Checking the Chicken Ladies

A blizzard is headed our way!!  I'm pretty excited.  Squeaks and I still did our normal routine this morning of checking on the chicken ladies and feeding them some extra yummies.  First, we got all of our scrapes from dinner last night.  I also had some leftover orzo pesto that bombed last week.  The chicken ladies tend to be less discriminating in their taste for my cooking than some of the other creatures I tend to.  The snow is too high for Squeaks to walk through, so she always gets the royal treatment in her sled.

Here we come chicken ladies!

Squeaks is loaded up with the failed side dish and scraps from last night.  Calli provides the security detail for our treacherous walk to the coop.

Whatch' ya got for us?!?!?

Yup, looks like they like it......

.....in fact, it looks like they liked it more than anyone else did last week.

YYYuuummm leftover sweet potato enchilada!  All over the beak - need a napkin?

Patiently waiting for us to be done with those silly chickens and out playing with her. 

We closed up their window because they will be getting snow in the coop and I have a feeling those chickens don't like the snow as much as Squeaks and I do!!!

Arborteum Exploring

For a few weeks now, I have promised the kiddos next door that we would all go to the arboretum so they too could join us on adventures of finding turkey tracks and watching birds and all the other excitement that goes with walking around in the woods in the dead of winter.  Today, we finally all got to go and do it!  The van filled quickly with 6 snugly bodies and we were off.

Storytime!  Preadventures - all the explorers getting ready for the adventure by an exuberant reading of Strega Nona.

  In the car, they were given the run down of how, once we are out of the van, we are no longer kids but explorers.  Explorers don't scream, they stay semi-close by, and use everything the correct way (ie binoculars are for looking at birds, not for swinging to hit the nearest explorer with).  But, being explorers, everyone already knew this.  We all got our snow gear on because there was a fresh layer of snow we would have to trudge through.  Unfortunately, one of the explorers did not have a jacket....hhhmmm...the lead of this expedition definitely lost some demerit points for that one.  Thankfully, one of the older explorers shared his jacket with the littlest one.

Squeaker's snowmobile and borrowed winter gear.

The best part about a large exploring party is that the work of corralling the smaller explorers can be spread out!  Everyone was eager to do their part pulling the smallest explorer along, even if that excitement lasted for a few seconds.  There was always another explorer ready to grab the reins of her sled and pull.

This is no small feat to pull her along,
there was some deep snow to go through.

Have you ever seen such lovely snowbunny explorers?

The wiser explorers also helped reminding the more amateur explorers that yelling and screaming had a tendency to scare off the birds, even if their new finding or discovery in the woods was just so darn exciting that it seemed like it required yelling to share, it probably would be better to just whisper it loudly.  I am not quite sure that our youngest explorers have yet found their whispering voice, so there were lots of reminders. Good thing we still spotted a few birds:)

Look at the dedication of that one in the background, on her knees to see the bird!  Thank goodness for snow pants!

Are those the turkeys we have been tracking?!?!?

Aaahhh there is one of the elusive turkeys....

 


















Overall, another successful trip to the arboretum; we spotted 2 hawks and a flock of turkeys moving very fast through the snow covered prairie.  We had the great joy of having new explorers with us who hopefully will come back again with us for other adventures.  Best part of all is the heavy-duty sleeping that certain explorers are about to enjoy right now.

Great fun had by all:)

Upgrades and New Additions

It was recently brought to my attention that a superhero's most valued possession is his identity.  As such, the superhero outfits that were previously designed and made had to be upgraded for the superheros in residence.  Some careful planning, measuring, cutting, and sewing brought us to the end result of protecting our superhero's identity:

Who is that masked man?

We have also added a Wrist Band of Lightening Power to the whole setup to make sure we are properly equipped with all the villain-fighting tools possible. 

Our fearless superhero, striking a pose and demonstrating his awesome potential power.

With all these superheros in the house, it only made sense that the youngest of the tribe also be trained in the ways of doing-good.  She, too, picked out the colors, fabrics, and materials best suited for her outfit of doing good.  And luckily for her, we were already well aware of the need to protect the superhero's identity.  She might need an upgrade later for her wristband of power, but right now, her power of cuteness is overwhelming enough.

