family

by

Hannah’s Birthday

Wow, have we been busy!  It’s already been 2 weeks since Hannah’s birthday and I’m just now posting this.  

We celebrated Hannah’s 2nd birthday with our family on March 27th.  It was a chilly but beautiful day for a party.  Hannah and Noah had 5 other children to play with, plus 2 babies.    Everyone enjoyed the company and the food.  I loved spending time with everyone even though I didn’t get to talk with everyone for very long.  As always, I had a blast making the food.  Here’s my menu for the day:

 Snacks & Appetizers 

Pretzels & Potato Chips, Tortilla Chips and Salsa, Spinach Dip, Veggies and Dip, Cheese tray with Brie and Montchevre Cheeses (herb, fig and cranberry cinnamon), Wilted Greens and Sheep Cheese Bruschetta 

Dinner 

Pomegranate Glazed Rotisserie Chicken, Spinach Quiche, Artichoke Quiche, Roasted Potatoes, Roasted Asparagus, Salad 

Dessert 

Chocolate/Vanilla Swirled Cake and Cupcakes, Fruit Tart, Ice Cream 

 Hannah had so much fun opening her presents and Noah was right there to help her when she got stuck!  She got so many pretty dresses and she loves wearing them all.  

Opening Presents

By the time we were ready for cake and cupcakes Hannah was so tired and glassy-eyed, but that wasn’t going to keep her from her Mickey Mouse cupcake. 

Sleepy Hannah eating her Cupcake

  

I didn’t get too many pictures that day, but hopefully some of our guests will email me some of theirs!  (hint, hint)  😉

by

Dreary, Rainy Monday

What a sad day Monday was.  Dave stayed home because we both had doctor appointment…our colds were just not going away.  When I got back from dropping Noah at pre-school, Dave met me with bad news.  He’d found Abigail’s single lamb strangled in a rope hay feeder.  He was a week old.  We both felt so guilty.  It was my brilliant idea to make the feeder and re-use baling twine; and we had turned off the baby monitor in the barn since we weren’t expecting any more ewes to go into labor. 

Later, at the doctor’s, we learned we both have sinus infections and I have bronchitus.  At least we’re now on antibiotics and getting better.  🙂 

I worked that night.  Dave called me around 8pm because Noah got sick.  He continued to get sick every hour until 4:30am.  Poor kid!  Every time he got up again I had just fallen asleep.

What a dreary, depressing Monday.  I’m glad Tuesday brought a sunny day.

by

Corned Beef and Cupcakes

We had a St. Patty’s Day dinner tonight since I have to work on Wednesday and Dave’s parents were here today.  I made corned beef for the 1st time…I never knew it was so easy to cook!  I didn’t make cabbage (it probably wouldn’t go over well with the picky eaters) but I made roasted potatoes, “Aunt Jack Carrots” (glazed carrots with butter and brown sugar that my sister makes) and asparagus to go with it.  Nice spring veggies!

Anyway while the corned beef was cooking Noah spied the cupcakes I had bought for dessert.  I told him they were our dessert and the green “jimmies” on them were for St. Patty’s Day.  OK – he went back to playing. 

Later, after Dave brought him and Hannah out to the barn to show Pop-Pop how big the ducklings were getting, Noah showed Daddy the cupcakes.  Dave acted surprised and asked him what they were for.  He proudly said, “For Aunt Patti’s Day!”  I hope my Aunt Patti smiles at that!  🙂

by

It’s Almost Spring!

This past week has been so nice! We’ve been outside so much because the weather has been sunny and warm. The only snow still on the ground is in the heavily shaded areas.

Last week I made farmer’s cheese with cow milk since we were hosting a small family get-together. I made 2 different kinds: herb cheese – with garlic, tarragon and salt; and sweet cheese – with sugar, chopped raisins and dried cranberries, and drizzled with honey. I liked the sweet one better, but everyone said they were both good. I just think the herb cheese needed more herbs. We really enjoyed having our family visit on Saturday. My sister and her family came over from New Jersey and my aunts, uncle and cousin from Long Island drove down with my aunt from Nevada. Another of my uncles drove up from the Baltimore area. It was such a nice and relaxing day. Noah and Hannah, especially, enjoyed the company.

Aunt Laureen with Noah & Hannah

 We strolled around the farm in muck boots (mostly borrowed and not the right size) and enjoyed the sun on our skin. We checked out the animals and watched birds soar overhead. My Uncle Frank loves nature and does a lot of birding. He gave Noah a picture of 4 young raccoons that he took while hiking in NY. Noah was so happy and has displayed his picture proudly on his dresser. We’ll get a frame for it and hang it up this weekend.   Hannah loved playing with her cousins, Summer and Cole.  They’re only 5 months younger than her so they have lots of fun together.  Noah loves his cousins, too.  He likes being the big boy and taking care of his  younger cousins. 

