Daffodils

Kaile and Grandma picked some daffodils from the farm last week. I thought it fitting to make some daffodils of our own- ya know, the kind that won't wilt and die within a week! They were made from an egg carton cups, yellow construction paper, and pipe cleaners. Hoping this makes spring come on sooner! Even though Spring doesn't technically start for another 10 days, daylight saving time is coming up in 3 days. So, come on Spring, push winter behind us and get going on your warm breezy days filled with lots of outside playing time as well as some planting and growing! The 'inside of my house' called and said it's tired of seeing me mopeing around in it. :)

Baby Chicks

I got a phone call at 7:03am this morning telling me our baby chicks had arrived! After Kaile woke up around 8am I got her dressed and off we went to our local post office. As soon as we walked in the door we could hear them chirping away! The post office wasn't open yet, so we had to ring a bell. We told the man we were there for the chicks and as he brought the box closer to the door we could hear the chirping getting louder and louder! I signed for them and back home we went...

I took a picture of the box before I snipped the tape

I got the camera ready to get a picture of the 'girls' right as I opened to box... OH NO!!! There were two chicks that I KNEW were dead! In my head I was trying to figure out how to tell Kaile, when I could see movement in both the chicks. I quickly rushed them into where we were keeping the other two, that we got last Friday, where the heat lamp was. Both their bodies were super cold to the touch as I moved them over. One chick looked terrible and I didn't figure it would live. The other just looked sickly.

Here is the picture I took right after I opened the box. If you look closely (I know they are all about the same colors and its hard to tell them apart), at the bottom of the picture you can see both sick chicks. They were both kinda pinned up against the side, while the others were walking over them!

After I got them under the heat lamp, I then remembered that there was supposed to be some kind of heating blanket type thing in the box to keep them warm. So I took the box outside, pulled all the straw out, and found NOTHING! The hatchery somehow forgot to add this important part!!! The super sickly chick finally died about 9am. She did show some improvement under the warmth. She opened her eyes and moved her legs. But I think all I did was warm her up enough for the 'process' to finally end. :*( 

Here she was right before she died. I know its really sad! Her neck was all cocked back and legs straight out!

The other sickly chick is still sickly! I don't think she has eaten or drank at all. She sleeps most of the time but  will stand if provoked by the others running over her. She looks better than the dead one did, but I doubt she will make it to morning! I took her out to get some picture of her...

Here are the two we got last Friday...

The Americana (she will lay the blueish/greenish eggs) She has very pretty colors. And her wings are almost already completely covered with feathers! She's hitting puberty early!

This is MY Silkie! Their feathers are really soft and feel almost like a cat when they are grown. They have a black beak, black feet, four toes, and black bones. She also has feathers that grown down their legs. Very interesting breed! They are the most docile of all the chicken breeds, so I can't wait to hold her alot when she is big! She is considered a bantam, so she is so tiny compared to the others. 

Red Star #1

Red Star #2

Road Island Red

PenPals

I signed Kaile up for a Pen Pal over at 'tatertots & jello'. She paired up each kid with another kid about the same age. A couple weeks ago we got the email saying that we were paired up with a 4 1/2 year old boy named Noah from Washington state. Kaile's preschool, last month, has been talking about writing letters and mailboxes so I knew this would be a great time for Kaile to get and to start to understand what a pen pal is. I have had a hard time getting her to sit with me to write him a letter! She was always preoccupied with something else or we had sickness through the house and I was too tired to even attempt it. We received Noah's letter last week. Kaile was very excited to see it, but I wouldn't show it to her until she agreed to sit and write him back. This morning, I called her into the kitchen to sit with me at the table and Finally write it! And she did it without complaining! Yay. Here are their letters:

Envelope to Kaile

Front of his card

Back of the card

Inside the card

Kaile's letter. Yes, that's a self portrait at the bottom!

We included in her letter: a picture of Kaile, two pictures of her baby chicks, and some 'Cars' stickers because in Noah's letter he mentioned he likes 'Lightning McQueen'.

"Bye Nana"

A little girl in Kaile's preschool is going back to Japan and her last day will be next week. There are only 3 little girls in her class and Kaile really likes Nana... the other little girl is ehhhhh to Kaile (she gets away with a lot since her mom is a helper). Nana started out at the school by not speaking English, so they thought. Her parents found out on one of their trips that Nana actually understood and could speak a lot of English. Kaile would come home every Monday and say 'Nana talked today!' or 'Nana talked to Me!'. I decided that me and Kaile were going to make her a farewell present. I have been wanting to make Kaile a tutu and figured while I was making Kaile one I could make Nana one too. Making tutus are Very inexpensive! Here is Nana's Farewell Package...

