Houston, We Have An Egg!

Big Martha, the last of the chickens, finally laid an egg!!! I was quite excited to find an 'easter egg' in the nest box on Saturday. She had been hanging out in there, squawking away, and I just knew she would lay an egg. We can't decide whether it is considered green or blue...but its cool, none the less. 

My Husband Can Beat Up Your Husband

 Jeff informed James today that he could rip a Philadelphia phone book (~3" thick) in half. I laughed. I figured he was just messing around. Well, we found a dusty and unloved phone book in the garage. Does anyone use a phone book anymore? Anyway, Jeff went to work trying to rip the phone book in half. It was pretty amusing, really. There was a lot of grunting involved, but not a lot of anything else. The phone book remained in tact. Of course, I was really laughing at this point. I just knew he couldn't do it. He replied with a 'You don't think I can do it? Just watch me!' After expending quite a bit of effort, a small crack appeared in the phone book. I was still skeptical. Jeff kept at it and sure enough, he ripped the phone book in half! Consider me officially impressed (and proved wrong). I think we make quite a pair. Jeff can rip a phone book in half and I am armed with a monster rolling pin. ha, ha!!

Good Surprise/Bad Surprise

I found this picture on the camera. Jeff must have taken it. Good surprise!

I found 4 eggs in the chicken coop yesterday, which means that Chicken DUMBpling laid an egg! Woo! I thought for sure that chicken was going to take years to lay. She has a tiny comb and is dumber than a box of rocks. Poor thing can't figure out how to get back in the run, even after she watches the rest of them run in. She never roosts to sleep. She just conks out on the floor, sometimes on the lawn mower. She always gets pushed aside when they get 'treats.' But! She laid an egg yesterday. Good surprise!

...and then...the bad surprise. I got out of the shower and heard Tyler at the door saying something that sounded suspiciously like 'I pooped on Katie's floor.' Turns out, he did. Bad surprise! Aren't you glad I didn't post a picture of that one?

The Coat

 This is my cheesy 'are you taking a picture or not????' smile

Here is the coat I finished! Thanks Jeff for not telling me the collar was flipped up. ;) The nitty gritty details are on the crafty blog.

Tyler and His Chickies

I Could Get Used To That

For the first time since we started our preschool 'co-op,' today was my day to be footloose and fancy free. Last week Tyler faked me out with a stuffy nose, so I kept him with me. Did he end up getting sick? Of course not. He was a little peach, though. Anyway, to spend my 1.5 hours of kid-less time, I decided to stop at Home Depot and get a can of spray paint. It is for a project that could turn out very nice, or very ugly. Four dollars are on the line here, folks. We'll see. Side note: I must be getting old. They let me buy the paint without checking my driver's license. Little to they know I will be out tagging railroad cars tonight with my robin's egg blue rustoleum!!! Just kidding. Was I going somewhere with this? Oh, yes, my morning off. After procuring said spray paint, I headed over to Barnes and Noble where I got myself a cup o' peppermint tea and plopped myself down with a few books from the Art section. It was nice. I do feel sad to see that B&N has deteriorated to a run-down looking version of its former self. The chairs were literally threadbare, with stuffing protruding from the arms. I opted for the (hopefully) less germ-infested wooden chairs, only a short distance away from a shoeless man sleeping in a chair. Not sure what that was about, but hey, I got to drink an entire cup of tea while it was still hot!

A Questionable Way To Entertain Your Children

It's even more fun when you can roll Dad in the barrel!

Go-Cart!

James has been wanting a go-cart for a looooooooong time, relatively speaking. He is 6, afterall.

 We found the plans from Family Fun, which is one of my favorite magazines.

The other day we measured and marked out the sides, seat and seat back. James loved it! He didn't even realize he was practicing handwriting. Sneaky mom.

