Happy Birthday!

My girls were all summer babies so each summer we throw one big birthday party for them all to celebrate with friends and family. We still celebrate each of their actual birthdays separately too, but on a much smaller scale. On their actual birthday we make a cake and have a special dinner of their choosing just the 5 of us all cozy like. :)

This year they chose an ocean theme for their birthday party. Our friend Cathy so graciously offered to host the party at her beautiful home for us since she has a pool and thought the kids would have fun having a pool party. It was so nice. :) We decorated the dining room in dolphins, whales, seashells, and fish decorations. I painted a big fish on posterboard for a 'pin the tail on the fish' game and made a whale "cornhole" game where the kids could throw "fish" (blue bottle caps with fish painted on them) into the whale's mouth. The girls had a blast decorating fish with glitter glue to hang on the ceiling and I per Ella's request baked a fishy cake with pink icing and m and m scales. :)

Poor little Ella came down with a fever later in the day and slept through most of the party but luckily she didn't seem to mind since we saved her a piece of cake and sang happy birthday to her and she played with her gifts when she was feeling better the next day. All in all though the party turned out pretty well and it was so nice to get to visit with friends and family although hopefully next year little Miss Ella will be awake for the festivities.

Ella at our house before the party smelling the moon flowers :)

the dining room all decorated for the party

the paper glitter fish the girls made

Raven opening gifts

Raven and Gwen blowing out their candles

Miss Rowan...such a cutie!

Mikayla and Raven (they have been friends since they were babies)

Gwen testing the water

and last but not least the cake :)

It's a zoo around here

It's no secret my girls are very much animal lovers. I guess they take after me. When I was young I always had a menagerie of pets throughout the years growing up...mice, rabbits, gerbils, cats, dog, fish, chameleons, hamsters, hermit crabs, a fire belly newt, frogs, toads, chickens, ducks, button quail, and even the occasional peacock and mama and baby pygmy goat. My dad was very tolerant but he always drew the line at snakes though....lol.
My husband is a definite animal lover too. When we were dating he even owned a snake, a match made in heaven lol. ;) We have always had cats when the girls were growing up (all adopted strays). Strays are always attracted to us... we must give off a come hither stray vibe or something I don't know lol and of course the big mushes we are we can't stand to see an animal in need. We adopted a shelter dog (named JoJo) when we first bought our house several years ago and have had her ever since she is such a good dog. :)

Now that the girls are older and old enough to handle more responsibility they now each have their own pets. Raven has a super loving girl rat named Princess Smoothie (don't ask...Raven named her herself lol) and Ella and Gwen have an aquarium in their room with a blue betta (named what else but Betta Blue by Ella lol) and a tiny dwarf african clawed frog (whose name changes so frequently I'm not sure what it is at the moment lol). We also have our orange old man tabby cat (Colby) who we had even before we bought our house, our backyard chickens, and meet the newest members of our loving zoo...

This is Willow my husband's cockatiel. We adopted her from a nice couple off of Craigslist. She was hand fed and raised and is a very tame bird who loves to sing, perch on shoulders, whistle like a construction worker (we taught her that lol), and play with her birdie disco ball. :)



This is Daisy my sweet little siamese kitten. I have always wanted a siamese and fell in love with her the instant I saw her. She is such a beautiful and loving kitty. She is a major cuddler. :)

Then a few days after getting our new kitten Daisy my friend Rebecca and I were on the way home from a road trip when we spotted something in a ditch on the side of the road. She stopped the car and we got out and found a tiny little crying grey tabby kitten down in the ditch. The poor baby was soaking wet, shivering, and covered in burrs. :( We scooped her up and wrapped her in an extra flannel shirt Rebecca had in the car.

So needless to say...we now have 2 new kittens. Meet Hollow (named after the road we found her abandoned on).


Poor little Hollow was suffering from a pretty bad respiratory and eye infection when we found her but after visiting our wonderful vet little baby Hollow is beginning to feel much better and will be up and romping with little Daisy very soon. Daisy can't wait. :)

Fresh from the Garden

I love summer. I love gardening and green growing things (well maybe not the poison ivy.... I think I could live without it lol). The garden is growing strong. Flowers are blooming everywhere. It's just simply beautiful.

