national zoo

My mom and I took the kids to the zoo today.  Did you know that the National Zoo is 125 years old?  And did you know that the original Smokey Bear lived there in the 1950's? 

I think this guy slept most of the day... can you believe how big he is getting?

Kai wasn't the only one sleeping away the hot afternoon.  This is Mei Xiang (may-SHONG), the adult female Panda.  Mei Xiang and Tian Tian (t-YEN t-YEN) had their second (surviving) baby last Summer. There was a crowd around the baby, Bao Bao, so no pictures of her.

Every animal statue is another photo op...

I totally love Tallulah's face in this one :)

We were bummed that the zoo no longer has giraffes and hippo's but everybody had a good time and we ended the outing with Italian ice from Rita's... it doesn't get much better than that!

road trip

Regan finished Challenge A last Thursday so this morning the kids and I loaded up the van for a little road trip.  We are spending a few days in Maryland visiting family.

while we were setting up the beds for the kids tonight Emmy said she wanted to sleep in the cradle...

and then Addie decided she wanted in too :)

These two crack me up!

almost there

My in-laws came to visit over the weekend and we put them to work on the coop!  The weather was beautiful and in between soccer games, gymnastics, and church events my father-in-law taught me how to install a roof.

While the adults worked on the coop the kids set up camp in the back yard...

Micah needed to make his own lean-to and sleep in it to earn his camping badge with Trail Life.

We've got so many caterpillars in our yard I was afraid Micah might wake up in a cocoon in the morning, but he made it through the night unscathed :)

Addie, Tallulah, Max, and Regan all slept in the tent.

I was a little intimidated by the nail gun at first but it really wasn't hard to use at all.

Looks done from this side :)

But I still need to make the doors and put the trim on.

And then it's on to the run!

Thank to my in-laws, who I am sure would have much rather just come and have a restful visit but instead willingly jumped in with the coop construction!  Who know how long putting the roof on would have taken with our their expertise and tools!

more chicken coop picture

Still lots of work to do, but it's coming along :)

coop progress

We finished framing the coop and built the nesting boxes this week.   Although a lot of the work I need to do myself the kids are all helping whenever they can. 

The kids said they were going to put the coop in the front yard and sell hot dogs out of it if owning chickens didn't work out for us :)

I got pretty frustrated trying to cut the pieces for the nesting box with only a circular saw, but I finally figured it out and even though it is far from perfect I am feeling pretty good about what we've accomplished so far. 

This is the first time I've ever built anything like this and sometimes the task seems a bit overwhelming but it is so rewarding to push through my doubts and insecurities.  I am really enjoying the whole process!

Next up, roof trusses!

tutor gifts

It's that time of year again!  This Thursday is our last day of Classical Conversations for the year.  I can't believe how fast this year has gone by!  As I have every other year, I made gifts for each of my children's tutors and the nursery workers.  I used this tutorial for the coin purses.  These little bags are totally addicting to make, so be warned.  They were not what I had planned to make for the tutors, but when I found myself making more and more of them it just made sense to give these instead of starting a totally new project.

I put some Burt's Bee's chap stick in the bags and filled the baskets with Easter grass and candy.

 I ended up giving all but one of the bags I made away so I am totally going to have to make more!  If you think you want to make some of these bags I recommend looking for the clasps on Ebay.  I ended up getting 25 clasps for less than the cost of two at Michael's... and trust me, you are not gonna want to stop making them at two!

And just for fun, here are some of the tutor gifts I have made in the past.

it's official...

We got our chicken permit last week and the kids and I took advantage of the nice weather and got started on our chicken coop!  Between feeding the baby, trying to do at least some schoolwork, and driving kids to extra curricular activities our progress is slow, but we are having fun :)

I spent many hours scouring the internet looking for coop inspiration and finally decided I liked the size and style of this coop.  So after studying the pictures and deciding what changes I wanted to make I drew up my plans and made my supply list.

After 3 hours in Home Depot we had our supplies.  It took us another whole afternoon just to get everything unloaded and organized!

Everybody helped prime the wood after I measured and cut our framing pieces.  I thought Tallulah was taking pictures of the whole process, but it turns out she only took a few, and they were random pictures of supplies and me cutting the wood - except the only thing in the picture is my hands holding the saw!  Oh, well!

Max helped my put the base together Friday afternoon and we are trying to get outside this afternoon to work a little more before the rain comes tomorrow!

I'll share more pictures of our progress soon :)