Birthday Party or Birthday Outing?

VS. 

Do kids really need a birthday party to be happy? I have been seeing families trending away from birthday parties and towards birthday outings or vacations instead, but my kids have consistently wanted a party.  Usually I just take the kids to a fast food place with a play area and treat everyone to kids meals.  Last year we went all out and rented a party room with inflatables.  But after yesterday I am thinking they would have had just as much fun or more on a Birthday outing!

This year my nephew Logan turned 7 and instead of having a birthday party we decided to go on a birthday outing.  We started the morning at a Cub Scout pinewood derby workshop (more on that in a the next post) and then we went to downtown Roanoke for lunch and to see some art. 

On the way to lunch we got to check out the Pedestrian Bridge and even stand over a train as it drove under us.  ((The kids thought that was especially cool.))

I thought that the artwork above the escalators was especially awesome.  If you've never noticed this make sure you look up next time you go on the escalators.

This piece of art is called "Beneath the Roundhouse" by Edwin White. He got his start in Staunton, VA doing silk screening and worked in a variety of fields before coming full circle back to an artist. To see the process behind this sculpture from studio to installation check out his website here!

Once we were done exploring the pedestrian bridge we set off to find food.  We stopped at the food court first, but it is not what it used to be and did not have the variety we were looking for.  A quick check  with Google and we were headed towards a local Pizza Place called Benny's to have a 28" pizza.  It was so big that the 9 of us could't even finish it off and we had to take a couple of pieces home.  Overall, it was a good lunch, with a huge variety of drinks to go with it, but I was slightly disappointed that they didn't offer more toppings.
       
After everyone was full we took a short walk over to the Taubman Art Museum and enjoyed free admission to the galleries for Spectacular Saturdays.  There was a $5 fee for each of the kids to explore Art Venture and be able to check out this month's activities which focused on the Color Wheel this month.   The kids enjoyed the stage and putting on their own play, and joining the adults to draw with dry erase crayons, put color swirls in clay, paint with warm colors, do pattern puzzles, and more...

   

Then we went back out to the Foyer to look at a special display by Rachel B Hayes that used light and color in a most spectacular way...


  ...By positioning her quilts just right she is able to capture the Sun's light throughout the day and the colors projected onto the floor and walls move around as the Sun makes its way across the sky each day! ...  The kids all took the opportunity to draw their version of a light quilt and show it to the attendants at the front desk for a small prize and then we moved upstairs to the galleries to see what they had to offer....


The kids really liked the handbags from the Judith Leiber handbags and wanted keepsake pictures of their favorites! 

   

We finished off Logan's birthday outing with a trip to DQ for ice cream cones and presents before wrapping up the day. I think it turned out to be a great time and it was much better than the disappointment of throwing a party and not having a good turn-out. Plus it was a lot more fun for me and a lot less work.

What an awesome toothless grin!!!

When Aiden got off the bus today he was smiling from ear to ear. I thought he had gotten all 4 smiles in his behavior book, but in fact he was showing off his toothless grin.  For a couple of days now Aiden has been asking me to pull the 2nd top front tooth out and I have been waiting for it to be just a little bit looser. So when I saw it was missing my reaction was "Look it fell out!" and his response was "Nope, it was hurting so I asked and Ms. Hines pulled it out for me.... and she gave me a quarter for being so brave, and a sticker and a special envelope to hold my tooth for the tooth fairy..." "I wish I could keep my tooth though...How come the tooth fairy gets all of my baby teeth?"... LoL... SMH... kids and the questions they come up with.... 

I do have to say that I am super proud of Aiden this week.  Though it was a short week, only 3 days and there were 2 days with a 2 hour delay, Aiden had all smiles in his behavior book, except one straight face from today, for the whole week.  I hope that next week goes just as well for him and we continue to see the positive change in his behavior and attitude.

How Do you contact me?

As I have helped my Mom contact different companies and government offices over the past couple of weeks one major hurdle for her has been finding phone numbers and contact information for the people she needed to talk to.   This is just another added frustration to taking care of the details of an estate. 

Then it occurred to me today as I review my posts that it is difficult to know how to contact me and I would love to hear from my readers.  Granted each time a comment is left I do get an e-mail, but if you ever want to e-mail me directly I am adding a page with my e-mail address so you can always know how to contact me! I don't publish my phone number at this time and though that may be frustrating for some, I don't answer calls from numbers I don't know very often and I find listening to voicemail frustrating myself....   For those of you that do have my number feel free to call me or text me anytime!

Rookie Mistake! --- and --- We have Ducks and Chickens for sale!

Soooo... I was using Facebook as a platform to move my pictures from my phone to my PC without having to go through the whole download process and taking apart the charging cable to connect everything and blah blah blah... but I wanted to post a lot of pictures and then select which ones to share when I could see them better on my computer screen... so I changed the setting on my pictures to "only me" and uploaded away... I wrote day after day, staying as consistent as possible while fighting this nasty bronchitis that seems to be going around and taking care of the farm and the kids and mom....and then I noticed that I forgot to change my settings back to "friends" when I shared the links to (what I hope are) my latest greatest blog posts and I wasn't sharing them with anyone but me.... ooops.... sorry about that folks... I hope after you read today's conquest you will look back over the last few days and check out the adventures you may have missed. :)



Anyway...the story of the day is all about chickens and ducks and weaving....As I have mentioned we have about 42 chickens, ducks and roosters and we need to thin out the flock.  Unfortunately, mom had some bad luck last summer and ended up getting 5/10 roosters when she bought that addition to the flock and now we have 7 or 8 roosters...  and there are 5 that need to go to make room for hens... They are pretty Buff Orpington roosters and very fun to be around, but still young enough to go in the fry pan if that's what you're looking for.  These were hatched in Late July 2015.  We would love to sell them off or trade them for some concrete blocks to use in our garden. If you would like to buy a rooster we are selling them for $15 each or trading for 10 concrete blocks (they can be used as long as they are in good shape with no cement on them)... 
         
