Farm improvements.

We have been trying to finish up projects around the farm. One major project is extending our pole barn. We are planning to have room to store the cars and also our wood for winter. You can see in this picture that they have the sides up and one bay has the roof finished. M has to put the tin on the last two bays and then he wants to make rolling doors for the fronts.


We also have the chicken pen up. My brother and my husband got the poles in and fence up. We may later add a roof on it but we are seeing how it goes first.

Our neighbors came down and baled the hay in our first field. They got about 12 small round bales. We were just glad to have someone come and cut it for us.

Sling Chair

We have been in need of some more outdoor chairs. So when I found these plans:
http://ana-white.com/2011/06/wood-folding-sling-chair-deck-chair-or-beach-chair-adult-size
I knew I wanted to make these. I ordered the fabric and last weekend got the wood. It is pretty comfortable I must say. The kids love it. This is the adult size. They are already hounding me that I have to make 3 kid chairs. :) It still needs some work. I have to sand and stain it. Building it only took about 1 hour and sewing the fabric pieces about 30 minutes.


It is adjustable so you can recline to an almost flat position. It also folds up flat for storage. The fabric is woven through the slats with dowels (like a curtain) so you can take it off and throw it in the washer. Nice!

ZOO!

This week my big kids are at Zoo Camp. It is all week day camp at the KC Zoo. They have been having a blast. The teachers said Dominic did excellent. We made it there on time, I picked them up on time and we didn't forget lunchs or anything. Success!! One morning my sister and her baby met us there to see the Zoo. It was fun. Zoey stayed awake the whole time and might have even noticed some of the animals. She will be more into it next year. :)

Me, Zoey (niece) and Luca on the tram.


Mommy and Luca

Luca on the Carousel.

Retro Fabric diaper bag.

I found this link to make your own tote bag. It was a little different than bags I had made before but overall I really liked it. I made it in one evening. I totally love this mushroom fabric. I have had it for a while now and looking for a great project to use it on. So this will be my new diaper bag. The inside fabric is some espresso upholstery fabric I had left over from my headboard project for my bed. It is nice and thick and washable. I think it turned out great. Notice how all the fabric lines up and everything. YEAH! I love it when it works out the first time.


It has a brown courdory pocket on the outside of the front.


It has three pockets across on the inside.


http://sewprimkhris.blogspot.com/2010/04/tote-bag-tutorialfree-pdf-pattern.html

All around the Farm.

Here are some great flowers we planted this year. Mom! They don't look like thistles now! HA HA!


Our garden is getting off to a great start. You can see our chicken coop in the background. The wooden poles next to the coop will be a finished enclosed run for the chickens. Right now they are free ranging a bit but there are problems with that of course. So the enclosed run will be nice.

Dominic helped me pick some fresh strawberries out of our garden! They taste awesome.


We planted over 10 blueberry plants. DH dug out the grass, put pine logs around the area and cedar mulch to keep the weeds out. I think it looks good. On the left is the strawberry patch. I hope to double the strawberries by next year. I need to plant some more.


The last thing of the day. My hen laid this shell-less egg. Actually what happened is she didn't lay yesterday and today I went out to find she had laid two eggs, one regular and this shell-less one. See how my thumb pushes into the egg. It is like a rubbery egg. Weird!!!

Bubbles.

My mom came to visit a while back and she brought bubbles for the kids. Its a sure way to get them to use up some energy. For days we would blow bubbles and chase them around the yard. Oh its the simple pleasures in life that makes having kids so much fun.

1st communion

My sweet girl Gioia took her 1st Communion at Mass this weekend. My mom and my dad and stepmom all got to be there for it. It was pretty great. She looked so beautiful.

Gardening!

So far this year I can report that our gardening is going better than last year. To this point I have planted:
Radishes
Lettuce
Kale
Spinach
Broccoli
Cabbage
Green Beans
Sweet Potatoes
Bell Peppers
Tomatoes
Carrots

DH also bought and planted 10 more Blueberry bushes and 5 more Raspberry plants. 6 apples trees, 2 pear trees, 2 peach trees and 2 plum trees.

The radishes are doing great we have picked 3 small batches so far.

Busch Gardens - Tampa

So the last leg of our trip was to go up to Tampa and stay for 3 days. While there we visited Busch Gardens twice. It was AMAZING! I totally recommend it for small kids. Their kids area was Sesame Street theme, which was perfect for my kids. We saw "the real" Big Bird, Grover and Zoey. They kids had there pictures taken with them. They were SOO excited. I have to admit I was pretty excited they had Big Bird there. He is one of my favorites. My big kids could ride two of the adult water rides which I rode with them. All the kids could ride the rides in the kid section, they required an adult with Luca sometimes.

We watched a couple shows. One was with animals who could do all these tricks. It was made to look like the animals and humans were together on a deserted island and working together. Then we saw a Pirates 4D show. The back of the seats sprayed water and air at us and the movie itself was 3D.

They also have spray park for the kids and you can bring in bathing suits and towels.

Finally, a huge section is a Zoo. They have a train that runs through the whole park. It also goes through the African animal habitat. Here is a cool interactive map of the park so you can see what it looks like: http://buschgardens.com/Bgt/Explore/ParkMap.aspx


All kids with Big Bird.


Grover and Zoey monster with the big kids.


Luca at Spray Park inside Busch Gardens.