Today I am hoping we can cut out the pieces. Wish me luck! My building credentials are limited to being an honorary gusset inspector at the ripe old age of 8-ish, and building the chicken coop. The plans do look very straightforward, though, so I think we can do it! If not, we'll recruit Jeff to bail us out!

How Do You Like Them Apples?

Some of the goods

Last week we went to Lancaster and I bought, oh...a wee bit of fruit. Six half bushels of apples, a half bushel of pears and about eight pounds of Concord grapes. I made jam with the grapes, dried some of the pears and canned the rest, by way of Vanilla Pear Butter and Honey Vanilla Pears. Over the past week I have been doing the apples, and on Saturday my friend Jess came over and we kicked some major canning booty! All told, we got 34 quarts of applesauce, 18 pints of spiced apples and apples leftover for whatever ails ya. While I was cranking away at the applesauce, Jeff-the-engineer decided to make some sweet mods to my food strainer. After threatening reminding him not to permanently modify anything, he got to work. Next thing you know, I was cranking that bad boy with the cordless drill. Wee! That made things go quick. Super Jeff, to the rescue!

Cordless Drill Modifications!

The little puppy dog waiting for me to spill some (either that, or he's trying to figure out how to take the thing apart and build a bomb with it....yeah, that could be it. He is Jeff's son, after all.)

Random Chicken Picture: they are obsessed with toes! Actually, anything that looks like food is on their list of targets.

Random Randomness

• I am nearly finished making myself a double-breasted fall coat! I never thought coat making was within my capabilities, but apparently I was wrong. Pictures to come.
• James gave me approximately half a kiss when he went to school today. Was this the same kid who was crying everyday up until last week?! 
• Katie has turned our kitchen table into her own personal art studio. She made me 15 cards yesterday, no joke...I counted. There are about 9 million little shards of paper on my floor. 
• Tyler found the markers and 'decorated' the cedar chest. Um, thanks?
• We are having the most beautiful weather today. I think I should go outside and plant my garlic.
• In keeping with my morbid curiosity with polygamy, Jeff and I watched the second season of Sister Wives last night, courtesy of the library. It was just as weird as I expected.
• Our dryer is broken and I have an abnormally large backup of laundry. If I go missing, tell Jeff to look for me under the towering pile of princess undies and cowboy clothes. This could get ugly.

Brothers

James holding his sleeping brother's hand

James and Tyler on the way back from Lancaster

The boys found a wagon to climb on

And a picture of Katie for good measure!

Art Lessons!

Today marked the official start of our unofficial art lessons. We booked it back from school to find the kids arriving at the house. There were soon 6 excited kids running around my front yard screaming like banshees. Eric saw the ensuing chaos and jumped ship, or rather drove off in his speedy blue mini van. (Candi, you should have heard those tires squealing! Just kidding :) We got right down to business and started our project. When I saw the idea for this one I knew we had to try it. Here are a few pictures of the chaos fun.

 Noah

 Amanda

 James (he better not flash that look for school pictures tomorrow!)

 Katie

 Emma

 The Gang, minus Tyler

 Cheese! (James did NOT want his picture taken)

 Katie, on the other hand...

 Take my picture!!

 Emma and Katie

 Amanda

P.S. I forgot to take pictures of the finished craft. Duh! You can click on the link to see what it is supposed to look like. We took sandwich bags filled with red/yellow/orange hole punches and taped it into the window, so the leaves would 'fall.' They turned out really cute.

Afterward, the kids collected eggs from the coop and Noah grilled me on how chickens have babies. It was awesome. It went something like this:

Noah: Can we keep the eggs? We can't eat them because they are going to turn into baby chickens, right?
Me: No, you need a rooster to have baby chickens.
Noah: Huh? Why?
Me: Well, you have to have a mommy and a daddy chicken to have baby chickens.
Noah: Why do you need a mommy AND a daddy?
Me: Ask your dad.

I Hereby Dub Thee....

