Introducing...

Our 9 1-day-old baby chicks! We officially own livestock! Woo Hoo!
I purchased 3 Plymouth Rocks (black chicks), 3 Buff Orpingtons (darker yellow chicks) and 3 Light Brahma (light yellow chicks). They are so adorable! They chirped pretty loudly for the first 20 minutes or so but are quieter now. The Plymouth Rocks went straight to the food once I put them in the brooder. These 2 Light Brahmas stood to the side and snuggled for awhile before finally venturing out. So far, so good. I am so excited for this new adventure!

We have really been enjoying getting outside! Thank goodness Spring is finally here. It was a long winter.

I have been doing lots of yard work. I was excited to see all the new growth on the fruit trees. Here is a picture of one of my peach trees. See all the new branches? My cherry and apple tree are starting to bud too.I got my raspberries transplanted and actually bought another plant. I now have 3 along side the shed. This is my first year with them. I am hoping they will get sufficient drainage in this spot. Here are my 3 younger boys. Enjoying the outdoors and getting the bad guys. Don't ya just love Drew's glasses?

Easter Egg Craft

The boys and I made these cute tissue paper Easter eggs last week. You can go here to see the link. Here is what you will need.tissue paper
construction paper
scissors
glue
contact paper

First I cut all the tissue paper into squares. Then I made 3 egg shapes out of construction paper and cut out the centers, this will be the frame. I cut off a section of contact paper for each of the kids and pealed back 1/2 of it. The boys filled the sticky side with the tissue paper. I then folded it over so that it stuck to itself. Glue on the egg frames, allow to dry and cut out! I glued all three eggs together and hung on the window!

So far we have had a pretty good week. Drew went in yesterday and got the all clear from the Orthopedic doctor. His arm has healed nicely so he doesn't need the splint any more. Woo Hoo!

Jake started track on Monday. He didn't think he wanted to go out, but then decided right before Spring Break that he wanted to go for it. I'm glad. He is an excellent runner. He told me yesterday he ran the 400 meter dash in 1 minute 8 seconds. Then he threw up. I was like "that is totally gross, but good job for working so hard!"

Will had a meeting to discuss his department at work. Rumors were flying around like they always do, but thankfully they are just moving to a different floor and will be under some new management.

I am excited because I will be getting my baby chicks hopefully tomorrow. I set up the brooder today and have been experimenting with the heating lamp so see where it will work best. It has to be 95 degrees for those little guys. The younger kids and I got some work done in the yard this week too. I am getting ready to transplant some raspberries. I am really looking forward to the gardening season.

We also finally got back into some crafting and learning time at the table. We took a break from it for a couple weeks for lots of different reasons but we are finally getting back into the swing of things. The kids made a super cute egg craft today that I will be sharing later.

This last week was Spring break for the older boys, so they were home all week. It seemed like the week went by fast with not much excitement. I didn't feel the best most of the week so we just stayed home with the exception of a lunch date at my sisters house on Tuesday. Thursday it was beautiful outside so we spent the day at the park and then headed to the Zoo. That evening we got lots of yard work done before the snow came in on Friday :(

We had a nice relaxing weekend. Friday was spent hanging out at home watching a movie. We spent Saturday night up at my in-laws eating and playing cards, two things we do best!

Now I am off to bed, feeling completely content with life.

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring has sprung around the Figgins household. We had a pretty decent weekend. I think I am finally starting to feel better after battling a stomach virus all last week. That pretty much kept me on the couch. After being cooped up all last week it was nice to have some great weather and get outside!

One of our first signs of Spring, the capture of our first worm! Poor guy. Thankfully for him our worm farm is not ready yet.Drew's cast doesn't stand a chance now that it is warm out. Thankfully we only have 10 days left. And thankfully I can take it off and wash it. I decided not to take a picture of the water it soaked in overnight. You can imagine. Happiness is...opening the shed and finally being able to get the bikes out! The kids were all happy to welcome back their backs and get some good 'ol outdoor exercise.I was happy too because I got some yard work done. Our yard is badly bruised from all the snow plowing that had to be done this Winter so it is going to take a little work. I did get some rocks racked back into the driveway and some sticks cleaned up around the property. It's a small start.

Tony was super excited to have his soccer net put up. We all played with that for awhile on Sunday. I am starting to think we should get another ball because everyone wants to kick the ball at the same time. The rules of soccer and football become a little blurry. I witnessed alot of tackling. Brodie learned something new this weekend. He learned to pedal a bike! We gave him Tony's old bike and he was as happy as 4-year-olds can be! He thinks he is pretty big stuff now. Drew was happy to just push his dump truck all over the place. He decided to wear his helmet too since his brothers were. Probably a good thing for that child. Jake said he should wear it all the time. That might not be such a bad idea!

I had a busy day today. I baked banana bread, cleaned part of my kitchen (oiled the outside cupboards and almost finished cleaning the insides), did some laundry, dyed my hair. Then when Will and the boys came home we ran to West Des Moines to look at some stores trying to hunt down a pizza peel. I think every store around is out of pizza peels. Apparently it is a popular thing right now! Who knew?

We ended the night by going out for dinner. Now all the kids are tucked away in their beds. Well, except Brodie and Drew who are both sleeping in my bed at the present time.

Here are some pictures of Tony's band concert last week. He is playing the cymbals. He was pretty excited because he said he was going to be the loudest one in there! He was right.All the band and choir concerts are over with now until May. Now if I can just get through conferences this week...

G is for Garden

We are getting excited about the warmer weather and getting prepared for Spring. My seeds came in the mail the other day and the kids and I have spent lots of time going through seed catalogs drooling at all the delicious looking fruits and veggies.

Here is a craft we did this week for the letter G. We decided to make our own gardens on paper.

You will need construction paper, glue, coffee grounds, and an old magazine.We discussed growing plants in our garden and we read the book How Things Grow-A Book About Nature by Nancy Buss. For our craft I had the kids place glue all over the construction paper and then sprinkle the coffee grounds over it. The coffee grounds was our "dirt". Once this dried I had each of the boys go through the seed catalog I had and pick out what they would like to plant in our garden.

Here is what Drew picked. As you can see he chose all yellow flowers. Yellow is his favorite color! There is also one lone strawberry on there too!Brodie chose all berries and some purple flowers.

Fooled

Drew "Mommy, more grapes."
Me "Eat what's on your plate first Drew."
Drew "Mommy, more grapes please."
Me "You have to eat your carrots first Drew, then you can have more grapes."
Drew in his most excited voice showing me his plate "Mommy, look I ate all my carrots now can I have more grapes?"
Me "Great job Drew, thank you. Yes, now you can have more grapes."

This is what I find later when I clean off the table and he is laying down for his rest time. Fooled again.