Luca Turned 6 - Minecraft Party

May is a busy month of birthdays for our family. It starts with mine on the 17th, then Luca on the 23rd, and Mike wraps it up on the 31st. That's a lot of cake! We then had Luca's party for family and friends on June 7.

Luca chose the theme Minecraft this year. I don't usually go to crazy with decorations but Pinterest had me going this year.

Here are some of the things we did.

Nico, my 11 year old created and decorated the cake. All I did was bake the square cakes and make the icing.
I got the idea here.
I used a large square cake pan that Nico cut up for the body and legs and a small one for the head. I made my own buttercream icing. It was delicious!



Nico helped me come up with ideas for some of the rest of the items used in Minecraft.
The only other edible items (besides the coal and TNT) are the gold (Rolo candy) and
the Iron (chocolate wrapped in aluminum foil)




I love the Minecraft birthday sign. You can download and print it for free here. There is also a free Minecraft font
which you can get here.



Since coal and TNT are a big part of Minecraft we created some of our own.
I got the idea here

The kids used square blocks to paint their treasure boxes. Although they ended up not having squares but just using them to paint the whole box. No worries, they had a great time. I also had little pails I purchased from Wal-mart that were given as 'goodie bags'. I purchased rubber coal and blow up torches for cheap from Discount Party Supplies.

I had one very happy little boy by the end of the evening. He was most happy to have a friend attend his party. He is used to big brother having friends over. I don't just invite the friend, I invite the whole family. We love being with friends and family and just sharing the special times. Luca couldn't give me enough hugs and Thank-you's that night. I went to bed with a full, happy heart that I could give my little boy this special day.

UPDATE on my Dad

My dad has made amazing advances over the last couple of weeks. Each day brings another tube out or another step forward.

May 6 he was moved to the rehab unit! Hopefully one more week and he will be home mending in his own home.

May 7 will be one month of him entering the hospital. He is getting bits and peices of his story from the nurses coming to visit him from the CCU. He is amazed he is still alive and surprised at what happened. He feels bad because he is so weak. We have to keep reminding him all he went through. This is a man that never stopped. He gets frustrated because he feels helpless. I know he will get stronger and stronger with possibly some set backs.

"What Did We Just Do?"

My dad passed out at church on April 7, 2 days before his 79th birthday. Finally my mom was able to get him to the hospital because an ambulance was called. What we thought was going to be a couple day stay has turned into a two week stay so far with everyone's emotions going everywhere.

It was eventually determined that my dad had to have a quadruple bypass. What?! He is fine, except that sometimes his color does look a little gray (I thought this because I don't see him as often as I used to because of moving farther away).

Surgery was scheduled for Friday, April 12, but the anethesiologist was sick. They would not let him leave the hospital because they said he was a ticking time bomb. I am still thinking, 'You are crazy! His color is good, he has no chest pain, he says he feels fine'. (except for that really low blood pressure he keeps having).

So surgery is now scheduled for Monday, April 15 at 6:30am. Ugh, stuck in the hospital all weekend, why? He is fine, just look at him. (even though the cardio workup shows 100%, 95%, and 85% blockage). So, what is a man suppose to do...hang out at the hospital. The boys and I went to hang out with dad and play some games on Sunday to help occupy his time and help keep all of our minds off the upcoming surgery.

Monday morning gets here and surgery is pushed back to 1:30pm. Ugh, more waiting....although I was able to have the precious visiting time I would not have had if he went in at 6:30am.

Here goes the start of the crazy roller coaster! Surgery- in at 1:30pm, out at 11:30pm, finally see him at 12:30am. So upset to see my dad lying in that bed thinking about his heart being removed from his chest while they work on grafts. Crying my eyes out on a rainy drive home an hour away. Calling my mom and just being so sad and angry for what dad just went through. Finally tucking my two little boys into bed (who had been the best behaved little boys at the hospital all day through the process) at 2:30am and myself at 3am.

