B Week: The beach!

I love the beach! I love the ocean, the wind, the sand, watching the kids build, swimming, everything except packing :) We always love the beach but I thought we had an extra great time this year.

We still mainly followed our routine- eat, games, beach, pool, repeat...

but we did add a few things this year

Take me away to Margaritaville 

This was definitely new- my mom helping wrangle chickens before our trip

Soccer cuddles

Panthers after the first game

Our ping-pong rallies are getting longer

So glad the game room is still fun with no quarters!

The beach was beautiful! Weather super! Water fun! and no crowds! 

It did get a little chilly in the mornings 

                                                                              but worth it for this view!

V did awesome- well everyone did- but this was his first time at Myrtle Beach and he needs lots of naps! We were thankful for his naps and for Nana and Papa helping with naps!

Digging sand castles is always a hit. The kids most loved the waves which I didn't get pics of because they were so big!

We celebrated T's birthday a few weeks after his birthday

And Nana's a few weeks early with mimosas and captain crunch french toast 

Fun to wave at family on the beach!

We hit the hot tub after the pool most days

We added some wine on the balcony in the afternoons

I have some more picture takers now so I was in a couple pics

V enjoyed the s'mores night!

We all did!

Instead of grilling at the cottages, we used the new grills right off the beach! Much fun!!

The kids did great and we all enjoyed the musical show "Time Warp: Music of the 60s, 70s, 80s." 

V was full of giggle and happy that Daddy got to come to the beach!

Love that view! Looks like the pool goes forever!

Here's our traditional check out day breakfast- Yum!

We ended the trip with pancakes again! A super end to a super trip!

Chickens Part Two

We've been proud chicken owners for two weeks now. We got our first six July 28th and last four 4 August. The first ones were 8 days old when we got them and second set were 2 days old. They change so fast! It's been really neat to watch them changing- both their bodies and their behaviors. It's really a lot like watching newborns change. 

The kids love to hold the birds. 

James had lots of good helpers building the coop.

Paint goes on quick with five painters!

Chicken playtime after dinner is one of our favorite times of day now!

The way to a bird's heart is through her stomach :)

How cute is that! Our fuzzy Rhode Island Reds

Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Barred Rocks cuddling together

My hard working, super building hubby!

Little chicks lay down and nap in the kids' hands

Our fine feathered friends needed a net on top to keep from flying around our house.
They love the perch James made for them. It's usually full!

We sure our enjoying our chickens and look forward to yummy eggs!

Chicks

so we've been talking about getting chickens for a while and finally decided to go for it after seeing that some families in our neighborhood have chickens and especially reading this neighbor's blog. 

So we started doing some research, visited the neighbor, and ordered a dozen chicks! We changed our minds a few times and ended up ordering getting 

2 Golden Laced Wyandottes (Eve and Mrs. Noah)

2 Silver Laced Wyandottes (Sarah and Hagar)

and 2 Brown leghorns (Pillar and 

They are so fun! They cuddle together and nap. until one wakes up and steps on the rest and then they are all up- eating, drinking, scratching, trying their hardest to get a fly if it flies by. I'm really amazed by how quickly their feathers are growing. These first chicks we got were a week old when we got them so they already had the beginnings of wings when we got them and it seems like their feathers have grown each time I look at them.  They do make quite a mess- they stand in their food and water and knock it all over. But they're super cute. 

The kids love to pet them and pick them up. we've been taking one at a time out of the box since I have these visions of chicks running everyone and us not being able to catch them all :)

James has been hard at work for four days now on our Chicken Castle. He did a great job making the plans himself and building it all- of course, he had this fine construction crew.

The kids favorite part was the painting. James enjoyed building it but probably would have liked cooler weather!