Egg Hunters and Memory Loss

At our house on Easter Sunday, we like to enjoy a traditonal egg hunt. With all these kids, it's a must. Mom and I hid 135 eggs (yeah, yeah, overkill, blah blah blah) boiled and plastic, around my yard. The dads were working swiftly on the new treehouse during the hiding, so it was up to us ladies to remember where every single egg was.

 . . . .

What was I talking about?


Oh yeah.  Easter. And so,

Underneath these calm, smiling faces are wheels and fireworks waiting to burst into action!  How cruel of me to make them wait just one more moment.... Ready, set, GO!

In a blitz of energy, everyone sprints off to find the little hidden treasures.

Like father, like son.  Tate and Dad wore their matching work blues today.

Victoria's eggs were the coveted "golden" eggs of the day.  There were only two, but Tabi found one.  The prize was a grand feeling of victory and a pat on the back.

Tate.

Hopers found a few of the eggs we dyed with turmeric.

And Faith found the other Victoria egg.  Give yourself a pat on the back, honey, I'm holding a camera.

Teegan.

 

 

Faith and her Daddy, searching for more eggs. Somehow (yet not surprising because it happens every year) we didn't find all the eggs. I swear the missing eggs are the ones Mom hid.  She swears they're the ones I hid.  But at any rate, there are nine out there in my yard right now.... or in my dog's stomach.

 

Happy Easter!

Spring Break Kids, Chicks and The Egg

We had a big day today. It was the first day of Spring Break (Monday). We had 11 kids from the neighborhood and beyond come and play at our house, including Noodle, Hopers, Tobi, Tabi, Jeremy, Micah, et al. The kids had a blast playing hide and seek, building a fort in the barn, holding chicks, riding bikes around the yard, playing tag, doing Tinikling (a Philippino dance), and generally eating everything in sight like a plague of locusts.

Meanwhile, Victoria, our only fully adult hen who has been holding out on us laid her first egg!

It's little (she's a Bantam chicken) and blue-green colored (she's an Easter Egger breed) but we couldn't be more excited about it.

And in other news, the chicks are 4 weeks old now.  We have moved them to a large dog cage inside the chicken pen.  The other chickens don't like the presence of these intruders, so it will be a while before we can let them all freely mingle together.

Here's the role call, with how they looked a month ago when they were born and how they look today:





Uno

 

Smoky



Penny

 

Nugget





Checkers

We still don't know who's a boy and who's a girl, but it was too hard to hold off naming them. We tried to pick either/or type names, except Penny, which probably guarantees we'll have a rooster out of that one.

We're praying hard that they'll all be hens, and in 16 more weeks, we'll be cheerfully showing off their first eggs!!

Hopers' Birthday Photo Shoot (She's 7!)

My sweet little Hopers is seven today. In my mind that makes her a big girl--so much more grown up than yesterday when she was only six. As per our custom, we had a little photo shoot to commemorate the day. We were exploring the church grounds after the service, enjoying the amazing mild weather, and I found it to be a great place to snap a few. Fortunately, my house and my camera are only a minute's drive away. We were back in a flash, ready to continue our explorations.

The azaleas are in bloom along with the camelias. What? It's February! Yes, it's crazy end-of-the-world-global-warming weather. Don't worry, I'm sure there'll be some silly 20 degree cold snap in a week or two.

Tobi and Tabi spent the night with us to celebrate Hopers' birthday.  They enjoyed the nice day with us.

Happy Birthday dear Hopers!

 

 

Identify That Shoe

I have girls.  They are not so close in age, but oh so close in size.  We seem to spend way too much of our time asking, "Whose shirt is this?"  "Who left their shoe in the middle of the kitchen?"  "Which one of you dropped this sock?"

It's the way life is.  Unless I freakishly color-coded everything they own...one child only wearing orange clothing...The other only wearing purple....

I've come up with one small step toward sanity with their shoes, however.  Those with laces, anyway.

Alphabet beads.

Anyone with female children knows what I mean.  We have thousands of them.  Beads! Beads! BEADS!

*cough*

Anyway.  I simply slide each daughter's corresponding initial into their shoes, and I instantly know who to yell at when I find a soccer cleat baking in the front yard.

This is not just for shoes that are identical.  This helps out dads who have no idea what their kids' shoes look like because, well, they're dads.  It helps kids select the right shoes at a quick glance as they're flinging themselves out the back door.  It's also for the times when shoes get left at friend's houses, giving them just a bit more identification.  You may have to use the full initial set on them if you did what my mom did and name all seven of your children with the same first initial.  Or, your children may be like my sister Tabitha and me and have the exact same initials, and then I ask you why? Why have you done that to yourself as a parent??

In the months or weeks to come, when your children have grown out of their new shoes and must pass them on, the bead is just removed, or traded out (sorry all you hand-me-down younger children out there!).

Thanksgiving Camping

For the last several days, I've been living in a tent, cooking over a fire, and not bothering to brush my children's hair. No, we didn't suddenly become vagabonds.  We celebrated Thanksgiving!

Our tradition, going back since I was a kid, has been to pack up and slip away to the woods for several days during this special holiday. No one has to worry about hosting a fancy dinner at their house (or even cleaning it for that matter).  No one has to answer work email or phone calls (no cell service).  Nothing but God's creation, plenty of play time, and of course, lots of food!