The majority of our ducks are Muscovy Ducks and we were lucky enough to get an addition of 9 birds to our flock out of just one nest.  These ducks like company and if you don't have any ducks you would want to start with at least 2.  Their mom's name is Lucky and she is a brown and white Muscovy and the Dad is named Quackers and he is a Silver Muscovy.  These ducks make great pets and should start laying eggs in the next month or two.  Duck eggs are actually more healthy than chicken eggs  and can be a great substitute for people with chicken egg allergies too.  For more information on Duck eggs and their nutritional benifits check out his article I found by LocalHarvest.org .  We are selling off 5 of the young females for $20 each.


Last but not least for the day... I have finished weaving my first shawl of 2016!  This one is done in VT colors and is going to look amazing once I get the fringe added to the bottom.  I am so excited with how this pattern turned out, but I am also looking forward to diving into my yarn stash as soon as it comes off the loom to get started on some on the other beautiful colors I have lined up!

 

Last day of snow fun!

We had a last bit of fun in the snow today and got to share our sled track with my nephew Logan today too!

    

And of course there was a break for a snowball fight!

You gotta watch out for that sweet smile...

...she can be pretty sneaky!

   

We all had lots of fun...

...followed by some Minecraft time...    

...and some lunch, but the best part of the whole day was the part we spent together as a family having some fun and enjoying the fresh air and warm sunshine!

Tomorrow the kids finally go back to school and we can get back to our list of things to do.

Snow Day Fun #?... I lost count.....Are these kids ever going back to school?

           

  Schools were closed again today so the kids and I got to go out in the snow again.  We made sure to get some more sledding time in then we tried our hand at building snowmen for the second time this year. The girls helped me build the snowman at the top and Aiden made the one below... I was supposed to help him, but his hands got too cold before I got the first snowman done.  He was going for a snow turtle, but the sled fell over... 

We also went out looking at the animal tracks in the snow... I wish my pictures were a little better, but hopefully you can see what we found too.... 

 Deer  Duck 

 Angel  and Cat!  

Did any of you find any cool tracks in the snow?

Aiden lost another tooth!

Most kids loose their baby teeth between the ages of 5-6.  Aiden on the other hand has been in no hurry and has only lost 5 now out of 20 at almost 8 years old. Through trial and error, Aiden and I finally got this loose tooth to come out.  We tried desperately to get a piece of dental floss tied around that tooth, but it was just not happening  and Aiden was so worried that it was going to fall out while he was sleeping because it was so loose that he wanted to just stay up all night and wait for it to happen.... ummm... no... so we got out some pliers... this pair wouldn't work because they were smooth on the inside and you can't grab a front tooth from front to back easily, but I did find a pair that would grab the tooth by the sides and it popped right out so fast he had to ask if I had pulled it....lol...I "rewarded" him with a Popsicle to help him with any discomfort and we put the tooth in his "tooth fairy" pillow to await her visit tonight.  Then he was given a salt water solution to rinse his mouth with and sent off to brush his remaining teeth before bed.  His other front tooth is pretty loose too and he wanted me to pull them both tonight, but I convinced him that one tooth was enough and the other one wasn't quite ready for pulling...lol...he was so nervous at first and then eager to do it again...smh...

Since he lost his bottom front teeth first and they are bigger adult teeth now it is hard to see the gap in his smile unless you are up close or paying close attention... I can't wait til the other one comes out too though, I love the toothless grin of a child so!

Who wants to build a snowman?

  

The kids and I kept working on the snow pile today.  We added a jump, named Henry, and a turn at the bottom to keep us out of the bush....there was a lot of testing and adding snow here and there, lots of falling off the sled and landing in the bush... but I think we have it just right, finally, and we can have even more fun tomorrow!

 Isabella (left) and Aiden (right) have started to make snowmen out of chunks of snow they found along the edges of the driveway. They did find carrots and were using them for eyes and noses because they couldn't find any rocks...smh...I suppose tomorrow we will have to work on them a little bit more.
            
I also finished clearing the edges of the driveway today....and no I am not in shape so I am feeling it tonight...that's okay though, because I think we can get out of the house tomorrow if we so choose and that is a welcome option as we have day 5 of no school to look forward to tomorrow...
 
Our flock is right around 42 chickens, roosters and ducks now and they usually perform a grand mass exodus from the coop each morning, but the snow was something new to them and they were not quite sure about it even when there was very little on the ground.  So for the past few days they have been in tight quarters refusing to venture out into this new white stuff that is covering everything.  Yesterday a few of them finally decided they need some breathing room and came out and today a few more came out, but they didn't go far from the coop...at least most of them didn't... Quackers flew out to the back stoop yesterday and Lucky went out exploring today... 

The ducks actually do fairly well in the snow, until they come across a boot print and then they sorta roll with it and have to climb out again...lol...I felt sorry for them and wanted to laugh at the same time...A few of the younger chickens also came out to play, but only the ones that could find a roost stayed outside for very long at all.  They will be glad when the sun comes out tomorrow and it goes up above 40 making it easier for them to get out and play in the yard! 

I just hope it doesn't melt our sledding path too fast and we still get to have a little more fun before everything turns to mush....Of course Aiden does want to turn our snow pile into an igloo once we can't sled off of it anymore...I don't think the weather is going to quite hold up for that, but if so I will definitely share some pics. :)