Next Stop Kindergarten

My youngest child graduated from preschool last night. She wore a cute little hat and walked across the stage to get her certificate. Crazy how time flies by! There was a little program that went along with the graduation that included some songs and pictures. Her teacher wanted to put all the girls on the front row of the risers but had the delima of Greta being super tall and overshadowing the little boys behind her. So she did this:

She had my super tall girl stand off of the risers. Hehehe. She's a foot taller than the rest of the girls (and boys!). I suppose being the oldest in the bunch and being 93rd percentile for height (meaning out of 100 kids, she's taller than 93 of them) will do that.

She did great singing the songs and doing the actions with each song. Miss Cindy said she did testing on each child and Greta's results were off the charts. She can spell each kids name in her class, which surprised me. Go Greta! Next stop Kindergarten.

Floating away

So it's been raining here a whole lot. So much rain that I had to turn around at a flooded dirt road to find an alternate route.....the whole time that little voice in my head is telling me to "turn around, don't drown". We're talking over 4 inches of rain in the last week and a half. It's like a rainforest out there it's so green. I love it! The kids really love it. It means mud and lots of it. It's like mud pie central around here.

Building immunity one pile of mud at a time. That's my motto. Hey at least she's not making mud angels.

She helped me get my garden planted a week ago. It's coming up like crazy. I planted everything, I kid you not. It would be easier to tell you what seeds I didn't plant than the ones I did. I'm really looking forward to fresh organic produce this summer.

I've also been planting flowers around the property in every pot I can find.

In the spring I always find some new egg being laid. Whether it's the chickens or the cockatiels or even wild birds in the yard. What I wasn't prepared to find was a random egg lying in the tortoise pen. My leopard tortoise, Cecil, finally became old enough to lay her first egg. I found that really cool. I'm not going to incubate it but perhaps sometime down the road I put a few in an incubator and see what happens. It would be a neat project for the kids to see (yep it's all for the kids wink wink). I ran across a youtube video on how to convert a mini fridge into a reptile incubator....and low and behold we have an old unused mini fridge in the basement. See it's meant to be.

Sales

Part of the joys of spring are all the little garage sale signs on each corner. I, on occasion, will stop and see what treasures are to be found. Sometimes there are great things and sometimes it's a bust. Last weekend my friend and I went out during the garage sale weekend and I found some great things. One of which was an Easy Bake oven. Greta's at the age where she's toying with the idea of baking and this little thing is such a fun intro to that. Oddly enough, I've had more fun with the tiny oven than she has. It didn't come with any of the pre-made baking mixes (which is good, garage sale baking mixes aren't anything I'd use) so I got on Google and found all sorts of Easy Bake oven recipes. They're funny because they call for 4 teaspoons of flour, 2 teaspoons of sugar....and so on. Tiny little measurements that make tiny amounts of cake batter to go in tiny pans. After the kids went to bed last night I told Sean I wanted to make a tiny cake we can eat and not feel guilty about eating (because I could easily have made a big cake we would have eaten). The end result was a delicious tiny double decker chocolate cake and frosting.

One of the other things I found was an old dog house that's in need of a good staining. It's sturdy and well made and was just what I was looking for. The tortoises are outside during the day now if it's above 65 degrees. They needed a shelter in their enclosure but I just didn't want to build anything, so this works great. They've already thoroughly checked it out and gave it their stamp of approval.

On a (kind of) sad note, the hubby decided to sell his corvette and it was picked up by the new owner a couple of nights ago. Sean spent the whole winter tinkering around on it, replacing this and that, and he decided he was done. It was a fun car but I think he is ready for something newer that doesn't require the maintenance that a 20+ year old car requires. An older gentleman just south of us bought it so I'm sure we'll see it around.

Spring Activities

Spring has definitely sprung around here. We finally got a nice rain the other evening which has made everything green up nicely. The weeds are going nuts which is great for a five year old. Greta loves to venture into the yard and pluck as many yellow dandelion flowers as she can grab then she trots over to the horse pen and feeds them to the goats who are stretching their necks through the fence waiting for her.

