Doing some catching up

I'm trying to catch up on everything we have been doing! On top of being busy, we've had a round of sickness make its way through everyone again. This time I avoided catching it, but Anthony actually caught and took antibiotics for the second time in his entire life! James had the runniest nose I have ever seen and he ended up with a rash on the sides of his mouth from constantly wiping. Poor guy! I took a picture to send to Anthony to show him the rash, so of course it had to be silly.

Then Rett wanted a turn to get his picture take. Look at that hair! It is out of control, but I can't bear to cut it.

One night James' homework assignment was to draw the president and write a fact about him. So he did and wrote that he is 70 years old (I googled it). I didn't want him to think that I was laughing at his picture so kept my smiles to myself and furiously texted this picture to my family. Awesome!

Rett's turn with the sickness:

Playing with the chickens is our new fun activity. They love to roost on things, so they get much calmer if you take them out and let them sit on your arm or your shoulder. It is so fun to watch them play and push each other off the roost.

James loved having Bellatrix stay on his shoulder for a long time. Thankfully she pooped on the carpet and not down the back of his shirt!

Now with two, one on each shoulder.

Anthony took the boys to Bealls Outlet to buy me some presents for my birthday. This was one of my favorites. We put it up on the outside of the house right by the front door.

We bought a 1/4 pig from a local farm that we have been getting milk from, so we have been experimenting with more pork dishes. I pulled some of the pork chops from the freezer to cook, look at these things! They are huge!

This is the very beginning of our chicken coop. We are doing a "hoop house" style that will be totally enclosed so that the chickens won't be out free ranging without supervision. We have just heard too many stories about the predators around here getting to them. It doesn't look like much yet, but I will post once it gets closer to being completed. Aside from the wire mesh, we are using mostly materials from the habitat for humanity thrift store and dumpster materials from a neighborhood that is building new houses. 

James is still very attached to his fairy house door. Every morning when Anthony gets up to get ready for work, he moves it around so when James wakes up he is sure the fairies did it. He will get close to the door and talk to the fairies behind the door :)

We took an after school trip to the beach. James wanted to play with his toy lawn mower in the water and Rett reeeeeally wanted to chase the birds. He is making a face at me because I won't let him.

We discovered that a large gopher tortoise lives on the edge of our front yard. We've seen him around the compost pile a few times.

I got to talking to one of the mom's in James' kindergarten class and she mentioned that she is ordering a large number of silkie and frizzle chicks to be delivered in June and that she needs to find a home for them. I told her we would love to take some! These chickens are so funny looking, but they are supposed to be the friendliest and most pet-like of chickens so it will be interesting to add them to our flock.

Anthony fed the little snake in a 5 gallon bucket right before going to bed and he didn't want to move her back into her cage right away because moving them right after is bad for their digestion. So he decided to let her stay the night in the bucket, thinking that it was secure enough that she couldn't get out. Nope! The next morning she was gone! I looked everywhere I could think of for her, under couches, behind appliances, but I couldn't find her. We figured that she would turn up once she started getting hungry, but it was disconcerting not knowing where she could pop up. Thankfully a few days later Anthony was putting a book back on the kids bookshelf and spotted a nose sticking out.

We've started letting the chicks get some fresh air and bugs in the the half finished coop. It isn't totally secure, so we just sit out there with them to supervise. They love stretching their wings and pecking around!

Rett is playing his first season of soccer this year. He is so excited! We tried on his soccer cleats and shin guards and kicked the soccer ball around outside. He is a natural!