Luckily...

If you had seen this (or your phone camera had, since I had to stick my hand up high and hope for the best), wouldn't you think they were dead?  2 unmoving chicks and an unhatched egg?

Luckily, I was WRONG!  "N" asked me to climb up to check again, because she thought she heard chirping.  She was right!  2 nice healthy chicks!  Yippee!

In Our Tree

ROBIN'S EGGS!  So much fun!

Also, I have a 365 blog, where I try to post a picture a day (or a picture for every day, because usually I post for a bunch of days on one day).  Anywho...  It's only been going for a year and five months now. But it has 5000 more views than this blog, which I've had for 5 years +.  And there are hardly any comments (on either blog, for that matter) so I have no idea who's looking at the other blog and it's kind of weirding me out, just a little.

And in the spirit of full disclosure, the robins eggs hatched, well, just two of them.  And now the sweet little babies are dead and the other egg is just sitting there.  And I don't know what to do about the babies or the nest or anything.    Do I leave it alone?  Do I throw it away?  So if you have any ideas, please let me know!

April?

I think the weather didn't realize that it's APRIL.  April SHOWERS not April SNOWS.

Dinner Conversation

Some things to know:
1) we use tickets to reward our kiddos.  They use the tickets to "buy" privileges (computer time, movies, etc)
2) we've been working on talking nicely and not complaining
3) we had rolls with dinner

Here's how it went down:

N: We forgot to put the jam on the table!
M: No, we didn't forget.  We're not going to have jam tonight.
N: Oh.  Okay.  I'll just enjoy my roll all my itself.
M: What a great response, N!  You can have a ticket for that!
N: {smiles}
A: Can I have a ticket, too?
D: {chuckling} No, just N.  You didn't say the nice thing.
A (carefully thinking, trying to remember what N had said): We forgot to put the ...
M/D: {laughter (lots of it)}
A (with a twinkle in his eyes): Can I have a ticket because I told two jokes?
M/D: {tears running down the cheeks laughter}

He didn't get the ticket.  But I was tempted to give him one...

And completely unrelated, we did our egg dying in mason jars this year.  It was great!  Also, some of the colors got a double tablet and we will definitely be repeating that!  The colors were gorgeous!

Spring Has Sprung

These crocus flowers prove it.  They pushed their way through a pile of dirt.  But not the whole thing.  Just a bit of their petals made it.  "N" noticed a little bit of purple showing, so we dug around to find the leaves.  When we found them, they were yellow.  But they're greening up now and looking so happy.  I love bulbs!

A Post

Sometimes I get online and want to waste spend some time reading blogs.  And then I'm disappointed because no one has posted.  And then I realize that I, too, have not posted.  And then I think to myself: "Self, if you're not going to post, then you can't blame other people for not posting."  And so I find something to do that I should have been doing anyway.  And then at some future time I sit down to write a post, but find that I have nothing witty or inspiring to say, and so I ramble.  But I have posted.  And that was the plan.  And look!  I even have a picture.  

This rhino was just looking so RHINO-ish, that I had to take his picture.

When "A" saw this bear on the roof of their enclosure (doesn't that so much better than "cage"?  Even though they're the same thing!) he ("A") wanted to know if bears could jump.  I told him that we'd have to watch and see.  We never saw it jump.

Pinterest: In Action!

You're on Pinterest, right?  If not, you should be.  It's a great place for keeping ideas that you find online.  The next step, though, is putting the ideas to use.  Here are some of the ideas I've pinned and actually tried (not including food.  That will be it's own post.  Someday.)

Ribbon Flower Clips - Super easy and cute!  I only wish I knew where it ran off to...

Ghost I Spy Bag - Loved it!  My kiddos, not so much.  It went into the halloween box, though, because I'm determined that one day, one of my kiddos will enjoy it.

2 Ingredient Fudge - Yummy!  And it works with a lot of different combinations!  Definitely not as good as the real thing, but a great trick in a pinch!

Dry Erase on Deep Freezer - INSPIRED!!!  It works!  I love it!  I can't say enough good things about it!  The only down side is that the marker leaves a bit of residue on the freezer, but I think it would wipe off with a bit of window cleaner.  I just haven't tried because I don't want to erase my whole freezer and write it all again.


Jello Playdough - Not good.  You're welcome to try it, but it DID NOT beat my favorite Vanilla playdough.

Velcro Sticks - I made mine with tiny velcro dots (because I ordered close to a million of them and didn't want to buy the regular size dots) and popsicle sticks.  They're fun, but I think they'd be easier for the kiddos if you used tongue depressors and larger dots (like the instructions say.  LOL!)

Measure it! - Hasn't been a favorite activity of the kiddos.  But it was easy to put together.

Button Snake - I have to admit I didn't make this one, but received one as part of a busy bag exchange. The kiddos love it.  I love that it can span a lot of ages - beginning at age 1.

Sidewalk Paint - Easy to put together and a nice change from chalk.

Simple Knots - I loved them!  They were super cute and easy!

Playdough and Craft Stick Number Line - "N" enjoyed having this part of her school.  I put numbers on one side of the sticks and the alphabet on the other.  She got to choose which one she lined up!

There you are!  Some of what I've pinned and my thoughts.  It's nice to see that I actually have tried some of the ideas.

Wonderment... etc.

Lately, I've been reading "The Ugly Duckling" almost daily.  And I got to wondering, why didn't the mother duck know that the gosling egg wasn't a duckling egg?  And how did it end up in the ducks nest?  And didn't the goose realize that one of her eggs was missing?

Also, tonight at dinner, "N" was talking to DH about math.  And she said that the minus fact sheets were her favorite.  Especially the take-aways.  Riiigghhtt...



A few days ago we were playing with our magnetic pattern blocks.  I give each of the kiddos a bunch of shapes and instruct them to make a design.  Here is what "N" came up with:

Isn't it a cute owl?  I loved that she was able to design something out of a pile of random things.  Love it!

January Menu

I have my January menu mostly together.  And I'm printing it out to hang on the fridge, so that I'll remember the plan and stick to it.  December I made a menu and pretty much disregarded it all month long.  This month I'm going to do better. Which means that I'll cook the seafood that DH requested, instead of writing it on the menu and then "forgetting" to buy the stuff for it (j/k.  I really did forget to buy the stuff.  Because I forgot to look on my menu to see what I had planned).  If it's on the fridge, I'll see it.  That's the bottom line.

Reality

Have you read the story "A Fish Out of Water" by Helen Palmer?  In the story a boy feeds his fish to much and the fish grows to giant (and very unrealistic, though humorous) proportions.  Reality?  When you feed a fish too much - HE DIES.  Poor Rainbow.