We've started the daunting task of fencing in the walnut grove. Each weekend for about a month now we've gone out and pounded in t-posts. The east side of the property is finished with the posts and we'll start the corner posts and wire fencing soon. I can hardly wait to let the goats in there to keep it mowed (it takes at least 3 hours to mow it).

We have some crazy helpers most days.

The Birthday Horse

I was looking at some dates on the refrigerator and saw that one of our miniature horses was born on April 18, 2005 and he was turning 10 this year. I told the kids, half joking, that we should celebrate his birthday with party hats and a cake. Oh boy were they on board! Every day for more than two weeks Greta has asked me when Rocky's birthday was. Well it is today. So he got brushed out (he's still losing his winter coat) and got a lovely red party hat. Sean took pictures. Happy birthday Rocky!

Miniature horses routinely live into their 30's, so he's considered young.

Easter, Reenactments & Crazy Canines

Was Easter really a week and a half ago? Yikes, time flies when you're having fun! We did all the traditional Easter stuff: dyed eggs, hunted for them at the city park and at home. This year they put quarters in a lot of the plastic eggs and Greta made out with $5.50 worth of quarters. She was super excited. My folks came over for an Easter meal of snow crab and pork loin. It was a fun Easter weekend.

My parents are preparing for a reenactment of President Lincoln's funeral that is around the end of April. It's to commemorate the 150 year anniversary of his death. They've never been part of a reenactment before so for the past few months they've been doing extensive research on mid 1800 clothing. They wanted some pictures so I went over and took some while they posed in their period attire. I'd say they are having an interesting retirement.

I made her pose for this one. Definitely my favorite.

I had the fun experience of taking all three dogs to the vet for their shots. They were all due for them and I'd been putting it off since they are insane at the vet clinic. Oh who and I kidding, they are insane all the time. I had a slow day last week and decided to just get it done. So into the car Greta, Sophie, Chance, Cody and I piled. They are lunatics in the car and jump from front seat to back seat to cargo area and then back again. Sophie decided to start barking a few minutes after we left, so that was fun. Then Chance jumped up on the passenger seat armrest and pushed on the window control with his paw. He did this to two different windows. He'd lower them, I raise them back up. Greta thought all of this was hilarious. I was not laughing. Two hundred dollars later it is done and I don't have to think about it for quite some time. I often wonder what it's like to have well trained dogs.

Dogs don't pose when they're jumping around a car.

Kindergarten Round-Up

 Last week I signed my youngest up for kindergarten. I'm far more emotional during this process than I was when I signed up Wesley. I really had no clue how I'd feel when Wesley went to kindergarten. It was a completely new phase having a child in school. Now three years later I have a 2nd grader who is flourishing. I do miss him when he's at school but I have Greta so it isn't too bad. Now Greta's going to school soon and I'm kind of sad. It's going to be lonely around here for seven hours a day. It will be so strange working again. I haven't worked full time in eight years.

Now Greta on the other hand. She is very excited to go to kindergarten. I can't be happier for her. When she turned five she went through an anxiety phase that I was scared she'd never emerge from. She'd cling to me during preschool drop off, crying and pleading with me not to leave her. At bedtime she'd apprehensively ask if preschool was tomorrow and then start worrying if I said yes. This behavior overlapped into doctor and dentist visits. She'd freak out if I said we had to do to the doctors. She's not completely out of that phase yet but when it comes to school she's 110% better. She LOVES preschool again. She even will go inside on her own without me. The teacher and even other parents have commented on her 180 degree behavioral change. I couldn't be more happy for her.

I am not worried at all about her entry into kindergarten. She has her best friend from preschool going into the same school with her and I've been assured that they will be in the same class. Oh and she's excited that she'll get to see her big brother in the hallways.  This is a win win situation.

A Weekend Away

Well jury duty turned out to be a bust. I drove in, they put us all in a room and selected 31 out of the 45 people there. I was not one of the 31 so I got in my car and drove home. It wasn't a bad experience, it was actually quite interesting hearing the 31 people being questioned by the judge. I learned all sorts of things about those 31 people. I have to call back next week so perhaps I'll be one of those selected people soon enough.

I thought I'd share some pictures from last weekend. We traveled up to see my sister as it was my youngest nephews birthday. Little Bennett turned 4 years old.

