Halloween Finally

 Jada was a kitty.  I bought an inexpensive "kitty ear" pack and luckily found this halloween outfit that had been hanging in the back of her closet to go with it the day of!

 Kya was a kitty too.  Fabulous yeah?

 Zoe was Padme from Attack of the Clones

 Mia wanted to be Neytiri from Avatar

We had a Halloween Trunk or Treat at the church.  And thank goodness because it totally rained.  We had carnival games inside and the children got to trick or treat down the halls.  It was a big hit!

Chicken Update: Dog Bites, Molting and More

Dog Bite

About a month ago I happened to go in the backyard right as I hear one of my chickens squawking like crazy.  Scanning our yard I see chickens fleeing away from our fence which then brought my attention to one of ours on the OTHER side of the fence where a DOG lives and it's flying frantically across the yard.  Then the dog leaps and catches the chicken right in his mouth!!!!  I scream and yell at the dog and he lets go and the chicken comes running toward the fence trying to get through.  It's Oreo, the mischievous one, what a surprise.  She finds a small opening under the fence and gets about half way under before getting stuck.  I frantically dig her out and can't believe she is still alive at this point.  Our neighbor's yard was covered in feathers.  I pulled her through the fence.  The bite wound was deep and her flesh was grotesquely torn and she had a limp.  I hoped for the best but expected the worst.  My daughters and I rushed to the store and got bandages and neosporine.  I doused her wound with it and covered it with gauze and then wrapped it around with that stretchy band wrap.  

 After a few days I couldn't believe she was still alive!  But her wound had turned a horrific bright green color.  I figured she must be doomed at this point but I'd give her a few more days.  After all she was walking and eating and foraging like normal.  The other chickens didn't even peck at her like they normally do.  They were actually being really nice to her.  I think the biggest help was when I poured hydrogen peroxide on the wound.  The green went away.  It cleaned it out, dried it up, and closed healthily.  She grew her feathers in over a few weeks and was back to normal!  I cannot believe how resilient chickens are!  

So here are my wound tips:  1)clean wound with soapy water  2)use neosporine and gauze bandage and wrap 3)replace bandages twice a day for 2 days 4) day 3 use hydrogen peroxide and let wound air out.  I think Oreo's wound turned green because there was too much moisture and the bandage wasn't letting it air out.  I am no vet by any means but this worked for our situation and there is no one around that wants to stitch up a chicken.

Broken Leg

A few months before that Oreo broke her leg, who knows how.  It healed all on it's own.  She limped for a few days, sat for a few days, limped some more and then it was all good.  It took a couple weeks to heal.  In the mean time I brought her food and water and moved her around the yard to be with the other chickens.  Apparently broken legs are somewhat common.

Molting

With our abundance of eggs I felt charitable and have been giving our excess away to friends and family.  Well, about a month ago I noticed an increase of feathers...all  over   the   yard    everywhere.  yeah they are molting.  (molting is when birds shed their feathers and grow new ones).  And did you know they molt for about 2 months?  And did you know chickens don't lay eggs when they molt?  Yeah, now I'm out of eggs.  When I was out of town my husband threw away our last carton because he left them out on accident.  I shoulda told him they'd probably be fine, but I figured we'd get more.  Yeah, not so much.  I miss my organic eggs soooo much.  Store bought ones are such a let down.  And I can't bring myself to buy the organic ones because they are 4 bucks.  So I guess this is a good lesson for me to keep my stock pile up for the fall.  They usually molt every fall, it's warm enough to lose feathers and there is still an abundance of food for them to prepare for the winter.

Brooding

Pigeon is our brooder.  Brooding is when a chicken wants to hatch her eggs.  She'll sit on her nest all day and may come out once or so a day.  It's about a 21 day cycle.  Even if you don't have a rooster, they'll brood anyway.  She gets all fluffy puffied up and squawks around the yard when she finally emerges from the coop once a day.  They can brood about twice a year.  They do not lay and become a nest hog.  It's rather funny.  I usually bring her food and make her get out to drink water.  Brooding can be onset by a nest full of eggs or just the season or some are just more inclined to brood.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

We went to the Thanksgiving Point children's Discovery Garden.  I highly recommend this place.  They have added so much in the past few years and it is really cool.  They have $2 Tuesdays for the month of August so we definitely had to take advantage of the sweet deal.  In the front entry of the garden is a giant Noah's Ark fountain area and the kids can go in their swimsuits and cool off in the water.  With the deal this month it is super busy so you will get a wristband and time slot on when your kids can play in the water.  We arrived at 12:30 and our time slot was 3:40.  Bring lots of snacks and water and your camera.  We were there about 4-ish hours and didn't even get through all of the gardens!!

