Face Painting

I was watching one of Ellie's friends today and I went into another room while Nate was in the kitchen with this friend. It was quiet for a while, so I thought I would go check on them to see how things were going. As I came into the room, I saw this child with an open marker in their hand... but I knew there was no paper around. I was worried, I thought it would be the floor, the cupboards, the wall..something drawn on that shouldn't be. Sure enough, when I got close enough to see, I found the victim:

Nate was very much covered in orange marker. The thing is, he didn't even make a whimper while it was happening. He even got it on his hands and the soles of his feet....basically any skin that was exposed!
Check it out, its even on his eyelid...I'm just glad he was quick enough to close his eye while it was being "painted".

The nice thing is that it was a crayola washable marker...and it took about 2 minutes to wash it off him.

Teach me to leave markers laying about!

He's Found

We found Ron, the hamster, last night at about 2 am. Actually, he found us. We had looked all over the house for him, under anything we thought he could climb under and in all the closets. We even looked for "droppings" to see where he had been. The only place we could see any evidence that he had been there was behind the piano. We even looked in the piano, but we figured he couldn't get in there. I figured he could probably live for a while on the treats that the kids leave on the kitchen and pantry floors, but I didn't think he'd have any sources for water. I didn't think the doors had been left open long enough to allow him to escape out that way, and I didn't think he was big enough to climb the stairs (he is a dwarf hamster). Two nights ago, we left a dish of his food with cheese in it on the kitchen floor to see if he was even in the house. The next morning, we found a bite out of the cheese and some of the seeds gone. Last night, his cage out with the lid open enough for him to crawl in...with his food inside. In the middle of the night, I noticed that Joe was up. When he came back I asked what was up. He said that he found Ron. Apparently, the hamster was thirsty, so he climbed into his cage and got a drink. The ball in the bottom of the water bottle was loud enough to wake Joe up, so he went and locked down the cage. When he came back, he paused for a minute and said..."I'm trying to decide if I should just let him outside right now!"
At this point, the fact that the hamster could live undetected for 5 days is very disturbing to me. We never did find a nest where he had been living. I'm sure someday we will move a piece of furniture, or get into that box we never use and find his nest he had been using. Hopefully by then, Ron will have moved on to greener pastures.

Boys {Men} Will be Boys

On Monday, when we were spending our President's Day holiday working at the land, I took a walk up to look at our new trees to see how they were doing. I was gone for about 10 minutes. When I came back this is what I saw:
I guess, no matter what, the kids + Joe will always figure out a way to be wild, obnoxious or have fun in a less than perfectly safe way. (Oh, and Michael had the worlds biggest goose egg on his forehead from doing the above activity).

It gets better, a few minutes later this is what I see:

Yes, the kids are riding a log being pulled by the tractor. Luckily they are wearing clothes that are already ruined. I think this might lead into the infamous couch surfing that the Halls used to do!