David's Birthday

Believe it or not this adorable little bundle of cuteness turned 9 years old on April 1st, no joke!

    

 With baseball just getting under way we were running crazy getting 5 kids to their activities. We didn't get to celebrate David's birthday until late that evening. I think he even got to run a few extra laps at baseball practice since it was his birthday. Forget dinner, how about some mint ice cream cupcakes instead?  Our children worked really hard all winter to split and sell firewood. With all of their hard work they've saved quite a bit of money. They've really enjoyed living across the street from Target. Walking across the street to spend all of their hard earned money has been so much fun for them.  When we requested a birthday list from David he put a hula hoop on it and boy has it been fun around here. We can't wait to see some more fun come from this kid this year. He's mastered that hula hoop along with the Rubik's cube, and knot tying has still kept him busy around here. We began doing scholastic testing on him a few years ago. This year he has ended up in the 99th percentile for his age. Getting him to do his schoolwork this year has really tested my patience when there are so many other things he'd rather be doing, like riding scooters or mastering other patterns on his Rubik's cube, playing Legos or cleaning the chicken coop, but I guess we really can't complain when his grades are so high. Happy birthday, David! Keep driving us crazy like you do. :) We love you!

I Didn't Want Chickens, I Just Wanted Their Eggs

After a lovely time in South Dakota we returned home and it was time to get to work unpacking and learning all about our new surroundings. Did I mention that when we bought our house it also came with about 40-50 chickens? I still don't really know how many chickens we actually have.

If you know me then you've probably heard that I've wanted chickens for a long time, but our previous home didn't have the space and our HOA didn't permit it. Well, I've finally got my chickens, but did I ever mention that I know nothing about chickens or really any pet or animal for that matter? What have I gotten myself into? I even mentioned to my husband that I really didn't want chickens, but I just wanted their eggs. He had a good laugh while I began researching chickens like crazy by checking books out at the library, and Google has been a great help too. We not only have hens, but we have a few roosters too! What do you do with roosters? The previous owner, whom we still speak to often, told us to leave eggs in the nesting boxes and we'll have baby chicks in 21 days. What? We've contemplated getting rid of them. That was until a very large bird swooped down and tried to attack our chickens. The rooster, that the children name Saruman, fought the bird off. He has since been renamed Gandalf, for protecting his flock. We're keeping the roosters for now. The previous owner let the chickens out all over the property, so we've done the same thing with a little hesitation. How do we get them all back into the coop at night? We don't. We've learned that they just know where to go when it starts to get dark outside. We don't have to do anything. The roosters pretty much herd their hens back to the coop, which the children have recently named The Shire.

We have a large open field in the back of our house with a massive wall that still needs to be finished. When we moved in the weeds were waist high and now we've been told that we need to get some goats to keep the weeds down. What? I don't even know what I'm doing with chickens. That little green mower works just fine in the field, don't you think? If anyone out there is looking to do a little labor putting up a stone wall let me know. We have all the materials and I'll feed you!

          

We were told that our recently inherited flock of chickens were pretty old. Not all of the chickens are even laying eggs anymore. The previous owner suggested that we grow our flock by, guess what? Yeah, these kids talked me into buying baby chicks when we returned home from South Dakota. AHH!!

I have to admit that they're pretty darn cute and they're growing on me, but I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing.  We'll see how many make it through the winter. Stick around for more to come on our little urban farm?

Baseball, Baseball, and More Baseball

I don't know about you, but we received a lot of rain in April and May causing a crazy baseball season for us.

With 5 children playing baseball, a lot of rain meant a lot of make-up games for us and even a few doubleheaders. In the month of June we lived at the baseball field. Our calendar was filled with baseball for 22 straight days. The season began without games on Sunday and as we neared the end of the season we were running straight from church to the ball field. It was crazy, but crazy fun too!

Sometimes we even had two games going at the same time, and I'd run back and forth trying to catch everyone bat or field the ball.

The weather did get better and who can complain when you're watching baseball and you have a view of the mountains in the background? It makes you slow down a little and appreciate the beautiful scenery that God has created for us.

Because we love baseball so much one team just wasn't enough for  Thomas. It just so happened that some dear friends of ours were playing in a tournament near our house and they were short a few players. They asked Thomas to join them and he had a blast! With a few more games on the schedule Thomas ended up moving in with them for a few days. These boys are like long lost brothers. They know how to get into a lot of trouble together.