It never ceases to amaze me that you can take a single tiny seed, nurture it, let nature take it's course, have faith and hopefully with a little luck, rain, and blessings from above watch it grow into something beautiful that will either nourish the soul, the body, or both. *smile*

I never thought I could have such strong feelings about something so simple as a salad. Just knowing exactly where each and every leaf in your salad came from, that you planted, nurtured, and watched those little leaves grow, that you picked them with your own two hands and that just minutes ago it was growing in the ground and is now on your plate. It is just simply amazing to me still (and not to mention tasty too). ;)

Here are some of the goodies from the garden we enjoyed this week. :)

tuna, purslane, and chive salad on a fresh bed of buttercrunch

lettuce, topped with tomatoes, asiago cheese, raw sunflower seeds,
raw peas, nasturtium leaves, and green goddess dressing

an assortment of fresh baby salad greens, buttercrunch lettuce leaves,
and baby rainbow chard leaves, topped with roasted pecans, a blend
of mozzarella and asiago cheese, sweet dried cranberries,
juicy ripe freshly picked black raspberries, and green goddess dressing

lightly toasted french bread with a spread of whipped cream cheese
and topped with a mixture of diced fresh basil, oregano,
and chives tossed in olive oil

and on the drying rack: sage, thyme, lemon balm, mint, lavender, and stevia

Photo highlights from the past week

We've had a busy but wonderful week. We had new baby chicks hatch, my Dad and I have been busy putting up a new cedar playhouse for the girls, the garden is growing strong, we went to the drive in movies for the first time ever (what fun!), my little Ella got new glasses, and Gwen with a bouquet of flowers and a thank you card in hand said a joyful yet sad goodbye to her favorite teacher and hello to summer break.

Yay for eggs!

They may be a little bit smaller than your average store bought eggs but they don't get any fresher than this! I still hold onto my dream that one day I will live in the country again maybe and collect a big basket of fresh eggs from all my hens, but for now I will thoroughly enjoy what I have been blessed with in this life and appreciate the daily miracles in my day to day life such as a freshly laid egg from a sweet little urban backyard hen. *smile*

Strawberries, Chickens, and Moonflowers....oh my!

Let me just say my Dad is the greatest. I feel so blessed to have such a great Dad. :) Last week he took us strawberry picking. We had such a good time and picked a bucket full of sweet, juicy berries (and a cool-whip container full of strawberries that were devoured by little mouths on the ride home). We enjoyed fresh yummy strawberries and whipped cream and even made a delicious strawberry pie. Mmmmmmm. I so love strawberry season.






Then today my Dad called and surprised us. He had found us three bantam hens at the Amish auction he went to this afternoon. So now we have 3 new little hens! Yay for little fresh eggs again! My poor little chicken coop has been empty all winter and spring long...but no more! :)

Ella LOVES the new chickens, she cried when it started to rain and we had to go inside the house. I think she could sit there for hours poking little dandelions and blades of sweet grass into the coop and watching little beaks gobble them up.

This one the girls dubbed "Chocolate Chip" lol

This tiny little hen (who laid and egg already today...wohoo) Gwen named Daisy

and last but not least, meet Lady Daffodil *smile*

And to top off my evening when I looked out my window I noticed my German Moonflowers blooming for the first time this year.

Please excuse the crappy photo but there was not much light (obviously since they bloom at night lol)...but I just had to share it with you. :) Hope you have a lovely evening.

Hello again.....

So dear blog I bet you thought I abandoned you eh? Well I'm happy to report that I'm back dear little blog. It's not that I forgot you... it's well that life was just...well life. Things get crazy busy, stuff happens, life gets lived. Rinse, repeat, and all that jazz.

Well on with the post. *drum roll please* ;)

So today's adventures included my MIL almost tripping over a baby squirrel in our doorway who later ran away with a giant peanut butter and birdseed filled pine cone in his mouth, finding hatching baby praying mantis, incubating chicken eggs, a trip to the park where Raven poked a frog in the butt (don't ask lol), 2 yummy cookouts, the taste of the first lettuce of the season, a crazy game of dodge ball in the front yard (only 2 plants we're taken out...okay well maybe 3), and super duper loaded ice cream sundaes while the sun set in the background *cue music, roll credits*. :)

Ella peeking into the bird feeder where we
found tiny little baby praying mantis
hatching from their cocoon.
Why hello there.
Welcome to our garden,
do stay awhile.



Raven and Ella's p.b. and bird seed pine cones...
a big hit with the bushy tailed crowd

17 new eggs compliments of Dad (thank you Dad!!)
a mixture of Araucana, bantam seabright,
and misc "mutt" chicken eggs into the incubator
*crossing fingers*
1 day down, 20 days to go till hatchin' day! :)