We are Urban Farmers!

Last summer, Kirsten began the efforts to bring fresh, organic eggs into our kitchen by way of our backyard. I won't delineate the whole process in this blog, but I highly suggest you take a look at the blog that Kirsten created for the chicken adventure: www.bauerkirsten.blogspot.com

The eggs are delicious; taking care of the hens is a fun, educational, family effort everyday. We have 6 hens now - Mrs. Claus, Ju-Ju, Big Bertha, Millie and Ellie (who I can never tell apart), and Martha, our newest arrival.

Who would have thought that I would ever have livestock of any sort in my life, much less hens that I enjoy handling and helping to care for?!?

Bye Aunt Joo-Joo :(

Saying good-bye to friends and family was the hardest part of leaving Florida :( We hope to see you all again very soon!

Easter picnic

We attended a very fun Easter picnic at Jaycee Park in Cape Coral yesterday. A group of families that met through an impromptu play group all came. The kids made, hid, and found easter eggs filled with treats ranging from chocolate candies to spring themed erasers and plastic bugs! Each family brought a picnic lunch and ate under the pine trees, while watching the Gulf of Mexico. What a lovely day, 82 degrees with a wonderful sea breeze. This is a rare photo of our entire family, taken by another mom in attendance (thanks Michelle, great pics!). And thanks to Brooke for organizing such a great event!

Thanks Craigslist...

We got the best, new (to us) playground set from Craigslist in November. The set would cost $3000 to $4000 new, but Kirsten found it for $200, what a deal! Huge thanks to Julie and Doug for helping us dismantle, transport, and rebuild the set in our backyard. That endeavor ended up taking hours longer than we all anticipated, but we got it done.

While Grandma and Papa were here visiting, and I had time off work, we decided to work on refurbishing the set a bit. We restained the wood, replaced the chains on the swings, laid some sod in the backyard, and built a mulch playground area under the swings. The mulch is even made of recycled tires, very eco-friendly and low maintenance. Now the playground is like our own little park. Great job everybody!

Merry Christmas!

The boys awoke at 5:50am Christmas morning to a pile of gifts beneath the tree and stockings stuffedd full. Harrison spent most of his time dumping his stocking, refilling it, and dumping it again. The boys received trucks, cars, pencils, special drinking cups, and various cooking utensils, including a lettuce knife and cutting board shown below. Emmett made us fruit salad and egg salad (with his new egg slicer) for breakfast. It was an enjoyable, although very early, morning.

Kirsten made a delicious standing prime rib for dinner. I made Mascarpone AuGratin potatoes from scratch (new recipe, was yummy!). Dinner was eventful, thank goodness I'd had a glass of wine. Harrison wasn't overly interested in eating so he was content playing with the salt shaker. Somehow no one realized the salt shaker was glass, until he dropped it and it shattered all over the floor. Being that we live in Florida and it was about 85 degrees outside, everyone was barefoot. So, while Papa and Emmett went right on consuming large amounts of prime rib, Grandma braved the glass shards and grabbed Harrison. She handed Harrison to me while Kirsten went for the shopvac. When I sat Harrison on my lap, copius amounts of babypoop squirted out of his diaper and all over my lap and him, so Grandma went to get me shoes. I went to wash myself in the shower and change clothes, Grandma cleaned up Harrison, Kirsten shopvac'd the dining room. Of course, when all this was through, Papa and Emmett were still eating :) Thankfully, they had saved a little for us all to finish our meal!

Florida Family Christmas

We attended a nice gathering just before Christmas at Aunt Vickie's new house in North Port. Grandma and Papa were in town already, so they joined us. The boys enjoyed playing with all of Kirsten's cousins and their second cousins (I think that's what they should be called?)

Aunt Jenny made wonderfully heaping piles of food, including chili and saffron rice. Clint even brought a peanut butter chocolate pie from Wheeler's in Arcadia. All the kids received generous gifts from Aunts and Uncles and we had a good time.