Winter scavenger hunt!

the boy has been sick. 

but, outside has been unseasonably warm and wonderful! May needed a little something to encourage her to be outside and not glued to the TV like her brother is.  So, I created an outside winter scavenger hunt!

Ready? GO!

She loved it so much that she requested a new one for the next day. I think we'll be doing many more of these and maybe even include the boy next time!

Here are her finds from the first scavenger hunt...

Want to join in? 

Between our two lists you could probably come up with one for things common to your yard.

List 1

1. acorn

2. stone

3. shovel

4. colorful leaf (tricky this time of year but we found one!)

5. egg

6. corn cob

7. stick over 12 inches long

8. stick under 12 inches long

9. something that does not belong outside (make sure you find it outside!)

10. bark

List 2

1. shell

2. berry

3. 7 blades of grass

4. brown leaf

5. green leaf (think bushes)

6. trash on ground

7. something (else) that does not belong outside

8. ball

9. flower (good luck!)

10. pine cone

Found stuff from list #2

let's get ready to rumble!

in this corner we have Mayden Rae Speer: age 6 weighing in at 52lbs and measuring 46 inches tall! The nurse mentioned that despite being overly anxious about the possibility of a needle (which she did not receive) she seems "very mature for her age". it's so nice to hear good things about your kids, isn't it?! She has 20/25 vision in both of her eyes which is good to hear since there was of some concern last time we had a visit.

and..... 

in this corner Cameron Jude Speer: age 4 weighing in at 34lbs (he'll never get out of that "baby" car seat) and measuring 39 inches tall! Cameron passed his vision and hearing tests with flying colors. He was praised for his ability to concentrate during these tests (which blew his Mama away but apparently other 4 year olds don't sit still long enough to do them well) He got 4 vaccination shots and 5 stickers (like that makes up for it lol)

speaking of games

It's probably weird, sad, wrong (insert your own adjective) that i'm this excited about storage. But, I am.

so we recently got a hold of a larger bookshelf and decided to stash it in Cam's room and move all the kid books there. That freed up his little bookshelf to go to Chris. I inherited our shared bookshelf and left May with a small empty one. 

yes, we each have our own bookshelves! (plus and large one in the hallway!)

So what's an empty bookshelf to do?... turn into a gameshelf, of course! Yay, we found a perfect spot for all the kid games in May's room. Just in time since we got quite a few new ones for Christmas this year. 

Winter is for....

games!

Merry Christmas Chickies!

so about a month ago through the power of Facebook I came across this video:

naturally, I though this was a genius idea. and one I had to steal..... 

I started by cutting the top of our tree off and plopped it in the coop. interesting indeed, they were curious and stayed nearby for the nearly 1 hour of coop trimming I did this afternoon.

I added some bits of tree everywhere throughout the coop area. they didn't seem to mind and welcomed the change of scenery. 

I probably could should have broken down the branches a bit more. this just shows my lazy side... perhaps if i had better clippers....

anyway it sure does smell much better back there now!