Letter Hunt

There are days when it is just impossible to make sure each child gets the individual attention they need.  I try to devise clever ways to occupy three at once so I can spend time with one.  Last week, opportunity presented itself when two out of the four were already occupied - Squeakers was napping and Otter was at a friend's house. I wanted to spend some time with Bean but was left with Smoosh needing something to occupy him.  By far, he is the toughest one to safely and quietly occupy.  I decided my quiet time with Beans was more important than the welfare of my camera and gave the camera to Smoosh.  He was instructed to go on a "letter hunt" and take pictures of the letter T wherever he could find it.  At first, he did pretty well!  When I flipped through the first few pictures, he had a big smile on his face......

As I went through more, he just started giggling.  He had at some point decided he was tired hunting down Ts and wanted to take a picture of his most favorite creation ever.....his Thunderbird.....

Made from a wrapping paper roll, this creation is really big, covered in red construction paper, and even has jet blasters at the end of it.  If I would let him, Smoosh would sleep with this thing. 

And you might be thinking right now, oh, he's pretty clever, he found something that started with the letter T, doesn't that count?  Well, it would count if he didn't call his Thunderbirds "Funderbirds" and tell us all it starts with "ffffuuuhhh  fuhhhh." But then he started really giggling and was about ready to fall over from laughing.  I figured there was something else on that camera that was causing him this excitement.....

Oh yes, there it was, the classic "picture of myself."  There was not only one of these pictures, but about 20.  He had them in the mirror, with himself next to stuffed animals, lying on the floor, lying on the couch.  It was hilarious.  I laughed at the little goofball and was thankful that at least I had that 20 minutes to spend with Bean reading and doing homework with my camera still intact at the end.  I should have known that Smoosh being quiet for 20 minutes did not mean he was off busy learning by himself and hunting down letters but doing something entirely goofy to entertain himself.  I just cannot imagine where he gets it from......

Planting Daisies

Another fun place we like to go to during the winter is Klein's Greenhouse.  The sign outside their business says "it's always spring in here," and that about says it all.  The little ones and I love walking up and down the aisles looking at the flowers that are just starting to germinate and grow.  We start talking about the different flowers we are going to plant this year in the garden.  We also get to pick out one flower that is already grown and blooming.  Smoosh is so very consistent in not giving a hoot about what kind of flowers we plant, as long as they are yellow.  Squeakers is just in love with walking around and exploring everything - its all still so new to her.  While I wanted to walk out with just about everything I saw, we managed to pick out just two favorite daisies to bring home and plant.  Every time we have been to Klein's, we have left with flowers and smiles. 

Step 1: Put some dirt in the pot.

Step 2: Put your flowers in the pot.

Step 3: Tuck in those little plants all nice and comfy.

Step 4: Add copious amounts of love to your flower.

Aaahhh don't the flowers and the kids look just so happy?

Tracking Down Some Fun

Ahhh, I fell into a slump again and forgot about the blog.  Well, I didn't exactly forget about it, it was unfortunately put on the back burner of life while I was out traveling, playing, cooking, holidaying, and then enjoying some time with the kids.  And, yet again, I have had several equipment failures, misplaced wires, crashed laptop with lots of pictures on it, etc.  I was hoping to use all the time before my next teaching gig starts to prepare for class, especially in lieu of losing lots of lectures!  However, I have had no real schedule and one of the great joys of lazy days with no real schedule to follow is being able to take the kids out on adventures.  Winter does not slow us down one bit!  We have a fabulous selection of outdoor areas that are just as incredible during the winter as they are in the other seasons; if not more incredible during the winter due to the lack of mosquitos!  Last week, the two little ones and I headed to the arboreteum where we were able to borrow a birding backpack and hike through the woods.  It was great timing because there was a fresh layer of snow, which meants lot of animal tracks to follow and try to guess who made them, all while making our own:) 

Such a gorgeous great big place to explore.

Expert birder in training.

All kinds of animals tracking through here!!

"I bet the squirrels live in dhere mommy..."

"uummm....really, I think they live in nests Smoosh...."

Smooshie tracks.

We tried to find the turkeys, but their tracks were all we got to see of them.

Squeaks got to enjoy the view from the backpack.  She was very good at making us be quiet and listen for birds.  "Birrr....Birr...."  She is going to be another great little explorer one day!

Guatemala

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