A chicken hoop, not a chicken coop!

The chickens have names!
On the left is Delilah, the Silver Laced Wynnadotte.
In front is Jezebel, the Americana.
The orange one in the middle is Sapphira, the Buff Orpington.
And on the right is Rahab, the Rhode Island Red.
I hope my chickens aren't as naughty as those ladies from the Bible :)

The finished chicken hoop from the side.

The hoop has a hutch attached to the back where the chicks will lay their eggs, hopefully by Labor Day. The hoop is surrounded by chicken wire--even on the bottom. We hope to move this around the yard and they can still peck the grass and bugs. Who's going to move it around the yard? Good question. Probably Seth with the tractor or 4-wheeler. We'd originally thought about putting wheels on it and then just pulling it by hand, but I don't have the strength for that!

We still have this set up in our garage because we've had a few cool nights.

Here are some pictures of the kids painting . . . with REAL paint! Yes, probably not the best decision I've made, but I was running out of time to get the end caps painted. Thank goodness for Carhartts and old coats!

Eden would dip her paintbrush ALL THE WAY in the bucket and then proceed to start painting without draining the excess. She made the worse mess of all!

Eliza, on the other hand was a dainty painter. And Emmet did a good job, too!

This would make any mom nervous--four kids and a bucket of non-washable paint.

Ephraim doing a good job!

The kids really enjoyed this experience.

Building the frame for the chicken hoop. Seth ordered a kit for the frame of the hoop and then built the base.

"Hey Dad, how many helpers do you need?"

The kids playing in the future chicken hoop.

Bowler's Prayer: Spare us Lord

We were blessed with an almost free night of bowling, thanks to my cousin Kim. The boys were SOOOOOOOOO excited to go bowling as a family since we've never been before. We took advantage of the Pizza, Pins and Pop deal.

Seth "coaching" Ephraim on the tricks of the game.

Funny how this picture started out being one of Emmet and his ball hitting pins but it actually has turned into a picture of Eliza in the corner flashing a smile.

Thanks to a little help from the metal rack, the girls could bowl like the professionals.

Eliza hoists her ball on the rack with a little help from Emmet. Everyone was so eager for it to be their turn that the closer they could be to the bowling balls at all times, the better.

Emmet again.

Ephraim getting the hang of it. The boys were ecstatic about their shoes with flaming bowling balls and they glowed in the dark.

Spinning chairs is a nice way to pass the time. It was cosmic bowling after 7pm and the kids loved the disco lights.

"Me do it, me do it."

Definitely double trouble. Watch your toes!

And a picture of me with shorter hair, thanks to Seth cutting it again.

Eden and Daddy. At least with her in his arms, he could be sure he doesn't hit her in the nose when he swings back to bowl. That never happened but I was worried about it.

Eliza taking a turn.

Final scores:

Ephraim 81

Emmet 79

Eden 76

Eliza 56

Jenny 67

Seth 105

You can stop laughing at the scores now, Seth and I are not the best at bowling. And that's with the bumper in the gutter so there were no gutter balls.

Playing in the arcade. The kids were content to just pretend to play.

What a blessing to have a fun time together and make memories!

Yarn Octopus

Craft time again at our house. This time we're making an octopus from yarn. Ephraim is sporting the beginnings of his octopus.


Emmet decided to "help" by unraveling the yarn 1st.
A photo of our project from Family Fun Magazine.

Ephraim proudly showing off his finished project.

Emmet with his octopus half done.

His rock star imitation.

Eliza imitating her brothers.

Eliza is not to be trusted with glue!

Almost done!

Lovin' it!

Hey, where's Eden? Oh yes, this is the day she took a 3 hour nap and Eliza didn't take a nap!

Here, I am. Better late than never!

Eliza's octopus is purple with pink hair and Eden's is pink with purple hair.

Still celebrating Easter

We enjoyed an Easter Egg hunt with some of our Bible Study last week.

There were 9 kids participating and 4 of them were mine! We brought a dozen eggs each. We packed ours with plastic fish, mini slinkies, barrettes, rings, bouncy balls and stickers.
And then we came home and made donkey crafts! My kids are always asking to do crafts.

Now, you will notice that Emmet's nose looks a little red. He took a tumble on the carpet at our Easter Egg party and yes, that's a rug burn on his nose. OUCH! He cried and cried and cried.

Lots of donkeys! And another "teachable moment" about the donkeys in the Bible.