We had some more sunshiny weather the other day. In fact, Saturday was a completely glorious sunshiny day. After I got home from taking my gigantic standardized test that morning (for my teacher's license), I packed up a lunch for me and the kids and we were off to the park. And since we went to the duck pond we brought the necessary bag of bread heels out of the freezer.
Obviously there had been other kids there earlier that day, because these ducks weren't hungry at all. I think one duck ate one piece of bread. Yes, you just read that correctly. One duck...one piece. But the kids still enjoyed the almost therapeutic act of tossing in pieces. We tore and tossed a few heels and brought the rest back home to use later in the summer. Hopefully the ducks will be a bit more grateful next time.
Then after we crammed some food into our mouths--literally for one child that just happens to be the shorter of the two...hmmm...who could that be?--we played on all the equipment that park has to offer.
"It's a bird!"
Really it was a bird.
This was her "why don't you smile nice for grandma" pose. Lovely, huh?
And when she requested that we use the official picnic basket for our lunch, I couldn't think of a good reason to say no this time. In that split second between her request and my answer I realized that I'm the one who--not so long ago--would turn into an Anne of Green Gables type of girl at just the thought of using something so "delightful" as a real picnic basket. So much was my "affection" for the idea of a real picnic basket that I actually picked this very one as my door prize at my high school after graduation party. Yes, it's true. I was thatdork one. But apparently I picked well, because it turns out I'm not the only one in our little family who thinks picnic baskets are delightful.
So when my split second memory passed, I said "sure". Who cares if we're the only ones skipping from the car to the bench with a basket to carry our picnic lunch in. Live life to fullest, right?
I'd say we did pretty well this day. We seized the sunshiny day and enjoyed it to the fullest.
So when we started this whole "chicken farming" thing, I figured we'd enjoy it, but I didn't think we'd love it so much! We are REALLY enjoying having our own backyard chicken farm. And it's not just the fresh eggs--which are totally great. I guess it's just everything! Now, I'm not going to say that I love cleaning up their poop, but it actually doesn't bother me as much as I would have thought.
When we first decided to get chickens, we figured that the kids would enjoy it. But I sort of guessed that the newness would wear off fairly soon. Surprisingly it has not and they are still just as interested in taking care of and interacting with "the girls" as we often call them, as they were at the start. In fact, the little man is probably the most into it. He won't let either Shawn or I get out the back door to check the chickens, feed them, or check for eggs without him. And he usually insists on carrying the bowl of food scraps, which he does with great pride and determination. In many ways having chickens has become a much loved hobby for the whole family.
Fortunately, after having realized the error in my ways of not getting good pictures of the chickens two weeks ago, when we had some great sunny days, we had a few more and I took advantage of them. I had thought the chickens would be great subjects for trying out different settings and hopefully learning more of the professional settings better. However, I soon realized that photographing chickens is VERY difficult. They are pretty much in constant motion--even more so than some small children! And the day I took these the clouds were moving around pretty well. They were constantly covering and uncovering the sun. The combination of the ever changing lighting and the constant motion of my subjects meant I didn't quiet experiment as I had planned, but I did do a little. And after about 90 photos, I got a few I like!
So without further ado--and in their established pecking order :) --our family is pleased to introduce to you... our chickens....
This is Rosa our Rhode Island Red.
She was the first to get her name courtesy of our little girly. We were talking about the chickens one night at dinner (before their arrival) and asked her what we should name them. She quickly came up with Rosa, and we all agreed that was a great chicken name. So being that she's the rosiest, she got the name.
Rosa is truly the one in charge. And she struts around the chicken yard like she knows it. Most of the chickens like to lay their eggs in the same nest spot, and if she's on the nest, she will NOT be moved off until she's ready. She's also the one who basically kicked me and the kids out of the chicken yard on their second day at our house. I guess she had decided we had overstayed our welcome. She's the most talkative of the four and also the bravest. She seems to best tolerate being held and petted. I think that because of her bravery.
And this is Elvira. A Black Star.
She was the third to be named courtesy of Shawn. He threw out that name one day and we immediately knew which chicken needed that name. The iridescent tone of her black feathers makes her the perfect chicken for such a flashy name.
