Easter Peeps

     I feel like we've been living and thinking chickens for two months now!  We got two dozen fertile eggs from a local farmer and split them between us and three other families to hatch.  We made our own incubator and began the 21 day waiting game.

We candled the eggs after 7 days and then again on day 14.  We thought we could see the "eye" but we weren't sure.  The other families said they could see movement after 14, so we were excited!

Well, much to my girls' disappointment, our eggs did not hatch.  Each of the other families got three or four chicks.  So we were anxiously watching while getting the texts from everyone else.  We even waited two extra days just in case ours were just late.  But after the last possible hatch day Jason broke the eggs to see what happened and there was little to nothing inside any if ours.  We decided there must have been a temperature spike in our incubator early on.

We were happy that if anyone's did not hatch it was ours instead of the ones we gave to other people!  So we went and played with everyone else's chicks.  And we went and got another 24 from the farmer to try again.

     In the meantime, we waited on the other families to get tired of the chicks and give them to us.  We got them after about two weeks.  Tink was not amused.  She is both jealous of and protective of the chicks.  We can't decide if the protective part is motherly or "this could be food."  So we keep a close watch on her around the chicks.

Finally all 11 if the babies were together!

We all got a big surprise with our second batch!  The day before hatch day,  Celee and I both had heard chirping and after listening, decided it was birds outside.  Then later she went in to look in the incubator and there was a little peep all the way out!  We didn't even know it was hatching!  Soon after another one pipped out.

Tink wanted to know what was making that chirping sound!

So now we have two more tiny peeps, Peep and Cookie.  One other batch has also hatched three more, and we're still waiting on the last two batches.  But we did decide that we did not get enough Buff Orpingtons (the gold chicks) so we went and bought eight babies today. At least the store-bought ones are supposed to be hens.  

We are definitely up to the ears in chickens!  In a few weeks though they'll all be outside all the time. Until then, the peeps live upstairs (because they aren't as stinky) and the awkward Tweens live in the basement.

And so starts our little homestead!

Fat Tuesday to St.Patrick's Day

We decided to make our own Mardis Gras masks this year. I kinda expected the usual "a kid made that" look to the masks.  The girls once again surprised me though.  They did a great job with coloring, putting sequins on, and placing the feathers.  We tried to set the mood by listening to Cajun music, but we could only handle so much zydeco.  We switched over to jazz with a lot more success.

Celee wasn't satisfied just making a mask.  She decided to dress up like a "tourist" too.

This may be a "you had to be there" picture but it cracks me up.  Lyla was being very much Lyla on this day.  She insisted on wearing shorts and sandals complete with her Don't Mess With Texas shirt.  We kept asking her if her name was Texas for the day.  It certainly seemed to fit that day.

It was warm and sunny last weekend so the girls were able to get their bikes out for the first time in this house!  Lyla decided she was too big for training wheels, so off they came.  She is persistent if anything else.  She kept trying and kept trying and she got it.  There were some scrapes, but she's an official two-wheeler now!

     The girls have been playing soccer, when the snow days don't mess up the schedule that is.  They happen to all be on yellow teams this year.  Gwyn and Celee play together though.  We were getting a little upset about the mood of the two older teams.  They felt very "stacked."  And when there's only 2 teams that play each other week after week, little things that would normally be shrugged off add up.  So I finally complained, in a nice way I think.  And now their teams will be divided up each week based on who is there to play scrimmage games (is that the right term?  I have no idea.)  which seemed to be a lot more fun this week than previously just getting creamed time after time.

     Lyla's team is just out there having fun anyway.  This is her first time to actually play soccer so she's doing really well.  As long as she isn't caught talking to people while she's the goalie and lets balls go by.  

We've had some nicer weather lately, so we've been getting outside as much as possible. It all reminds me of this video

 

    

      My lovely friend Rhea invited us to go on a field trip with her son's class to the Maryland Historical Society.  The topic was the War of 1812, which we are getting to in about 2 weeks so it was perfect!  I love love love getting to do hands-on history and giving kids a chance to examine primary sources.  All the kids in the group were very observant and made a lot of poignant conclusions based on the paintings, tools, newspapers, furniture, etc. from Baltimore around 1812.  Celee and Lyla even got to try their hand at caulking a ship!  I love the Historical Society!  And I love that we get to go there for much less than the usual price when we go with Lamb of God school trips.

 
We hadn't been into the city for a long time, so after we left the Historical Society we headed to Fells Point to explore.  It was a little nippy, but we found a warm spot on a huge cement seat in the sun.  We walked around and looked in all the cool little shops, the comic book shop being the girls' favorite.  Then we channeled the hipster vibe of the area, got our "coffee" in a very low-key but trendy coffee shop and sat out to enjoy the sun.  On a side note - the coffee shop actually had bacon-flavored syrup.  The baristo assured me that it tastes more smokey than bacony, and was actually better than it sounds.  Maybe I'll try that a different day.

     It's been warm enough on a few nights to have a bon fire.  Lyla had a friend over, so we broke out the glow necklaces and had a campfire.