Pink Tutu

A Candy Necklace to go with the Tutu

I found a card that I thought looked just like Nana and Kaile. The inside does not work with this occasion, but I couldn't resist the front of the card! I am going to cover up the inside of the card with some other kind of paper and write our own stuff.

Nana is Japanese with dark black hair and Kaile is Very white with blonde hair... 

I let Kaile pick out some stickers to give her. She is on a Hello Kitty kick lately. But the pack comes with 6 sheets of stickers, so half for Nana and half for Kaile!

Last night Kaile got a piece of paper and started drawing on it. After she was done she looked up and said 'I drew Nana!'. She then asked us how to spell Nana's name and then asked how to spell 'goodbye'. I just about broke out in tears! :) We decided goodbye was too long and that just bye would do. So here is HER farewell picture for Nana.

We will be giving all this to her after class next Monday!

Will 'This Trip' Ever End?

Bryan told me a couple months back that he would be going to a concert in Charlotte in February. I thought, I could surely go for a night without the Hubbs! It was nice, not having to cook a dinner and me and Kaile spent lots of time together (every stay at home mom's dream when we already stay with the kids 24/7, haha... but we did have fun). Concert was on a Wednesday night, so Bryan got off work at 12:00pm so as to meet up with the guys at 1:00pm. Soon after leaving work, Bryan get rear ended after stopping for traffic in a construction zone! Knocked the hat right off his head! Minor damage to the van of $1,300. That night at the concert, poor little Bryan got picked on by two Girls... you read that right, Girls! :) They thought it funny to both draw back and push him, repeatedly. As he fell to the ground, he used his wrists to catch himself. And then came the sprained wrist! He came home and his hand, from his wrist to his fingers, were very swollen!  After not being able to move the hand and being still swollen after 2 days, I thought it best for him to head to the urgent care to get an x-ray. His neck was hurting terribly from the wreck, so hey, two in one doctor visit right?! X-ray showed no broken bones. They doctored him up in a hand splint thing, gave Rx for some muscle relaxers and Ibuprofen for the neck, and sent him on his way. I realized later that night that I had left my wallet at the urgent care! So here I go, heading back up there Saturday afternoon, to get it. Now to back up a couple days... 'The Boys'... there were two in their group that were BIG troublemakers, luckily I don't know them or their wives! :) I think I have instilled in Bryan, after all these years, to behave himself. But it makes me sad to see him having to be the responsible one for the others that can't control themselves! Anywho, lets move on... So Saturday night (3 days after concert) Bryan keeps complaining he was cold. I just assumed it was from the temperature dropping outside after it had been so warm out, or maybe just from the wreck and sprained wrist. Before we went to bed I had him take his temperature.... FEVER! After Sundays' body chills and more fever, I knew he had the flu... which he picked up from the concert!!! He has been out of work for the entire week, but for one day. Now he has developed a golf ball size lymph node in his neck! I'm hoping that when Kaile had the flu, she gave it to me, I took the Tamiflu, so no symptoms ever showed up, and now I'm immune to it. I really hope thats the case since he has had the flu for 7 days now and I still have no symptoms! I don't know what I would do if I were to be bed ridden for 7 days... of wait, yeah I do... I would still have to take care of Kaile, clean the house, and make dinners! Here are some pictures to go along with theis story...

Wednesday night... after Kaile's bath, getting ready for the Meeting.

I let her sleep with me in my room that night. She decided she wanted the floor. Which was fine with me since I don't sleep well when she's with me in the bed!

Urgent Care for hand and neck...

Kaile got creative with our LONG wait, and made a bridge out of Bryan's Ace Bandage! Can you see her pink duck at the top! Maybe it was about to cross the bridge???

Bryan's hand splint thing. He was VERY annoyed with all the pictures I was taking of him. He said "I feel like every picture you take is going to end up on your blog"... DUH!

After leaving the second visit to Urgent Care, for the flu, we went by the park off Guess Rd to let Kaile play. In the woods someone had made a tee-pee(sp?) out of fallen branches. Really cool! This picture you can't see well, but Bryan and Kaile are cheese-ing inside it!

