Family visit fun, chicks and chicks and more chicks...

Can we have too many chicks? Or too many chick pictures? I think not! But the one mama hen might be wondering as she is currently entrusted with the care of 71 fuzz balls! Yep, I have those numbers in the right order. We have a heat lamp and brooder helping her out with keeping them all warm. Another mama has 29, another less than a dozen and then at least 3 more hens are sitting on eggs currently. Yep, it's hatching season!! Here's some cuteness in action (my youtube settings have changed and I can't figure out how to do anything handier than a link so here goes): https://youtu.be/wEf6oOrQ0NA

 

In other news, our kids have enjoyed lots of fun times recently and have been putting in some seriously good play times. Sometimes with each other and sometimes getting in a groove alone. I love when Terah gets in a coloring mood and just zones out with her markers and paper. I caught her at it the other day!

And we all benefited recently from a birthday coupon Kali gave to Alida - to let Alida pick the menu and cook with her AND to only do the things she liked as part of the meal. They made black bean and butternut burritos AND fried onion grass. Does it sound bad? Well it was really tasty - complete with lots of cinnamon!

The most recent fun was a whole weekend with new friends. It was such a treat to have my nephew and his family from PA visit us for a few days! We had five girls ready to have fun under our roof and fun they had! Kali's bed was a big hit and on Saturday they got to join us for the girls' double header soccer games. It was fun to have extra people in our cheering squad and company on the sidelines! Saturday evening we were joined by my sister and parents and enjoyed yummy food, good conversations, game playing, ping pong and soccer, chick adoring time, taking care of baby dolls and playing house, lots of giggling and playing doctor, and by bedtime the kids had worn each other out. No one took long to fall asleep that evening! We look forward to more fun times in the future.

Now it's back to just the Tangly Woods crew - complete with my parents upstairs for the next two weeks. YAY! Having our place on AirBnB is going fine - we are learning some things and enjoying having folks get to savor a place we think pretty highly of! That said, one of the things I'm learning is that I love having Mom and Dad upstairs the very best of all (well, it is really hardly a comparison). So we all are happy to have them back in their space for awhile. This evening the girls and I went out to join Jason to work in the gardens for a bit. Terah was walking up towards the spice garden and my dad came out on the deck. She looked up, saw him and with the sweetest happiest voice said, "Hi Grandpa." It was as if she was overcome with delight to see one of her favorite people there before her eyes!!

Terah is full of silliness these days, when she isn't trying to get a rise out of her big sister (the one next in line). She loves to hide from me and say, "Say, 'Where's my girl?' " Then I say it and out she pops. Earlier this evening she was helping to set the table and got something out of the cupboard in the dining room. The next thing I knew she was trying very hard to get her whole self in it to hide!

So the bath water is probably getting cold here and it's time to get these gals out of the tub and get me a shower. A new week is on the horizon. Two weeks until graduation and they will be full but I feel as ready as I'm going to get! Just one final note to end on. The other day a neighbor helped us load up a whole bunch of logs that we plan to get milled up. They have been laying around for a long time as we figured out how to get them from point a to b to c. Well, with the right machine going from point a to b happened in less than 1/2 hour. They are now loaded on a trailer to go to point c this week. When a big machine is needed, it sure does come in handy. 

That said, I love that most of the time the tools we use are quiet, they are safe to have kids around while we work, and this is the kind of scene I walk out to work in. Eager for my next stint of weeding to come around! The weather couldn't be more perfect for it!