There is an urban legend that our house was once a chicken coop. I'm not sure how much truth there is to that or who to ask but that's a thing! There is a weird mysterious door in the garage....so that could be something. Anyway... After taking a stab at raising farm animals...(probably not the best use of words)...and once Nelly moved to a new family, we felt ready to proceed with our dreams of raising chickens, which I believe was only a dream since last November when we watched our friends' hens over Thanksgiving and everyday was like an Easter Egg hunt. But seriously, we eat a lot of eggs, and I can see a lot of benefits in having my kids raise and work with animals. We weren't sure when any of this would happen, We toyed with the idea of building our own coop, buying a new one, or finding a used one to fix up. If we were going to raise chickens we kind of wanted more than 2 (I got a lot of hungry boys to feed over here) and coops for more than 2 chickens get pretty expensive. Building one from scratch seemed like it would also get expensive and I just wasn't seeing any used ones that I liked. After spending one morning with my friend, Marie (who owns the chickens that we fell in love with) I picked her brain on all aspects of chicken care. and shortly after going home, it dawned on me that we have a large shed on our property right next to our deck that hasn't been used in years because it had a family members stuff in it and was rat infested. Max and I both realized this may be the opportunity to clean it out and fix it up and temporarily use it as a chicken coop. Thankfully, the owner of the items was able to pick them up shortly thereafter and totally cleared out the shed.
Another semi exciting part of this story (ok, I know this is probably boring to most people, but I like going through my whole thought process) is that Charlie was incubating chicks in his Kindergarten class and they were going to give the chicks to families that wanted them after they hatched. I wanted to say "pick me pick me!" But I didn't know if we would have a place for them by then...(this was before the idea of the shed/coop had dawned on us) But then his teacher sadly announced that none of the chicks were developing and asked if any families from any of the kindergarten classes had chicks or chickens they wanted to bring and share.....Now, this very same thing happened to me in 1st grade and the disappointment of having the chicks not hatching is still so real to me that I HAD to get chicks at this point. (someone was able to bring chicks into my 1st grade class and I still remember that day!) I wanted to be that person since we were planning on getting chicks soon anyway and the shed/coop was finally underway. There are places you can order live chicks (and get them in the mail) or farm stores sell chicks in May and September (I knew this from buying pig food at the beginning of May) Anyway, When I saw that our family member was clearing out the shed, it seemed more realistic for us to get chickens soon. So Memorial Day, we made our way to the farm store and came home with 6 chicks! ( and just in time, because our friend went 2 days later and all the chicks were gone.) And they are living in a bin and are just over a week old and have been growing super fast. They have been an awesome pet, I planned on putting their bin in the garage but I like them so much that they've been on our kitchen table. We are working on the shed repairs, making it rat proof, water proof, and a great home for chickens. But in the meantime, we've been enjoying these tiny little birds. The boys love them, Edwin grins and says "Chicky" when he sees them. They are so fun to hold.
When they were less than a week old, I got to take them to Charlie's class. They were pretty popular and all the kids in 3 kindergarten classes got to hold them (minus a couple kids that weren't interested) I was impressed with how careful most of the children were and how they gently passed the chick onto the next person.
They fall asleep like this! When they were brand new, they would just fall asleep standing up and it was hilarious to watch because they got pretty wobbly.
Getting bigger at just over a week old.
So, if you made it this far, you must really like chickens. We are hoping they are all hens but there is still a possibility that some could be roosters. It is illegal within the city of Portland to own a rooster so we will either have to send him to a farm....or our deep freeze. Which may be sad but I also like the lessons my kids get from where our food comes from. But in the meantime we named them so read on if you want a little bio on each chick.
Dot: (Dottie or Dorothy) She is the tiny one of the group and generally likes being picked up and held. So she gets held the most. She is a Golden Laced Wyandotte
Priscilla: Prissy. She is a Light Brahma and will be bigger than the other hens. She likes being picked up as well. This breed has feathery feet.
Daisy: Daisy is basically the same as Priscilla, and I actually mix them up all the time. She likes being held too. When one of these chicks is in the box and the other is being held, they chirp to each other. Notice her "hairy" foot.