Then, the dreaded phone call at 6am, taking dad back down to surgery because the nurse spent the whole night giving him blood and plasma; the bleeding just won't stop. What did we just do...he was fine just two days ago! (except the doctors said it had to be done).

That Tuesday they not only went into his chest once, but twice! Onto bypass a second time to fix the graft that was bleeding all night. Leaving his chest open in case they had to go in again, plus he was swelled up. Thinking to myself, did we really have to do this! What is dad going to say when he wakes up!?

Wednesday and Thursday hanging out, sedated, bloating body full of fluids, can't stand to see my dad like this! What did we just do!?

Thursday they went in his chest cavity again to wash everything out and make sure all was good. They then closed up his chest. Friday, another day of rest. Watching the monitors and questioning. So scared for my dad just laying there not knowing what has been happening. Thinking, what did we just do?

Saturday, find out he is in A-fib and they need to shock his heart. Everytime they try to adjust medicines there are complications. Okay, shock him, let's get this heart pumping right. NOPE, didn't work. Just kept thinking what is going to happen if he doesn't come out of this. He was fine on Sunday, we were just playing cards. He wanted to go home! Nope, doctors said a ticking time bomb.

Okay, mentally yelling get the heart on track! Finally Sunday morning the heart started with a regular sinus rhythm. Okay, good news, can it stay that way and if not can it be fixed! I need my dad! Yes, it did stay. When it didn't they adjusted meds and got it back on track. All is going well! Except that I see a tear in dad's eye as he is looking at me but can't talk or move. My dad never is still for long. What is he thinking while he is looking at me probably seeing the fear (and relief) on my face but can't react and has no idea what has been happening! What did we just do!?

Big step on Sunday, the balloom pump came out. So scared, what happens if there is a relapse?

Monday, a week after surgery, they finally get him off the ventilator. This was suppose to happen last week. Why did those doctors tell us it would be surgery and up the next day when it wasn't. (because he is 79, that's why!)

Again, I had to walk out of the room today, Monday, before they extubated him because I saw the tear in his eye and the look on his face that said, "What did we just do?" I came back in rubbed his hand, acted all composed, and said, "It is going to be ok. I love you!" He squeezed my hand and that meant everything to me.

He has done well being extubated. They had to put an oxygen mask on as he was working a little hard and getting frustrated because he can't talk. He has to be tired of sitting in that bed and thinking, "What did we just do?"

Looking forward to many positives this week and trying to keep his spirits up and his pain down.

Everytime I picture his face in my mind of his helplessness as he lay there and the look of unhappiness on his face I think, "What did we just do?"

What did we just do.....hopefully gave him another 10 plus years to his life!

I love you dad with all my heart. You are my inspiration, my strength to do what people say I can't, my mentor, and the best grandfather to my children!

mom and dad - 50th anniversary, November 3, 2012

Chicken Coop Set Up For Broilers

We have had to keep our broilers inside because it is just too cold out for them. They are growing fast but not growing their feathers fast enough. I moved them into a nice section in our new coop but to clean out the droppings every other day was getting to be quite a messy chore! So today my husband and I spent two hours setting up what I hope to be a much easier way to deal with it all.

First I built the base that the chickens will walk on. Surprisingly I measured correctly and it fit in the spot we already had set up. We then added the wire mesh (1/2" x 1"). The base is then supported up off the floor by more 2x4's on their side. This way I have room to put trays of a piece of tin or something easy to slide out from underneath the wire mesh for easy cleaning. The chickens are also not having to sit in their own feces. Today I just put a nice big piece of plastic under it until I can get to the tin/metal shop to get a piece cut to fit. Looking forward to some easier days of cleaning and happier chickens.

87 chickens are fitting comfortably in here right now. The weather has to break soon or they won't be so comfortable. This week is getting into the 70's but still a little too cool at night for them. This week I will be finishing the chicken tractors so in the next week or so they can move outside! This set up will then be moved out of the way until next year.