There is a wooden xylophone instrument area.  Very shaded with lots of benches to sit and rest on.

From what I have read Thanksgiving point has the largest man made waterfalls in the US.  There is a long pathway that wraps up and behind the waterfalls revealing many cool water spots.

Faith is knowing...

...I can return when my life ends on earth.  That's a big faith thing.  But why do I struggle with the little faith things?  Like asking the Lord for something and having faith he will answer.  Is it because I am afraid of disappointment?  Or I feel like I'm asking too much of the Lord?  Or asking for something he doesn't want for me?  Or asking for something so inconsequential he won't even dignify it with a response?  I guess all of those.  So how do you do it?  Make that leap in prayer and faith that says, this is something I want or need that I know is right and know the Lord will answer...

Jada's Two

Happy bday Jada June 25...sorry a little behind.

Mia's Hip Hop Recital

Here's Mia's hip hop dance for the year, so cute "Air Force One and Vans" mix  called "Kixx" I don't know how to upload the video if anyone does let me know otherwise you can see it on my facebook wall, here are some pics!  Also she worked sooo hard the last two days practicing I am so proud of her!

Cluck Cluck Cluck more from the Chicken Lady; so I've been dubbed by my family

Roosting on the garden boxRoosting on Joe's ghiaEggs!  The larger one had 2 yolks!Twins Basil!

Just some fun pictures I wanted to share.  I need to take a picture of the coop! 

Here Chick Chick Chick....

Since Orem City made chicken keeping legal to all...we figured we better get some!  We drove all the way down to Monroe because a woman down there had 6 Brahma pullets for sale (they have the feathery feet).  We made a fun day out of it and made some stops along the way, first at a Chinese Restaraunt in Payson that was super delish.  I know, chinese food in Payson?  It was way better than anything in Orem though lol.  Then we stopped at this antique store in, well I don't know but it's on the way to my cousins ranch and Joe and I have always wanted to stop there.  It's kind of pricey but we found a couple of cool things.

We found an old playskool wagon with blocks for the kids

Joe got some old Linemar steam engine toy from the 1920's made in Japan, it has all the parts and is perfect

I got a spice rack with roosters on the bottles, I thought it approprate for the occasion :)

Here's some of the chickens.  They are still a little scruffy from the farm and the travel

The upright one is super fast. 

This is Mia's chicken, "Pigeon" we got her for free because her foot was frost bitten so she is a bit gimpy, but easy for the kids to catch.  Joe wonders why we had to get a special needs chicken.

This is one of the full grown ones, she's still a bit muddy but pretty hah?

You are probably wondering why we really got chickens.  Well first for farm fresh organic eggs, second their poop is great for the garden they eat all the bad bugs and are great lawn aereators (however you spell that) and thirdly because it will be fun for us and the kids (and less maintenance than a dog!)

Mia found the first egg!  Medium brown and I ate it today!  The yolk was a dark sunny orange color, beautiful!  "Eggs from chickens allowed to forage naturally have, on average, seven times more beta carotene (which is what makes pastured egg yolks so orange), three times more vitamin E, two times more omega-3 fatty acids and two-thirds more vitamin A than their factory farm cousins. Pastured eggs also have one-third less cholesterol and one-quarter less saturated fat, on average."

Harry Potter Birthday Party

For Zoe's 6th Birthday she wanted to have a Harry Potter theme (my kids are obsessed with Harry Potter right now).  Usually I encourage them to go to Chuck E Cheese or something so I don't really have to do anything especially the clean up the mess part!  But I figured what the heck, let's go all out and it will be fun!

First I did the invitations.  I dyed card stock with walnut ink I borrowed from my mother-in law.  Actually most of my supplies came from my mother-in law as she has a small craft store in her home.

Then I hung them to dry.  I actually did the process twice to get a better color.  I wanted it to look like old parchment paper.

I found a Hogwarts crest online and put it into word.  I rotated the image on its side so I could print 2 to a page.

Then I flipped it over and printed the invite on the other side.  It read:

We are pleased to inform you that you have been invited to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for special mid-term classes in honor of Head Girl Zoe's 6th birthday.

Your class schedule will include orientation and matriculation, potions, care of magical creatures, and defense against the dark arts.  There will also be a speial birthday fest featuring treats from Three Broomsticks and Honeyduke's Sweet Shop (Pizza, Cake, and Candy).