Since Thomas got to go home with his buddies they kidnapped Rachel (and Rebecca) too! It was only slightly quieter in our home for those few days. ;)

Since Little League baseball wasn't enough for us we hit up a Rockies' game with our St. Louis Cardinal loving friends.

The outcome was fabulous considering I went to the game with very low expectations. I mean come on, the Rockies were near the bottom of the barrel in baseball and the Cardinals were probably going to go to the playoffs again.

Guess what? The Rockies won! It was a great game if I do say so myself. 

What made the game even better was that we got to hang out with our sweet friends at the same time. It will definitely be a memorable game for years to come. I'll never let you forget it, Mandy. ;)

April Flew By

April began with the celebration of David's 8th birthday and we continued the partying with two more birthdays that month. Our foster boys turned 6 and my husband, stayed the same age he thought he was last year. His old age is a making him forget how old he really is.

Our Easter was pretty low key. We arrived to church earlier than normal to help with the pancake breakfast. Then the younger children hunted for Easter eggs and my husband preached a wonderful sermon. Later that evening we had a smaller crowd over and enjoyed supper and dessert with the Clemmers and Sampers!  
To close out the evening our children performed my favorite song from The Sound of Music. Enjoy! It's so sweet.


Our church softball team went out with a bang! By the end of the season I'm pretty sure the last team we played was a little shocked at how well we kept up with them.

At the end of April our friends, the Fienes, came out for a visit. Katie was a real trooper and listened to my girls read to her at the same time, attended baseball games, and even went to speech therapy with me and one of my foster boys. We did make it out to do a little shopping and hit up Starbucks. The last day of their visit we took them to Estes Park and we had dinner at Hans', now favorite Estes Park restaurant, Cheesy Lee's.

For as long as I can remember we've constantly been searching the MLS or Zillow for houses. My husband has flipped a few, and we've always been interested in a home with a bigger lot. Back in March we saw a home that we were interested in buying. By the end of April we decided to put our home on the market and start wheelin' and dealin' on the home we looked at back in March, thus begins the crazy that has become our life recently. Stay tuned for how it all went down. 

March Happenings

March found us with quite a full calendar. Along with Lenten services on Wednesday evenings we added church softball to our schedule and also began a little baseball for 5 of our children. Palm Sunday came at the end of the month. We love that Sunday and children were super excited to help out with palms again this year.



Opening day of baseball was cold and dreary. In fact, it was canceled when we arrived at the field. It was that kind of a season for us. 

After the Valentine's Day Party

Wow! It's been over 2 months since I've blogged anything. Thank you for your kind comments and emails about my lack of blogging. Hopefully, I can get you caught up on what's been going on around here. 

The last half of February took a cold turn right after David completed level 8, Rachel level 6, and Anna level 2 in the Catechism memory program at church. We found ourselves with quite a bit of snow causing us to hit the slopes and do a little sledding. We even convinced one of our church members to join us after he plowed our driveway. We're so spoiled! The cold weather didn't stop us from heading out to see the Glass Slipper at the Buell theater. It was the perfect Valentine's day with another couple to boot!

The Zoo in January

It had been over a year since we had seen Mimi and Papa, so way back in January, they came to visit. It was such a beautiful day outside that we decided to take them to the zoo. Would you believe it if I told you just a few days earlier we had snow on the ground?

It looks like the brown bears just finished lunch and were taking an afternoon nap.

The gorillas were pretty entertaining that day, walking around near the windows.

We always enjoy the Gibbons when we visit. They do amazing acrobatic stunts, at least in my view, when they're swinging from the ropes or branches.

The rhinos were a big hit with the spectators.

They now share their home with the elephants for our easier viewing pleasure. Since moving to this space it seems like they are more active when we visit.

Check out these crazy animals that climb logs. They don't even cage these guys up. They seem to roam free all over the zoo!

The tricks that these elephants perform are always fun to watch and the facts we learn about them are pretty amazing.

Who needs a penny when you can stamp it with a zoo logo.

Anna wanted to take off and find the giraffes, so she and I snuck away while the others were were perusing the hyenas and foxes.

Then we came across the zebras.

The zebras were putting on a show for us without any coaxing.

Smile for the camera!

Once I tried to get the lion to smile with Mimi and Rachel he turned away. He wasn't having any of it. 

Fall or Summer?

I found some photos from last month that I forgot to post.

With the strange weather around here it's hard to figure out when summer has ended and when fall has started.

It's warm enough to run around in the sprinklers,

but leaves are falling all over the ground.

So, is it summer or fall?

Hmm? I wonder what these boys think?