Beginning of May

While at Wal-Mart Rett fell in love with this bunch of miniature bananas. He wanted to eat one as soon as we got in the car, so I opened it for him. It took him only a few bites to devour it!

We are doing a bad job of making sure to hold the snakes and get them used to people. It is just so easy to forget they are there in their cage! Anthony let James hold the little snake while he got her food ready for her.

I got back from the store and was surprised when I couldn't find anyone in the house. I went outside to find Rett pushing Anthony on the swing. He was loving it!

We got the bantams out of the house and into the big coop! They need a few weeks in separate cage so the two groups can get used to each other and then we will let them out. They were very curious about each other.

Rett isn't fast enough to catch a chicken (yet) so he always asks James, the master chicken catcher, to catch one for him so he can pet it. James is happy to do it!

Every time we go to the coop we try to bring the chickens some fresh grass or produce leftovers. They love to check out what we have, they aren't shy at all. They will eat out of your hand, jump up on you and peck your shirt and pockets just to make sure you don't have anything else.

James lost his first tooth! It has been wiggly for forever and one day during class it just popped out. He was so excited to tell me all about taking a trip to the nurse's office, washing his mouth with salt water, and then getting a special tooth shaped container to keep his tooth in. So exciting!

That night we put the tooth under his pillow and he went to sleep. When the tooth fairy came, the tooth was gone! It turns out someone had decided to sneak the tooth back into his pocket. So the tooth fairy left him a tiny note inside the tooth container, inside his pocket. Plus a few dollars :)

I happened to be in the car when our van hit 111,111 miles!

James has been taking an old phone of mine to his primary class and his teacher has been assigning him to play songs for the lesson on the lds music app on it. She also will take pictures of him every once in awhile and I will find them on it later. This was one of them :) I have no idea what the lesson was, but she always prepares so well for them. James loves having her as a teacher!

Rett and the cousins playing on the swing. Rett loves it when the cousins come over! He follows them around and asks them to play with him nonstop :)

End of April

It is not just the boys that like to play with the chickens, Anthony does too :) This is our easter egger chicken, Buckbeak. She will lay light blue or green eggs and of all the chickens, she is the one that likes to jump up on people the most.

This is James' bantam chicken "Cutie". We have since discovered that he is a rooster! He is about two months old and already tries to crow in the mornings. All of our bantams around over two months old, but still so small. I didn't realize how tiny they would be. They are only a little bit bigger than our quail!

We borrowed a raccoon trap from a friend and set it up near the coop. So far we have caught and relocated 7 raccoons. Hopefully we eventually will get rid of all the raccoons in the area since they are notorious for killing chickens.

The blueberry farm had an unusually short season this year because of the drought, so we only got to go pick blueberries once. We had a great time though!  The boys are looking at a drone that was flying over the field.

Nevada knows how to use the time delay on the camera on my phone (I'm clueless) so she took a picture of all of us. Anthony and his parents were off picking somewhere else.

Rett ended up eating all of his blueberries in his bag by the time we got home. He had a great time!!

This is the new quail cage that Anthony and his Dad built. It is right next to the chicken coop and just needs a roof, a few doors, and for the the electric fencing to expand to the bottom of it.

We bought a new over the stove microwave to match our other new appliances, so James helped us install it.

We couldn't resist this little gray chick that a man was selling at the feed store. She will end up laying large green eggs!

In order to do show and tell at school, the kids in James' class have to redeem their good behavior points to earn it. James saved his points up so that he could bring the chicks in for show and tell. He helped me choose what pictures he wanted to share and I made a poster for him to present. It was so cute to watch! When it was time for show and tell everyone sat on the carpet and James went to the front while I held the poster. He went through each picture and explained them all. Then he said very matter of factly, "I am ready for questions now". He then called on different kids and listened to them and would say, "Uh huh. Ohh, really." (just like how we respond to him when he is telling us something). Then we took the chicks out and walked around and let them pet them. It was a hit!

Teacher appreciation week was tricky this year because James has 6 specials teachers in addition to his regular teacher. I didn't want to leave anyone out, so I started looking around for ideas online. These are the three I came up with for his yoga teacher, music teacher, and PE coach. I ended up getting a star wars lanyard for his STEAM (science and engineering) teacher since she loves star wars, a water bottle and keyboard bow tie for his IT teacher, and a color wheel necklace for his art teacher.

We found a large yellow slider turtle in our driveway, so I kept it in our outside tortoise enclosure until James got home from school. He and Anthony loved checking it out and they brought it to our pond to let it go.

I had my first in person bow tie sale! A friend of mine owns an art studio in Deland and she invited me to be a part of a weekend pop up shop of homemade items. I created the display and got some frames from goodwill for collages with pictures people have sent me of their kids in their ties. It was really fun! I only sold a few, but I got a bunch of online orders at the same time for ones that I didn't sell in person so it all worked out. Now I am going to have a permanent display at a local vintage store in town. I can't wait to see how well it does!

James and Anthony went to the annual Father/son campout. James was so excited for it! Anthony thought Rett was still a little too young to go and spend the night, so he got to stay home with me and go to his soccer game.

Waving goodbye:

After they got to the camp and set up the tent, James ran around with a bunch of boys from our ward until it got dark enough for the campfire. Before they went to bed, they took a flashlight out to the lake and saw alligator eyes!

In the morning it was time for fishing! The water was very low in the lake and they didn't catch anything, but they had a good time trying.

 Tired out!

While the big boys were away, Rett and I had fun together. He had a soccer game and it was our turn to bring the snacks. I was sorry that Anthony missed it because it was probably Rett's most focused game of the season. No lying down in the middle of the field this time!

The boys are loving our new net swing we hung on one of our trees. Their favorite is when you hold the swing up really high, count down like a rocket is going off and then let go.