Mother's Day, Chickens, and Spirit Week

Kind of a jumble of things! I guess that is what happens when I go a while without posting. 

We have been so busy I can hardly remember what we've been doing! So I guess I will post the pictures and they will remind me...

Archer at the Q&U wedding at school

The chicks have moved outside full time!

Enjoying the beautiful weather with my boys!

The boys at the driving range. They were kinda in awe when their principal came up and started hitting right next to them.

Preston had a music program at school, and the boys were (of course) starving afterwards so we stopped to get some food. John ordered buffalo wings and they were HOT. The older boys attempted to eat them for "all of the money in Dad's wallet" (which ended up being $3 I think!), but only Preston succeeded.

My boys in blue. Our town sadly had a police officer shot and killed recently. It was so shocking since we live in such a "safe" community, the officer was very well known, and had a young family. The boys' school wore blue to show their support for his family, and they also did hat day, where the kids could pay $1 to wear a hat and the proceeds went to the family. 

Mother's Day with my boys!

Animal day for Spirit Week. We have slacked on spirit week this year for sure, but I managed to sew up masks for the boys the night before animal day. (Raccoon, dog, and reindeer, if you can't tell!)

Mushroom Hunting

With this beautiful weather, we've been able to spend TONS of time outside. Our weather is so crazy...snow one day, 65 degrees the next. But this weekend was ALL sunshine and warm! No snow in sight, thank goodness. We are working A LOT on our chicken coop, and we've made lots of progress. We also got to have our first real backyard campfire this year! Yay!

John took 2 of the boys mushroom hunting today while Bryton and I spent the afternoon together around town. The mushroom hunt was VERY successful...we had enough for dinner tonight, plus another night in the fridge, and we have a couple of dehydrator trays full! 

To add to the success, all 3 boys (who are self-proclaimed mushroom haters!) ATE and LIKED the morels! All 3 of them ate one to taste them, and then voluntarily ate a few more. Amazing. (But I have to say, they are SO yummy I can't blame them!)

Bryton and I had fun going out to lunch, going to the bookstore, and shopping for a kayak (research phase only...but B is REALLY hoping for one!).

We ended the day with homemade huckleberry ice cream, thanks to our huckleberry stash in the freezer!

Snow and Spring

2 days ago, it snowed. Again. Today: 65 and sunny. Welcome to N. Idaho!

Some pics from today...

My sweet littlest boy paused from riding his bike to pick a flower. He said "I love girls, and sometimes I give them flowers!" He bikes over to me, gave me the flower, and said "Pretty girl, I love you!"

And then he got tired (after spending the afternoon at the park with friends, and riding bike) and cuddled up on my lap. As much as he could anyway!

Evening bike ride! So excited that these days are back!

Interval training!

No Coats!

Sunny and in the 60's. What else is there to say?!

Today

I am still not done documenting our vacation, and still don't have our camera back (so sad, but I'm holding out hope still...sorta...), but we have been enjoying the outdoors today! It's almost 70 degrees (crazy when I realize that it was snowing a week ago!) and beeeeeeeeautiful! I have to say, my mood is MUCH improved with weather like this.

This morning Archer & I met friends at the park, and we have spent most of the rest of the day outside. Again, I'm wondering WHY do we live in North Idaho where the warmth is for such a short amount of time?! But, I am determined to enjoy it when we have it.

I looked out the window this morning and saw THIS. It's pretty much impossible to have a bad day when you wake up to this.

Ender sacked out after playing like crazy outside. She got spayed last week, so we have been trying to keep her calm for the past few days, but as of yesterday she has been able to return to normal activity. She definitely took advantage of that today!

On the way home from school. Pure chaos, but they love it.

Spring!

We have finally had a few days of spring-like weather! This past week it has been beautiful, and it gradually warmed up to where we can be outside without a million layers on. My birthday was this past week, and it was the start of the warm(ish) weather. Happy birthday to me! (Yes, it actually snowed a bit the day before my birthday, and I may have threatened to move away if it snowed on my birthday...)

