random pics from around the house

The first thing Maggie wanted to do this morning after she woke up (even before eating breakfast) was sweep...such a helpful little girl!


After lunch, Maggie created a couple of masterpieces. Here's the artist in action and also showing off one of her pieces of art.


And on an unrelated note, one of our young hens has started laying. It's one of the white leghorns, and she lays white eggs. They are so cute and, at least for now, much smaller than our mature hens' eggs.

she's a sneaky one!

Maggie is getting sneakier and sneakier every day. She can quietly reach things on shelves that were previously out of her reach. Yesterday evening before dinner, Will and I were both looking at something on the computer and we turned around to see that Maggie had very quietly grabbed the box of granola bars off of the shelf (which is over her head), pulled out one pack of bars, torn it open, and was happily munching away. This all happened in probably less than a minute or two. She looked at us like "What?! I was hungry, and you slackers don't have dinner ready yet!"

4th of July visit from Grandma & Grandad

Grandma & Grandad were in town for an extended visit last week, and Maggie basked in the glow of extra attention. We kept busy and Maggie got to show Grandma & Grandad some of her favorite activities:

checking on the garden,

going to feed the chickens (while Daddy tends to the bbq...notice the trusty beagle guarding the smoker),

making the rounds in the backyard,

posing, yet again, for the camera,

watching Goofy cartoons on the computer,

splashing in the pool,

looking cute,

ready for a walk at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve,

walking with Daddy,

going to pick flowers at the end of the driveway,

checking on the herb garden,

smelling some rosemary,

sitting with two of her best friends, Hop-Hop and Elmo,

and being entertained and showered with attention!

dude looks like a lady

Well, we've had our suspicions for several weeks now, but today our suspicions were confirmed. Will was sitting at his desk this afternoon (he works out of the home office), and he heard some distinct crowing. Yep, that's right...one of our 14-week old Ameraucana "hens" is actually a rooster! We started getting suspicious about a month ago when this particular chicken started growing beautiful, iridescent green tail feathers. But "she" wasn't crowing, so we gave her the benefit of the doubt. But now that we know for sure, we are going to have to "relocate" him (no roosters allowed in the city). It's a shame b/c he sure is a beauty!


On another note, Maggie has been doing a great job harvesting our blueberries lately. When she's done picking the ripe "buues" from one bush, she'll move onto the next one, saying "next bush". And she's also learned to open and close the garden gate by herself...she goes in there every day to check on the thornless blackberries (even though they are done fruiting).

it's a girl!

We had our big ultrasound today (I'm at 21 weeks), and we found out that Maggie is going to have a little sister! This also means that the boys of the house (Will and Snoopy) are going to be outnumbered 14 to 2 (2 little girls, 1 female beagle, 10 hens, and me)! I guess it also means that in about 15 or 16 years, Will is going to have one more reason to sit on the front porch at 10 pm, "cleaning" his shotgun.

hot hot hot!

It's been very hot the past week, but Maggie still wants to be outside so we've been spending a lot of time in the shade on the back porch, either splashing in Maggie's pool or eating cold watermelon. Maggie also insists on feeding the chickens some scratch every day so she can pet her favorites, Red and Orange.







When I can actually manage to get Maggie back inside where it's cool, she likes to help me with chores.

busy day

We had a busy, fun day today. We took Maggie to Jordan Lake State Park this morning to hang out with friends and go swimming. She had a great time hanging out in her floaty swimsuit in the water with daddy, and she really enjoyed playing in the sand. She was so amped up afterwards that she didn't even fall asleep this afternoon at naptime (she just laid in her crib and chattered to herself for an hour and a half). I was worried this would lead to a meltdown this evening because we were supposed to head to a fish fry at Eli's house for dinner. But she was fine and was so excited to see Eli that she didn't even notice she was tired (and she also loved the fried fish, just like her mama!).

(By the way, for those of you former Ichauway folks, the 2 kids in the foreground of this picture are David & Susan Jones' kids...Ariana (6 years old) on the left and Jamie (3.5 years old) on the right.)






And these 2 pictures are from last night, when Will put Maggie to work shucking corn...she already loves helping us cook!