Playing Catch Up!

Here's what we've been up to lately.

Since all three boys have birthdays in the first two weeks of March, we decided to have one big party for them. We haven't done this in a couple of years and, since there's a new gaming place open in a neighboring town, we thought it would be fun to have their party there. What kid doesn't like video and arcade games, right?


Zack opening presents---He got a Ben 10 Lego set, a yo-yo, and enough birthday money to buy a Star Wars Lego set. My house is being invaded by Legos!!!


Here's Mr. Matt. He got a Mater(from Cars) something-or-other that shoots out of a canon. I'm sure Ian will correct me after he reads this, but I can't remember what it's called. He also got an Elmo Phase 10 game, and enough birthday money to buy a Dragon Castle thingy that makes lots of noise. I'm sure I'll be corrected on this one too.


Blowing out the candles. Two wanted red velvet cupcakes and one wanted chocolate cupcakes so that's what we made. I didn't have a good picture of Todd opening his gifts, but he got a Mini Ninja's game for the Wii, a bike, and enough birthday money to buy a slew of Bakugan stuff.


Lauren had fun, too. I spent more time plucking her down from the skiball game than anything else. Thankfully no one was trying to play at the time. She also kept trying to win something out of the claw machine. She never did, but one of Todd's friends offered her a stuffed fish he won. She was too shy to take it from him, but she saw the fish sitting unattended later so she swiped it. Oops!

Here's Matt trying out the Air Hockey game.

One of Todd's classmates and his little brother.

Zack and his best bud.

Even the adults had fun.

We also had our Pack Pinewood Derby the same day as the birthday party.


These are the sibling cars that entered the sibling race. Matt's is the Superman car. If you look closely you can see a Fly Boat(Wonder Pets), a princess carriage, a Hannah Montana limo, a pink bunny, and some other creative ones. I have no idea who won this race, but I do know it wasn't Matt. :o( I was busy judging cars. Matt did win Most Futuristic Car and received a medal so he was happy with that.


Here are a few of the scouts' cars. The orange and blue one is Zack's.


These are the winners of the pack race. 1st place is the shark. It was very well done and even had a hand sticking out of its mouth. 2nd place is the red one. This is one of my Tiger Cub's car. He and his dad made it without using any power tools. And Todd came in 3rd place---the black and red car. He came in 3rd last year in our pack race and then went on to win 1st in the district derby. I'm anxious to see how he does in the district race this year, which is today.


Here are the 1st and 3rd place pack winners. The 2nd place winner couldn't be there because his family had to be out of town that weekend.


We've also had some scout advancements happen in our house. Todd earned his Webelos badge and Zack earned his Tiger badge last month.


Funny that they're both busy putting on their belt loops in these pictures. I just realized that as I'm typing this out. :o) Way to go Todd and Zack!!!


On a less important side note, I wanted to show off my honkin huge egg.


A size comparison: The honkin huge egg, a duck egg (which is the size of an extra large chicken egg), a standard size chicken egg (which is a medium-large egg), and a Silkie egg (which is a little larger than a bantam egg, but not as big as a standard chicken egg).

The honkin huge egg was a double-yoker. This is the first one we've had. I can remember Grandma Gregson's chickens laying double-yoker eggs every so often. All I can say is, that had to hurt coming out! Oh, and it made some really yummy cupcakes for the boys' birthday party. :o)

Rooster Tales

Most people who know me knows we have chickens and ducks. I like to refer to our little abode here as a farm-ette or mini farm. It makes me feel better about having chicken and duck droppings all over the yard.

Before we started this gig I told my dear darling hubby that I absolutely did NOT want any roosters. I don't mind yard eggs, but I don't want to crack open any tainted eggs, if you know what I mean. Well, we ended up with a bantam rooster, the worst kind of rooster because they're so hateful. Apparently you can't tell the sex of the bantams until they're older. He was beautiful . . . . but hateful, just as I feared. He met his fate and is now living in rooster heaven . . . if there is such a thing for hateful roosters.

As my luck goes our neighbors have chickens too, but mostly roosters. I guess there aren't enough hens to go around at this guy's house so he keeps showing up in my yard and claiming my girls as his own.
He's gorgeous. He matches my girls nicely. He's not mean to the kids. But I don't like him. He's mean to my ducks and some of the girls . . . the ones he doesn't claim, I guess. My eggs are tainted. And now he thinks mi casa es his casa and started crowing for us this morning.

We usually don't hear him until later in the morning when he's coming down the road from his house to visit his girlfriends, but this morning . . . . yeah, try about 3:30. Did I say A.M.? Uh, huh. He might have to go to rooster heaven too.

Yep, I'm just that mean.

This guy? This is the rooster we didn't know we had. This is a Silkie. We have two. We thought both were girls.

Do you know why we thought he was a she? He doesn't crow. They both are similar in size and there are only minor differences, and that's only if you're looking closely. He's very docile and doesn't try to attack anyone, not even his girl. This is my kind of rooster.

Did I mention he doesn't crow? I like him. :o)

Squat rocks and such

This post may seem random because I'm playing catch-up again. I'm the queen of procrastination. But I really don't think that's a good thing to be queen of. Here goes . . .

We finally have eggs! Yay!!! After waiting and waiting and more waiting, our ducks and chickens have finally started producing eggs, which is our whole reason for having them. It sure isn't because I like having poop all over my yard.

Look at these beauties! The large white ones are duck eggs, the brown ones are our standard chicken eggs, and the little white ones are bantam eggs. We usually get at least one duck egg, 2-3 brown eggs, and one bantam egg per day. Not too shabby.

Ian was mowing the grass a couple of weeks ago and I heard Lauren start to cry (of course she has to be outside with dad) so I went to check on her. I opened the back door and this is what I found. Apparently she stumbled across an ant bed and went to dad for help. I was impressed. :o)


Scout stuff:

Our cub scout pack went to visit a local museum this past week. I had no idea this little gem was practically in our back yard (seriously, it's right across the cotton field from my house).

It was put together by one of our scouts' grandma and she has done a wonderful job with it. The museum is actually a combination of three old houses put together and is the home of quite a collection of antiques and memorabilia.

Here's our motley crew on the front steps of the museum before they were given the grand tour.

A few of the antique telephones on display.

I'm sure glad my iron is the plug-in kind. :o)

I think Grandma Gregson had one like this.

And old butter churn and some aprons. We were also shown some butter presses. I wish I had taken a picture of those. They were really neat.

More scout stuff:

Here are my 3 little Tiger Cubs showing off the leaves they collected for our leaf rub project. These guys are 3 peas in a pod.

Here are the Tigers and Webelos donating teddy bears to the police dept. We did this service project last year and it was a hit.

The Tigers and Webelos meet the mayor. This was the same day as the bear donation. Right after this picture was taken, Zack said to the mayor, "Hey, you got any gum?". I don't think he was quite prepared for that one.

That's about it for this catch-up session. I still need to post some football pictures, but that will have to wait till another day. Ciao!