This year the involved families were: ours (Me, Seth, Noodle, Hopers, and Poppy the dog), my parents' family (Amie, G-Daddy, Tobi, Tabi, Teegan, Tate, and their 5 dogs), and Seth's sister's family (Jena, Dave, Kirsten, Katelyn, David and their two dogs).

We went to Aiken State Park in South Carolina. Originally, I was skeptical because 1. it wasn't booked up for Thanksgiving like every other state park in America, and 2. most of the reviews I read said it was "quiet", which in my mind translated to "ugly and boring."

My skepticism was for naught.  It was gorgeous. The landscape reminded me of the rolling, hilly woodlands of North Florida. The park boasted of two small lakes and a winding little river passing through it.  We soon discovered that, yes, it was quiet, and no, it was definitely not boring.

I think we were the loudest ones there.

Tate, Teegan, Katelyn, and Jena

We played a few games of impromptu football and soccer.

Hopers, Tabi, Noodle and Tobi

The kids roasted marshmallows pretty much any time they thought about it...which was whenever they were awake.

Dave and Seth

The guys channeled their inner manliness and spent lots of time hunting down wood and chopping it for the fire.

Seth and Poppy (left).  Poppy and Kirsten (right)

Poppy enjoyed camping as much as the rest of us because she got lots of attention.

On day 2 we found a big tree to play in.  It was my dad's idea: create a zip line for the kids.  You know whenever my dad thinks about trees, it means my husband will end up in the top of one.

Dad brought all kinds of climbing ropes and gear to play with.  Everything was super-duper rated for holding up huge things.  Like Tabi.

Me making a harness for Katelyn (left).  Seth trying his own harness (right).

I learned how to make a harness out of a single strap, some knots and a carabiner (Dad researched it and taught me). I became the harness queen, tying and untying straps on children as they took turns on the zip line. Seth thought it would be faster to use a ready-made harness, but after OW OW OW PUT ME DOWN he decided not so much.

Noodle, takin' a crack at it.

Everyone took a turn flying through the air and loved it.  Well, not Teegan and Tate.  They declined in favor of staying close to the ground.

Hopers

Katelyn zipping toward Tabitha. Aghhhhh! Tabi moved just in time.

I decided I needed a turn on this crazy contraption. I whipped up a harness for myself (I knew all those hours of knitting would pay off!) and clipped in.

Me, David, Hopers, Katelyn, Tobi, Noodle, and Dave

The kids thought it would be a breeze to pull me up to the highest point.  (They ended up needing a little help.  Darn you, apple pie!)



Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Next to our zip line trees was one of the lakes.  Did I mention this place was gorgeous?  I managed to hold down a couple of girls for photo ops.

Noodle

The girls.  Aunts. Cousins.  Tobi (9), Noodle (11), Hopers (6), Kirsten (13), Tabi (7), Katelyn (10).

On day 3 we found the other lake and decided to do some fishing there.

It was pretty, but the only thing we caught were frogs.  I think someone lied when they said the lake was stocked with catfish.  Either that, or the catfish were smaller than the frogs.

Hopers enjoying herself while Noodle pouts about the fishing.

We hung up our fishing poles in favor of a little canoeing.  There were canoes for rent to either paddle around the lakes or to take down the river.  My gang, plus David, were the only ones brave enough to travel a river in 55 degree weather, so we rented two canoes and jumped in to our little adventure.  We brought Noodle's i-pod with its waterproof case with us to take pictures.

The river was beautiful, the water was freezing, and Noodle was REALLY nervous about the boat tipping.

Me, Noodle and Seth were in one canoe.

David and Hopers were in the other canoe. 

Being split up, we lost sight of David and Hopers for a while, as they were the first ones in the water.  As it turns out, Hopers wanted to race us, but they spent a good amount of time getting stuck in low branches!

Every night, we settled around the fire after eating (way too much food).

Noodle, Seth, Tobi, and Kirsten

The kids took to drawing and playing hangman in the sand by the fire and singing songs...

Tate and G-Daddy (left).  Hopers (right).

...and making silly faces....

Jena and Teegan

...and telling stories....

...and giving the doggies some love.

Even with the temps getting down into the 20's on the last night, we all stayed cozy in our tents thanks to the great invention of the space heater. 

G-Daddy with Tate's frozen pants that had been left out to dry.

The kids all got along amazingly.  The food was out of this world.  We had our feast, of course, on Thursday, with turkey, fried fish, ham, sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, macaroni and cheese, winter squash casserole, baked beans, rolls, green bean casserole, and pies.  Then, on Saturday night, we had a chili cook-off between the three families.  Jena made Green Bay Chili, which is a sweet and tasty beef and bean concoction served over macaroni noodles.  Mom made vegetarian chili with a side of "Noodle's Chili" to please my picky daughter who doesn't like onions and bell peppers.  I made venison chili, which has become a mainstay around my kitchen in the winter.

It was a really great trip. One of my top favorites ever, I think.  The kids are all begging to go back there again next year.  However, today is Monday. I am home and in the throes of a two-ton-truckload of laundry.  The kind of laundry saturated with campfire-smoke-knees-in-the-dirt-playing-hangman-loving-on-doggies for five days.  I am inclined at this moment to ban all camping forever! 

Good thing my laundry memory is short and my love for tradition is tall.

Happy Thanksgiving!