He's such a cute little ham of a kid. He really worked at blowing out that last candle from three feet away. There was face painting involved and lots of cake and ice cream. What's not to like?

Children and adults alike enjoyed the hulk hands. Although I think my father might have appreciated them more.

There was plenty of playing and a nice walk to the park nearby. Walkie talkies were a big hit among young children and fathers alike. I find it hilarious that my daughter can strike a pose if I tell her I'm taking a picture.

I had my very first trip to Ikea (one of my parents favorite stores). It was a massive store full of great ideas. It made me want to come home and organize (which I've been doing all week!). It was great fun! We even ate lunch there which was very tasty. I'd definitely go back.

We stopped at a McDonalds for coffee on the way up there and found a very cool interactive table with lights that change colors with pressure from your hands. Wesley was quite intrigued. Good times! That was my fun weekend.

Well Armed

I got the dreaded jury summons in the mail a few weeks ago.

I dodged it a few years ago because I was, sort of, breastfeeding my youngest daughter. Apparently breast feeding in a courthouse is distracting so they let me have a pass on that one. This time I wasn't so lucky (if you consider breast feeding lucky).

This morning I trudged into the courthouse, which is about half a hour away. Upon entry into the building I was greeted with metal detectors and police officers. One officer took my purse and pulled me aside to inquire about its contents.

Officer: "Ma'am do you have any pepper spray in here?"

Me: "Hmm you know, I think I do." 

Officer: "Do you have any knives?"

Me: "Gosh, yeah I think I have two." 

At this point I start digging around in the purse to locate all my weapons. I pulled out my keys and on my key ring is a Safety Cat personal defense keychain my father got me.

Officer: (chuckling) "I'll need that too"

Me: "Sorry, I was really not prepared for this!"

Officer: (puts his hands up) "Man, I'm not going to mess with you!"

All my seized contraband. It's a good thing I don't fly much.

Seedlings

What to do on a lazy Tuesday morning. Oh yea, re-pot oodles of baby tomatoes. They were quickly out growing their little peat pots and needed more room. Greta was a big helper taking over soil duties. She's very gentle with the seedlings. We got 35 replanted. It's a bit much, but we do love home grown tomatoes. This year we are trying three varieties called Heritage, Atkinson and (or course) Cherry tomatoes. Yum!

Spring Break

Whew! I somehow survived Spring Break 2015 with the kids. By the end of the week I wasn't sure I was going to make it though. I should have planned more activities but we had fun. It was cold and rainy for a large majority of the week so we stayed indoors for the most part. I took them shopping with me and out to eat, which they loved. Release these kids in a craft store and they can entertain themselves for hours.

If I get the camera out and say "smile" these are the faces I get. Silly kids. I wanted to take them to the movies one day and our options were Paddington (a cute bear movie) or SpongeBob Movie. I voted Paddington, they voted SpongeBob. They won. It was an excruciating hour and 45 minutes. They loved it though and that's all that counts.

The Hubby was busy all day Saturday putting new front and rear brakes on the Edge. It had been squealing when I backed it out of the garage and grinding a bit when stopping. Sure enough the pads on the back where well worn and in need of replacement.  Man, new brakes are nice! A big thanks to my awesome husband.

The 3D printer is still getting a work out. Greta asked to have a 3D printed Olaf made so Sean found the plans and set forth printing each part of Olaf. There were several parts: the body, head, nose, buttons, feet, teeth and arms. I had some modeling glue that did a fabulous job of welding the parts together. Then after a paint job we have the finished Olaf. That's pretty much my spring break in a nut shell.

Update through pictures

As I write this post I'm smelling the lovely scent of dehydrating mango and bananas. Every time I go to the grocery store I scope out the produce section for new and exciting fruits to throw in the dehydrator. This past weekend I found organic mango! Score! They smell heavenly. I'm enjoying the dehydrator.