This coop is also going to be used for my son's 4-H chickens. He has chosen the polish crested. I have plans to build 3 separate stalls for breeding and keeping the show chickens separate. There will also be brooders in place for any babies we get and the baby broilers next year so everything can be kept out of the house.

These are Nico's Polish Crested. I love watching their feathers grow in. They are so beautiful!

Here is Luca with one of the new baby Wynadettes. He wanted to be a pirate and figured a chicken would work just as well as a parrot.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Mining

One of Nico's projects in 4-H this year is geology. What a great way to incorporate it in our school year! We are using Intelligo Unit Study: Soils, Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils for this study. I have always loved Intelligo's Unit Studys and had forgotten about them until I did a search.

Anyway, one of the units is on minerals. Many of the links within the unit study are from USGS (US Geological Survey). I was so excited to find this link USGS Life Cycle of a Mineral Deposit. (oh, and it's FREE). It has a short reading and then about 10 hands on acitivities. Some included are orange plate tectonics, peanut butter and jelly crust, cupcake core drilling, making your own toothpaste, and chocolate chip cookie mining. We completed the plate tectonics and peanut butter and jelly crust last week. Today we did the Chocolate Chip Cookie Mining. The boys absolutley loved it! I couldn't believe even Luca (5yo) got into it. They love watching Gold Rush with Mike so we related some of the things to the TV show for better understanding.

Here are some pictures.

 Nico's final analysis was that we should have weighed the chips (gold) vs just counting the chips. One cookie that was easier to mine had larger 'nuggets', but fewer, while the other cookies had more 'nuggets', but a lot smaller in size. I thought it was a great analysis on his part.

Of course, the favorite part was eating the cookies. My least favorite part is now I have three bags of cookies left over. ;-) 

Spring is Coming Right?

Oh this weather is killing me! Up and down the temperatures go!

I know this is happening all across the United States. I am finished with winter! We had a record snow for the end of March last week. At our house we had about 13" of snow. The kids loved it, but mom and dad not so much. Of course the boys wanted to go sledding. It was a little wet for sledding down the hill. They tried the ATV but it was too deep for ours. They talked Mike into getting the tractor to pull them. They had a blast. Mike had the blade on so as they went along he collected up snow then pulled the blade up creating a nice hill for them to go over. It was a beautiful snow and thankfully only lasted two days.

I am anxiously waiting for the warm weather to get my 97 broiler chickens outside in their chicken tractors. I planned on buying a new building for Nico's 4-H chickens, however, I wasn't planning on having it house the broilers too. I couldn't take the chickens in the house and garage anymore so was super excited when they called Monday and said they were delivering the building. Immediately the cages were moved out to it. 

 I love the building. I have plans to add three separate cages for breeding/show chickens/injured chickens (how ever they will be needed they will be ready). I am going to add brooder boxes in one corner. The rest will be open for chicken play. I will be adding a large fenced area to the sides for free ranging, plus chickens tractors are being built for them so they can get out in the yard and eat up. (Coyotes have come out even during the day and snatched a rooster so I had to quit with the whole property free ranging).

Today I spent 3 hours fixing up a corner of the coop for the broilers. They were not happy while I was moving them around and working, but they sure were happy to get in the area and be able to move. I need to video them when I first feed them. It is pure craziness!

After working in the coop this morning, I quickly got things together for the boys to color a dozen eggs before I had to go to work. Pinterest, as I said before, is my new best friend! I found a couple of cool ways to try decorating our eggs this year. One of the ways is using shaving cream with food color swirled into it. You then roll the egg in the mixture, let it sit for a few minutes to soak in the color and then wipe it off...wah-la, swirly colored eggs. Luca had a great time playing in the shaving cream and making his hands different colors. We even used our brown eggs. I just couldn't bring myself to buy the eggs from the store even though they were just 99 cents.

I think they turned out pretty darn good. There is one mystery egg here that has been dyed for an April Fool's joke on Monday. Can't wait to use it!

