Cute Chick Pics

I have to share a few more pictures of the chicks. They are noticeably eating a lot of feed now and growing FAST. They are rather rambunctious too! They can hop! Right now they are chirping away like crazy.

Isn't this just the cutest thing ever?!

Growing, growing, growing!

Chicken feet! Hehehehe....!

Little black eyes

There's always one or two in the group....

that just won't settle down! This is constant with the chicks. Rarely are they *all* sleeping at the exact same time for any amount of time (that I've seen). It's so cute to see them sprawled out sleeping or falling asleep standing up. Super cute! I think they've grown in 24 hrs!

Flower Pot

I finally got some flowers planted in a pot by the front door. I liked these colors together - reminded me of tropical places! Hopefully this weekend I can do the deck planters and fill in along the sidewalk. Yesterday we also planted our bean plants.

Irises

This is the first year my irises have looked so nice. They've really spread & filled in the area. These are planted along the side of the house under the kitchen window so we really don't see them unless we cut & bring them in. Last year the rabbits chewed off every stem!

14 Chicks

Sharing some more pictures tonight. I want to scrapbook the first three of Brett but that will have to be later. We've had some full days & short nights!

Hatching Video

This was the one I watched hatch last night. This morning there were 4 hatched. Brett was so excited to see them! This video is a bit long but this is why I said it was "traumatic" coming into the world!

First Baby Chick

Arrived about midnight. It's traumatic coming into this world! Especially when you're just not that cute! The poor little dear has the biggest feet & all he can do is peep and fall on his beak. It's going to be loud in here when the other 18 arrive. Now I've seen the first one & I can go to bed!

Day 1 Progress

I guess this is a slow going process, I had no idea. Hatching out is a lot of work! We're still waiting on 5 out of 19, the rest are starting to peck out & hatch. The little "tink, tink, tink" sounds they make pecking inside "cracks" me up! If you listen close there's lots of bubbling and gurgling going on too, along with little chirps and peeps. The kids are enthralled. A. (2 yrs old) says "they're cookin!" Brett said "I think they will look like robins when they come out, all pokey."

Tonight Brett & I went to get chick feed. You'd think I was a city girl expecting to go in to Farm & Fleet and get a cat food sized bag of feed. Wrong, this is all they had. That oughta do it, you think?! They don't even need feed for the first 48 hrs. I bet I could really get into this if we lived in the country.

Painted Ladies

When we got home we found our Painted Lady butterflies had emerged while we were gone. I was afraid we'd miss it but I'm glad they all lived. I put in flowers with sugar water and some watermelon for them so hopefully they find it soon. The kids will be so excited to see them tomorrow! BTW, this is the Butterfly Treehouse kit from Walmart where you send for the caterpillars and they come in the mail. We had a great experience with the product. Their life span is 2-4 weeks so we'll let them go soon.

• Painted Ladies can lay up to 500 eggs.
• She is the most widely distributed butterfly in the world.
• She may travel 1,000 miles in her lifetime.
• She breathes through her abdomen.
• She tastes with her feet
• She has 10,000 eyes!!

Cheep, Cheep!

Tonight one of my "day care moms" came by and brought some eggs over that are ready to hatch. She works in a lab and had these extra eggs that will soon be hatching. She kept them as long as possible incubating in their machine and then brought them home today. Since we got home late tonight she was planning to bring them in the morning. At 10pm she called in a panic and wondered if she could bring them yet tonight! They will soon be hatching and she would rather move them beforehand. So they came and brought the eggs and we set them up in the aquarium (this thing has come in useful lately!) with a heating pad underneath the carton and a lamp above. It's about perfect at 90 degrees. I can already hear them peeping! In the morning we should have baby chicks hatching! I may be up in the night if I hear babies! Isn't that so cool that this day care mom brought us eggs?? How great is that! She checked all the eggs and they are all alive and moving around inside. She did accidently crack one but not all the way open so we'll see what happens.

Mom's Lilacs

Mom's lilacs are so pretty right now! I remember these every year growing up. I remember there being a purple bush too but I always liked these white ones. Now the bush is so much bigger. I remember Julie & I taking them on the bus to our teachers at Amity. Somewhere I have a picture of myself with one of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Opperman in 2nd grade & she has lilacs on her desk. I even looked for it tonight but I can't find it. It's actually a cute one that I'd share!

Old Dog Sam

When we stopped at Mom's tonight on our way home I got some pictures of their old dog Sam. (They also have a 1 yr old German Shepard named Dayna.) He's an old dog now but still such a nice one. He really wanted to play tonight but running around isn't good for him anymore. He like a grandpa dog now - has a hard time getting around, doesn't hear so well anymore and he's all gray around his mouth. He was howling in the one picture because I was had the toy he wanted to chew on!

Grandpa & Grandma

My Grandpa & Grandma Smith. I liked these natural pictures of them (that Aunt Michelle took on our camera. It seems I don't have any pictures of her?) We love visiting them and enjoy so much the feeling of home there and the special memories we've made with them. I'm especially glad Brett has had a chance to get to know them too. I asked him if he likes it there, up north visiting G & G Great and he said "I love it."

Memorial Day Weekend

We went up north to G & G Smith's in Florence, WI. It was great to see them again and really relax. Brett & Damon enjoyed some fishing. You can't go to G & G's without some fishing and shopping! Pictures say it best so here they are: G & G's house in the woods. The rain sounds wonderful on the metal roof! L)Grandpa giving Brett his first fishing pole R)Special time with Grandpa Great Brett's big blue gill. He caught it all on his own! He's an expert at casting already and puts on his own worms. He also experimented with cheese & sausage on the hook! Celebrating Mom's birthday! Playing with Hunter. He loves playing with a milk jug! Hunter's wearing his winter coat just for a few more days until he gets his summer cut. The picture Grandma is working on. It's nearly done, she's quite the painter!

