Spring is in the air!

I am SO happy that spring is finally here! I'm not sure how much longer I could be stuck inside with hyper kids and not go insane!
Last week we put up the trampoline and we've had tired kids every night since! Most nights they are out in about five minutes after putting them to bed!
It's been raining this week but we did have one very warm day. Most of the day Monday I was down to one kid! Reagan and I went on a "date" to get flower seeds to plant around the house and I got a few things to finish a spring project I've been wanting to do for a while.

I found this on Pinterest a long time ago and thought it was So adorable.

Here's mine. I found this old umbrella at Goodwill last week and knew right away what I was gonna do with it!

Bare feet and a big stack of seeds! Hope they actually grow!

Spring is making the chickens much happier too! In just one week we went from getting 2 eggs a day, sometimes even none, to 6 eggs as of yesterday! Soon we will be back up to 8 a day! Can't wait to see some of those flowers growing around the coop!

Bedrooms and bathrooms and chickens and a girl with lipstick.

Caedmon's bedroom.

Payton and Reagan's room.

Kids bathroom.

Mom and Pop's room.

Mom and Pop's bathroom.

Cute chicks are turning into  messy, smelly chickens...But we still like them. They love cucumbers! And basically anything else you give them to eat.

Reagan getting ready for a hot date?

More of the chick chickies.

We are having lots of fun with our chicks! They all have names and yes, I can tell the difference. :)
They are growing fast and even some different characteristics are emerging.
Here's some cuties from the last few days.

Here's Marty McFly, one of our Gold Stars, exhausted from time traveling.

Bert, one of our Silver Laced, and Rocky, our Americana, coming to say hi to Reagan. (yes, I'm aware that our chicks are girls. We really don't care that some of them have boy names.)

Princess Chick, our Buff Orpington, likes Toms too. Probably cause they smell like Payton's VERY stinky feet.

She LOVES to sit in the tulle on Reagan's ballerina dress.  Very fitting.

Mary Poppins, our other Silver Laced, practically perfect in every way.

Making my own Chicken Soup for the Soul. These gals do way more for me then reading someones fuzzy story.

I don't have any pictures of our Rhode Island Reds, Miss Hannigan and Annie. Oh, and my favorite, Doc Brown, the other Gold Star. Next time.:)

Baby chicks!!!

On Tuesday we got our baby chicks. We picked up our 8 and Eric's 15 (brave boy!) at once. The hatchery gave us two extra. It was a TON of excitement for one day...just a few days after the big move. Crazy week!
A few hours after we got them the power went out and I couldn't use the heat lamp. Fortunately the temp outside was just perfect for our little ladies and they got fresh air the rest of the day! 
Eric picked up his 15 when he got off work that night.
The next day we had a chick die from what I believe to be "pasting." That's what one of my books calls it at least. It's when their poop accumulates on their butts instead of shooting out. Sorry, that's the best way to describe it. It was also the runt of the bunch. About a third of the size of the rest. I tried very carefully to clean it and then held it for a long time to keep it warm but it just didn't get well. It was sad, but that's part of living on the "farm." :/
So since the hatchery had given us two extra, Eric then gave us his extra to replace the runt. So now we're back to 8 again! There is actually one other chick with "pasting" but she seems to still be growing and will occasionally try to clean herself. I'm not to worried but we are keeping an eye on her.

We have two Silver Laced, two Rhode Island Reds, two Gold Stars, one Buff Orpington, and One Americana. Eric got the same and more! 

From our first day...