We've encountered a new challenge to dog ownership. Chance, our little 13 year old terrier mix, has decided to start marking our house. He does it primarily when he gets super excited. So, for instance, say the neighbors dog walks past the back fence, he and the other two idiots go barking madly at the window. Then he finds the nearest thing to urinate on and lets loose. It is incredibly maddening. Sean mentioned perhaps he needed a diaper (the dog, not Sean) and so after a search on Amazon I discovered this is a common problem amongst male dogs. So much in fact that they make a product called a "male wrap" that wraps up the problem area much like a diaper. So I ordered one and once it arrived I strapped it on the little leaky terror terrier. He absolutely hates it. He's normally a frisky little dog, with oodles of personality. Well he turns into a statue when I put on his diaper. Will not move. He just moves his eye balls around in their sockets, head perfectly still. It's pretty funny, but also a little sad. I don't want him to stop being Chance, I just want him to stop urinating. Maybe he just needs to get used to it.

Greta and I started a whole lot of seeds last week. We planted kale, cabbage, lettuce and three varieties of tomatoes. Now a week later and they have all come up and look pretty good. The nice weather is enticing me to think about garden designs and ponder tilling methods. Greta seems to find enjoyment in watching seeds grow so perhaps I've passed that hobby on to my youngest.

The beautiful Spring like weather is making all the outside livestock happy campers. The goat family has weathered another semi rough winter. Each winter I think might be Dym's last, but she keeps on truckin'. I've created a pretty good combination of warm beet pulp, alfalfa pellets, a nice warm fleece jacket and regular de-wormings to keep her in decent condition. Older animals take quite a bit more work to maintain, but she's worth it. Such a sweet goat.

Wesley is a crazy tooth losing second grader. He lost his other big front tooth so he's got no teeth when he smiles. It's actually his sixth tooth. Poor kid can't figure out how to take bites out of food. I bet it feels odd to say the least.

With the nicer weather comes more eggs! The chickens have been ramping up production with Spring on its way. This winter I didn't try to force egg production with a light bulb in their hen house. I usually do that and it keeps me in eggs year round. But after last winter and the dreaded January molt (losing feathers in the coldest month sucks) I decided to give them a break. They look great this winter, five fat and happy hens. They are back up to giving me three eggs a day, which seems to be the perfect number for our family. It's great not buying eggs anymore.

Fun Weekend

It hit 73 degrees yesterday. It was glorious. To me, it means Spring is coming. Technically Spring is coming, it starts in 13 days. The kids and I laid on the trampoline and soaked up the sun yesterday. Then we proceeded to try and clean up the yard. The yard looked similar to the house after a week with no clean up attempted. Sand box toys, baseballs, logs and boards all spread around the back yard. Oh and cat food cans, we mustn't forget those. The highlight of the dogs day is waiting for me to unlock the shop door and open it so I can feed the horses and goats. The dogs then run in there and retrieve their favorite cat food can (with just a morsel of last nights cat dinner in it). They carry them out to the yard and lick each can for a good 20 minutes before going in to retrieve another. This has been going on all winter and there are cans spread all over the two acre back yard. I gave each kid a grocery sack and told them we are going to have a redneck Easter "egg" hunt where instead of eggs, they get to hunt cat food cans. And to sweeten the deal I would pay out a nickle for each can they found. Boy were they determined, each filling their grocery sack in record time. Best couple of bucks I've ever spent.

It's been a long winter and I seem to be lacking the typical Spring motivation I usually have. I did start seeds last week but the thought of actually tilling up the garden and planting them (and the sack of seeds I ordered) is ranking pretty low on the list of things to do. Usually I'm rip roaring to go in the Spring. I did get the leaf blower out yesterday and attempted to start blowing the giant piles of leaves that have accumulated in every corner of the property. We have several mature oak trees and they don't drop their leaves until Spring instead of the traditional fall drop like most trees. So I don't even try to get rid of leaves until Spring. It's going to take several more weekends to get the job done but I got a good start in the front yard.

About a month ago we told Wesley if he read 75 books and wrote them down then we would take him to the local arcade and play games for an afternoon. Well last week he did it. Got 75 books written down. He was super excited! Yesterday we all piled in the car and went out to eat and then to the arcade. We all had a blast playing games, even Greta joined in on the fun with an Ice Age whack a mole type game. It's definitely something we'll do again. The kids favorite part was each game spit out tickets which they collected and got to spend on trinket toys. Kids love those cheap little trinket toys!