   Then it was St.Patrick's Day.  I've been feeling guilty lately that I haven't done enough "fun" stuff with the girls.  I feel like we always have to be somewhere or have some pressing thing that needs to be done.  So I tried really hard to find something just for fun for them to make.  Thank you Pinterest!  We made fingerprint rainbows with pots o' gold at the end.  Then the girls cut shamrock chains to decorate the house.  Gwyn even made a green cake all by herself.  I was supposed to work on the actual day, but we got another snow day, so the neighbors came over and we had a St.Patrick's Day party instead.  We got no school work done that day.  It was super fun to just hang out and spend time with neighbors though.  And I'm comforting myself with the fact that I wouldn't have gotten anything done at home if I'd been at work that day anyway - so nothing was lost.  I'm thankful for the impromtu margin that weather can insert into our lives sometimes.  Even though I am tired of the snow.

   

Happy Birthday to Me!

     This past week was a bit of a blur.   We're all getting used to some new things and it's always hard to change gears.  I am now an official substitute in the Carroll County Library Outreach Program!  This means that I get to drive the bookmobile around to daycares and schools doing story-times and checkins/outs.  It is super fun!  I love to tell stories!  While I'm training though, I am working a little more than I hope to work when I really am just subbing so it's been a tough week.  I realized mid-way that I was wanting to add something new to our lives without anything else changing - which just isn't possible.  Adding anything inherently changes the dynamics of everything else.  And so we are all getting used to some added responsibilities in one way or another.  I will say that my girls are doing well.  They each have some extra responsibilities around the house now and they are doing pretty good.  Of course they each need a little reminder or cajoling once in a while, but I think even I need that at times.
     We did get to do a great lesson at Art Club the other day on still lifes.  I love that my girls are getting to learn about famous artists along with other children and then attempt their own works of art in the style of the artist that week.  My friend Marta does a wonderful job with this!  Thankfully that takes some pressure off of a subject that is one I'm not terribly comfortable teaching.  And who doesn't love a change of scenery once in a while anyway?

     Gwyn's troop is teaching a program at Padonia Elementary called "Science Is Fun."  Each week two of the girls lead a lesson on a science subject and the first week was Seeds to Flowers.  Celee and Lyla get to go along as participants so they get to join in the fun!  The Juniors did an awesome job!  They totally handled it on their own.  They are very intelligent, confident, and capable young ladies!

     Then it was my birthday.  It didn't feel much like a birthday on Friday.  I had to be at work at 7am.  But I did meet Jason and the girls for lunch "in town."  I was excited because Jason sent me some beautiful daffodils that I can look at an imagine Spring while ignoring the white outside.  I also got a super yummy chocolate ice cream cake - my favorite!  I was blessed with many cards and well-wishes from loved ones so that helped make the day special too.

    Friday was also Family Movie Night at our church.  We helped out for that.  Gwyn and Celee are so funny b/c they were really excited to put the word "Staff" on their nametags for the event!  They got to hang out with friends and watch Despicable Me 2.  We've seen this a bazillion times but it's always fun to watch movies with friends in a big space.

   Saturday all three of the girls' troops participated in a World Thinking Day celebration.  They always start this off with a Ray of Sunshine Ceremony.  I helped out with Lyla's troop.  They did Guatemala.  Celee's troop did China.  And Gwyn's troop did New Zealand.  They each did such a good job!
     I was really surprised at how much information the girls in Lyla's troop remembered about Guatemala.  I even had to keep telling some of them to slow down and let other people talk because they wanted to tell each group that came to the table so much!  Then for their performance they did a Mayan Welcome Dance to Marimba music.  They did such a good job and were so cute!
     Celee's troop acted out a Chinese folktale complete with a Chinese dragon puppet!  Celee had a pretty long speaking part too.  They did such a good job someone asked their troop to do their performance again at another function!
     Gwyn's troop did a Maori dance with poi.  Then they did the Haka.  They also did a great job!  It's so neat to see the girls learning so much about indigenous cultures in different countries instead of just the mainstream culture most everyone is familiar with.
     The girls also got to sample dishes from each of the countries at the celebration.  Then at the end everyone exchanged SWAPS.  It was a long day, but the girls all had so much fun!  And I think they will remember the things they learned for a long time.

 
      My other big excitement was I picked up our fertile eggs!  We, along with three other families, split up two dozen that I got from a local farmer.  In about three weeks we should have some chickies!   I made the mistake of putting them in the incubator immediately when I got home from picking them up.  I should have waited until morning because I was up all night worrying and fretting over them.  The temperature and humidity were awesome until I put the eggs in and then it all went crazy.  So it took about 24 hours to get it stable again.  Long night.  Oh, well - it's all good now.  So hopefully we'll have a good hatch rate.  The girls are turning them throughout the day and we're marking off the days.  We may have a house full of chickens later if the weather doesn't warm up soon though.  I was reminded of a lady I used to deliver meals to in Hattiesburg.  She had chickens in her house and I thought that was always so gross and crazy!  And now look at me.  I do not intend for them to be in the house any longer than absolutely necessary, but it's a little bit "that's what I get" for judging her then.  In my defense though - it wasn't cold in Hattiesburg.  :)