The Adventures of the Reese's Pieces Gang

Tidbits from this past week:

Elizabeth had her final band concert. Phil stayed so that he could attend while I was home with the three littles. Elizabeth has learned to play the Baritone and did a very good job at the concert. She is blessed with an ability in music that we hope to encourage as we home school through various music lessons. Phil was very impressed with not only the high school band, but also the elementary. Mrs. Rice does a GREAT job teaching music at all levels. I'm very thankful that our children have had the opportunity to be in her music classes these past couple years.


Thomas has been on a knight kick. This past week his therapist helped make him a night costume during one of his sessions. You'll see Sarah, one of our favorite therapists pictured with Thomas. I wish I could take Sarah along with us when we move. She has been wonderful with Thomas and has a real desire to work with Autistic kids. Thanks Sarah.... we'll miss you!!

Today our little chicks graduated from their first brooding box to a larger one that will accommodate them until our move on the 16th. You'll see one close up picture of one of our Turkens. We have 3 Turkens and they are one of our favorite breeds that we received in our heavy mix of roosters. They are so ugly they are CUTE! :-) Phil has done a wonderful job building these homes for our birds. Our first 25 egg layers are arriving on June 3rd. We've decided that when we get to the farm we will order a straight run (which means a mix of males & females) of 50 more heavies so we'll have plenty of egg layers and hopefully at least 50 roosters for butchering. A couple weeks ago I was visiting a friends homestead in our town and she has ducks, turkey's and geese. We've decided to also order a barnyard mix which will give us 2 geese, 6 ducks and 6 turkey's. We'll have 1 turkey for Thanksgiving, and 1 duck for Christmas then save the rest for breeding in the spring. If we end up with 2 boy geese one will probably be used for a winter holiday meal too. Ducks usually are really good setters so even if I cannot get my chickens to sit I might be able to get the duck to sit on chicken eggs. :-)

The boys all got summer hair cuts this week. Nathan's ended up shorter than I had intended because Friday morning he decided to cut the top of his hair in three places which led to me having to give him a buzz. Now I can officially say that ALL of my children have cut their own hair before the age of 4! Nathan's big phrase this week is, "No mamma, I not da baby, I your boy!" That is the phrase he heard over and over as we went through the time where we took away his bottle.

Phil has been working really hard in the garden. It is nice to see many more crops being planted each week. Next week he will be spending Memorial Day in the garden then flying to Florida for a business trip Tues - Thurs. We all hope to spend a few days at the new house June 4-8 to finish the garden, plant the herb garden, and do any final painting & clean up work on the house.

Today we are celebrating our Memorial day with Sloppy Joes, Thomas's birthday party (I'll post pictures later), and a bonfire with s'mores. And I'm taking a break from major packing since my allergies have led to a nice cold and I'm beat from our busy week.