1,431 pictures by Ivar

Ivar found my faithful, red, digital camera last week. I had lost it for a year and then found it in my golf bag after the winter. There are years of my life when this little camera never left my side. I took nearly every picture for this blog with Little Red until I got my iphone. I love that camera, and now Ivar does too. I told him how to turn it on and take a picture last week and in the six days since he has taken 1,431 pictures! I know that for certain because I just downloaded every one of those pictures onto my laptop.

Have you ever heard of Week in the Life? It's a picture project that Ali Edwards encourages all of us to do. To capture the every day, the ordinary. To see the actual life happening around us. I love the idea of this project and have tried to accomplish it in the past, but it's a big undertaking. 

But Ivar did it for me! At age five, he captured the most honest, true slice of time that I can imagine. You have no idea how many pictures he took of my hiney loading and unloading the dishwasher. And all the different Elsie outfits he documented. He took pictures of his Cars and Planes and Legos from every single angle, up close, far away. He took pictures of our cats and chickens and it is quite obvious that he adores baby Hattie. 

I didn't let him bring his camera along on any outings, but now I can't wait to have him document our trips to Target, Sunday at church, ECFE and playdates. It's so fun to see life from his perspective. (And it should be mentioned that these are my favorites combed from the thousands...and I cropped them, which is a magic touch. But other than that, these are Ivar's pictures.) He's got some unique vantage points. Enjoy!

farm kids

Yesterday we spent the afternoon moving stuff from the garage out to the barn. Then our friends showed up to deliver the post hole digger that we purchased together, our first shared implement. We have fruit trees arriving this week so it was time to start digging. It was suppertime, but Rory needed me to help decide where the next trees should be planted. So I grabbed the box of graham crackers put the baby on my lap and drove out to the orchard to find Rory and the tractor.

It was as I was bouncing around in the pick up, driving through the field with the baby on my lap that I began to feel it. We are becoming quite the legit farm family.

and now a message from hattie...

hattie6mo from Becca Groves on Vimeo.

Hattie turned six months old yesterday! SIX MONTHS!

She is the queen of the exersaucer, proud to be upright. She loves standing on our laps and looking right into our eyes, making us smile. This week she started rice cereal and loves the stuff. She talks a constant babble and makes silly sounds that make us laugh. She spends most of her time watching Ivar and Elsie, and they spend most of their time watching her. She barrel rolls all around the living room and is showing signs that crawling will be her next big trick. She continues to be calm and chill, and very happy to be alive. Hattie Joy, our joy.

early spring at the grovestead

Everything is coming to life around here. The lilac buds are growing every day. Rory and Ivar got the onions planted and the tulips are coming up the fullest yet. I'm so excited to see them bloom!

The other sure sign of spring is my sudden need to purge, clean and get rid of all of our stuff. I went through our kitchen cabinets on Saturday, rearranged everything, wiped every surface and brought a big bag of food items that we apparently never eat to the church. Then I cooked all our random almost empty boxes of noodles and our expired (!!) brown rice and gave it to the chickens who were quite thrilled with my cleaning efforts.  I love springtime. There are so many possibilities ahead. One year ago we still had the old barn standing in our yard. It's amazing all that will get done in the next six months! Goats! A Mama Garden! More fruit trees! And we just got an email that our asparagus crowns will be delivered this week. Let the games begin!

the goodest

This morning I told the kids, "Grandma and Grandpa are going to be driving to Minnesota today!" Elsie gasped and said while running towards the stairs, "Then I must wear something lovely!" She came back all ready for their arrival. Which may not even happen today, but at any rate she is ready.

Then, a few hours later, she said to me, "Mom, are we going anywhere today? Because I just look so nice." I looked at her and thought about it for a moment. We have been on lock down since Monday when Rory and Elsie were diagnosed with Strep. Then Tuesday Ivar and my throats started to hurt and our doctor called in a prescription for us too. On top of that, I woke up early Tuesday morning with the world in a tailspin, and an awful bout of vertigo. Usually the half somersault exercises will set the world right again, but this time I got way worse before I got better. Rory called his folks in a panic, as we were both out of commission and couldn't parent. His wonderful mom came for the first half of the day, tag teamed by his wonderful dad who brought dinner and watched the kids the second half of the day. Also, we believe Hattie has her first tooth coming in. She had to do something to get a little attention around here.

So when Elsie asked if we were going anywhere, I looked into her bored eyes, did the math that we have all been on antibiotics now for 48 hours and told her I'd take her out to lunch to her favorite (and mine) hoagie place for soup and a sandwich. You wouldn't want an outfit that lovely to go to waste. She clapped her hands and said to Ivar, "Oh! I am the prettiest! You are the handsomest and Mom is the goodest!"

I'll take it.

We had a really wonderful Easter. I hope you did too. I worked in the church nursery again and like getting to know all the kids in our church. I told them, "now, when you see me, you have to say hi because we're church family. So don't be shy or pretend you don't remember that I brought in my parachute, but instead say, "Hi Becca! How are you?" And I promised to say hi to them too.

Then we went out for Easter brunch with Mom and Dad Groves and Oma Zina. The five in our family and the three of them were the only family in town this year, on both sides! We went back to Marlene and Madison's and I played Elsie Monopoly, a version that keeps you on your toes with its ever-changing rules. Then Marlene hid a whole lot of eggs all over the house, filled with either candy or quarters, and two with a dollar bill, which thrilled Ivar to no end. We rested and ate pie and it was just the perfect relaxed easter for our family, especially since we were about to head into this week of strep, teething and vertigo...

The sun is coming out this afternoon and I am thrilled with how green the grass is already. The lilacs all have huge buds and are about to burst open, the song birds are back and I am again interested in learning as many bird names and bird calls as I can. It's spring in Minnesota, my family is on antibiotics, the Lord is risen, my folks are coming home today and I'm in a good mood! Can you tell?