Friday Treats

This morning one of my families came in with lilacs and a plate of yummy cookie bars. Such a nice way to start a long weekend! I really appreciated that. Just goes to show little things and thoughtfulness means so much.

We're looking forward to our weekend with Mom H and going up north to G & G Smith's. Damon & Brett can't wait to fish and I plan to relax with Mom, Grandma and Aunt Michelle.

Happy Birthday to Mom! We'll see her tonight to celebrate with Kira & Julie.

Today we're letting Dandy hop away. He's definitely wild and still has it in him so we'll let him out in the big green world to live with his brothers & sisters. The kids are playing with him for a few more minutes before off he goes.

Waiting

1. Astillbe, 2. Chives, 3. Purple Irises, 4. Red Day lilies by mailbox, 5. Yellow Day Lilies by Deck, 6. Red & Purple Bee Balm, 7. Light Pink Peony, 8. Raspberries, 9. Orange Lilies, 10. Pink Peony From Mom, 11. Trumpet Vine, 12. Magenta Climatis These are some of the plants growing in our yard. There's also zinnias, vegetables, sun drops, stargazers, pink lilies, moss roses, salvia, sweet peas, echinacea, mint, and more to come! Can't wait for some color! And some raspberries around the 4th of July!

Dandy Bunny

So far so good. Dandy ate 3 or 4 big echinacea leaves and some mandarin oranges in the night! I gave him some water in a dropper too, just to make sure he had some. We also moved him to the turtles old tank that has a screen lid so he has more room. This morning he was sleeping under his towel so cute. The kids just love him and want to hold him so we tried making an area out of blocks for him to hop around in. I think now that the kids are napping, I'm going to sit down and hold him in my lap while I read!

One Hundred Million

The kids came & told me they found "one hundred million" baby spiders. Close enough! There were a lot of them on the side of the climber, many more than this picture shows & very tiny. I immediately sprayed them & then washed down the climber. It's always amazing to me how much the kids find in the backyard that I would never even notice! I'm glad they found these spiders so I could spray them now rather than have the climber totally infested. The spiders & bees seem to love the plastic toys.

Bunny Pictures

Trying to make the bunny "sit" Bunny is still with us in his box. The kids enjoyed holding him lots! He's eating grass and calm. I hope he survives but either way, he was loved! (It is a boy, A's mom checked!) We're also waiting on 5 butterflies to emerge from their crystalids sometime next week. Then on Monday night, A's mom is bringing us some eggs she's been incubating at work. We should get them just in time to see them hatch. Then they will soon have to move on to someone's farm! It's an exciting spring!! **Oh, and bunny's name is offically "Dandy", short for Dandelion cause the kids are obsessed with picking the dandelions. I thought that was better than the suggested "Rob", "Josh" or "Sweetie"!

Adorables

We found these itsy bitsy bunnies outside our living room window this morning. They must be big enough to venture out into the yard beyond the decorative grass they are living in. So far we've seen 3 or possibly 4. Super cute but you know what happens....they turn into rabbits. Last night Damon knocked one off (shhhh...!BB gun out the patio door at dusk!) but if it was the mommy these little guys are big enough on their own by now. We'll see how long they last.....sounds mean but Damon probably won't allow them to be around for long! They wreck everything in sight & this year we haven't had too many....maybe it's the rat posion under the deck?? LOL We're really not that mean, it's just that we had voles in the yard over winter and weren't feeling too heart broken about less rabbits either but these little guys are just so cute. I couldn't resist.....I just went outside & grabbed one out of the bunny hole. And there's 5. Probably not too smart but the kids are nuts about him! Damon's going to be rolling his eyes, I can just see it. Wonder what he will say? He knows I'm crazy! I have no idea what we'll do with him but we found this temporary container for him so the kids can look but not touch. My camera battery is low so the pictures I took of the kids with the bunny didn't turn out so maybe we'll try again later. The kids wanted to give him carrots but maybe he's too small for that?

Things are getting out of hand.....

with these robins ripping apart my planters!! I have new cocoa lining for them but haven't gotten around to redoing them so good thing. Some of these birds must have some really nice nests!

Our Saturday

Brett & I had a day together since Damon was on the spring cruise. We started out with a bunch of garage sales -it was city wide in Janesville. We didn't find much but did load up on Barbies for the day care girls. Then we went to Starbucks for a snack before Brett's soccer game. He likes their new chocolate donuts! His team won the soccer game with two goals. Brett did a lot of running around but got to kick at the ball a couple times. His little buddy Scott kicked the ball all over the field & then into the wrong goal! Next we went to a resale shop downtown called Promenade. I expected it to be better than it was but still managed to find several cute things including a funky hemmed skirt (hard to see in the picture but it's two layers at the bottom-one is a rough edge & the other is straight with lace. Cute!), brand new Calvin Klein jean skirt and a bright pink purse! We went to lunch at the A & W drive in. We never go there but I thought Brett would enjoy it & he did. Not that he ate much other than the Root Beer float! Since it was nice out & we didn't have much of a schedule, we went to the park that Brett has always wanted to go to. He really enjoyed it even though he played by himself. He did really well on the monkey bars confirming he really is part monkey. After he got down he said "that was kinda stretchy!" Then we went to the mall for a while. Brett got a couple of comic books that they were giving out at the Gap so that kept him busy while I shopped. He read his comic books while I guided him (gently) by the back of his neck. He didn't even look up to walk through the mall! I found two cute skirts at C & B's for 50% off clearance. Came home and got things in order before Damon came home. Here's some pictures from Saturday.

This was his third time trying it so he was getting tired!