Tyler...the Pocket Sized Dictator. Tyler has been getting up at odd hours of the night, crying. Not really loud crying, but crying none the less. The trouble is, if I don't get him almost immediately, he will wake the other two first. Katie is particularly sensitive to noise when she is sleeping. There is nothing quite like having two kids up at the same time, crying. I try to avoid it. That leaves me with one option, at least for a sleep deprived mother. Plop the kid in bed next to me and go back to sleep. After all, he is pretty darn comfy to snuggle with. The trouble is that he is used to his crib, and seems to sleep better in there. When he is with us, he will sleep, wake up, sit up and say 'Mom,' then sprawl out on top of me and say 'tickle,' at which point I tickle his back and he falls asleep. Ten minutes later he wakes up again, and sure enough, he would like the same treatment he received earlier, with a side of snuggles on top please. At some point, he may scoot himself up so far that he falls, head first, into the crack between the bed and the wall. I wake up in a haze, see two feet sticking up from the edge of the bed, fish him out and settle him back down. This routine really has got to stop, but I don't think the Pocket Sized Dictator minds it too much. I had to remind myself this morning that every time I get to the point of thinking 'What in the world can I do? This has to stop! I'm going to lose my mind!!! Is it OK to give him horse tranquilizer?!?!?!?' that is when they go back to sleeping all night. Let's hope that it holds true this time.

In other Tyler news, he is talking up a storm and is quite adept at telling us what he wants (another reason for the new moniker). Some recent Tyler quotes:

Scoop me up! Hold me.

My blankie fell off (for the 1000th time). Wrap me up, peas!

No, I don't want that!

Put me down, Mom!

I want yogurt, and pea-butter. (he would live off that if he could)

No, Kay-ee, eee, eeeee!!!


And in other news all together , James went to school today with NO CRYING, no anxiety, no stress. Woooohooooo!!!!!! Thank you Lord!

One Of Those Days

Shortly after starting at our new church last year, I ran into a few other non-preschooling moms. Gasp! I recently heard a statistic that 90-95% of kids attend preschool, which puts us in the minority. And guess what?! I don't think my kids are going to be scarred for life, or academically stunted. The other moms and I decided to do a once-a-week 'school day' to get the kids used to playing and working together. We trade weeks teaching and babysitting the little ones, so in four weeks, we each teach once and babysit once. The other two weeks we can run around town footloose and kid-free for two hours. Whatever will I do when it is my turn!? OK, I think I might manage. :) Today was my day to teach and despite leaving early, I got there late. It involved my water bottle leaking its entire contents onto my supplies, thinking I might have lost my camera in the parking lot of a grocery store, going back to the store to check (no dice), going home to check for the camera (no dice), driving there only to get hopelessly lost, trying to call Jeff, calling my Dad to get the friend's phone number, and calling the friend so she could talk me to her house. It was super! But I got there, gathered my wits about me and we plunged in to our craft projects, made do despite the lack of supplies, and had a lot of fun doing it. The bonus was that when I got home I found my camera in the boys' room. I'm blaming Tyler for that one!

Random Pictures and a Tutorial That Will Change Your Life (Not!)

 James' Rendering of Lady Gaga: 1) I don't think he has ever seen a picture of her, and 2) That's a disco ball hanging from the top!

 Trying out the new umbrellas

Cuteness

More cuteness!

And here you have a handy tutorial for collecting eggs. You never know when you might have the opportunity to do this, so you might as well be prepared.

Tyler Chases A Chicky In High-Def

So I really have no idea if this video is actually high-def, but it sounds fancy. To be honest, I am 31 years old and have yet to send a text message. I am a little bit behind on the technology. Now, on to the real reason for this post: because I thought you all would get a kick out of it, I took a few videos of Tyler chasing the 'chickies'. He is pretty good most of the time about holding them nicely...of course when I am taking the video he grabs her by the wings and the tail. Poor girl!

