Armadillos/Vyötiäisiä!

One day last week on my way out of the house I saw two little armadillos on our lawn, but as soon as they noticed me, they scurried off to the bushes, and I didn't even get a picture.

But I knew they were around, so I was more ready the next time we saw them, just a few days ago.



Armed with my long lens for keeping a safe distance I zoomed in and kept clicking. At some point they noticed us, but must have realized we weren't going to bother them, so they kept digging for grubs and worms.



At first we thought there were only two of them, but a third one appeared, too. Adult armadillos grow to be about a size of a cat. These were definitely young ones.



They were so neat to watch. And of course we had to google Florida armadillos, and found out some extraordinary things.

Mama Armadillo gives birth to identical armadillos every time. Boom.

They are almost blind, but have a very keen sense of smell.

When threatened, not only can they roll into a tight ball, but they can jump straight up into air four or five feet. Yikes!

They are not native to Florida, but can be found almost anywhere, and they can be quite the pests, digging up the lawn.

Armadillos can carry - are you ready for this - leprosy....!!!!!! Yes, I had no idea. Pretty horrible. As much as we enjoyed watching our little visitors, they can go away now.

To read more, click here.

Another Life In Florida experience!

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Meillä oli taas erikoisia vierailijoita pihassa!! Vyötiäisiä. Täältä voi lukea lisää. Niin mielenkiintoista kun olikin seurata heitä, vyötiäiset levittävät lepraa, eli spitaalitautia. Riski on pieni, etenkin jos emme käsittele (tai kokkaa/syö! heh), eli en ole kovin huolissani, mutta saisivat kyllä löytää uuden asuinalueen, varsinkin kun sain nämä kuvat otettua, heh heh. Mielenkiintoista oli oppia, että vyötiäisemo saa aina neloset! Me ei nähty neljättä, eikä mammaa, ehkäpä he olivat viettämässä laatuaikaa kahdestaan ;-)

Elämää Floridassa!

Life In Florida/Elämää Floridassa

For a gal who grew up in Finland, and then lived in New England for years and years, life in Florida continues to delight and freak out surprise. For the most part I/we really enjoy seeing the wild life around us, and as homeschoolers we take these opportunities to find out more about what we see.

Having baby raccoons at our Fort Desoto campsite was such an exotic experience (if I find the post, I'll link it later), and we love spotting manatees (and swimming with them!), turtles and dolphins. Seeing the sick whale washed up in Madeira Beach was sobering, yet an interesting experience - first time for me to see a whale!

Seeing snakes on our second floor deck was not a delightful discovery, at all. There will be no pictures of those creatures on our blog (and not of big hairy eight-legged creatures either, thank you very much). And yes, there have been more than one snake. Shudder. But apparently they are the good kind, locals tell me.

Anyway, let's move on. I'd rather post a cute picture of Mei Mei on the deck.



A week ago Little Miss was collection recycling and trash from the garage, when something made her jump. She quickly got Mr A to help investigate (and when I heard the commotion I showed up with my camera and long lens - of course - I knew I probably wouldn't want to get too close to whatever was in the garage.)



It was a crab! And not a small one either. Little Miss and Mr A decided to rescue it. It took quite a bit of coaxing and work to catch this creature, but they did it!



I followed my two crazy, brave kids to the river where they had decided to release the crab.



Happy crab. Happy kids. Happy mama.

There will be a part two to this post - we got to see yet something new yesterday in our yard.

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Suomalaisena, joka asui vuosikausia Uudessa Englannissa (Usan koillisosaa), elämä täällä Floridassa jaksaa kiehtoa ja kauhistuttaa. Kaikenlaisia eksoottisia otuksia on tullut nähtyä, eilenkin jotain uutta, josta seuraavaksi tulee blogiin kuvia. Mutta tämä rapu löytyi autotallistamme viime viikolla, ja rohkeat Mr A ja Pikkuneiti kävivät sen pyydystämässä ja päästämäss vapaaksi. Hullut ja rohkeat:) Minä seurasin kameran ja pitkän objektiivin kanssa, heh:)

Goodbye, April/Hyvästit huhtikuulle!

April.

April brought finals for our four dual enrolled college students.

April brought a cross-town move, too. (Which is surprisingly a ton of work! And we aren't done, yet.)



So we are tired. Really tired. Fall asleep sitting up tired.

