Ice Cream Ball

I made chocolate pudding last night, but it did not set. I put it in the ice cream ball this afternoon. It was very yummy. Perfect for a sunny day.

Basketball Fever

We are not one of those families that watches a lot of sports and we have not followed the Blazers much this year. Now that the Blazers are in the Play-offs, we are watching the games. If they go all the way and win the Championship, it would be sad to miss it. I was seven years old last time it happened. I also don't want the boys to miss out.
Christian is showing more interst in basketball. Our neighbors who live behind us have a hoop and he likes to go over there and play.

lastest chick pics

The baby chicks are four and a half weeks old. We have named the darker chick Lightning Bolt since she runs so fast. That is one of the reasons we don't have many picture of her. It is hard to get good photos of such a fast runner. She also blends in to backgrounds and does not have the color contrast of a white and black chick.
Here is a layout showing our little pompador chick as she grows. We are still trying to find the right name for her.

credits:
Template: Challenge template 19 by Chrissy W.
Papers: Bloomin in Spring by Becki Kress & Spring Flling - Elemental Scraps Collab Kit Elements: Spring Fling, Fresh Breeze by Nikki Scott
Chickens: Henriette and Her Friends by Lillyanne Taylor

I was not full of inspiration today so I took a picture of the bookshelf in our bedroom.
It started raining about the same time the boys went to bed. It is supposed to rain for a couple of days. The garden needs a good watering and the boys seem unable to follow my two rules for outside. 1. Stay out of my gardens and 2. Stay out of the street. I am actually glad that we get a couple days off from letting them play outside to rest from dealing with their disobedience and my frustration.
It will be nice to just snuggle up and watch Looney Tunes.

Primary colors

Our tulips are in bloom now. We only have a few tulips left. I think I will buy some more on clearance in the fall and plant them for the spring.

I took this photo yesturday when the boys were painting.

Here is a layout...The photos are from a birthday party Christian attended when he was three.
Credits: Kit - Icing on the Cake by Lindsay Jane Designs, Template by Lindsay Jane too.

I took a picture of an egg one the chickens laid in their house before I brought it into our kitchen.

We had to clean out the baby chick's box today. I took more photos. They are four weeks old now.

credits: Template - Painted Pony Template Set #1 by Hillary Heidelberg. Paper & Elements by MGL Scraps, Flergs and FA from the Femz grab bag at scrapbookgraphics.
I made sticker charts for the boys

I used ABC 123 and Going Places The Train by Misty Cato

For Christian's chart he has fish and everytime he interupts us we scratch out a fish and he has to do a chore to get it back. I used Hook, Line and Sinker by Little Miss Liz

I defrosted and warmed up some Mashed Potatoe soup today and baked Seminola Country Bread in the bread machine. It is cooler today that it was earlier in the week. Warm soup and bread really hit the spot.
Here is my week in review layout.

Credits: Template - Photo a day by Chrissy W., Kit - Bagaboo by Juno Designs & Background paper by MGL Scraps

Kit: Dreamland by Alana McCarthy

What's Blooming

Here a couple of things blooming the yard right now. The daffodils are from a planter I dumped out by the patio years ago. They come back faithfully every year and look beautiful. The apple tree is the same tree I photographed on Monday. It is amazing how fast buds open up with some warm weather.

Free ice cream day

Today is free ice cream day at Ben and Jerrys. I think this is the first time we have had sun for it. We usually stand out in a downpour eating ice cream.
We decided to ride our bikes over. The ride over is pretty easy, it is mostly downhill. I was nervous about Christian doing the ride back home which has steep hills. When we went up the biggest hill, I was expecting Christian to walk his bike up. I was surprised when I got to the top of the hill and turned around to see Christian and David right behind us. He rode up the entire hill.
Liam takes ice cream cones and makes them his own. I always like to get photos of him eating them.

Mason Bees and Chickens

The weather has been warm and sunny for a few days now and we saw the first mason bees a while ago. It is perfect timing since our apple tree is about to bloom.




The warm weather is also helping in the hen house. The chickens have laid 10 eggs since Saturday. If the production stays at this rate, we will have to start giving away or selling some eggs.
The county inspector came by this moring, looked at the hen house and told us we would have our permit by the middle of the week. David just sent in the application last week, so I was surprised to see him so soon. The girls were free ranging and approached him hoping he came with food. He was glad to see how friendly they were and how much they trust people.
We are also taking advantage of the warm weather to let the chicks sit outside today. We just moved their box to a sunny place in the back yard. Why pay for the heat lamp, when it is as warm outside. They can start getting their vitamin D that they need to pass it on to us in the egg yolks.

Plant Swap

I went to a plant swap today. I took volunteer lemon balm, rasberry & Italian parsley and picked up a wagon-full of plants in exchange. I was able to get several kinds of peppers, violas, forget me nots, day lillies, poppies, iris' as a few other things.
Since everything was free, there is not the pressure to have every plant survive I would feel if I bought them. We will watch and see.

outings and layouts

We have been busy the last couple of days. The boys and I drove out to the Columbia River Gorge and Hood River on Friday, then we went to a tulip festival with a play group we belong to.
I posted some of the photo highlights.
Even with all of these outings, we still got tons of things done at home today. David and I made a bulk batch of mozzeralla meatballs. We are also defrosted some garlic mashed potatos, so lunch after church is going to be too yummy. It will be hard to focus on the sermon, knowing what a good meal awaits.
I am going to a plant-swap tommorow. We have rasberry, lemon balm and Italial parsley volunteers in abundance, so I dug some up and put them in planters. I love that I can take free things that might have ended up in the compost or hen house and trade them for plants we want.
Here are some layouts.

Frames: Springy Frames #1 Mat: Pretty Gritty Photo Overlay Both by Hillary Heidelbergy

Template: Urban Grunge Solo Template by Hillary Heidelberg
This is one of Christian's baby photos.

Kit: Dreamland by Alana McCarthy

Faux Crocs

I took a picture of my faux crocs today after I cleaned all the chicken poop off of them.




The boys and I rode down to the Springwater trail yesturday. This is one of Christian's first long bike rides. He did very good. There is a pretty big stretch of uphill road on the way back home. He walked his bike a bit, but rode most of it.

When we got home, I let the chickens out for a bit. The boys turned over the soil that has not been planted yet, to get worms for the chickens. I love it when they do this. It helps get the soil ready for planting and the chickens eat bugs and seeds of different weeks. They also fertilize it a bit. Refer to the comment on my crocs above.

Here is my week in review layout. I used a template by Shabby Miss Jen, Paper by Leslie Bodah. The chicken doodles are Henrietta and Her Friends by Lilly Anne Taylor at Elemental Scraps.

another set of chick shots

Now that the chicks are getting bigger, we need to clean the box more. That gives me a good time to get photos. We switched from newspaper to hay in the box. The hay is good since we can take it straight to the compost bin when we clean. I need to put fresh hay in the hen house after all the rain we had this week.
I did my bi-weekly grocery shopping today. I also dropped off all the stuff in van that we want to get rid of to donation sites. I found an automotive supply store close by that takes donations for the Oregon Food Bank. So all of the items I pulled from our pantry when I cleaned are on their way to good homes.