And here is Bryan's golf ball sized lymph node, that he has named 'George'. Bryan said yesterday that it fells like he swallowed a ball, and now Kaile REALLY thinks he did and it's stuck in his throat! She told him it would be okay, that he would just poop it out! (from her experience after swallowing her hair clip as a baby)

To answer my posts' Title... I REALLY HOPE SO SOON!

The summary :)

~Bryan got rear ended

~Bryan got his wrist sprained

~Misbehaving boys

~Cost of concert- traveling, lodging, food, and ticket to show

~Urgent Care visit #1 $75 copay

~Bryan getting the flu

~The sore neck, sprained wrist, flu, left me alone with all the everyday affairs, so I'm Exhausted!

~Urgent Care visit #2 another $75 copay

~Almost all of Bryan's vacation time is Gone!... and his work anniversary was last weekend so he just got these vacation days! This is going to be a long year!

I don't think there will be any more concerts any time soon, but at least thats coming from his point of view! :)

Handmade With Love

I found a sewing tutorial off Etsy for a 'pillow case' dress. I have always thought they were really cute, but never wanted to pay the price for what Etsy-ians were asking for them. Since I'm learning to sew... perfect opportunity for me to try. I paid $3.50 for the tutorial and it was worth every penny! She had very detailed instructions for every step- which was good because some of the  techniques I did not know how to do. She also had lots of pictures to go with each step, which is very helpful in knowing if what you are doing is what hers' looks like.

Kaile and I made our way to Jo-Ann's Fabric last Friday for her to pick out some fabric. It was very intimidating on picking out some fabric! There are lots to choose from and I have NO clue what the different textures of fabric mean for your sewing project. Luckily, Kaile had in mind what she wanted which made the process SUPER easy. I asked her on the way to the store what kind of fabric she would like and she said 'butterflies'. We didn't find any butterflies, but she settled on, the one we got, Ladybugs and flowers...And it was on Sale! I picked out a coordinating fabric to trim the bottom of the dress and we were off. Bryan and Kaile were in a rare mood that Friday night, so after they went to bed I decided to make the dress. It took me 4 hours and was up till 1:30am. I swore at the time I would never make another dress, but man, all the pain of sitting there has been forgotten and I want to make MORE! :)

fyi- most of the pictures were taking with my phone... they are Blurry, Sorry

Here is the beginning fabric

The night I finished it

Kaile trying it on

Heading to the Meeting

The Cousins after the Meeting

Elodie Farms

Elodie Farms is a cute little goat farm in Bahama.

 I first heard about it through JT. They have done the farms 'Dinner on the Porch" a few times. I saw on their website that the owner does farm tours. I am attempting to do a 'low key' homeschool program with Kaile before she goes to Kindergarten and I plan on doing as much 'hands on' learning as I can for her. I think this farm tour was as much for her as it was for me... I have always asked Bryan if we could have a goat, and now that we've moved, there is no room for one. The farm tour was very nice. From the cheese making room, to the goats, to the chickens, to the rabbits, to the baby ducks, and finally a picnic in the grass.

We started off in the kitchen where they make the goat cheese. It did have a cheese kinda smell in it... but Kaile for some reason couldn't take it. She came over to me and I could see the same face she made right before she threw up when we were at the beach. She asked for water, then started gagging!!! I rushed her outside! She was fine once outside. I of course missed all of what he was saying. And the only pics I got were through the glass door. :(

Next we went outside to play with the goats. We brought along pretzels to feed them. They all gathered quickly when they figured out we had food! 

At the top of the collage picture (above) you can see the baby goat that was just born... I think he said it was 3 days old? But VERY cute! JT got to hold the baby goat!

We then got a tour of the chickens and baby ducks! The poor animals, they were not very happy to have a group of 2-5 year old chasing them!

We also got to see the rabbits. I didn't get any picture of the rabbits because it was too dark in there. But they were all white and one was sitting in a little box waiting on her 'delivery day'! But here is a picture of everyone going up to see them.

After the tour part, we headed back to where the goats were and had a picnic lunch on the lawn. It was a cool breeze blowing but a very sunny day! Couldn't have been better of a day!

I know the kids loved it as well as the adults! Fun times! The experience was much appreciated thanks to Dave, the owner!