But only Mei Mei looks cute enough for photos when tired. (You're welcome.)


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Huhtikuu toi mukanaan teinien college kevätlukukauden päätöskokeet (joo, täällä loppui college lukukausi aikaisin - lukio ei vielä), sekä muuton kaupungin toiselle puolelle. Mikä on edelleen kesken. Täällä on aika väsynyttä porukkaa. Vain Mei Meistä on söpöjä kuvia väsyneenä:)

The Month of March/Maaliskuu

My apologies for the prolonged blow silence! All is well, and at first I felt bad I hadn't blogged for so long. But when I started scrolling through my photos of the month (really! It has been a month!), I realized it has been a packed few weeks. No wonder there hasn't been time for blogging!

Plus really, I have to admit our new normal, having six kids, and especially one two year old, has limited mama's screen time, a lot:) She is a lively one, for sure!!

I thought in this post I'll share some biggies of the month, and if I get a nap time this week (yes, Mei Mei has been dropping her afternoon nap), I'll post some random pictures from March.

 


I call Little Miss one of my littles, but the truth is, she turned double digits this month! We followed her wishes, which was to have a celebration at home with everyone (which means the big kids). We squeezed in a Chinese food, cake and presents during our teens' lunch break from their dual enrollment classes at college.

We also had Grandma's Birthday, and Mumma's (Finnish grandma) Birthday this month, and Mei Mei is singing Happy Birthday every day, and offering cake with candles.




The first half of the month we had sick kids, and as everyone started feeling better, round two started... No fun. We heard a lot of friends from church were sick too, so something was definitely going around. Mei Mei especially seems to be catching a lot of colds (which was the same with Little Miss when we first brought her home from China).

 


Mr T has been involved with debate for a few months, and had a debate tournament in Atlanta during spring break. Our plan was to get in the Mothership (yay!), and make it a family road trip. Until we found out the event was held at a megachurch with a parking garage for a parking lot!!! The Captain can do a lot with the Mothership, but parking in a parking garage is a no-no. So at the last minute we improvised: rented a car, and reserved a hotel room, and made it mini family trip.

Girls were still a bit sniffly, but much better, and thought sitting through debate rounds was boring. Swimming in the hotel pool was a hit, however!




Mr T and his partner did well, and had a great time. We are so proud of you, Mr T!




Our second mini trip this month as a mini family was to St Pete Beach where we got to walk down Memory Lane. We really love going back!



Mei Mei had an evaluation for local speech therapy, or so I thought. It was with Easter Seals, and while they do assess communication, they don't really do speech therapy, or at least they don't really help with pronunciation. We found out once Mei Mei turns three years old, we might qualify for services through our local school.

The evaluation was good to do, though. Mei Mei really is doing great in her development, and it was neat to see that. She will most likely need speech therapy, but she is communicating well. So after a couple hour evaluation we found out she didn't qualify for Easter Seals!

We actually think she is hearing better, too. She is constantly complaining things are "too loud!", which they often are, in a large family.



It didn't even occur to me to get a family photo from Easter, but we did get a few pics. Mei Mei's first Easter! She figured out chocolate eggs, and plastic eggs with treats, and what to do with them. Her favorites are chocolate eggs, for sure!

We joined our church family for a Easter service in the park, and were so thankful it rained before and after, but not during the service. I have decided Easter is one of favorite days of the year - we serve a mighty God - not even death can hold Him!

He is risen indeed!


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Syy blogihiljaisuuteen on ollut hulina ja hälinä. Arki kuuden lapsen kanssa on aikamoista vipinää, etenkin vilkkaan 2-vuotiaan taaperon kanssa. Pikkuneiti täytti 10 vuotta (ja molemmilla isoäideillä on ollut synttärit tässä kuussa myös!). Sairastimme osan kuukautta, ja saimme kaksi pikkureissua mahtumaan kalenteriin myös. Ensin ajoimme Atlantaan, Georgian osavaltioon, muutamaksi päiväksi Mr T:n väittelykisaan, ja sitten teimme pikareissun St Peteen, missä asuimme ennen. Pääsiäisen vietimme hiljaisesti kotosalla, yksi vieras tuli syömään kanssamme, ja aamulla juhlimme seurakuntaperheemme kanssa ylösnoussutta Vapahtajaamme. Hän on ylösnoussut ja kuolemalla kuoleman voittanut!