Spotes

Today was the day Ben has been waiting for for months.  His first day of Mixed Sports (or "spotes" if you don't do r's).  He's been waitlisted since before Christmas and he FINALLY got in.  It's all he could talk about for the last few days.
Me:  "Did you guys tell your friends at school about the chicks?"
Ben:  "Abby did.  I told them about spotes."

My mom stopped by and before she was even in the door he announced, "Gwammy, I have spotes tomorrow!"

He woke up with leg cramps in the middle of the night and as I was giving him some Tylenol he said in his groggy little voice, "I just keep thinking about spotes."

And this morning, he ran down to greet me like this:

"Ready for spotes mama!"  Indeed he was.  Basketball shorts and a football jersey.  Ready for whatever sport they could throw at him.

As I was leaving, I hugged him and said. "Have a great time at sports tonight."  He looked at me and said, "Spotes is tonight?  Why am I dressed like this now then?"

Round Two

We got more chickens.  Lots more.  Last time we got 4, and now...we're down to 1.  At some point, Gertrude didn't come home one day and not too long after, Blackie and Aleena met a similar fate.  So that left us with Francis.  Francis is a good girl.  She sticks close by and gives us an egg a day, but we decided that she needs some company.  This time, we decided to up the odds.  Our original plan was to get 6, but then Ben said, "If me and Abby get two, that's 4 and if Daddy gets two that would be 6 so we need to get 8 so that it is fair for everyone."  And how can you argue with that kind of math?  So 8 it is!  We waited for weeks for them to arrive at the farm store.  We called ahead to see if we needed to reserve them.  They said no.  We showed up after work last Friday and the family in front of us got the last four.  The lady that worked there told us that we should have reserved them.  Gee, thanks lady.  That's information that would have been helpful YESTERDAY WHEN WE CALLED TO ASK!!!  I am embarrassed to tell you that my 5-year-olds may have handled the disappointment slightly better than I did.  When I finished my pity party, we reserved some for this week.  The kids were on pins and needles waiting for chick day.  On Wednesday, they called to tell us we could come pick up two.  So Robbie took the kids and I came home to Taco (you know, like chicken Taco) and Aleena (you know, like the last chicken she had).

At first, we thought that Aleena was narcoleptic.  She would fall asleep standing up and slept all day.  By this morning though, it became clear that something was wrong.  By mid morning, Aleena was dancing with the angels and Abby was a wreck.  Luckily, the rest of our chicks were in so after a grave side service, they went to replace Aleena and bring home the rest of the flock.   Meet Taco, Black Bean, Aleena (the third one), Tinkerbell, Stinkerbell, Jackpot, Shirley and Charlotte.

There are a lot of them.  And many of them look alike.  So how do we tell them apart?  We painted their nails, of course!  Luckily, Abby loves nail polish so we had enough to paint everyones toes a different color.  Perfect!

(Please excuse the blurry photo, my photographer is 5).

Abby has been sad today about the loss of her second Aleena.  Today she told Robbie, "I just keep remembering all the fun times I had with her."  Meanwhile, the third Aleena was exhibiting some of the same symptoms as her predecessor, so after dinner Robbie snuck her out of the house and exchanged her for a more lively looking one.  Yes, that's right.  We are on our fourth Aleena.  And Abby is none the wiser. 

Our goal for the next few days will be to avoid anymore chicken funerals.  And after that, we will move onto remodeling the chicken coop because the current one is just too small.  Oh, and I can't believe I forgot to tell you about the hexagonal chicken run that Robbie's planning to build.  More on that when it actually happens.  So lots of chicken projects over here.  But I think it will be totally worth it.  Because who doesn't need 10 eggs a day?

Sleeping in a Carboard Box

It's 9:08 pm and I think my kids are finally asleep.  Yes.  MY kids.  The ones who start asking when bedtime is at about 5:45 (after waking up at 3:30 from their nap) and who are in bed no later than 7:30 (usually closer to 6:30 though).  Yup.  They just now are asleep.  You see, they are on day two of sleeping in a box.  Are you confused?  Let me back up.

For their birthday, the kids got a cardboard-house-that-you-can-color kit.  Gee, thanks Michelle.  Just what we've always needed.  But seriously, it may have turned out to be the best gift they got!  So really, thanks Michelle!  I made them save it for a day when I was home to supervise (cause I'm anal like that) and then I got it out when I needed them to entertain themselves for a little bit.  I gave them directions, and they set to work. I could hardly get them to stop for dinner!  The next morning, they didn't even come see me when they woke up.  They just went straight to coloring.  It was magical!  Within a few days, they (with minimal help...the shingles are hard) the first side was done and they had moved onto the other piece.  But then, we had to put it away because we were having a baby shower at our house, and Abby got sick (darn that double ear infection!) and we kind of forgot about it.

Until yesterday when the kids requested a surprise lunch so I sent them upstairs for 5 minutes while I snuck some bananas into their peanut butter sandwiches (cause that's a good surprise, right?).  When they came down, Abby handed me this:

(I will translate for those of you not as fluent in 5-year-old as I am.  "Happy Valentine's Day Mommy. I love you.  We have fun when you stay home with me.  I want to color the house with you.")

Well how could I say no to that?  So after nap we got to work.  The shingles were the most daunting because there are so many of them.  Ben said, "Mom.  How many of these do we even have to do?"  So we counted.  94.  But as we colored them, we counted down.  "93!"  someone would shout as they finished one.  "92!"  "91!"  Until all 94 were colored in.  I smiled to myself every time they yelled out a number, very proud of how they always said the right one.

 After the roof was finished, I went down to get dinner ready and pretty soon I heard her say, "Just a minute.  Let's say it together."  and they both yelled, "We're done!"  They couldn't scarf down dinner fast enough so that we could get the house set up.  At one point Ben raised his glass and said, "Let's cheers to the house!"  So we did and Abby announced that we should "celebrate with dinner".  (And really, what's better than leftover buffet for celebrating?)

The house really is cute.  Look!

 It even has a mailbox on each side.  And of course, she left him some mail.

 When we finally got the house set up ("This is going to be so awesome!"), we confirmed that it was, indeed, big enough for them to sleep in.  So we snuggled them in and the fun really began.

 They talked.  They giggled.  They laughed until they snorted.  And finally, they fell asleep.

 Tonight, they asked to sleep in their house again and who am I to stop them from sleeping in a cramped cardboard box together when they have perfectly comfortable beds?  So again, they talked.  And again, they giggled uncontrollably.  And again, I smiled.  Because this is something they will remember forever and sometimes, having a twin must be just about the best thing in the world.