More vacation pictures - Fort Myers

So we flew into Fort Myers and stayed for 3 days. The first day we visited Sanibel. The second day we drove down to Naples area and took a boat tour. We saw Manatee, many kinds of birds and a Dolphin. It was pretty cool. I think the kids favorite part was helping drive the boat. Luca didn't make it through the whole ride. He fell asleep the last 1/2 hour or so.


The third day we went to Fort Myers beach. It was super fun. We went back on our last day as well.

Sanibel Island

Our first full day in Florida we went across to Sanibel Island. It is beautiful, clean and very unique. We took our lunch and stayed all day. We went to the beach and then ate our lunch. After that we went and rented a double 4 seat bike. It fit all 5 of us, since 3 are kids. Massimo pedaled us all around the island and we stopped and got the most amazing ice cream. We had flavors like Blueberry Buttercream Cookie and Carmel Marscapone Pistachio.

Luca preferred to play in the sand. He was a little intimidated by the waves, even though they were pretty small and mild.



Gioia found a hole someone else had started in the sand and really went to work making it bigger.

Florida Vacation

This week we took a family vacation to Florida. It was awesome and amazing. The weather was upper 80's all week, no rain and just perfect. I am going to post about it in a couple different posts so it doesn't get too picture heavy. The kids did great on the airplane and really enjoyed it. It was Luca's first plane ride. We flew into Fort Myers and stayed for a few days then went to Tampa for a few days.



Here is the view from our hotel in Fort Myers. There is a great little restaurant in the mall area next to our hotel. It is called Gator Bites and they have Alligator on the menu. We went there and ate. It was really good. The waiter said he had never seen kids willingly eat Alligator like that (and like it so well). I thought that was weird and funny. My kids thought it was cool to try Alligator.



Looking out the hotel the other way is a Nature Preserve. You couldn't go on the land but it looks cool.

Spring, for real this time, right??

I should have awesome pictures to post but I don't. So here is just a list of all the fun things we did this weekend!

1: The boys and I went to my moms for the weekend.
2: We watched the musical Oklahoma! and it was great!
3: Luca got to stay with his Great Grandma and had a blast.
4: The boys got to play in the hay, see cows and spend time on Papaw and Grandma's farm.
5: My hubby bought 4 apples trees and 2 plum trees AND GOT THEM PLANTED!! WOO HOO!!
6: He also bought 10 blueberry bushes and 3 raspberries. He got most of them planted.
7: I planted cabbage, broccoli and flowers.
8: Hubby got the whole garden tilled.
9: Hubby got the whole yard mowed (2 acres).
10: We watched Tangled, the new Disney movie about Rapunzel.

All in all it was a super great weekend. I will try to post some pictures soon.

Spring is here!

Why is it that 45 degrees in the spring feels so much nicer than 45 in the winter? One of lifes mysteries I guess. I am sure it is because of more sun, less wind and all that.

I am starting to feel much better with the pregnancy. I got a little baby bump already. Heck, its number 4 the tummy just plops right out there after you pee on the stick. HA HA!! I am going to get my hair done this weekend and I guess I will be going back to my normal brown hair. I figure dyeing it once back to normal is better for baby than dyeing it every 2 months to keep it red.

We killed our meat chickens last weekend. We only ended up with 3 of them. 2 met there end with the dog and 2 got sick and died. We still have some more Roosters babies growing out in the coop. They were question marks (hen or rooster?) when we got them. I sure hope one at least is a girl I think 1 is for sure a boy at this phase. All roosters will be dinner.

Not much else to report. I started the garden. Put in Radish and Kale so far. I want to get some lettuce in but it says it might snow this weekend? PLEASE NO! So I will wait a bit longer.

Baby #4.

Well I haven't blogged for over a month and I have a good excuse. I am pregnant! For the last month I have been feeling so crappy and just didn't have the energy to blog. I am feeling better now and so hoping to get back into it. Baby #4 is due end of Sept or 1st of October. So yeah us! Monday we heard the little heartbeat pitter pattering, so that is a relieve. :)

I hope to get some new pictures of the kids and our adventures up soon.

New neice!

I finally have some good pictures of her! Zoey Ellyn Born Jan. 21st! She is sweet as pie. The kids love her!

Maran Chicks.

I can't believe I forgot to post more about my chicken obsession. I got some Black Copper Maran chicks to go with my big Rooster I already have. I have had these guys about a week now. They are in the house again because they don't have all their feathers. I have 5 of these guys. Hope most are girls. Boys will be sold or dinner.

New King Sized Headboard

We have never had bedroom furniture. My dresser is an antique from my Granny. Massimo has his clothes in closet shelving. So you might have seen a few posts back that I made Cedar Nightstands for our room. They are pictured here in use. We got Espresso colored wicker baskets to hold things on the shelves. Then this week I made this fabric covered headboard. As always I got my plans from Ana White (aka Knock off wood). I covered it with Espresso colored suede fabric. It also has Espresso colored wood trim around that and finally the outside edges I painted a complimentary off white. You can click the picture to get a closer look.

Credit where credit is due: http://ana-white.com/2010/02/plans-king-size-framed-upholstered-headboard.html

Ice Skating

We got invited up to our neighbors house a couple weeks ago to go ice skating. It was super fun. We also stayed, had dinner and great conversation. They have lots of skates in different sizes so we just borrowed for the day. Luca stayed in his boots. By the end of the time Dominic and Gioia were playing ice Hockey. :)

Facebook in Real life.

This is funny as heck because its so true!!