Elvira seems to be second in command. She's usually right by Rosa when it's feeding time and doesn't get pushed around much. She's a bit noisier than the other two. And of the four, she most frequently darts at top speed out the little chicken door from the coop to the yard. If I see a flash of feathers in the yard, it's usually Elvira moving out to the yard.
And this is Miss Scarlet, our Ameriucana.
She was named second by yours truly. I actually came up with the name before the girls moved over to our yard and since she's the most scarlet looking one (next to Rosa, who had to be Rosa because she's the reddest) she got the name. I think the name fits her very well. She's really more orange, but the beautiful variety of color in her feathers and her more dainty, quite style has a certain Scarlet Ohara quality.
She also lays green eggs for us and has become one of the more consistent layers--laying one egg a day, 5-6 days a week.
And this is Eleanor our Black Cochin.
She was the last to be named and it was really a group effort. We probably went through 15-20 names before we came up with this one for her. I was wanting Fiona (because she's so fluffly) or Clementine, but Shawn didn't agree. And I wasn't fond of his ideas of Penny or Finger Lickin'. Finally he suggested Eleanor, and I agreed. I fit her much better than some of his other suggestions!
Eleanor is super fluffly and even has feathers on her feet. She's definitely the quietest and most nervous around us if we get too close. Lately, I've noticed that she's not quite putting up with being at the bottom of the pecking order. She pecks a bit at Miss Scarlet from time to time, probably so as to not be alone at the bottom of the order.
Just look at all that fluff! That's Eleanor on the left and Miss Scarlet on the right.
There's also a different look to the chicken coop since my last post about it. I'm sure we're not done making improvements to it, but this is a look at the little chicken door that Shawn and his brother cut out of one wall of the coop. This lets the girls get out to their enclosed yard. Earlier on the day the chickens arrived, the guys set up some dog kennel fencing from Knox to create the chicken yard. I'm really glad they made that last minute design change. It gives the chickens more room to roam and scratch, but keeps the poop contained since they're not roaming all over the backyard.
Here's a few parting pictures of the kids enjoying our new family hobby during the first few days.
It's really been a blessing for our family to share in this hobby together and it's even better that we all enjoy it so much. Hopefully our enjoyment of it continues for a long time. Right now, I'm not doubting that it will.
The last few days, we've seen a lot of rain drops hitting puddles.
Although there were some definite sun breaks today. And overall the weather seems to be getting progressively better day by day this week. At least the rain has been good for my flower bed.
The crocuses are all done, but the next wave of flowers is gearing up.
The rain has made me realize something that I regret though. I'm so regretting not taking pictures of the kids playing the other day. That fabulously sunny day when we walked to a nearby park and had a picnic with some friends. That beautiful day when I had the camera in the stroller, but just never actually got it out. What was I thinking? Cause now, I've got this...
puddles and raindrops
I need to remember this when the sun is shining.
I also need to remember to get out and take some pictures of the chickens when the weather is nice (and when their coop/yard is relatively clean). Because I want some good "blog worthy" pictures of them when they're not sopping wet.
She doesn't look all that bad, but if you click on the picture you should be able to see the rain water beading up on her feathers. And compared to how she looked the day before, she's looking good! The previous day, it just poured! And this poor girl with her extra fluff (she's definitely the fluffiest--even feathers on her feet) was positively soaked. I don't know if she had been out a bit too long in the chicken yard or what, but she looked all flat and limp. Not her usual fluffy self.
So I need to remember to take advantage of the sunny weather when it's available, and not be left with action photos like this one.
The silly thing is in mid-shake trying to get the water off.
Hopefully I'll remember that the next time we have a sunny day. This summer is already gearing up to be a busy one. Did I mention we're having a baby this summer too? That event aside, it's still going to be busy. So with all the "busy"ness, I need to challenge myself to do a better job of not just enjoying the beautiful days, but also photographing us enjoying them. Besides, I want to take better pictures and practice makes perfect, right?
