One of my baby carriers

I have two very handy baby carriers... Ellie is one of them...

Ellie is going to make an excellent momma someday. 

 Gotta love big brothers...

We love spring!!

The boys (Seth and Noah) have been begging me to let them now the lawn since the first warm days in April. It's not really the mowing that's so thrilling, it's more about driving something around the yard.  I kept turning them down because, well, at these gas prices, who wants to buy more gas than they have to? Even though it was a little too early to start mowing yet, I gave in and let them pull the younger kids around. We need to get a trailer for our mowers, but for now they used our garden wagon and had a blast. 

Seth driving Nathan & Selah

Ellie and Grace

Mini greenhouses!

I tried something a bit different with my tomato plants this year. I was wanting some plastic milk bottles to make miniature green houses so that I could give my tomato plants an early start. Since we get milk from a local farmer friend in glass bottles, I asked my sweet sister-in-laws and mom-in-law to collect their plastic bottles for me earlier this spring. 

A couple of weeks before the last frost date, we planted the seedlings that we grew (ourselves!!) under fluorescents (first time EVER! And they turned out awesome!).  I had my handy boys cut the bottoms of the milk bottles off and placed them over each of the tomato plants. We put our tomato cages around them to keep the chickens from scratching too much and knocking the bottles off. Then we shoved hay around the outside partly for weather protection and partly just to hold them in place. And here they are...

They look pretty comfy, huh? We kept the lids on for a bit until the weather got warmer during the day. I think I put the lids back on for one of the first cool nights, took them off the next day, then I just left them off and didn't do anything with them. 

Grace, my garden helped is dressed for summer. Who knew it was still going to be such a chilly spring still. A couple weeks after planting (a lil before the last frost date), we cut around the top of each milk bottle to give them room to grow. I didn't want to take them completely off for a little more sheltering for the young plants and also because I didn't want my chickens to scratch them up as they have a tendency to do. One week later, here's how they're doing...

They look great. I think I'll be doing it again next year!

Communications Festival

In January of this year, Caleb and Seth joined Speech Club.  We are pleased with how much they've improved in only a few months. For the club, they have to write multiple 8-10 minute speeches, memorize them, then recite them during the tournament. They learn about body language as they're speaking, and, depending on the type of speech, they use various voices and gestures.  Caleb is also in debate, which uses logic and spontaneous thinking to defend or prove a point. 

Caleb has had ample opportunity to perform in front of audiences. He's had many recitals and has been playing on Sundays for the church worship team, but... he is not a talker.  Seth, on the other hand, is very expressive, but is intimidated by others and does not like being in front of a crowd and is quiet until he's comfortable in the situation. Thus... the club has been good for both of them.  The last tournament that they attended had a Junior division as well, so Noah, Ellie, and Grace entered. Noah and Grace each did a speech and Ellie entered the Art competition in the Fine Arts catagory. 

Ellie entered the Fine Arts part of the competition with her drawing

Ellie's drawing

Grace-during her Junior Speech

Noah gave a demonstration speech

Noah's finished product- The Captain's shirt

Caleb

Seth

Caleb came in third on his Piano Competition
and second on his Guitar piece

Ducklings!!

Grace and her duckling

We were making our rounds at Big R (the local country feed store) and we heard the inevitable peeping of the new spring chicks.  We love to look at all the different kinds, and the little day old chicks and ducklings are simply adorable.  A few of the kids (Noah, Ellie, and Grace) asked if they could each save their money and get a duckling (we were already getting chicks to replace our current layers).  The last time we had ducks was when we had first moved into our house around 7 or 8 years ago.  The main problem I had with them is that they would end up in my newly created fish pond and make it into a mud pond in just a few hours. I would then empty it, scrub it out, and refill it, only to have them get in it again when I wasn't looking.  They soon disappeared and, promise, I had nothing to do with it. The footprints gave evidence to a raccoon.   

Noah's DIY duckling waterer... a plastic salsa jar and
the bottom of a rubbermaid container

Ellie, my animal lover, and her duckling

Nathan y los platos (we learned that one from Dora ;))

Asher's checking out the ducklings as they took their first
field trip around the living room

Now that we are rockin' the whole farmette thing, I agreed to try it again, with only one catch.  I no longer have a fish pond (it was too worrisome with little ones wandering around outside), but we do have a nice, clean swimming pool. I made sure it was clear to the wanna-be duck owners that if I found any ducks trying their water wings in our pool, they would most likely end up as that nights dinner. Sounds heartless and cruel, and honestly, I do not enjoy eating any animal right after I butcher it, but I wanted to make my point clear.  

Seth and the 2.5 week old duckling that looks really huge!

 When we got the ducklings, they only had Pekin type of ducks.  Those end up with white feathers and are normally raised for meat.  That usually means that they will grow fast, and that they have! They seem to be growing very fast (especially compared to the chicks that we got the same week).

The weather finally got up into the 50's and low 60's for one or two days, so Ellie planned and set up for their second outing... to the kiddie pool for their first swim and a brief stroll around the backyard.

The ducklings loved the lettuce that Ellie fed them

I have to say, they are pretty cute.  Now we just need to figure out where they are going to live.  Right now, they are staying warm in a wooden crate in the garage, but as they get bigger, they will need a home outside. We'll see what the kids come up with...