Ahhh, growth, life....

Our new hens

The chicks are here!

My sprouting tray

Jacob's tray

Spring has sprung!

Spring is here, the pecan trees are blooming and you can't fool a pecan tree.  It won't start getting it's leaves until frost is over and as you can see...

leaves!  And we're moving rapidly into warm summer weather.  Sadly spring weather only lasts a few weeks here.  I thought you might enjoy a glimpse of our spring here.

My rock princesses:

 My sister Charlotte:

(I don't know if I've posted much about her here.  Maybe she'll be my next Sunday Snapshot...) 

Fishing spiders in the pool (also called dock or wharf spiders--learned that from our nature study this morning!)

Ok, the kids made me take this one...the poor creature flew into our pool fence and didn't make it all the way through.  It is a pretty cool picture of it's eyes!

Jacob's garden has started to grow!  

He has a handful of cucumber plants coming up:

This next set was too difficult to choose from.  We were outside doing together schoolwork this morning.  We were doing our composer study, listening to Shostakovich's 6th Symphony and the girls decided to get into princess dresses and do some interpretive dance:  

(I just counted legs, did you?)

Costume change...

The boys took the four wheeler to the barn and decided to do some creating.

 Ta da!  They built a wall around their tree fort.  This is in preparation for a horde of testosterone filled boys coming over in the next week for airsoft wars.

Our chickens are doing well.  They've started laying eggs later in the day now.  So this is how I found them today at 3 pm.

 Azaleas are in bloom and if you look closely you can see a huge carpenter bee.  Tons of them around right now.  Our flowering bushes are humming with them.

This....this is my view from my rocking chair on the front porch--heavenly!

I haven't just been chilling.  We are on our last six weeks of school, actually last 4 weeks.  We'll be taking off the month of May.  I've chosen all our schoolwork for the next year and have already gotten most of it delivered.  I love selecting curriculum.  Especially since I have really come to terms with how I want my children to learn and what feast I want to put before them.  More on that in the coming weeks!

Happy spring!

This week's chick update & more

The chicks are now about 2 weeks old.  My how they're grown!!  They're getting bigger and their color is changing.  I just love their wings, so beautiful!  A few more weeks and they can move out to the old coop (weather permitting, it's been a rather cold winter here).  

Grace will grab anyone she can to read to her and once she's got you--there's no escape!

For those who love our sleeping shots, I just came out from packing for the Ladies' Encounter this weekend and found Grace asleep on the floor where she climbed (or fell?) off the chair!

                   

Our Kunming cutie--she just loves to dress up and do her hair!

"The fun has arrived!!!"

Ok, so we just let the girls watch Tarzan (the title quote is from Turk)... When we got back from church yesterday, we had a wonderful surprise message waiting for us---the chicks were in!!!  Jacob, Grace and I went to the post office and picked them up.   Now the fun starts!  Thought some pics of the cuties would make a Monday morning post not so Monday morning...

This was their travel arrangements.  There were actually 4 of these at the post office, so others in our area are getting started on the fun too!  We purchased them from McMurray Hatchery.   We've heard nothing but great things about them.    You should have heard the peeping coming from those 4 boxes!!!  

We opened our box to these adorable little Rhode Island Red chicks.  

Awww, cher!

Of course the children couldn't wait to get their hands on them.  They are so furry and fluffy and cuddly!

Here they are in their brooder.  They loved the heat light. They ended up in a pile underneath it, all cuddled together.

We lost one little one, but we expected it.  It's the little black and yellow cutie in the front of this picture.  It was an extra they sent.  We thought it looked small and weak.  The rest seem to be doing great this morning--eating and drinking and PEEPING!

Countdown to baby chicks!

Our baby chicks are expected to arrive at the post office in about 7 days--probably Tuesday or Wednesday!!! We cannot wait!  There is a shipment of 35 Rhode Island Reds coming to our town!  We're sharing the chicks with 2 other home school families.  The kids are SO excited!Publish Post

Chicken update

It's been a while since I did a chicken update, so I thought I'd let you know what's happening.  We hired someone to build a coop.  They build it on Wednesday and Thursday.  A sad turn of events on Thursday morning.  Jacob went out to feed the chickens.  He came running back into the house in tears and I knew...his hen had died.  How sad that she was so close to getting to live in the new and big coop...  She was his pet, she would sit at his feet and let him carry her all over without a fight.  He really misses her.

I have to ask, why is it that it's always the pet of the child who cares that passes?  Connor wouldn't have been broken up.  Same as when a gerbil died...it was Shaoey's and she LOVED her gerbil and was crushed.  Connor's lives on.  But I digress...

Here the roosters (and kids) are in their new home:

We are expecting a shipment of 35 Rhode Island Red day old chicks around February 9th.  No, they're not all for us.  We are keeping about 15 of them.  I can't wait to get the call from the post office that they are waiting for us!  How fun is that going to be?!  I'll keep you posted!