Introduction

The new chicks have officially been introduced to the established "flock" (if you can call 3 birds a flock)! The first day they cowered together and just tried to stay out of the way of the big birds. The last couple of days they've been getting bolder and foraging on their own, just hoping they won't be seen. It's quite interesting to watch the pecking order get established and try to guess who's going to be "in" and who's going to just get picked on (literally). So far no injuries at least!

A, with the "old" birds

The little ones- amazing how different they look from even 2 weeks ago!

Silly kids, coops are for chickens!

Silly chickens, coops are for kids!

10

Yep, we officially have a 10-year old!

Just hours old...

Now 10! All the gents look so tired in these pictures because before the party they played a rollicking game of soccer for over an hour! (I won't mention names, but a number of the older fogies are limping around quite a bit today...) :)

 A gumball laying chicken! Huzzah!

"Cheeeeeeze"

Using his pocket knife- I think all the adults were wishing he would just tear the paper off...!

 No ordinary nerf gun- he was speechless with excitement. I think Uncle Andy's jealous. :)

 Upside-down swings!

Marmie made a pretty amazing soccer cake! 

(Peter did like it, but I think was a little embarrassed at all the singing.)

Ah, Spring

 I don't particularly care for Spring. It tends to be windy with fickle temperatures ranging about 50 degrees in a given day. 20 in the morning, 70 by 2pm. It tends to have sporadic days of snowfall when I'm ready for it to be summer. Life is starting to emerge, often gets wiped out by the freezes, and the green I love is soooo slow to creep in. Nonetheless, our tulips bloomed for the first time! Every other year they've been wiped out before blooming, so we are enjoying the color!

 The soil looks so bad, but it's actually quite good under that top layer.

 Oh, snow. Not so exciting when it's not Christmas. But it seems the flowers survived anyway. :)

The grand clothes sort! The trick is leaving enough long sleeve clothes for the random cold days that we'll get through June. Our last frost date is June 14th. Sorting clothes for 5 kids is kind of crazy. Peter and Anne are pretty easy since we don't have any hand-me-down sources for them anymore, so they tend to get clothes more gradually, throughout the year. Elijah has about 3 sizes between Peter, so only 3 tubs for him. The twins are a good 4 or 5 sizes behind Anne, so lots of clothes for them, though not so much in the 3T range. It's been years since I've organized this much- every tub seemed to be "4-6, girls" or "5+, boys". Now it's organized by each size! Although I know when winter comes around I'll still pull down the next two sizes, since sizing is crazy. Especially shirts. Anyway, I digress. :)

 All done (including 3 loads of laundry) in one day!

And just for kicks, here's a picture of the most recent kitchen Christian built! I want one! :)

Easter

Red Mountain

The boys/men hiked Red Mountain last weekend. Fascinating rock structures and erosion patterns. I'd like to go someday.

 This picture reminds me of a termite hill in Africa...