Spring chickens

This long warm spring has been so lovely. It has felt much more leisurely than our usual rush to shove plants in the ground before it's too late. Perhaps it's just that we're more settled here now. We have established garden beds, planter boxes, and a set routine to spring. Zinnias, broccoli, kale...check!

And of course there are the chicks. They are gangly and flighty teenagers now, probably not appreciating all the attention they receive. Luckily they're sturdy little things. They've ridden on bicycles, gone down roller coasters, and sat on heads more times than I can count.

One particularly warm afternoon they had their first day in the sun.

 
 

Ole's excitement grew and grew. Let the circus begin!

 

 

And just like that his attention went elsewhere and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

All my peeps

We'd been keeping vigil for twenty-one days when we heard a muffled peeping coming from the incubator. A tiny hole appeared in each shell. Then a long crack in one, methodically chipped all the way around. A wet orb emerged, unfurling into a dark chick. We ooohed and cheered and squealed at the magic of it all.

Bedtime came, and we peeled ourselves away,one tiny chick's eyes following us from inside the incubator. I slept fitfully and finally slipped down to check on them in the wee hours. Hooray! Seven new baby chicks fully hatched and smushed together.

We made a morning trip to the local feed and seed for a heat lamp bulb and fresh bag of pine shavings, then moved the chicks to their new home. Once they'd dried and warmed, they mulled around pecking and scratching like pros.

These are the best days--cuddling their soft fluff , noticing the changes day by day, playing silly chick games. The best!

 

 

 

These days

Spring is just the best. We're getting into the swing of running outside when the weather is nice, saving inside work and play for the rainy days. It seems that overnight Ole grew into all the playground equipment, opening up a whole new world of fun.

Worm digging has been our other major spring pastime--much to the delight of the chickens.

We tore ourselves away from home-sweet-home this weekend for two 4-year-old birthday parties. Oh boy! The first was a princess party with Princess Ana from Frozen. Ole was glued to my lap and not at all impressed to see a genuine princess.

"Mom, look! There's candy!"

The next party got him off my lap! Fun with bubbles, balloons, and dinosaurs.

We also had a good day recently at Portland's aquarium (meh) and Bob's Red Mill (awesome) with our friend Stephanie.

And of course we're keeping it loose with yoga.

Then there was that day Ole decided to mail himself to the North Pole. 

Boots, rope, and BunBun? He'll be fine!

Finally, I thought I'd give a behind the scenes peek of our mead bottling operation. There's a batch of dry honey wine, one of blackberry, and one of rhubarb. And I learned a new word! Melomel--a mead that contains fruit. Who knew!



Aloha oe

We're nearly two weeks back from our family vacation to Maui. The tan has already faded and that blissed out holiday feeling is long gone, but we're left with photos. Photos and delicious Kona coffee!

The view from my beach towel

We all enjoyed our visit to the aquarium. They had one of those cool glass tunnels where fish and sharks swam past on all sides and beneath. Plus lots of crazy ass fish, seahorses (my favorite), jellyfish, sea turtles, hammerhead sharks, and octopuses.

We spent a great deal of time at our hotel pool which was pretty great.

And the beach!

We saw an astonishing number of humpback whales jumping and blowing and splashing. Every time we looked at the ocean, I swear, another whale was making a scene.

Getting wild at the luau

Catching the last sunset of our trip

Now we're back home, greeted each day by some early spring snowbells and that smooth Kona coffee.

Resolute

"Music" has been wafting through the house this week. It's me practicing the piano! I've already tackled this year's resolution and started my first ever piano lessons on Monday. It's been a long time coming--I'm pretty sure learning the piano was also last year's resolution. I bought an old upright off of craigslist five years ago and had it tuned a couple years back. It just takes me a while to get to it, I guess. I quickly slipped back into student mode, rushing to finish my homework and lapping up praise from my teacher who seemed impressed by my progress (compared to her usual 6-year-old students no doubt!). Ole seems less than impressed though, hollering, "Stop playing!" to each rendition of 'Yankee Doodle' or 'Ode to Joy'.

The other music wafting through the house this week is from Free to Be...You and Me, my favorite childhood album. I didn't remember much of it, just a few snippets, but it has been such fun listening to it again after finding it re-released on CD. There are a lot of gems in there. Marlo and friends certainly helped shape my feminist ideals. As an adult I'm especially fond of 'Parents are People'--Ole referred to me as "just a mom" the other day.

Outside, the boy is still busy arranging and rearranging the parking situation. Must be one of those jobs that never feels finished.

And in the house, we're always happy to play with Play-Doh as you can clearly see in this self portrait.

Christmas Eve

We had a lovely day today, celebrating Christmas Eve in ways we all enjoy.

Pancakes with blackberry syrup.

A walk/bike around Beacon Rock State Park.

Lincoln logs

Legos. He's already obsessed with them.

Popcorn snack with mead. We sampled a bottle of the new batch of mead...too soon! We'll let it age several more months.

At bath time I asked, "How many presents do you want to open tonight?"

Hey! Those are for the big guy.

Ready!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!