Walking in the Rain

Even though James could ride the bus, we walk to school. Its about a mile I think, and I am pretty sure I get more exercise pushing Katie and Tyler in the stroller while chasing after a kid his bike than I do when I am running! It is uphill, both ways...honest! Today it is raining and I debated whether we should drive. However, the parking lot at the school is very small and the township has put up no parking signs anywhere near the school. Since the kids don't really mind getting wet, and I don't either, we walked. We started out with umbrellas, but those eventually got ditched. We met Mom along the way and she went with us. On the way home, James was practically skipping on air, jumping in puddles and indeed, sitting down right in the middle of them. We jumped in puddles and ran in the rain. It was pretty darn fun, especially after my (very bad) day yesterday. Now I have a pile of wet clothes and three cuddly kids in their jammies. I can handle that!

PS. James is slooooooowly getting adjusted to school. The only time he gets freaked out now is the moment of drop-off, which we are working out. I am really weary of the whole situation, but I keep trying to see the small improvements and tell myself that 'this too shall pass.' Hopefully soon!!!

It's Like Having A Dog

The other day, the kids ate their lunch outside. They love having picnics when the weather is nice. I think it has something to do with me handing their food out the window...the novelty of it. Katie went and perched herself next to the chicken run to eat her bean burrito. I soon noticed all five chickens were standing at the fence looking very interested in the proceedings. I realized that Katie was feeding them beans through the fence. No wonder they were so excited, not unlike my brother's dog when he sees that Tyler has food!

Also the same day, Tyler mysteriously ended up with a chicken in his arms. Considering that the chickens were inside their run and the gate was still closed, I don't really know how he got it. I wouldn't be surprised if he scaled the fence, repelled down the other side and busted some ninja moves on that chicken. Surprisingly, he is the best (juvenile) chicken catcher around these parts. I think he does it only by sheer determination, because whenever the chickens hear him calling 'chicky, chicky, chicky, I want hold chicky!!!' they go running as fast as their fluffy little butts can go. Alas, they can't run fast enough for this crazy two year old!

Entertaining the Kids: Jeff's Way

One of the kids' favorite things to do with Jeff is to watch YouTube videos. They watch movies about horses, and animals, and airplanes, as well as an odd assortment of subject matter that Jeff manages to drum up. Police chases, anyone? It keeps them entertained, and distracts Jeff from trying to subject me to watching random videos like 'Teach Me How To Dougie' and a spoof of Def Leppard. Its a win-win! Ha, ha!

(Of course, there is an occasional scuffle!)

Latest Shenanigans

This morning the kids got into an extended skirmish over whether or not you can marry your sister legally. It went something like this:

J: Tyler is going to help me on my farm when I grow up.
K: Me too!
J: Katie, it's illegal to marry your sister.
K: No, it's NOT!!!!!!
J: Yes, it is!
K: Nuh-uh!!!!!!!
J: Yes-huh!!!!!
K: Nuh-uh!!!!
(Repeat approximately 23 more times)

And then....

Katie, Tyler and I were at Target this morning. I always dread talking Tyler shopping, because he is in a stage where he doesn't want to be in the stroller or the cart or anything that restricts him in any way. He also has mad Houdini skills which allow him to wiggle out of any harness known to man. He recently learned that if he pulls up the bottom of the handle side of a shopping cart, he can squeeze through and escape. (You know...the part that folds up when carts are pushed together) He did that this morning, then proceeded to climb onto the bottom rack of the cart. After that, he got out and ran in circles. All of this occurred within about 4 seconds. I sighed, looked at him and said 'Tyler, you're a maniac.' He laughed, looked at me (while running in circles of course), and said 'I a may-eeeeeeeee-ack! I a may-eeeeeeeeee-ack!' Yes, Tyler, you are! An adorable little maniac, but a maniac none the less.

Quick James Update: He did OK today, not as good as Friday, but OK. I am so ready for this phase to be over and for him to just settle in. I have now bribed him with a carnival ride if he can go right to class with his class mates instead of to the guidance counselor's office first. I hope it works.