On Sunday Noah decided to go sledding in the little bit of snow left on our front hill.  Hannah even hopped on the sled with Dave for her 1st time sledding.  All the other snow was just too much for her and she didn’t have too much fun.  After about 5 minutes outside after we got that blizzard she turned to me and said, “Mommy, inside!”   

Sledding with Daddy

After our sledding fun we wandered around, then spent some time with the baby ducks.  They’re getting big, but they still don’t have any adult feathers.  It’s funny because by 2 or 3 days baby chicks are already getting some adult feathers.  

Holding the Ducklings

 

This week Hannah, Noah and I have had colds but it’s been so warm that we’ve gone outside for walks.  Aurie came over with Sophie and Isabelle on Tuesday and it was just a house full of runny noses!  But everyone had a fun day… that’s all that counts! 

We’re still waiting for our lambs to come.  We have 3 girls due any day and they’re huge.  I’ll post pictures of the lambs when they’re born…hopefully soon! 

Our VERY Pregnant Sheep

by

Hannah’s Early Birthday Present

Noah and Hannah with the ducklings

Hannah got her birthday present today.  She absolutely loves ducks so we got her 2 ducklings.  Noah got 2 ducklings, too, because we couldn’t get pets for Hannah and not for him.  Everyone loves the little ducks and they are staying in the living room for a few days before moving out to the brooder in the barn. 

Our 4 little ducklings

 I tried sexing them the way I found in a book and, as far as I can tell, they’re all girls but how could we get that lucky?  We’ll have wait till they’re older to be sure.  If they are all girls we’ll have ducks eggs available in a few months because they are Gold Hybrid Ducks  – a layer breed.

Hannah helping put the duck in it's box

by

Such a Big Boy

Yesterday morning Noah greeted me with what he’d been writing on his dry-erase board.  He loves to write and copy words.  Anyway, he’d taken all his Thomas trains and copied the names off the bottoms.

In case you need help, it says:

“Henry  Molly

Chicken Car

Spotlight Car

Holiday Percy

Clarabel”

My little boy is growing up!  He is constantly asking what things say and just soaking up all the information.  I still can’t believe he’ll be going to kindergarten in the fall!

by

More Snow Pictures

Here are more pictures of our snowy farm!
Why buy an expensive weeping cedar tree when all you need is a good blizzard?!

Hannah and Noah in the snow.  Noah has been having lots of fun.  Hannah, on the other hand, asks to go in the house 5 minutes after we get outside.  She can be bribed to stay outside longer if we go see the animals.

The sheep and goats going up to their pasture.  Dave shoveled paths from the barns to the pasture and to the house.  He also shoveled out a big area for the sheep in their field.

Giant icicles on the front of the house before I knocked them down.

Me holding some of the biggest icicles.

We’re supposed to get more snow today and tonight!  I hope the forecasts that say only 1″-2″ are right.  🙂

by

Winter Wonderland

 
Chicken Coops in the Snow

Just in case the snow we got last weekend wasn’t enough we got hit yesterday with a blizzard!  The forecasts predicted we would get 6″-8″ of snow last Friday and Saturday….we got 15″.  Yesterday we got an additional 2 feet of snow dumped on us!  The snow started Tuesday around 7pm and ended around 10pm Wednesday night. 

We tried to keep up with it by plowing every 3 hours or so, but by dinnertime only the lawn tractor could fit down the driveway.  It just wasn’t powerful enough to push the heavy snow back.  This morning after breakfast Dave went out to try to push the snow back.  He ended up just shoveling a large area. 

Dave Shoveling the Patio

Our new neighbor hires someone to plow her drive and they showed up with a Bobcat and a tractor with a front-end loader.  We ended up calling her to ask if they could do our drive, too.  It was just too much!  They did ours and our other neighbor’s drive, too.  The mounds of snow are just amazing.  I’ll post some of those pictures tomorrow.

Noah in the Path to the Front Door

Noah went out with Dave in the afternoon and was upset that there wasn’t a lot to shovel!  That’s all he wants to do right now.  In the summer he’ll want to pretend to mow or weedwack.  🙂  They did sled down the hill in the front yard, or at least they tried to sled.  The snow is so deep that they could only get about 3/4’s of the way down the hill.