Another Sunny Weekend

If I could tell the difference between a weekend and a weekday, I'd be thrilled at how lucky we've been to get hot and sunny weekends after cold and wet week days. I think a pattern of such has repeated itself for several weeks now. As a stay at home mom with no life beyond my kids, the purpose of my Saturdays are no different than what is in store for my Tuesdays. Sunshine or downpour, I do as I please (well, with all those normal stay at home mama limitations of course). I love it - rain, shine, Fridays and Wednesdays. There are times that the people of the working world remind me when the weekend approaches by way of their plans, and by including me into their plans.
This last VERY warm and sunny weekend we attended a birthday party, an Earth Day garden clean up at Esperanza's new school, an evening relaxing with family and we enjoyed lots of time in the yard playing with chickens, digging in the dirt, running through sprinklers and picking/eating flowers (I mean weeds).

These kids were crackin me up!!!

Grandma Angelina helping Hannah with her knitting project

From the left: Kiko, Sadie, Andy, Rafa, Esperanza

Happy at the park

I tried my best to get a family photo at Yareli and Estevan's birthday party

you take what you can get

She likes to eat dandelions

and I LOVE that she likes them

Break On Through

Ezra has 4 teeth breaking through his gums right now. They are the four top front teeth. The first top one appeared a couple of weeks ago, and has just barely broke through the skin. Then a few days ago he had diarrhea, was very fussy and felt hot to the touch. His last three teeth caused him to be fussy with loose stools also, but he has never gotten hot enough for me to want get concerned. I checked his temperature the other evening because he was just burning up and it was102! The next morning I notice a bulge in his gums where a tooth will soon be emerging. That was Wednesday morning. Yesterday morning I noticed another tooth and then this morning yet another. 4 teeth! At the same time! The three teeth that have yet to break through are bulging and swollen with just a layer or two of skin to go. He is so uncomfortable and in pain. Sleeping and eating come in very small doses at a time and he is just downright miserable. And I'm tired. Please hurry up and come through teeth so we can get some rest and back to being happy.

Strawberry Patch

3 years ago, when we moved into this house, I planted 4 small store bought organic strawberry plants which produced half a dozen small grape size berries that first year. Those four plants have multiplied into what is now dozens and dozens of plants which produce HUGE juicy berries! I always clean up the patch this time of year, before the plants begin to flower. Trying to find the time to do this was challenging this year, as I needed several hours to get it done. Between kids' naps, their temperaments, the wet weather we've finally been having, my own motivation as well as other activities and events that seemed to be more important than digging in the dirt, I was beginning to think we'd just have to rummage through the weeds to pick our berries this year. But then we had a free, warm sunny day last weekend with two happy kids, a motivated mama and a few baby chicks that wanted to play outside with us in the sun.
A few of the plants already had flowers on them, but after all the love we gave them, vermicompost (worm poop) we mixed in with their soil and marigold seeds we planted all around them, I'm confident they will reward us with amazing fruit this June-October (yes, they give me strawberries that long). I can't wait! Whats even better is that Ezra will be a year old (that magic age the 'experts' say it's okay to introduce strawberries to babies) at the exact same time the first batch of berries will be ready to eat. I think I'm envisioning strawberry short cake as his birthday cake!

This is Sparkles. We won't know for sure for awhile but I am pretty sure she is in fact a he. I've told Esperanza that if she is a boy, we will be eating him for dinner. She wasn't the least bit bothered by the idea. Butter and Fluffy are behind her.

When the chickens come outside I have to enclose them with chicken wire caging so the cat doesn't eat them. Soon, they will be bigger than Lucy. Until then, they don't get to 'free range'.

As the day progressed and the sun became warmer, layer upon layer of clothing was shed.

A Science & Art Project

When I was a kid, before my parents divorced, my dad taught us kids about the sciences. This must have been part of his role in the whole homeschooling thing, but really, he was a science nerd and loved experimenting specifically with physics and chemistry. We did solar energy projects and various experiments with gravity, fire, magnets, light, electricity, etc. We also would combine different things to discover what kind of chemical reactions would occur. I was young when my parents split, so I probably have fewer memories of these times than some of my older siblings might. I do have several treasured memories though, along with a book that my dad used for some of the projects.

One of things he taught me was the chemical reaction vinegar and baking soda have when they were combined. I used this idea to create my very own science fair project in school and made an erupting volcano (pretty sure it was 5th grade). Before last week, that was the last time I made a volcano.

Last week while my sister was visiting, she had the idea to make the vinegar and baking soda erupting volcano. I think when I was a kid I made the volcano out of paper mache. We used play-doh. When we told Esperanza what we were going to do, she had kind of a blank stare. At 3 1/2 years old, there's still SOOooo so very much to learn (shoot, at thirty-something there's still so much for myself to learn). She had yet to learn about volcanoes so we gave her a quick Volcano 101 course, complete with a few YouTube videos showing volcanic eruptions. And then we set off to make one. While my dad carried the science gene, my mom has the art gene. I'm not real amazing in either area, yet Mary's idea turned into a very artsy, colorful and creative science project.

First we had to make an extra batch of play-doh.

Mary got the rolling pin and all kinds of kitchen utensils to cut and mold the clay to make a scenic volcano and surrounding area. Esperanza helped.

Ezra wanted to help but mostly just ate play-doh

And here's the scenic, colorful volcano and surrounding area. They were going to name the volcano Esperanza but went with her middle name Flower (her middle name is Flor, which is Flower in English) instead so that the letters would fit around the mountain. We added palm trees, a little heart shaped lake with a frog sitting on a lily pad, a girl standing under a sun umbrella and lots of pink glitter all over the mountain.

Fill the mountain with baking soda...

Add vinegar with red food coloring in it...and WOW!

The scene was quickly covered in red hot lava (oh, we added a few animals at some point too - a duck and a bear)

Esperanza thought this was sooooo cool! We did it again and again and again...

and again, and again, and again, and again...

...until finally the play-doh became more doh and less play.

Baby Chicks

I know little to nothing about raising chickens. But I'm about to learn. My neighbor and I went and picked up 10 baby chicks today. 2 Barred-Rock, 2 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Speckled Sussex, 2 Buff Orpingtons and 2 Sex-Links (one black and one golden). We couldn't find any Ameruacanas, which are the ones that lay blue and green eggs. The Orpingtons are 2 weeks old and the others are 3 or 4 days old. My neighbors family and mine will be turning the side yard in between our houses into the chicken yard sometime very soon. Her husband says he's going to build the chicks a home. Hopefully he's serious because these baby chicks won't stay small forever. For now, they are in a corner in my living room snuggled up in a big plastic Rubbermaid tub with a warming light, bedding, food and water. This is our flock and the new members of our family....

This is one of the Buff Orpingtons. Her sisters name if Fluffy but we haven't named her yet.

Esperanza named this Speckled Sussex Flower

Esperanza named this Black Sex-Link chick Negra (means Black in Spanish)

Lilie (neighbor girl) named the Golden Sex-Link chick Goldilocks

Here's the set-up. Hopefully our cat Lucy will leave them alone. I've tried to introduce her to the chicks to get a feel for her intentions, but she acts like she doesn't have any interest. I'm thinking Lucy will be spending her nights outdoors for awhile.

We still have a few to name, but I'd like to wait to get to know them a little better. Expect to see more of these girls in the future.