Lately, it seems my "hunger" to craft hasn't quite been fed as I would like. April is always a busy month for our little family. But I have been able to feed my creative self a little bit lately, even if it hasn't been as often as I'd like.
A few weeks ago, our little girly was invited to a birthday party for twin girls in her preschool class. They're really nice girls and our girly always enjoys playing with either one of them. Isn't it nice when your kids have good friends to be with in their class? I'm really thankful for this especially since so much of preschool is centered around building social skills. I'm glad for nice little girls for our girly to be social with!
Anyway, shortly before this party I had been struck with some inspiration courtesy of this blog. It's a site that focuses on creative gift giving--including the wrapping. (She's got some neat teacher appreciation gift ideas too--since that's coming up soon.) I don't usually go to too much trouble with my wrapping and packaging, but with my recent inspiration I made an exception. And isn't it easy to make exceptions for nice little girls? :) This was the result:
Some wooden monograms that we wrote "to" and "from" on the back of. I purchased the wooden M's at JoAnn's for probably less than most cards. (They were $1.29 each.)
Then I used these items to embellish:
All items from my scrapbooking and crafting stash.
First, I decided how to best wrap the gifts. One was perfect for wrapping paper, but the other was better suited for a gift bag. I picked out the paper and bag and then went through my stash of scrap papers.
Found two that coordinated, and traced the letters onto the paper. I laid the top side of the letter onto the back side of the paper so my pencil lines wouldn't be seen.
Then, I cut out the paper letter shapes. I used some liquid glue (mono adhesive) on the back of the paper, spread it all over and then laid it on to the wooden letter. After some slight trimming with scissors to take care of edges that were too big, I used a large sanding file to smooth the paper edges flush with the wood. (The sanding file came along with a package of scrapbooking chipboard.)
Then it was time to use some of these:
paper flowers
These ones are from a company called Prima, and they're meant for scrapbooking. But regular ole' silk flowers would work just fine too.
Then I went to my bucket 'o buttons and picked a button that coordinated to go in the center of the flower. Buckets of buttons are great, aren't they? I'm sure many of you have fond memories of sifting through your grandma or mom's bucket o' buttons when you were younger. Oh come on, you know you did!
The buttons in my bucket aren't quite as attractive as the ones I remember in my grandma and mom's buckets, but they're still fun. And fortunately, I now actually have my grandma's bucket o' buttons at my house! The buttons aren't used for crafts though. They're strictly for sifting! :) Or at least until I come up with some really amazing way to use a few of them.
So anyway, my buttons went on these monograms that turned out like this:
all up close and then
the whole enchilada
Oh, and I hot glued a piece of ribbon to the letter and stacked the flower on the top of that. This gave me a way to tie them onto the packages.
the red one up close and
the whole red enchilada
Hope these inspire you to try something different on your next gift. I'm sure I won't do this every time we give a gift. (Actually, we've already been to another 5 year old's party and I didn't whip up a monogram for him.) But making monograms rather than cards was fun to do and a change of pace.
Once again this week feels like it's flying by. But it's been so good too. We've enjoyed some great weather, so it's been a bit hard to get myself to sit down and do my regular blogging. And the coming week may not be much better. That's because one week from tomorrow (Saturday), I'm scheduled to take a big fat standardized test to keep my teacher's certificate active. So from now until then, it's crunch time. So I probably won't have nice meaty blog posts until after next week. But never fear, I've got a few quick posts already in mind so as to not completely desert my blog this coming week. (All the grandma's can now breath a sigh of relief.)
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So, onto the post for tonight. I thought I'd post the recipe for the birthday cake I made the other day for our little girl. Very yummy and actually a pretty easy recipe. I got this recipe from a Betty Crocker Super Moist Cakes magazine style cook book. You know. Those little half size magazine cook books staring you down in the check out aisle at the grocery store. At some point, I gave in to the stares and bought one of these. Fortunately, this cookbook has not disappointed. I've made several cakes from this little cookbook, and all of them have been great.
