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

What I learned about children's toy lables

Things I learned over Christmas about children's toys. As I am sure all of you who have ever assembled a child's toy know the levels of construction. This is what I have learned in my four years of parenthood. Now we must all keep in mind that each of these levels depends on you level of mechanical inclination.
If the box says:
Assembly required: 5 minutes to those who are pretty good 30 for those who are not quite sure how to use a screw driver.
Some assembly required: about and hour for those who can operate a Dremmel 3 to 4 hours for those who don't know what a Dremmel is.
Adult assembly required: translates into an all day affair that may eventually result in a trip to the emergency room or a necessary degree in engineering. If you have no or limited mechanical inclination you may as well chalk it up to a loss and pay good money to have someone do it for you.


We bought some ride on toys for our kids this Christmas that we thought were already put together - yah - that is what we get for thinking. We actually had to break out a hammer. Yes, a hammer for a ride on toy. Three hours later we actually had them all put together.

I'm sure every parent at one time or another has stared at a large pile of plastic and metal pieces and wondered, "how exactly does this eventually look like what's on the box."

As the kids birthdays start to pass, thankfully there has been nothing to assemble.

Well I hope to blog soon!

God Bless!

Mornings....

This morning was one of our average mornings. Teddy and Ellie wake me up at 5:30, I change Ellie, who has overflowed her diaper, and take her night shirt off due to the fact it was now wet. So now she is running around in just a diaper. I change Teddy who is always wet, his diaper usually not his clothing. I sleep walk through the first half hour of breakfast and Tommy wakes up. He needs a new diaper but sense the other kids are eating I just plop him down at the table. I just didn't realize how wet he was. He is eating contently, when he suddenly starts screeching at decibels only dogs and dolphins can hear. I look over at him, now temporarily deaf, waiting to see a limb amputated when I realize he tinkled and it leaked out of his diaper all over his seat. I take off his diaper and clean him and his seat up, take his, now, wet shirt off and put a new diaper on him. Now he is running around in just a diaper.

We made it through breakfast and I decided to start some cloths washing sense almost everyone wet themselves. I walk to the washer and dryer which is in one of the bathrooms. "Has anyone seen the hamper?" This was actually a rhetorical question. "Oh, there it is under the 10 foot high pile of cloths." As I'm putting the last of the cloths in the washer Teddy comes into the room pulling at his night shirt. I start thinking, "how nice he wants to take off his shirt to wash sense I was washing cloths." So I take off his shirt and throw it in the washer. Then as I start piecing together outfits for the day I realize why Teddy was so eager to wash his shirt, he was the only one not running around in only a diaper. So at this point I have 3 semi-naked babies running around my house.

Now I must go wrestle my kids into some clothing... at least everyone has a clean diaper, that is half the battle.

Invasion of the children snatchers?

The other day, after breakfast I decided to actually sit down with the kids in the living room for a moment. Yes, I actually got to sit, on a couch, for more than three seconds. Anyway I decide it would be a good idea to get the kids to pick up the toys they so graciously decided to dump out of the toy box. Now mind you I had been up twice to feed Grace that night, so needless to say I was exhausted, and the thought of arm wrestling with the kids to clean up was not exactly appealing, but I couldn't see the living room floor any more. I start after them to pick up the toys, which usually requires me telling them (after every toy is thrown in the toy box) to go get another toy. Now I'm sitting on the couch with the toy box in front of me as they throw toys in. Through out the entire process the kids will go out in the room and pick up one toy, regardless of size, and bring it to the toy box. So Teddy might to find a happy meal toy, just the one little bitty toy, and walk clear across the room to put it in the box. They haven't quite grasped the concept that they can pick up more than one toy and get it done faster. So as the kids do this I, unknowingly, doze off on the couch. When I wake up from my brief nap (the best nap I ever had) I find a completely clean room. Yes, every toy, every couch pillow, every piece of clothing, EVERYTHING was picked up (neatly I would like to add), AND the toy box was no longer in front of me, it was where it was supposed to be. After regaining consciousness from my fainting spell, I felt their heads. No fever. No clammy skin. No rashes. They seemed to be in perfectly good health. Which only leaves ONE explanation, there is an invasion of children snatchers!

Now let me go run and get the vacuum, the broom and the mop and show them how to use it before they leave!