Tonight we had a fire in our backyard firepit, and the boys got it all set up (minus the actual flame of course) while John ran to the store to get marshmallows (perk of living less than a mile from Target!). They were so diligent, and they had it all set up in a teepee by the time John got home. Apparently they retained some fire building technique from the multitude of campfires we had last summer!

I'm sure we're going to have another bout of chilly weather, but we'll enjoy it while it lasts!

Spring Garden

Despite the snow, hail, wind, and frigid temperatures, we finished planting our Spring garden today! Normally, I wouldn't have planted it quite this early, but since we're going on vacation soon, I am feeling a bit of a time crunch. Plus, I started my seeds a few weeks ago (a month maybe?) and they were getting a bit out of hand already!

Our garden has required a LOT of prep work...first the fence, then some major excavation to clear a garden area, and lastly (?), massive amounts of pruning the trees that have been neglected for at least the last 10 years so that: #1, they will be healthy, and #2, they won't block too much SUNSHINE!

Thankfully, we have a friend with access to some machinery and large trucks/trailers! We ended up taking over 20,000 lbs to the dump (so sad but so necessary!). *by "we" I mean John!

We planted a bunch of new fruit trees (2 apple, 1 pear, 1 nectarine, 1 cherry, and 1 plum), and we have 1 more nectarine to plant. I also planted Brussels sprouts (not sure if we'll be able to grow these in the spring, but we LOVE them so thought I'd try!), kohlrabi, beets, carrots, kale/chard/lettuce/various other greens, radishes, broccoli...and I'm sure I'm probably forgetting a few things! After my spring seedlings were in the ground, it freed up space to get my summer seeds started. I have some that I need to wait a few weeks to get started, but most are going!

The boys helped me out with the garden by making row markers, and they also did some planting. I will admit that I made them go inside after the first few rows of seeds because it was so chaotic! I'm not really sure that anything got planted in the appropriate way or spot in the garden, but they are covered with dirt somewhere in the vicinity.

So now some garden pics! I'm so excited that it's coming together. I'm hoping that next year we'll be able to put in some raised beds, but it wasn't in the budget this year!

Backyard Project

We spent the ENTIRE weekend fencing in the back part of our yard which is our future garden area. Despite the multiple illegal deer shootings (seriously, so disturbing that someone thinks it's okay for them to shoot deer in a NEIGHBORHOOD in the middle of town...), we still have a plethora of deer around our house. We (I) decided that we needed to get a move on a fence so I could get my little spring seedlings in the ground. They are getting slightly unruly in the house and they need more room to grow! Plus, our vacation is coming up (yay!) and I am feeling a bit of a time crunch.

But, we have a fence! Woohoo! My garden will (hopefully) be safe from the deer. I'm so excited for spring! The fence wasn't quite done in the picture, but it's the best one I have of it. John and I spent way too much time deliberating over it, but I really like the way it turned out. (As you can see, the boys spent lots of time climbing trees while the fence construction was going on!)

I Can Only Hope

We had BEAUTIFUL weather today. Almost warm and so sunny! I am really hopeful that Spring is here, but realistically I know that we sometimes get snow towards the end of April so I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high.

John had to work all weekend (by the end of this week he will have worked 11 days straight, yuck!) but we managed to get the boys' swing set assembled. B & Arch seriously spent every moment they possibly could outside! It's so much easier to be a good mom when they are able to expend their energy outdoors! We have a couple of other things planned for outdoor play so I'm excited to get those projects done, but the next outdoor project is a fence for our (soon-to-be) garden!

Spring Garden

Peas!

Mystery blossoms...this is a "Fruit Cocktail" tree that has 5 or 6 different fruits on it.  I can't even remember which ones they are now, so I have NO CLUE what these blossoms are for.  But they're pretty!

We (well, John and the boys) planted about 2/3 of our tomato plants outside this weekend, but we still have some more to go.  Our latest outdoor project (which included some new garden beds!) is now complete except for some finishing touches (sprinkler system...John's job!) so theoretically I could plant them.  The weather just needs to cooperate with me!  Sunshine please!

The kiwi's are going crazy.  I am longing for them to fruit, but I'm skeptical based on other people's experiences.  I'll try to stay optimistic though!