Happy Easter!

February into March 2013

Once again I fall behind. Good thing for Facebook and my posting of pictures there or I would never update my blog.

February brought us Valentine's Day fun with 2 parties with different homeschool groups. When I was in grade school Valentine boxes were so much fun. There were always contests to see who could make the most creative boxes. My dad always had the best ideas. We had a record player, a guitar, and a mailbox. (those were my favorites). I am proud to say I have carried on the tradition with Nico and Luca. Nico has liked to come up with his own ideas since he was little. For the last two years he has come up with his idea and made them himself with a little help from mom. Luca is still learning the whole concept and Valentines.

Luca with his tank Valentine box

Nico's Star Wars Cantina. It is complete with music and working floor lights and overhead lights.



February also brought the addition of Nico's chickens for 4-H. He chose to do show birds and selected Polish Crested. Not the easiest to match for show, but beautiful chickens anyway! We ordered 15 chicks to come through the mail from a town 3 hours away. Of course what happened the day after they shipped out....SNOW, and lots of it. It took the chicks 2 days to get to our post office. The poor things, out of 16 sent only 6 survived. The others got too cold on their journey and sadly didn't make it. The hatchery backed their guarantee and replaced the ones we lost. However, this time I drove to the hatchery to get them to ensure safe delivery to our home. We ended up with 17 Polish Crested chickens. (2 silver, 4 blue, 4 white crested black, 7 gold). We are not sure how many roosters or hens we have but hoping for some that are the same so we can breed them and hatch more of our own.

Here are three of the first 6 we got. These guys are 13 days old.

As if adding 17 chickens to our flock of 20 isn't enough, we added 115+a couple more broiler chickens. They hatched on March 9. We headed over and picked them up right away. They are so adorable when they are little. It's a good thing they don't stay so cute or I could never process them for dinner.

Here they are, all 115+ . They won't all fit together for long.

 So with adding all these chickens we have created quite a bit of work for ourselves. We are now deciding what coop to build for Nico's chickens as we want them separate from our other laying hens. The show chickens will take more TLC to keep them pretty and ready for show. Not that my other layers don't get plenty of TLC. We don't want any extra pecking to occur as they would be introduced into an already established pecking order. This way they have their own already. I have scored about 35 wooden pallets so far of which I am planning on using a lot of the wood for coops, tractors, and gardening.



We have a couple of books we are looking through for ideas. It think we will be combining a couple as we want to be sure it is big enough to put a brooding area and for a growing flock.

We have also had to make new brooders as it is still pretty cold outside here (the snow finally melted this week). Right now all the chickens are inside in tubs under heat lamps.





Here are a couple of the brooders. Simply made from totes. I repurposed our Monkey Balls game racks to make the brooder light holders. The holders sell on the internet for about $35 . It was a lot cheaper to repurpose the game since the golf balls all melted in the plastic bag in the car a couple of years ago.



March brought Nico's first competitive dance competition. He had his first solo performance. I was so nervous for him, but he did fantastic! He took home several awards including Diamond Elite Top First, 1st place Novice division, 1st place Hip Hop division (ages 11-12) and Top Starz. I am so over the moon proud of him and his hard work. Nico is a perfectionist and would not let me see his routine all together until a week before competition. He has such skill and his heart is totally in his dancing. Besides his solo, he dances with his team, OZONE. They did very well too. They took 10th place in the intermediate division for ages 11-12 year old and earned an Elite Top First.

He is on his head a lot! I absolutely love this photo. They snapped it at the perfect time.

This boy loves to dance and be on stage!

Team OZONE. Such a great group of kids. They are so much more a team this year. This is their second year dancing together.

Kara, a fellow hip hop dancer, also from the team, performed a solo as well. They both did awesome! I am very proud of these kids.

So besides all of that we had our regular school days and regular activities. We are definitely ready for spring to get here and get our projects going! The tomatoe and pepper seeds are already sprouting in the house.