The Adventures of Warrior Chicken!!!

Most of you know that we have a couple of chickens, one hen, one rooster. Well they just hatched 11 chicks. Yea! Now we have to catch them. They escaped from the coop about a month ago and when we tried to catch them the hen was nesting. So now we have the hen wandering the yard with her chicks in tow. If you have never been around a hen with chicks, if you get close to them the hen turns into Warrior Chicken! She does this by fluffing the feathers around her neck and bowing out her wings to make herself look big and mean I suppose.

Well one day we decided to go out to play. The boys stayed close to me but Ellie made a bee line for the swings. I am carrying Grace and her exerscaucer, so I am a little hindered. I'm trying to catch up with Ellie to no avail. As we round the corner of the garden, there is the hen with her chicks. Mama hen upon spying Ellie throws on her armor and turns into Warrior Chicken! Ellie completely oblivious to the fact the hen is trying to tell her to get away, wades through the chicks and makes a mad dash to the swings. The hen didn't know what to do because when ever she turns into Warrior Chicken people generally stay away. She, thank goodness, opted for herding her chicks back together. What are Teddy and Tommy doing, you might ask. Upon seeing Warrior Chicken they come running back to me. Tommy played it cool and slowly turned around with an expression of, "Hey Mom that hen turned into Warrior Chicken, so ya know I'll just come and stand by you." Teddy on the other hand decided this was cause for great alarm and came running back to me with a look of, "MOM IT'S WARRIOR CHICKEN!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

So in the end, Ellie made it to her swing, and the rest of us patently waited for the hen to gather her chicks and venture to new scratching grounds. She did so pretty quickly after Ellie sent her chicks running for cover.

I thought I would start to end my blogs with a quote, something inspirational or funny or both, so for the first one I thought I'd use and oldie but goody. St. Francis is one of my favorite saints, so I figure I'll use my old bud for the first one. God Bless!


"Preach the Gospel, speak if necessary."
- St. Francis of Assisi

Adventures in the back yard...

This afternoon I thought it would be a good idea to go play on the swing set in the back yard. The key word is thought.
A cold front went through (it actually went down into the 50's during day light hours here which is frigid for us). This means we now have to find socks, shoes, long pants, and jackets. After fighting with the kids for a good portion of the afternoon we were finally ready to go outside. Cue the baby crying. Now I have to feed the baby. With day light slowly drifting away, I try and hurry the baby, though this is not physically possible. Now the trek to the swing set (which is in the "back yard" which is actually on the side of the house, it's just the way the house sits on the lot). So now that the baby is awake I bundle her up in the fuzzy PJs and wrap her up in two blankets. I am now carrying a baby, her bouncy seat and a fold out chair for me in case I need to feed her, plus I have to herd 3 children to the swing set, which is around the house and past the veggie garden/ chicken coop. And we can't go between the house and garden due to the fact it rained yesterday and is now a mud pit. With everything in hand we start our journey. After fighting with them they finally go down the steps to the patio. My three year old goes straight to the shed my husband has partially torn down (the opposite direction of the swings) . I now freak out yelling for her to come back over to mommy before the entire structure collapses on her. I hear clucking chickens and a rooster goes flying by. Now enter the one year old freaking out because he has never seen a chicken freak out. Now my 2 year old is looking at me stressing out wondering what the big deal is. Baby is content through out all of this just because I am holding her. I ask the two year old to carry the bouncy seat. His response is a blank stare. Okay I guess not. After calming the one year old down and redirecting the three year old, we are back on our way to the swings. We finally make it after having to drag the one year old past the chickens because now he is scared of them due to the flying rooster, which he scared in the first place. Now every one is on a swing, baby is in the bouncy seat and I have collapsed from exhaustion into the folding chair. Two seconds later baby starts screaming. I get up and hold her. Now the other three are whining because they want to be pushed. With one hand and a baby in the other I now alternately push the others in the swings. I probably should mention here that the whole idea for going outside was for the kids to burn off some steam. So far I have burned off 10 times more calories than the kids. Now we have been outside for maybe 15 minutes. Baby starts crying again even though I am holding her. Now I decide that it was a really REALLY bad idea to come outside. Now the baby is screaming, she is hungry. Now I proceed to take everyone off the swings and start herding them back to the back door. Bouncy seat in hand I decide that I will leave the fold out chair in the yard, really because I don't want to carry it back, but use the excuse that we will be back outside this week and it's not supposed to rain. I again drag the one year old past the chickens and keep the other two headed back to the house. We make it back inside and I escort everyone back to the living room and close the baby gate, thus ending our adventure in the back yard.

Tomorrow is the next adventure...