our sweet little…

Hogwart’s hopeful…maybe?!

For a few nights last week, Danielle insisted on going to bed with her cat and broom. Two possible explanations: 1) She has actually been listening to us read Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets and aspires to attend Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, or 2) She just really loves cats and dreams of being an avid sweeper someday (not a janitor, just a tidy homemaker of course). :-) Hmmmm – I’m hoping for the latter…and that she starts practicing REAL SOON!

to infinity…

…and BEYOND!!!

A little cardboard and colored duct tape sure makes a happy Buzz “LightBob”! :)

your first time in the sprinkler…

our peeps arrived…

and all twenty survived. Yay! There are some Banties, Brown Leghorns, Anconas and Barred Rocks.

As you can see, they were all passed out asleep when they arrived.

If playing mother hen comes easy for anyone, it will be Abby. She jumped right in there and started taking care of them immediately.

Danielle’s method of petting them is more like paintbrushes on a canvas – fingertips only.

And Jadon still keeps his distance in fear of a good pecking (which they don’t peck and hopefully with enough early handling they won’t).

This itty bitty one is named Tinker Bell. It is about one-third the size of the rest. With a name like Tinker Bell, hopefully it will be a girl. :)

But the kids all love to watch them and take care of them. So far they have loved squash, peaches, apples, spinach and celery.

It will be interesting to see how they do at camp next week. All twenty will be going with all five of us! It should be a lot of fun!

And the best part will be the fresh eggs!! I can’t wait!!

This guy showed up yesterday too. He devoured some of the bread the chickens shared with him. He even came back today.

I loved this picture because you can see his tongue. Isn’t it weird to see a moist tongue amongst all that dry scaley skin?!

yoHO, yoHO…

…it’s a pirate’s life for me! Well, it was for Memorial Day anyway. :) We decided to get out and have some fun – and boy did we! :)

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This was a first for all three of the kids and by the last hole I’d say they pretty much had it figured out (in spite of each other).

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Bryan showed them all he knew…

…and I smiled and nodded while they both aimed like it was baseball and hit it off the green. :) But as we proceeded they quickly got the hang of it. If I didn’t know better I’d say there were a couple of trick shots in the last video!

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In the videos you will see how Jadon “won” every hole!

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I think he screamed and hollered at each one but the last one. He really thought something was wrong when that ball just disappeared.

And Danielle couldn’t quite figure it out either.

Luckily we beat the crowd and had a wonderful time! After our little round of put-put we decided to go for a bite to eat and our top three choices in restaurants were closed! Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either. It’s just one teeny weeny down side to small town life. But we ended up at Cracker Barrel and went home for a movie – you can’t beat that.

i suppose finding a snake skin…

is definitely better than finding the actual snake – a live one anyway. Of course it does mean that he’s still out there.

When stretched all the way out this guy is a couple of inches taller than me!

we prefer the functionality of our wellies…

…over fashion any day.

not a single one flew the coop…

…or sadly enough even had a chance to hatch. :( The eggs were there one day, gone the next. According to what I read it could have been a crow, blue jay, chipmunk, weasel, squirrel, skunk, raccoon, snake, small rodent, cat, or bird of prey.

Ummm, seeing as how this nest is right outside my bedroom window I would be really happy to know it was NOT at least four of those options!

i’d like to say…

…that my blogging absence is due to a lavish world vacation packed full of spa treatments, high class meals, and guided tours of the most coveted places. But I can’t. For some reason my conscience won’t allow me. :)

But just to plead my case, I have been doing a little spring cleaning, attempting to organize in general, finish the school year, plan next year, plan a birthday party, host a congregational get together, work on my flower beds and the list goes on!

But I have a lot to catch up on so hang tight! :)

we’ve got babies on the way…

…baby birds that is.

The awning outside our bedroom window has become the nesting place for a pair of Eastern Phoebes. If you look close, you can see a lot of horse hair they used on the inside of the nest. According to what I’ve read, it only takes a couple of weeks for the eggs to hatch and then a couple more and they’re gone (the babies anyway). They can have three or four broods before they leave again in the fall. It will be exciting to watch. Who knows, maybe we’ll get a cowbird egg in there. :)