It's Official! We're Chicken Owners.

This afternoon Ethan and I drove out to Dunlap Hatchery in Caldwell where we picked up a trio of Rhode Island Red Pullets (baby hens).

They're in their brooder in the house for now but I'll certainly have to get on that chicken coop soon now.

Six Six (6)

I got tagged with a six.
This is how it works: go to the pictures folder on your computer, go to the sixth folder, go to the sixth picture, post it, then tag 6 people.


This is Ethan at (appropriately) six days.
I'm not sure anybody reads this blog so it's hardly worth tagging anybody (and those who may read it already got tagged).

Happy Birthday Wife ! ! !

Have a Happy Day!

Tomato as a Highlight of the Week

ain't nothin' better than a home-grown tomato

other highlights:

• visiting the visiting sisters
• mom's chicken-n-potatoes
• watching Olympics
• peaches off the tree (sadly, they're all gone now)

Happy Belated Birthday

My Little Princess turned 3
Happy belated birthday, darling!

We had a traditional birthday-cake breakfast:

And another cake with the family over:

And Then Came the Party

Last week we had the birthday...
This week we had the party!!!

We had originally planned on being out of town last weekend so we planned Big E's birthday party for this weekend. His daycare sends him down to gymnastics once a week and he always loves it. We noticed a while ago that they host birthday parties there so we decided that it'd be a great place for kids to have fun.

They swung from the ropes...


And jumped in the foam pits... And swung on ropes into foam pitsAnd bounced on the trampolines... And slid down the slides...Even the adults played... Everybody had a great time during the gymnastics hour!

We were going to continue the Harry Potter theme from the week before with a Nimbus 2000 or a Firebolt cake but E had already picked out Dinosaur plates and stuff. We convinced him that a volcano cake would fit in with the prehistoric theme a little better (of course I was just trying to work in a bowl cake). He was a bit skeptical until he saw the smoke and lavaWe ate sandwiches for lunch then got on with the festivities. The Birthday Boy blew out the candles...Then opened some gifts...... before calling it a day.

Having the party hosted by Gem State Gymnastics made it easy and stress-free for us and fun for the kids.

Fiona's First Haircut

This evening we took My Sweet Girl out for her first haircut.
Fiona will turn three in a few weeks and she's never had her beautiful blonde hair cut so we figured that it was about time for a trim.

Our friend, Rachel just started working at a new salon and Fiona was her first customer. Rachel has two girls of her own and she handled Fiona wonderfully.
Fiona does not like loud noises so we thought she'd protest when the hairdryer came out but she loved the whole experience. She sat still and was quite interested in what was going on.
Rachel bagged up the bulk of the trim: a lock about five inches long. We'll get it off to Gram to work it into a scrapbook page.

Here she is just before the haircut:And here she is modeling her new hairdo:

Perhaps I'll have her to wear her hair down more now.

Happy 5th BigE

Happy Birthday Hijo

Five years old

Big E was very excited when he woke up: I'm five, I'm five, I'm five!

He wanted blueberry muffins for breakfast so we started the morning with Costco muffins... mmmm.

He promptly opened bunches of gifts and loved them all.

He'd been promised a new pet from Build-a-Bear so we headed to the mall where he picked out a new puppy. He named his puppy Mr. Scruffy Daddy. I'm not sure where the name came from but I like it.

We continued on the tradition from last year of lunching at Red Robin. Last year he was very upset when the staff came out singing. This year he could not wait for the song and dance routine. He kept whispering to me: "are they coming out to sing yet?"

In the evening we had all the local family over for dinner (mmm, chicken pot pie) and cake.E is really into Harry Potter right now and he asked for a Golden Snitch cake. I'm not one to complain when I see an opportunity to bake a bowl cake!

Happy Birthday Annzy

We

hope

you

enjoyed

your

day

!!!

Sun Sets on Sunset Bowl

I'm a bit saddened to see that Sunset Bowl has closed.I'm not a bowler and I only went to Sunset Bowl a few times but having thrown our wedding party there created some nostalgia for the place.

Just recently BigE was talking about our upcoming trip to Seattle. We had discussed visiting Sunset Bowl to show the kids where we had our wedding party. Perhaps we'll visit Green Lake and stop by the park bench near where we got married instead.

Maybe I can trick somebody into swinging by the auction on April 22 to pick me up a pin.

BiRThdAy ShoUToUt to ThE B.I.L.

Big Birthday Wishes from this Boise Family to the Bro-In-Law.
May this year be happier than most.
And congratulatory statements regarding the new work duties too!

Happy Birthday Wife

I enjoy getting creative with birthday cakes. I loved making E's castle and I was really happy with the way that Raggedy Ann turned out this year.
On Chris' birthday I get to do nothing. Chris is all about the Costco cake. For Chris it's all about the frosting. At least the Costco cake tastes good.

Per tradition, we had cake for breakfast. Late in the morning we all went to the theater to see Ratatouille. BigE liked it most of it but my baby girl got bored about half way through. After the movie we headed over to Pronto Pup for a fancy lunch. In the evening we went over to Grammy and Pop's house for dinner and more cake.
Happy Birthday Wife. I love you!

Camping At Bull Trout Lake

This weekend we hit the hills for a short camping trip at Bull Trout Lake.

We hadn't camped with both kids before so we made this trip short. We had our tent up by about five Saturday evening and we were packed up by noon Sunday.

After getting settled in Big E and I headed over to the lake with our fishing poles. We got skunked but we had fun.
Due to the high fire danger campfires are not allowed right now so tin foil dinners were, unfortunately, off the menu. Instead we grilled up hamburgers and hot dogs and heated baked beans. I can't complain about not smelling like a campfire.
After dinner we went for a walk and then headed back to the camp stove for some s'mores.
We were in the tent ready to sleep by ten. Then kids were asleep within minutes but Chris and I were awake on and off all night listening to an infant cry in a nearby campsite.
We woke up with the sun on Sunday but stayed in the tent waiting for the temperature to come up from about 33 degrees.

We tried our luck again with the fishing lines first thing Sunday morning but came up empty again. Chris had packed up plenty of bacon, eggs and potatoes so we didn't go hungry without the fishies.
Everybody had enough fun that we're willing to go again.

Another Birthday Shout Out

Happy Birthday to the older brother today! No matter how old I get he'll always be older... and wiser.

A Mother's Day Bouquet

I know it was several weeks ago but here's the fun pot of flowers that the kids made for Grammy on Mother's Day:

Happy 4th BigE

On Friday BigE turned 4.
We celebrated with a traditional birthday cake breakfast. He is currently a Knight (when he's not a Pirate) so he had a crown cake for breakfast:



Saturday we had some friends and family over for a party. Continuing the Royal Theme, he had a castle cake for the party: