Coop project

Karina, out of all of our kids, is the most conscious about saving her money.  And she has been consistently asking us for a way to earn money.  While her older sister in the past has been able to earn money babysitting, Karina has been too young to do that.

So Karina and Elvin came up with the idea of building a chicken coop, and since lots of people have gotten into keeping chickens, trying to sell it on Craiglist and see if they could turn up a profit.

So after researching online for a plan, they set out building!

Karina helped with painting on the wood sealer.

The frame came together fairly quickly.

She helped measure and mark the wood.

There was lots of wood to paint with sealer.  Gabe helped a little as well.

She also helped to drill holes...

And screw pieces on.

Elvin and Karina worked many weeks on this project.

It took a while but it finally started to come together.

And here she is putting some final touches.

And here it is in all its glory!  It has doors on both ends.  Also the sides come off so you can clean the top part which is the coop portion.  And then there is a ramp that lets the chickens go down to the ground, so they can peck around.

After listing the coop online, it took a couple of weeks until we found an interested buyer.  We were able to sell it for a profit, of which Karina kept 50% and Daddy kept the rest.  She was pretty happy!!!

Family Photo Shoot

It has been a couple of years since we have done family photos and since we don't have anything else of do because of COVID, we decided to do another round of family pictures.

So we met up with the photographer at a local park.  As usual, Gabe kept being a goofball, which was really annoying since we didn't want all the photos ruined with his weird faces.

We took pictures of just the girls to let Gabe get the wiggles out of his system.

Here are a couple of the pictures.  Eliana has grown a lot this past year and is catching up to mommy! 

We were able to get a good one with the boys.

Here's one with the family, but Gabe acting a little goofy.

We walked down to another part of the park that had a river, which the boys really enjoyed playing in.

And we got what we were looking for....a nice picture with everyone looking at the camera!

Happy Birthday Eliana!

Back in July, our Eliana turned 12!  It seems like only a short time ago she was a toddler running around the house.

Because of COVID, we had to modify plans a little bit.    Instead of a 'real' party, she invited only two friends and they had a party on our porch.  Really it was just watching a movie together.   Elvin set up the TV outside and they watched "Greatest Showman" together.  

The snacks Eliana chose was orange Crush, grapes, and chips!

And then came time to blow out the candles.

These are chocolate cupcakes topped with raspberry flavored whipped cream.  Eliana made them herself from scratch and they were really moist.  There's twelve candles on them!

Eliana even hollowed each of them out a little bit and put a dollop of homemade strawberry jam inside as a little surprise.

Eliana also celebrated by opening her presents with her siblings.  She got a stand that you can set a cookbook on while baking in the kitchen.

She also got a thing that makes whipped cream using NO2 canisters.

She got an essential oils diffuser that she wanted.

And Eliana wanted chewing gum.  Emily found this deal online where you can buy a combo pack of Trident gum that has every single flavor they make.  They even had dragonfruit flavored gum!

She got a card from Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai.

And the last thing that she wanted was to get her ears pierced!  Emily was finally convinced that Eliana was responsible enough to keep her newly pierced ears clean, so they went to a jewelry store with a friend to get them pierced.  Here is our young lady with ears pierced!  

Happy Birthday, Eliana!!!

Chickens!

It seems like lots of families have been getting chickens because of COVID.  And we decided to jump onto the bandwagon as well!

We paid a visit to Wilco, our local farm store in early August.  While a little late to the game, the kids were still extremely excited about it.  The chickens usually take about 18 weeks to mature and start laying eggs.  We're not sure if they will start laying during the winter, most likely not...so maybe will start laying in the spring...

At the store, they are often sold out...but we called ahead this time.  Karina is admiring all the little chickies.

Here is the lady helping us with the new family members.  We got one that is a Buff Orpington and two Austrolorps.  Both are laying species (as opposed to meat birds) and supposed to be good with kids.

Eliana could hardly wait to get home...

We set them up in a big Rubbermaid tub.   We got them when only several days old and in the beginning they were just balls of fluff.

And then they changed day-to-day seemingly before our eyes.  They quickly sprouted feathers on their wings.

They are very curious little creatures and if you ever put your hand down into the bin, they would come over to inspect it.

The kids love carrying the birds around and this one is helping to read their email.

They also each have their own personalities.  The yellow one, who the kids named Chippy, is the most adventurous.  She will come over at peck at the camera if it is put within reach.

They also like to perch on top of anything high.  So we put a rock in there for them to sit on.  They immediately started pushing each other off, so they could stand on it.  

After a couple of weeks, they look more like chickens with longer necks and tail feathers.  Here again is Chippy approaching the camera.

We tell the kids to handle the birds every day so that when they grow into adult chickens, they will be used to people.  So during home school time, sometimes the girls will hold the chicks on their laps.

They are growing really fast and soon will be ready to move out of the house!

Happy Birthday Gabe!

Back in June, our Gabey turned 8!  We had a fairly tame birthday celebration at home.  In the morning, it was time to open presents!  Hmmmm...which should he choose?

He got a bunch of books, which he loves, since he's a bookworm just like Eliana.  One of the books he got was "Awesome Jokes for 8 year olds".  He got it from Eliana; last year she got him the "7 year old" version of the same series.

Gabe continues to be interested in sports and he asks to go play tennis...which is hard because the park close by with tennis courts had been closed due to the virus.  Nevertheless, we got him a new racket and a bunch of tennis balls.

We also got him a new basketball because his old one got a hole in it.

And his card and red envelope from Yeh yeh and Nai nai arrived.

And another gift Gabe wanted was a odometer and speedometer for his bicycle.  He loves knowing how fast he is going and measuring the distance that he has ridden.  You can see the little monitor mounted on to his handle bars.

Instead of having a party with friends, we set up a Super Nintendo for him and let him play that as much as he wanted, all weekend long!  He loves video games and this was a really special thing!  This Super Nintendo was the one that Emily had growing up and it was found and brought over from Emily's parents' house.  After not being turned on for years and years...it was still working perfectly fine!

What the kids played the most was Super Mario Kart.  They raced against each other or played Battle Mode against each other.  It's amazing how grainy the graphics were compared to games today.

As a special treat, Eliana made Gabe cake pops as his "cake".  She got a cake pop maker a while ago for her birthday.  It took a long time!

Here he is blowing out his "cake" after dinner.

And everyone got to enjoy them...

And Gabe also got to drink Guarana, which is a soft drink from Brazil.

And in a trip down memory lane, for some reason we were looking through his baby pictures and we amazed, once again, at how chubby he was!  

And now he is a 8-year old boy!  Happy Birthday Gabe!