Pearl: Pearl has really pretty markings and she is a Silver-Laced Wyandotte so it will be lovely to see her feathers come in. She's our second smallest.
Trixie: She was the dominant one when we first got the chicks. She was the largest and pushed the other chicks around. She doesn't like being picked up but once she feels comfortable in your hands, she will settle down. She is a Golden Laced Wyandotte.
Periwinkle: (Winky, Perry?) She is becoming the dominant one. She is fluttering around the box and it wont be long before she can jump out. She's a Silver Laced Wyandotte.
And there you have it! We love watching them grow, and look forward to the eggs they will provide!
When I went back to Armenia 2 years ago we kept hearing about the parties they throw when children lose their first tooth. We saw balloons and plates and cups all devoted to these parties, and we were lucky enough to walk into one of these parties. (If there is any Armenian reading this, please remind me what this party is called in Armenian) The party hadn't started but we saw the whole set up and the honored little girl who had lost a tooth, who was probably pretty confused as to why there were two foreigners in her house.
At that time, I didn't think I would throw one of these parties for my kids but finally Charlie lost his first tooth and it seemed like a great time to celebrate some Armenian culture! So that is what we did. Since I couldn't remember what the party was called, his cake just says Shnorhavor (congratulations) Charlie invited some neighbors and friends to celebrate and eat cake with us.
Dzmerook, and soak (Watermelon and juice) I also, got to bring out my Armenian cup set! And check out those flowers, cut from our property where the tenants are switching, Max had to trim back some wild rose bushes and made multiple flower arrangements with them....one of his many talents!
It was super low key, lots of sugar and room for the kids to run free!
We pretty much let the sugar filled kids run wild, ride bikes, climb on the hammock, eat more sugar, climb trees until the sun went down. It was perfect and they all got along pretty well. The grown ups were also involved in some pogo sticking, so that was fun. I think we can keep this tradition going, as long as my children lose their first tooth in the summertime.
We toned down the pace for Questival this year and decided to enjoy the process instead of doing a 24 hour sprint. (It helped that the prizes weren't as good, and scoring was based more on quality rather than quantity this year) But we fully enjoyed having a weekend to hang out with other adults (and pretend we were kids) while our kids were having the time of their life with grandma.
Our theme was "where's Baldo?" and Max was supposedly hiding in the
background of every picture and video we submitted so people could find
"Baldo."
So I got there a little late after dropping off my kids but we had an opening ceremony at Sellwood park at 7pm on Friday.
We were each going to have a specific weird personality in each photo....I was supposed to be sleeping. It ended up being really hard and didn't last...except for "baldo" hiding!
I didn't really put these in the right order but here are a couple challenges...
"Tandem Cartwheel with a team mate for at least one full rotation"
"As a team hold a wall supported/or not wall supported handstand contest as long as you can."
"Come up with your very own fitness challenge"
"Fake laugh hysterically until someone else joins in our you actually start REALLY laughing because of how ridiculous it is"
"Creatively take a photo with your favorite piece of street art that you find during Questival"
"Give one of your teammates a piggy back ride up 3 flights of stairs"
"15 second video on how to tie your favorite knot"
"Recreate that awkward family photo"
"Waltz across a cross walk"
"Allow a stranger to throw a healthy handful of flour in your face"
"Recreate a scene from a movie of your choice with an animal other than a human" (Thanks Marie for sharing your chickens!)
"Call this number and dance to one of the options 719-266-2837"
"Trade an item from your backpack to another person/participant for an item from their backpack" (I had a diaper in my backpack, haha!)
"Put an item of food in a transparent plastic bag and slurp the contents through a straw as quickly as you can. Eat like an astronaut"
"Eat a sandwich"
"so 15 push-ups, sit-ups, or jumping jacks in an aisle of a grocery store, count 'em outloud. Dare you to get a stranger involved."
"Hold a staring contest with a stranger not participating in questival while casually eating a piece of fruit...don't break eye contact. 15 second minimum."
"Video a 15 second scary story around a campfire" "BALDO'S WORST NIGHTMARE"
"Balance a broom on your chin for 10 seconds"
"Decorate your team mates face like a cake and then lick it clean" Viewer discretion advised!
