Chickens & Fun

We've been busy with new things the last couple of weeks. The biggest new things would have to be the chickens. Thad has been talking for a little while about getting chickens, and I'm never quite sure how serious he is about these things. But I finally agreed and two days later amazon delivered our chicken coup. Yes, Amazon again. And a few days later Thad found someone on craigslist selling chickens and viola, we now have chickens. The kids love them, and have named them Bellina and Henrietta. Bellina is Andi's chicken and is a bossy fat food hog, but her love of food means she will basically come sit in our lap if you have anything to share. Henriette, or Henry for short is Sammy's chicken and while she is a little more stand offish, she's very mellow.

Of course I had to paint the coup.

First egg! It was very exciting. Even more exciting when we used it and they saw that it looked like a normal egg on the inside too. Once the chickens got settled in to their new home they started laying an egg everyday, so we get two a day now.

Andi went to horse camp the first few days of spring break and absolutely loved it. She learned how to ride, how to take care of, and all about different types of horses. Of course she wants a horse now more than ever, but the chickens will have to do. I don't have many pictures from the week because they had already washed down their horses by the time I got there to pick her up. But here are the few I do have.

She was so enamored with this horse she couldn't even be bothered to look at the camera for a picture.

Peter has developed a bad habit. This really happens daily, and I think maybe I just need to leave his meals up here and he'll just help himself.

Also we've started calling him mowgli. This caveman squat is ridiculous.

And he got another hair cut. His hair grows so fast, he's been so sweaty already and it's only April. The happy before. . . 

Traumatized after.

Easter was  a lovely day. We had our egg hunt before church, and while peter didn't really get what was going on, he was super happy to be running around the backyard before breakfast or getting dressed.

 Hunting

 Spoils

What do I do with these?

Once he discovered the candy inside he was all about the eggs.
 

Then we got them all cute in matchy outfits for church and didn't take a picture. And then we went to church where I spoke, which is more intimidating on a holiday when there are all kinds of visitors or a packed room. Then we had both my family and Thad's family over for Easter dinner, an egg hunt, and birthday celebration for my mom who's birthday was Saturday. We know how to multitask. And after all the food and birthday cake and Easter candy, we topped it all off with snow cones and may have developed diabetes along the way. Also, didn't take pictures of any of that either. Awesome.

Tonsil report

Peter has changed in so many ways the last two weeks it's crazy. A lot of it I think can be attributed to the tonsillectomy, but he's grown into a little boy all of a sudden. Biggest change, he eats. Peter has been living on baby mush and yogurt and scrambled eggs and sippys. Really, that was pretty much all he ate. But since the tonsils came out and his molars all grew in the same week, the kid eats everything, non stop. If you are eating he wants it, and he frequently helps himself to snacks in the pantry. He ate steak and potatoes for dinner last sunday and loved it. Steak! It's such a relief to see him finally eating, and hopefully we'll get some meat on those scrawny little bones.
Also, now that he's eating, he wants to be at the table with us, and wants to feed himself. It's tweaking all of my OCD's to let him do it, and sometimes I just have to leave the room and take deep breaths and then go clean up when he's done. His chair is covered in a black trash bag, which I also hate, but it protects the upholstery. Here are some action shots of Peter feeding himself.

He has also started walking up and down the stairs. He usually just climbs up, and slides down, but now he wants to hold my hand and walk down like a big kid. And he's making so many noises. I know most 20 month olds are starting to use words, but he's pretty behind in that area. So the jibberish and car noises and such are just very exciting.
I think I've mentioned before that when we go to Costco Sammy wants his picture taken. Same spot every time, just different pose. Here's this trips shot for your enjoyment.

He's been doing really well with school work lately, and is proud of himself when he reads his little books to me. Conversation of the week, as I was eating cereal at 10:30 in the morning:
"Mom, is it lunch time?"
"No, I'm just now eating breakfast, I forgot earlier."
"The first meal of the day?!"
"Yes. . . "
"Wow, you are luck you didn't die!"
Apparently eating is a life and death situation. If you skip a meal there is a good chance you will die before the next meal rolls around. Which might explain why Sammy is our only kid with some meat on his bones.
Andi had a little book worm moment recently that totally made me proud. She's into the Ever After High books and the second one came out two weeks ago. She begged for it, and even paid for half of it. When I brought it home she was so excited she spent every spare moment reading and finished it in less than a week. Thad was wondering what was wrong with her that she'd rather be in her room reading than outside with the other kids. I was secretly proud, because I used to do that all the time! I love a good book, and it looks like she does too.

In other news we bought a commercial shaved ice machine. I thought Thad was a little crazy for buying it, and contemplated changing the password on our amazon account. But now that it's here, I can see where we are going to get a lot of use out of it this summer. And it really does make some super fine shavings. Here it is in all it's glory, though I'm told the picture does not do it's size justice. For reference it's as tall as peter, and twice as heavy. And now the kids want to set up a snow cone stand as a way to earn money.