CAKE:
1 box white cake mix
water, vegetable oil, and egg whites called for on cake mix box
2 tablespoons grated fresh lime peel (I used 1/2 tablespoon of lime juice instead, but I couldn't taste the lime, so next time I'll up the juice or break down and just buy the lime)
*Heat oven to 350*F for shiny metal pans (or 325*F for dark or nonstick pans). Generously spray bottoms and sides of 2 (8 or 9 inch) round cake pans with baking spray with flour.
*Make cake mix as directed on box, using water, oil, and egg whites; stir lime peel into batter. Divide batter between pans.
*Bake as directed on box for 8 or 9 inch rounds. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
FILLING AND FROSTING:
1 quart (4 cups) fresh strawberries
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/3 cups whipping cream
*Reserve 3 whole strawberries for garnish (or 5 if that's the birthday you're celebrating). Cut remaining remaining strawberries into thin slices. Finely chop some of the sliced strawberries to equal 1/2 cup. (I used my pampered chef food chopper to get the 1/2 cup of finely berries and it was done in a flash.)
*In medium bowl, beat butter with electric mixer on low speed about 30 seconds to soften, then beat on high speed until fluffy. Add chopped strawberries and powdered sugar; beat on low speed until sugar has been incorporated. Increase speed to medium; beat until frosting is fluffy. Divide frosting into fourths.
ASSEMBLY:
*With long, sharp knife, split each cooled cake layer horizontally in half. Place 1 layer, cut side up, on serving plate. Spread with 1/4 of the frosting: top with half of the sliced strawberries. Add second layer, cut side down. Spread with 1/4 of the frosting--do not add the sliced strawberries onto this layer. Add third layer, cut side up. Spread with 1/4 of the frosting; top with remaining sliced strawberries. Add remaining cake layer, cut side down. Frost top of cake with remaining frosting.
*In medium bowl, beat whipping cream with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. (I also added a few tablespoons of white sugar as it was mixing.) Frost sides of cake with whipped cream. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Garnish top of cake with whole strawberries just before serving. Store covered in refrigerator.
Now if you read through the assembly instructions and thought, What? Don't worry. I did the same thing. Just look at the picture above. Notice that there's not sliced strawberries between every layer, and re-read the assembly instructions. Hopefully it will make sense after this.
And I hope you give this recipe a try. It's very delicious and just screams "summertime". I think it would be great to take to a summer event. Enjoy! And try not to eat too many slices. :)
Just wanted to take a little trip down memory lane. Can't believe how much she's changed over the past five years. And what a blessing she is to our little family.
April 2005--days old
April 2006--first birthday
April 2007--announcing her little brother's expected arrival
April 2008--3 years old
(BTW, this is the photo result when you're juggling a camera and a 6 month old chunk)
April 2009--4 years old
April 2010--a goofy 5 year old
**Also, check out the Birthday Blitz post below. It's been updated with details. Enjoy.
We've had a very full past few days celebrating the fifth birthday of our little girl. It's been so fun, but of course, we're all tired. So tonight before I hit the sack, I'll post some pictures here. After I'm up and around in the morning, I'll add some more details. So I hope you'll check back soon.
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Well, I made it back. Our weekend was full indeed. We had a great time celebrating our little girl's fifth birthday. So crazy that we have a 5 year old now. But at the same time, it's so very fun and amazing to see her grow and develop.
On Sunday afternoon, we had a party for her and her friends at a nearby park. We totally crossed our fingers and just hoped for decent weather. All I was praying for was a dry afternoon. Juneau folks are pretty tough and I wasn't worried that people would stay home if it was a little cool, but if it was pouring down rain or even snowing (like the previous week), then I think we'd be asking a little too much. Of course, we had a back-up rain plan, but as you can see from the pictures, we didn't need it. God totally blew away our prayers for decent weather with FABULOUS weather. Sunshine, warm temps and light breeze. It was the perfect day to be at the park. We had a great time with the friends and family that came out for the party.
We went with a strawberry/strawberry shortcake theme for her party and it turned out pretty well. Here's the kids playing a game. They had to toss the strawberry seeds (yellow bean bags) into the flower pot. We also sent them on a seed hunt, aka easter egg hunt. But these seeds had chocolates and strawberry stickers inside.
