Happy 3rd Birthday Elody!

For Elody's birthday, Matt made two boysenberry pies from the berries on our vines and he made homemade, custard-style vanilla ice cream. Truly divine!

Elody wrapped up in her favorite blanket

Elody in her new PJs and the mug from Beau.

I am glad I have sons

Talon and Jaren after beheading and plucking 4 chickens

My white chickens have a tendancy to peck at the eggs and eat them, so we decided their fate. We also haven't received any white eggs in a couple of months so we know they weren't laying. We finally gave the boys permission to take care of them. YUCK! There is no way I could go through that process alone. It makes me too sick. They had fun for the most part. By the end, they were tired of plucking them. They sure do make great soup!

Memorial Day weekend at the Ranch 2012

Matt on "The Blob"

 Dave and Jason brought up "The Blob" to the ranch for Memorial Day weekend. Matt and Talon each had the guts to get on it. They maneuver themselves down to the end and then two adults jump from a ladder and onto the other end of the blob. That shoots the person up into the air and into the cold water. NO THANKS!

Elody's mouth with Hand Food Mouth Disease

Elody's lips swollen with blisters

We spent Memorial Day weekend at the Ranch as usual. But something unusual happened. Elody got sick with hand, foot, mouth disease. It was so miserable for her and for me. She wouldn't eat hardly anything and I had to hold her almost all the time except when she was sleeping. It lasted 8 days. She would sip my homemade kefir and yogurt through a straw in the morning when she was hungry. She'd sip a little water sometimes. She wouldn't eat anything or hardly drink anything without me begging her. She went from 30 pounds down to 25 pounds. I took her to her doctor in the beginning and then again toward the end because I was afraid she was getting dehydrated and would need to be put into the hospital, but he said that it wasn't necessary. By the ninth day she was finally eating and drinking again. By the time two weeks was over, she was eating and eating all day long. It was like I couldn't feed her enough. She quickly gained her weight back and her eating normalized. That was one horrible sickness I wouldn't wish upon anyone.

Baby chicks graduate to the outside

Baby chicks last day in their chick habitat.
(That's my Beau's head)

I put up a fence to divide the chicken run for the baby chicks.

At about 2 months old, the baby chicks could no longer tolerate their little habitat. I wanted to move them outside, but they weren't ready to mix among the adult hens. So I put up this make-shift fence in the chicken run for the chicks. They also have to eat a growing mash while the adults eat a lay mash. It works for now.
Also, we discovered that they aren't all hens. We had ourselves a rooster. I am not accustomed to waking up at 6am so I found someone to give him to. They are the people we get our raw milk from and they have lots of property and they only had one hen left. They were happy to take him.

Jileigh's awards assembly May 2012

Jileigh receiving her awards

Jileigh receive 3 certificates at her awards assembly each with a pin. They were for 4.0 GPA, perfect attendance, and a presidential award. She's a good smart kid! :)

Solar Eclipse May 2012

The beginning of the solar eclipse

SOLAR ECLIPSE
All these pictures were taken with our simple camera through sunglass  lenses.

light shining through the trees onto our house.

My 7 kids in the light of a solar eclispe

Elody in the light of the solar eclipse

My hand with a glow around it in the light of the eclipse.  It looks out of focus but is really a strange over-lapping shadow caused by the full eclipse.

And Me, in the light of the solar eclipse.

Jaren's class talent show

Jaren playing the drums

Jaren's 3rd grad class.

Angelique's orchestra concert

Angelique's orchestra class

Angelique by her friend Naomi

My sweet Angelique! This is her second year of orchestra.
She just finished 5th grade.

Jileigh's Choir concert

Jileigh's choir class

There's my pretty girl! She loves singing in Choir.

This is Jileigh's last choir concert for her 9th grade year.

Talon's guitar concert

Talon's guitar II class

Look! There's Mercy too.

There's my cute boy!

Safia's class play, Henny Penny Operal

Michael Peraza as the King

Safia was one of the narrators.

These are pictures of Safia's class play, "Henny Penny's Opera. I have it all recorded and posted it on youtube. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPGY7f_Fgnw&feature=plcp
It's 11:42 minutes long.

Fruit breakfast

Angelique

Safia

Beau

Jaren

Let me just say that Blogger has changed their whole format. Little did I know that they only have pictures horizontal now. Stupid.
Anyway, On a Sunday morning in May, we had a fruit breakfast with whipped cream mixed with yogurt. The kids wanted me to take pictures of their creations.

Happy 5th Birthday Beau!

Beau helped hang all the springs

Beau was the first to jump on the new Trampoline

Assembling the trampoline

This is the morning of Beau's birthday. We wrapped his present up in sheets.

We got a Trampoline!

Beau wanted pumpkin pie for dessert

Beau's birthday party at the park with Matt's family.
Grandma H got him a t-shirt and some cars.

Beau and Chad share their birthday celebration along with the 5th of May.
We had a potluck Mexican buffet for dinner.

This is the 2nd pumpkin pie that was in the frig that Elody got her hand into.
She ate nearly a third of the filling, then had the gall to be indignant when
she only received crust with whipping cream in it when we dished it out!

Beau is my little Love. He is the sweetest, caring, kindest, considerate, precious, little boy. I am honored to be his mother.