Happy 3rd birthday, Chooj!

It's hard to believe that just three years ago I gave birth to Chooj in the little cabin in the woods of middle Tennessee and Hayes couldn't bear to part with him for a second.
After ringing in the new year with friends last night, there was a lot to be desired in good behavior from a 3-year-old today. Man, was he cranky.
Yes, he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese's ... no, he absolutely did not want to go ... jumping up and down crying that he wanted to go, jumping up and down crying that he didn't.
He did help me make his birthday cake and I promised him he could put the sprinkles on. Oops. Where did I forget NOT to let the 3-year-old have the whole bottle of sprinkles unsupervised?
We got that sorted out, sang "Happy Birthday" and Chooj belted out a big 3-year-old blow.

After cake, time for presents! Hayes wrapped up things that he likes in her room and he was most excited about that out of everything.

I gave him "Cars" cars and he toted those around with him all day.

Yes, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's and I'm not sure who had the most fun: me, Hayes or the birthday boy!

There's a lamb in the house

My expert goat milker (Hayes) is back and able to get a little bit out of Fannie, but since I was so stressed about feeding Lamby that I got milk replacer. It's easier just to bring the thing in and let her nurse after getting her bottle ready. The kids really love this!

And I think Lamby is getting a little too used to coming in the house.

Then there's the benefit of having a baby lamb chase you all around the kitchen:

Sure, it looks like Lamby is just standing there, but I assure you she was jumping into the air and chasing Chooj all around the island!

Christmas images

Baby lambs are the cutest!! Goats are not.

The kids have been in South Carolina so all the extra farm duties are my responsibility and I tell you I cannot milk that goat. If you get past the butt shot, Hayes is doing an exceptional job of getting milk from Fannie.
Then Chooj was a lot of help too feeding the baby lamb. Of course, you have to work off all that energy from breakfast and Chooj's face is absolute joy. The lamb doesn't really run ... she bounces! The kids return tomorrow and I'll be so happy!

Temporary creatures at Hoppy Hollow

In my last post, I mentioned my friend Tracy is on her way across the country for the holidays. In addition to our dogs, cats, chickens and horses, Tracy's family's two guinea pigs, baby lamb and three goats are here for two weeks.
"Lamby" gets bottle fed three times a day from milk from the goat.

Now why can't the lamb just nurse the goat? Good question and here's your answer: teeth! Plus, Fannie hates Lamby.
Lamby and Reset are about the same size. Maybe that's why Fannie chases off Reset too. When Tracy was setting up the panels under one of the horses' run-in sheds, Hank and Gracie were like,"What the devil are those crazy things and why are they in our run-in shed?" This is when I need a Thoroughbred. Goats are often stalled with racehorses to keep them calm at the track.

Typical - the adults do all the work and the kids play. While hearing the goats baaing whenever I go to Tracy's makes me laugh, I think I'm going to get pretty darn tired after two weeks of constantly hearing it. It's not even a "baa." It's almost like an I'm-dying-right-now sound. Hayes and Chooj have been having a good time with Charlie and Bugza. I was instructed the other night that I HAD to stop by the grocery for carrots and cabbage for them.

My first goat milking lesson

My friend Tracy and her family are going out of town for two weeks. While I'll be caring for my own animals, I'll also be feeding her menagerie once a day, which my friend Joleen and I will share responsibility.

BUT ... Tracy has some high maintenance critters at present and they are going to hang out here at Hoppy Hollow in the interim. For one, there is "Lamby," who needs to be bottle fed three times a day. Now there is nothing cuter than a baby lamb and she follows me all over the place when she's not in her pen on the deck. Then there's Fannie the goat, who needs milking twice a day. Fannie is also joined by two other goats for company.

While Hayes is an experienced goat milker, having helped Tracy with farm chores during the times she's stayed there, I needed a lesson because Hayes will be gone for a few days and I'll be on my own.

Here is Tracy giving me a lesson: It was a little weird milking and remembering it wasn't that long ago I was nursing Chooj and, well, I just won't go there. TMI.
I got the hang of it pretty quickly ...

then Tracy stepped in to show me I wasn't being aggressive enough with my milking.

( I have a friend who just loves that I don't dye my hair, but I tell you after seeing this picture, I'm just vain enough to be about over it.)

While much of the milk will go for Lamby, I also intend to store some for the crockpot yogurt and soft cheeses I make.

The bedroom gets an overhaul

It's taken the better part of a week to get my bedroom painted. I hate painting - I'm no good at it. I spill, I drip, I go outside the lines, but it's my bedroom so I can live with it.
I knew I wanted gold, but everything I found was too yellow or too brown. Then I found the Ralph Lauren regent metallic and I was sold. Problem was I happened to love the paint that cost $42 a gallon. At a friend's suggestion, I tried matching it to Benjamin Moore but no go.
Now once I got one coat on the walls, hadn't done the cut work yet and was just about out of paint, lo and behold, I see I need another coat. Dagnabbit.
Back to the store for more $42 paint. I kept telling myself it was just $42 paint then my friend Morita says,"Well, that's 85 dollars." and I got all aggravated.
It's finally done today and I moved some furniture and here is the final product.

The kids love it and my friend Brenda said the color is the color of queens. I do love that comment.
My next project is tiling my bathroom, which I will call upon my Aunt Melinda quite frequently to talk me through the whole process because I'm kinda skeered about doing it.

The last dance

Yesterday was my last dancing day for the local studio. I've taught off and on for 20 years and took this job after a three year hiatus from dance.
Tuesdays were my 5 and 6 year olds. I had 20 in my class and really enjoyed it. Wednesdays were my 3 and 4 year olds and, mostly, it was like herding cats. After that was the 12 and up class, which I just loved.
Here's a picture of my assistant Abby, who also took the Wednesday night big girl class. I asked Abby to take a picture of me with the class. Why she chose to do it while I was teaching echappes, I don't know (that's "eh-sha-pays"). "Open Christmas present, close Christmas present." That's how I taught it.

Back to dancing in the car, I suppose.

The tree is up

We searched hard for a tree Saturday! What happened to the Kiwanis or the Lions Club or whomever selling trees in a parking lot?
Soon as we had it inside, I put on the lights and the kids decorated the whole thing themselves.

I may have to do a bit of reconfiguring of ornaments on that tree when the kids are gone!

Nothing like decorating the holiday tree with a bare butt.

Homeschooling images

There's lots to catch up on ... we've been doing a lot of schooling and much of this week is holiday-related.
I've been trying to get Chooj caught up on ABCs and he's been doing dot paints from Making Learning Fun. Meanwhile, I had Hayes try to work out the grid pattern mosaic herself. She shortchanged herself and filled it in with the dot paints and I had her go back and do again with the green and red counters. She did it and insisted I take a picture so she could dump it all back in the bag.
It's been so cold out that we're now relegated to the indoors - sigh. Makes everyone a little cuckoo and somedays the trip is shorter than others.
Anyway, we got out a holiday card matching game that I made last year. The kids took turns doing the matching and it all worked out nicely and cooperatively. Chooj played an ornament matching game then we revised it for Hayes to play a memory game. Snagged this from Activity Village on the web.