Growing chicks

Boy, do these chickens grow fast!

Here is Minion at one week old:

Here's our completed coop and the proud builder:

I added an egg flag.

Chicks at two weeks old:

Two-week-old Minion on Levi's head:

Joy at two-and-a-half weeks:

Nate with Star at three weeks:

All the chicks at three weeks:

They're so fun and cute! They've outgrown the brooder, and since it has been so hot during the day, I've been letting them stay in the coop during the day and putting them in the brooder overnight. They'll be able to stay outside full time in another week or two.

School update

We met with the administration team at school yesterday about Nate. It was nice to share some of the things that have been going on in the class--and it sounds like we were just confirming things they mostly already knew.

In between my request to move Nate to a different grade and yesterday's meeting, the administration announced they would be adding another 4th grade class next year (the grade Nate will/would be in if we didn't make a change). Nate's current teacher will be one of the 4th grade teachers, and a new teacher will be added to teach the second 4th grade. Some of the current 4th graders would switch to the new class, while a slew of kids on the waiting list to get into the school would complete that class (and some would be added into Nate's current class).

 While I wanted to wait to see what the teachers and administration recommended regarding Nate (whether to switch grades or stay), I thought moving Nate to the new 4th grade class would be a good solution: new teacher, some of the same kids (but not all), no negative reactions about being "held back," etc. The people at yesterday's meeting seemed to agree, and so that's what will be done. Yay!

Chickens!

This last week was spring break, and I had something fun scheduled: the arrival of our four baby chickens! These girls are the cutest little fluff balls. Chickens can make great pets: they are friendly, like to be held, are relatively quiet, stay outside (no pet hair inside the house--yay!), and eventually give you eggs every day! I also hope they will help Nate get used to being around animals, since he's scared of dogs and other pets. He loves these little chicks, though, since they're so small and sweet. As long as he continues to play with them daily, he'll still love them even when they're huge. :)

They were born on Monday, and they arrived--by mail--on Tuesday! Here we are in the car after we picked them up at the post office:


We got home and opened them up:



Nate picked one of the brown ones and named her Star. Lucy's is the yellow one--named Joy. And Levi picked another brown one... he *finally* settled on the name Minion (previous names include Mario, Moon, Luigi, Moonshadow, Toad, and Smarty). The black one, Dottie, is mine. :)

Star:

Joy:

The children also helped me this week to build the chicken coop. The babies won't live in it until they're about six weeks old, but it was nice to get it done and have it ready now. (It won't stay here in the yard; we will move it to a corner by the front fence where I'm planning on keeping it and building a protective fence or "run.")

Picture with the door open:

Picture with both sides of the roof open and one bottom side opened up (for sweeping/cleaning):

Inside the coop (the bin is for egg laying, and the long thick pole is the roosting pole, where they sleep):

I'm pretty proud of myself that we built this whole thing ourselves--from a kit and with instructions, but still! :)

So far, we are loving our new chicks.

Wrestle time

Seven

Sweet Lucy turned 7 yesterday!

Here she was telling me to wait until she finished chewing... I thought it was cute though. :)