Chick- a- thon

All my personal friends know that I have been on a mission for the past 21 days.  We have been expanding our school family. We are hatching chickens.  Well, not me personally.  I have way too much to do to sit on eggs all day and night.  So I acquired an incubator from a parent, Anne, in our pod.  

If you know anything about hatching eggs (which I didn't) you know that the eggs need to be turned 3 times a day. This presented a problem.  Our eggs would be incubating over Spring Break.  Surprisingly, no one volunteered to come up to school 3 times a day to turn the eggs!  No idea why..... :) Anyway, our wonderful parent Anne got us an automatic turner for the incubator.  Then we were ready to rock and roll! 

We started with 37 fertilized eggs from a farm in a neighboring town- 12 Brown eggs which would hatch into Rhode Island Red chickens, 18 white eggs hatching into White Leghorns, and 7 little green eggs hatching into Easter Eggers!  Listen people- I had NO idea that different colored chickens laid different colored eggs!!!! I also never knew specific names!! I just thought chickens are chickens!! :) The incubator was set at 99.5 and now we had to sit.....and....wait.....

On day 15 we were able to "candle" the eggs.  We set up an overhead projector, cut a whole in a box and put each egg on top.  You can actually see the outline of whats developing inside.  By day 15, about 3/4 of the egg should be filled with the developing chick.  I am attaching a picture but it is not great quality.  Candling each egg allowed us to see into all the white eggs to make sure progress was being made.  The brown and green eggs' shells were too thick to see into :( A few eggs were not developing so they were discarded. 

      
The 21st day was a Tuesday.  This day was called HATCH DAY!  I am usually late to work.  This day, I was not late :)  When I walked in the door, I knew the peeps that I heard were louder than the tinny peeps I heard coming out before they hatched. (I forgot to mention earlier that on day 20 you can hear tiny peeps inside the egg) So, friends, I walked in on HATCH DAY to find 2 tiny wet chicks peeping away in the incubator.  1 tiny brown chick and 1 tiny white chick.........RELIEF.........


My intention for this project was to teach and learn about things concerning life cycles, living things, and chicks. There is no guarantee that any egg will hatch.  We assume, hope and pray that they are fertilized and wait nervously for HATCH DAY.  What if they don't hatch? How will I explain this to 80 5-7 year olds? What if they die? Should I get more/new eggs and start over? 
These questions rolled in my mind for 21 days and with those 2 tiny living things, all my fears went away.For the rest of Tuesday and most of Wednesday 11 more brown and white chicks hatched.  We were in awe every time we got the chance to see a tiny animal take its first breath of fresh air. Take a look....

It has been a truly amazing and educational experience for me. I believe it may have built some character in me as a few times I had to clean or adjust something gross.  If you know me, you know that I am not a big fan of gross things :)(Also a giant thanks to Anne for a lot of the dirty work) The end result of this project was sweet tiny chicks that will live with us for 1 week and then move to their permanent home at Nanny's Educational Zoo.  Its not too far and our students can go there and visit anytime.  Thanks for reading!
KBO

Spring Break 2011

This year for Spring Break, Andrew and I decided to vacation alone.  Gasp!  I know some of you are thinking "How could you?", and others are thinking "I'm so jealous!"  The fact is that vacationing with kids is not relaxing.  At least that's true for my kids.  And yes, I felt very guilty a few times.  However, I believe it is vital for husbands and wives to spend time together.....alone!  

At my request, we decided to go some place warm but still in driving distance.  Since we live in central Florida, our choices were limited. We chose Key West.  Some of you may be able to make a personal connection to this city like "Oh yes, we went there a few years ago." But now I'd like to ask you this question... Have you been to Key West during Spring Break????? I believe it is a totally different animal.  I suppose I am somewhat of a prude according the worlds standards and that is okay with me.  I enjoy my conservative existence.  I was naive to think that I knew what to expect.  Spring Breaks are much different than they used to be. :) 

Outside of all the debauchery, there were some nice sights.  And Andrew and I Had a great time together laughing at all the drunkards. Once we even got called "cool-for old people" by some college goers.  At first I was offended, but then I realized that he was right- we are pretty cool! :)

Here are some of the G rated sights....

 I think next time we will schedule our trip at the 25 and older resort :) 
KBO

I Heart Mod Podge

I don't know about you but I consider myself somewhat crafty.  That was until I switched my kids bedrooms and went to redecorate them. In Lucy's new room there is this ginormous wall. Since I love wall decor I had all kinds of ideas.  I even drew and painted this swirly tree with monkeys hanging on it.  Well before I finished I became so stressed about it not looking "just right" that I painted over it the original color.  So for the past few months it has remained empty.....and driving me crazy!  
I have a thing for letters on walls.  I like any letters, any size, any colors.  I even love symbols like & and @.  So I decided to make letters for her wall.  My first thought was to get large paper mache letters and cover them with fabric.  Then my crafty friend, who will remain nameless until I get permission from her to talk about her, lol, introduced me to Mod Podge!  Okay, so this may be the coolest crafting supply ever!  And it is so easy!  For me, who is only somewhat crafty, it is the perfect tool!  First I painted the outside of the letters.  I went to Joanns and bought 4 pieces of scrapbooking paper. I traced the letters on the paper and cut them out.  Then painted the Mod Podge on the front of the letters and placed the scrapbook paper on top.  Then covered the whole outside of the letters and paper with the finishing Mod Podge.  Let it sit over night and tada-my own custom wall letters! So happy!!! After they dried, my crafty friend and I chose little embellishments to accent with.  We chose things that had special meaning, like a little note that hangs out of an envelope.  Also added her nickname, bug!  These are my first pics with my new camera.  Please be patient with me as I learn how to use it correctly, lol. Hope you like the letters. And next time you have a project consider Mod Podging it!  You will Love it! Thanks for reading!

Had to show you the star of the show!!
KBO

A Few of My Favorite Things

So, here I am blogging world.  I know a few of my friends are thrilled and the other billion of you don't even know I exist.  I thought my first post should be an introductory look into my life and my favorite things.  We can start here...this is my favorite man.  It is a blessing to wake up next to him every morning!

Easy on the eyes, huh? Well if you agree with that, wait until you see my kids.  Gavin, aka, Gav-a-tron is our first.  This one is blazing the trail for us! Then along came Lucy, aka, Tiny Bug. These two fill our days with joy and challenges.  Keeping us young and giving us gray hair.  

I hope to use this blog as a way to keep in touch with some, inspire others, and maybe even challenge a few!
Thanks for reading,
KBO