Since the theme was strawberries and we were at the park, we decided to have strawberry shortcake for birthday cake. It was a hit and seriously the easiest birthday cake ever. I made some old fashioned style shortcake biscuits the day before. Then we topped them with sliced strawberries and cool whip. Mmmm Mmm!
Here's the birthday girl blowing out her candles atop her shortcake.
Mr. Mischief kept daddy very busy during the party. In addition to his photographer duties, he was a busy daddy.
Opening presents. She told us this was one of her favorite parts of the party.
Monday was her actual birthday and her teacher coordinated her regular snack day to fall on her birthday. That way we could bring a birthday treat. So that meant that right after the party at the park, I came home and made these.
They look a little involved, but they really weren't too much. And no they're not ice cream. It's a cupcake baked in an ice cream cone rather than a liner. We found the idea online somewhere and made our own version of it. So before evening worship services, I mixed up the cake mix (we chose yellow) and baked the cupcakes/cones. After services and the teen devo, I made the icing and decorated them. I used an icing recipe that had cool whip in it thinking that would help it seem more ice cream like. It didn't turn out exactly as I had expected, but it worked--especially for preschoolers! The hardest part was transporting these to the school. A few days before, an idea came to me. I had recently bought some seed planting trays and hadn't used them all. So I put the remaining trays into an over sized shoe box style tub. Then put each cone into it's own little spot. It worked great. The cones didn't tip over and everything stayed in place during the drive to school.
Here she is enjoying her cupcake at school with her birthday crown. (Each kid gets to wear/ have one when it's their birthday day.) She said a couple of the kids thought the cupcake was actually an ice cream cone. I guess it would have made a good April Fool's snack too!
Since I was already there at school with my camera, and they were headed out for recess after snack, and I didn't have the little man in tow as well, I stuck around and made the most of it. I used the long range/zoom lens so I wouldn't have to be right in her face to take pictures. Then the pictures were a bit more authentic, because she didnt' notice me as much.
Being on the playground was sort of nice, especially on such a beautiful day. It brought back memories of doing playground duty when I would substitute when I was pregnant with this little lady. I always heard funny questions and comments from the youngest students. And this day was no exception. One girl asked me why I was having a baby. Hmm. I answered her with, "Just for the fun of it!" And then there was the little boy who I just tried to ignore. He kept hanging around me talking about pistols and .22's. And he asked me how many .22's I had. He could hardly believe me that I didn't have any. Hmmm. Better keep an eye out for him as he grows up. Not sure what that little conversation says about his future.
Her future looks pretty good though.
Snack day also means, being the helper, line leader, and doing show-and-tell. Here she is helping her teacher do the calendar activity for the day.
And then sitting down in circle time after her show-and-tell items had been passed around. She decided to bring some pictures of our chickens and a few small things that she received as birthday presents. The "few small things" were a bit of a surprise to us. I thought Shawn had let her pack them in her backpack, but he knew nothing of them. So she slipped them in herself. Sneaky!
Then Monday night we had a family party at home. She chose spaghetti for dinner, but was a bit bummed that I used moose meat rather than bear meat. What a little Alaskan for ya! And I guess we were on a big strawberry kick, when we chose her cake too.
The best part about this cake is that it's way easier than it looks. It's one of those glorified cake mix recipes. Just a white cake mix with a dash of lime juice. Then a simple strawberry icing, some sliced strawberries for between the layers and then whipped cream for the sides. This would be a great cake for a summertime potluck or BBQ. We chose 5 strawberries on top because we were celebrating a 5th birthday. I can post the actual recipe later if anyone would like it.
Here's one of those moments that blew me away over the weekend. I was busy at the other end of the table, piling up some other presents for her to open, when I realized she was actually reading her birthday card from my sister and brother-in-law. A few words were not right and I think she was mostly just guessing correctly, but still she was doing it all by herself. Then daddy leaned in to help her with a few words she couldn't get. I was truly amazed. Who taught her to do that? I think the answer is: she did. She's just a sponge lately and is so eager to read and write.
What a blessing a happy and healthy child is. And this little daughter of ours is truly a blessing to us.