"Create your own Random Act of Kindness" They mowed the neighbors lawn!
"Go to your local fast food place and sing your order" We made the worker so happy she threw in 5 free frostys!
Catch the largest spider you can find. Not from a store/terrarium" This beast almost crawled on me in our car!
"Find the park that features statues of characters from Beverly Cleary books"
"Identify 5 native plants species in the area by their scientific name" We ran into a sustainable agriculturist and she taught us about all the plants and made us eat most of them.
And we really did so much more but it's already taken me forever to get this many on my computer. instead of staying up for 24 hours, we decided to sleep for a couple hours in our own beds and it made it that much more enjoyable. the final closing event was roller skating and we had so much fun, then went out to a tasty Italian restaurant where it took too long to be seated (but it was delicious) and then tried to get ice cream at Salt 'n straw, but we had no desire to wait in the long line so we went home and enjoyed a good nights sleep! So much fun with such great friends!
This may not be super original or anything but for the last couple of years on Mother's Day we've tried to spend the evening as a family in a beautiful location where I am guaranteed to be in at least one photo for the year. (Instead of behind the camera) We've been meaning to explore the Rhododendron gardens for years so we finally made it happen. (even if it was likely to be the busiest day of the year) My own mother also informed me that I had been there many many times as a kid. haha, it all seemed new to me though. But I really don't have much to say except we wandered and explored and it was the perfect evening.
...and there was a bunch of twirling....I may be an old lady now, but I still can enjoy a good twirly dress.
Edwin....unamused
He saves his smiles for daddy. Funny story...when Edwin says dada...he says it all loving and endearing, when he says mom...he grunts it like an impatient New Yorker... That is 100% true. Happy Mother's day to me!
A kind woman gave my boys some bird seed and Charlie took it upon himself to keep it all to himself and ration tiny portions to his brothers.
More photos of Charlie's back...for the video I made of the hundreds of photos of Charlie running away from me. I really did make it at his last birthday but I think I forgot to post it on his birthday blog post....
"These are cookie flowers!" -Miles
And more of them being sweet...well, Edwin is trying really hard to get away!
Bahahaha...we tried a round of Ring around the Rosie....they always fall down as soon as you start singing.
Charlie's photos... he only has a split second to take them until Edwin runs out of sight.
I was going to leave this one captionless, to keep it more of a mystery....but the truth is, Miles was sitting really still trying to hold his poop in.
We realized Edwin would be still for a second if he was sitting on a bench next to his brother.
The purpose of benches....
He's staying pretty calm for just having touched a spider web.
We finally met back up with Max and Miles after a bathroom break and we found a beautiful spot to let the big boys take some photos. Charlie went first while Miles and Edwin sat on the bench.
Then they switched, as I was setting Miles up with the camera, a man walked by and asked if we wanted him to take a photo. I told him no thanks and that Miles was really excited to take photos. I'm so glad we let our kids do it. I know it is a gamble if anything will turn out but more and more often they are turning out great. I didn't crop or align any of the images and only lightened them and sharpened them a tiny bit.
Charlie was bummed he didn't get to do a kissing picture. haha! I plan on giving him lots more chances. Oh wait...I did crop the one below. ha!
All day I was treated like a queen. Max made a wonderful breakfast of Paleo Pancakes. He stayed home with Edwin who had a fever while I went to church with the big boys. Diet Coke and candy bars were passed out at church as mother's day gifts! Max gathered a beautiful bouquet of flowers from our yard and folded the mountain of laundry while we were at church and we had a restful afternoon together.
Anyway, this motherhood stuff is rough but wow these children are amazing and pure and wonderful. Just this evening as I was putting the big boys to bed I was talking to my children about how we make good choices to please our Heavenly Father and to prepare to live with Him again. Miles responded with "Mom, you're always like Heavenly Father and Jesus!" Oh how I wish that were true, but sadly it isn't. I do try hard everyday and it joys me that my boys can see that in me, and will hopefully make the same efforts. And if that's the one thing they get from my mothering, I think they may turn out alright!
And if you are a faithful reader of our family blog here are our previous Mother's Day photos. 2017
