Chicks, Kangaroos, and Cow Milking

So far, we have 5 chicks.  I thought they should be done hatching, but one of the eggs had a hole in it, and I could see the chick moving inside, so I think more may hatch yet.  Of the 5 that are all out, 3 are yellow (one with a brown spot on its head, which is the kids' favorite), 1 is black, and 1 is brown.  They are delightfully tiny balls of fluff.  We are all very excited about them and hope to find that more have hatched overnight tonight.  

In other chicken news, one of the barred rock hens is limping.  I don't know what's wrong with her foot (it's not a visible wound), but I'm hoping she heals soon.  The barred rocks are my favorite type of hen, and we only have 2 left.

Today, we also visited kangaroos:

We even got to pet one.  They are incredibly soft!  

We also had the opportunity to milk a cow.  The boys opted not to try, but Lydia was eager, so we got in line.  She did produce a small squirt after I showed her how.  She's very proud, and said that the cow milking was her favorite part!

Garden Bounty and Legos

Well, we just got back this afternoon, and here is the haul from the garden.  It's not much, but I'm thrilled that it's getting ripe!

We did make a stop on the way home to the Lego store.  We had never been to one before, and the kids were really looking forward to it.  They had a great time and made some purchases with their own money.  (I also let them make their own figures.)

Also, I just wanted to show that my man can still cut a rug, even when Grandma's in a wheelchair:

And lastly, I have to mention that tomorrow's post will be about chicks.  I just put the chickens up and checked on Sol.  I was expecting the hatch to be tomorrow, but a couple of chicks had just hatched, and more are in process.  I actually saw two, and they were still wet, which means that they had hatched less than an hour ago.  One egg was out from under Sol, and I picked it up.  I could hear the chick inside, so I put it back down to keep on hatching!  The kids will be so excited in the morning when we go out to check on them!  I'm very curious to see how many will hatch, and what colors they will be.  (Of the two I saw, one was black and one was pale yellow.)

Pumpkins and etc

I ran into my friend Danielle today.  It was a nice surprise to see her and her kids at the free movie morning.  When she asked, "How's your garden?" she reminded me that I haven't posted any garden pictures of the pumpkins.  So I just ran around the garden with a camera!

This is a small sugar pumpkin, and it's already turning orange!

I'm not sure which pumpkin this is.  Some of the seeds were a mix.

I think this one will be white.  Some of the pumpkins I planted are Lumina, which are white.

This is our first cucumber.  Elijah can't wait for it to get a bit bigger!

A cantaloupe - the biggest.  It is a bit bigger than a softball.

We also have smaller cantaloupes.  One is almost the size of a baseball, but most are marble-sized right now.  I am just excited that they are growing.

Unfortunately, my Cinderella Pumpkin plants are not looking good.  I'm not sure why when the others seem to be thriving.

And here is the tomato/pepper garden:

I've only had a few tomatoes so far, and my peppers are just so close to ripe but not quite.   I do have lots of green tomatoes.  The plants are still growing and are not full size yet.  Today, though, I have 3 tomatoes ripe, the most I've had in any week so far, and I'm having a BLT for dinner tonight!

Natural Food Colorings

OK, this may be kinda weird to you, but I've been avoiding food colorings lately, so today when Malachi got out his Kwanza book and wanted to make the cookies in it, I decided to try and color the icing with natural food colors.  I know that doesn't make the sugar-laden icing healthy, but I know that food colorings have been linked to making kids with attention problems struggle more, and we all know that one of my kids is always off in his own universe, so I figure it's worth avoiding but not prohibiting.  Make sense?  No?  Oh, well.  Anyway, here is what I did:

I cut a small beet in half and added about 1/4c of water and then I nuked it for 2 minutes in the microwave.  I added a small amount of the liquid, about 1/2 tsp, to some icing (about a tablespoon).  It made a lovely baby pink color.  It actually doesn't show up as pink in the picture as it really is:

 For the yellow, I added just a pinch of turmeric to some icing.  I wondered if the taste would be off, but there's just so much sugar involved that you really don't taste the turmeric at all.  For the brown, I added a bit of cocoa.  Later on, we mixed the pink with some yellow for a nice light orange, but I don't have a picture of that one.

Malachi and Lydia really had fun decorating the cookies using the icing and toothpicks.  (Note: toothpicks take a long time, so it was good for stretching the activity!)

I also made rolls today, and so I let each of the kids have some dough to shape however they wanted.  That was a hit; even Elijah joined in.

Malachi made angry birds, Elijah made R2D2, and Lydia made a pancake.  

Picking Peaches and Nectarines

As you can probably tell, it was very hot (96 degrees) so we picked fast.  The boys are wearing shirts I made.  I also made Lydia's sundress.  I like that they all like to wear clothes I made for them.

We picked 58lbs of fruit, half white nectarines and half peaches.  Many are not quite ripe, which is good because it will take a few days for me to work through all of that fruit.  I plan on making some jam, freezing some, and of course we will eat a lot fresh, too.

Lightning Bugs

I had mentioned that I wanted to post the kids' other library craft.

This is a cute and easy craft.  First, you need a Mt. Dew bottle with the label removed.  Next, Wrap three pipe cleaners around the body and twist underneath to make legs.  Cut a piece of construction paper to fit around the body and tape it in place.  Cut paper wings and tape them on top.  Take another pipe cleaner and wrap it around the neck for antennae.  On the lid, glue a small circle of construction paper, and then 2 googly eyes.  Lastly, and this is the really fun part, put a glow stick inside the bug.  They glow well and are really cute to "fly" around a dark room or outdoors.

Back Online

I'm b-a-a-a-a-c-k!  We finished the floors in the library yesterday morning, so now my computer is back up and running.  Check these out:

I had never noticed before how close the red paint inside the bookshelf matches the  paint on the walls.  Usually books block that view!

I need to fix the broken hutch door.

Obviously, I haven't put all the books back yet, but that was about all I had the time and energy for yesterday.  Besides flooring, we also spent a couple of hours in the neighbors' pool visiting and swimming.  I did take the kids to the fireworks last night, which was an awesome show.  It's the first time we've been to the fireworks here, since we're often out of town over the fourth of July.  It was also the first time Lydia has been to see a fireworks show other than just driveway fountains, and it was so cute to listen to her exclaim "That's my favorite!" after almost every one.  One of Elijah's friends was there, and he played with him the whole time, so that was great.  Malachi and Lydia had fun playing in the grass until it was show time.