5 months!

My girls addiction

Within minutes after my girls get home from school these little dirty bowls appear on our counter. At first it didn't bother me, but after a while it started making me crazy. Finally I told them they could not microwave marshmallow anymore because they were not cleaning up after themselves and it was disgusting. Lucy said "but mom it's sooo good. Have you ever tried it?" I said no and that I didn't want to. She told me that I had to just try it once and I agreed.  I was shocked by how yummy they are! Now we all have one when they get home from school. Not the healthiest treat, but it makes everyone happy.

 You put 2 marshmallows in a small pyrex bowl and microwave them for 30-40 seconds (Lucy, Ruby and I like 40 sec, Haley likes 30 sec). They blow up huge in the bowl and as soon as you open the door they deflate fast.

You quickly wrap the melted marshmallow onto a spoon and... you have the most amazing crunchy, but gooey roasted marshmallow you have ever had (and your hair will not smell like a camp fire).

Valentines day

Ruby's class had a competition on who could make the most creative mailbox for their valentines. She decided that she wanted to with the one for best delivery and came up with a spinning lid with a duck on one side and a pig on the other. I thought it was brilliant. She came home beaming holding her award. Way to go Ruby!

Our little chick magnet

The chicks all love Keaton. They kept hopping all over him.  

Keaton loves all the chicks! He especially loves them walking on him and cracks up laughing.
Luckily he did not try to grab them and none of them tried to... leave their mark on him. It was all good.

Did I mention that his mom and three sisters were all hovering over him cracking up at him laughing so hard? It would have been a great video to have.

Our chicks have arrived

Fifteen new little chicks moved into our house today. 

10 Welsumer

3 Cuckoo Maran

2 Americanas

We can't wait for the chocolate brown eggs to start showing up. 

Rubys Minute to win it party

Ruby said that for her 11th birthday she wanted a Minute to win it party with balloons and a dairy queen ice cream cake. I love it when they know exactly what they want, and it's simple!

 Eric and the girls made homemade root beer... because Eric and I thought that sounded yummy. It was!

 We decorated with red and blue balloons and streemers and made a big score board with the games/ teams listed. When the girls arrived we divided them into two teams and sent them to the corresponding table that had a bag in the center with all the supplies needed for all 11 games including a t-shirt of the team color.

 All of the games had to be completed by all of the members of the team. Technically we did not time them for a minute, it was just the 1st team to finish. There were 11 prize bags on the mantel and whichever team won the game could pick a prize bag. (Top secret information shhhh... I placed haley on one team with the interactions to do what she needed to do to make sure both teams won close to the same number of games. Its not fun if one table won ten of the games and the other only won one. She did a great job and only had to "Mess up" a couple of times). The red team did end up winning but only by one game and everyone was happy.

Overall this was a really easy and cheep party to do and Ruby said it was the best party ever... so that's all that matters.

Our double rainbow!

Lucy and I were out stacking firewood in the wagon and it started sprinkling. It was so light we just kept working. Then it started pouring rain so we ducked under the little roof over the firewood trying not to get soaked. After just a few minutes the rain stopped and right in front of us was this very bright clear double rainbow (the photo doesn't do it justice). Our jaws dropped and lucy said "The end is right there!" and she took off running. After she got about 100 feet away she stopped and came back and said "I got sooo close to it but the closer I got the further it moved away". It was just magical for both of us. 

18 years ago today...

I made the best decision of my life!

Ruby's sad sick birthday

The day before her birthday she started feeling really sick so she sleep in Keaton's room (top bunks are not fun when you are sick) with the barf bowl and dogs. On her birthday she woke up with the birthday quilt... and a 103 fever. Not what you want for your birthday.  She told me how upset she was that she would not be able to go out to dinner for her birthday.

Normally when someone stays home from school they have to stay in bed all day. I couldn't do that to her on her birthday... so she hung out on the sofa watching Myth busters and eating popsicles. Haley was jealous and said that was her dream birthday but instead we dragged her all over Yellowstone.

Around 2:00 she let me know that she thought she was feeling good enough to go out for a birthday dinner and she wanted to go to Red Lobster. By the time Eric got home she seemed a lot better so we went to Red Lobster. The girls had a great time and Keeter didn't seem to bothered by all the attention he got from everyone in the restaurant.