Classes will begin at the stroke of 4:30 in the afternoon on Friday, January 22 and conclude at 6:00 in the evening.  Please take the Hogwarts Express train (your parent's vehicle)to Hogwarts Academy currently disguised as the Muggle home at (our address).

Please respond by Owl (my email) or Muggle telephone system (my phone number) with a yes or no response.  School robes optional.  We look forward to your arrival at Hogwarts!

Sincerely,

Michelle Sim

Deputy Headmistress of Frolic and Feasts

Hogwarts Academy

Next I made school notebooks for each child.  I gathered some Harry Potter Printable Coloring Pages, a word puzzle, and I made a class schedule.  I borrowed a binding machine and used a Hogwarts Crest for the cover page.

When each class was completed I was going to put a sticker by each, but I just didn't have enough time at the party, we cruised through everything really quickly.

My husband made the wands.  He purchased wooden dowels and took them to his shop and shaped them.  They turned out amazing!  The darkest one my mother-in law rubbed with regular cooking oil doesn't it look cool? 

Zoe had the idea to do a Hegwig the owl cake.  And she wanted chocolate (which shows through white so easily I won't tell you how much frosting I went through to cover it up!)  I made the cake from scratch and got the recipe from my Betty Crocker recipe book, it is delicious!  I used two rounds and then cut a crescent out of one to fit in the other so it would be the head.  Then I did a crumb coat.  The frosting is vanilla buttercream from scratch.

On my my next layer of frosting I used a paper towel to smooth the entire surface.  It worked really well.

I poored coconut on some parchment paper and rolled the sides of the cake in it (works best when frosting is still wet)

I added a beak with some shaved almonds.  Then I shaped out where I wanted the wings to be and put coconut there as well.

Ok I know it looks more like a chickie but I didn't want to cut too much off the sides to make it more narrow because I wanted to make sure I had enough cake for the kids!  I used mini oreos for the eyes and cut them in half for the claws.  I also crushed them to make the black speckles.  I also put coconut around the edge of the face and made a forehead peak with it too.  Not too shabby for my first cake and it did taste good!

Ok now the actual party.  We ended up with 9 kids who came.  While we waited for everyone to arrive I had the first Harry Potter movie playing and fun flavored jellie bellies for the kids to try, I didn't want to get the funky flavored ones.

When everyone arrived first we went to Diagon Alley to get their wands

 

We played a fishing game over the curtain (my husband was already hiding on the other side when they came in-It was kind of dark too so they were freaked out by whatever was giving them their wands, it was awesome).  We just got an old tree branch from outside and used some kite string.

I made a poster for each class.  We actually didn't really have time for Defense Against the dark arts but the kids ran around a played with their wands while waiting for the others at the fishing game.

Next we had the children sorted into their houses.  I had them pick out stickers I made with house crests on them.  I didn't do slitherin.  I printed the crests off my computer and used my xyron machine to make them stickers. 

I used a witch had we had from Halloween and each child came up and reached in and picked a crest out. 

For Care of Magical Creatures I had my daughter Mia show the kids her rat and she told them about it and let them hold/pet it.  They liked that.  We also have firebelly toads and I had my husband get those out to show the kids too.

Next we played pin the wand on the wizard.  The kids had a lot of fun.  I drew and colored wands on paper enough for each child, cut them out and put a bit of brown tape on each so they were ready to go and the game would run smoothly.

Then we did potions at the dining table.  I put a few drops of food coloring in plastic cups before the kids arrived.  Then before I passed them out I dropped a few iced cubes in each to cover the color.  I gave them each a can of sprite and told them to wave their wand over their cup say the magic words and poor the sprite in.  They loved seeing what color they would get.  Then my husband added his fun flair and said the yellow was Ogre Toe Jam, the red was Werewolf Blood ect.

Since we were all at the table at this point it was the perfect time to have pizza, open gifts, and do the cake!

Finally I took the kids in to Honeyduke's Sweet shop for candy.  I gave them a paper sack that they could fill up one of each item.  My husband had it displayed cute with different glass dishes filled with candy and such and I didn't get a picture! The kids loved picking out their stuff for their party bags!

So there you have it.  Zoe's Harry Potter birthday.  Her favorite part was the gifts of course.  The party was an hour and a half so we moved through everything pretty quick there was virtually no down time which was good but we didn't have quite enough time to do everything, and I'm ok with that!