing you guys the most. He had a meltdown yesterday evening and asked for mom. He got over it pretty fast, but I think he was just tired. He's excited about school tomorrow and really excited about the fact that he remembered his lunch box and gets to take it to school. All the boys went to MOPS with me on Friday and Rufus was in a class with his friend, Colin, from school. His mom Paige sits at my MOPS table and says she knows you from their school. Rufus thought that was cool.

To end, here is a conversation we had over lunch.
Rufus: "Do high school kids do stuff?"
Sauce: "Yes, Rufus. They skateboard and snowboard."
Rufus: "Do they eat food?"
Me: "They pretty much do what all of us do. Some things are different. They have more freedom but they still have to do what their parents say."
Sauce: "I thought high school kids could do whatever they want."

I think I ended with something about kids around here thinking that is the case but that the Sweeney and Anderson kids will have to listen to their parents. Your boys are fun and full of life!

And, the conversation of the next day:
Me: "What is your most favorite fruit?"
Sauce: "I like Cantelope."
Me: "I think my favorite is watermelon."
Rufus: "My favorite is fruit snacks."

I thought you all would appreciate these email snippets almost as much as we did here in Ireland. We had a day and a half of free time today and rented a car with four other friends on the trip and went up to Northern Ireland, Belfast and the North Atlantic coast.

So many pictures and so much to say, but it's 1:15 a.m. here and I must force myself to close the laptop and go to sleep. I'll post tomorrow.