Spring Break Fun - Farmer Noel

We have some friends, the Tysons, who asked Noel to take care of their animals while they were gone on spring break. Noel has loved it. Sylvia also loves coming along on our early moring outings. Here are some shots from this mornings visit.

This is looking out at the barn and pasture from the house. The frogs in the pond decided to wake up this morning and sounded like a lawn mower. It sounded better the last couple days, when it was below freezing, and the frogs were quiet but the birds sang.


After taking care of the house animals (cats, fish, dog), Noel moves to the outside pets. She loves the bunnies. She has been begging all week for her own.

This is her favourite bunny. While Noel plays with the rabbits the horses see us outside, and Gjerte (a Noreign Fjord horse) comes over to greet Noel.
Sylvia has learned the names of almost all the cats, including these barn cats. She says that they are her favourite animal that we take care of.

The chickens has some eggs for us this morning. Noel likes to hold the freshly laid warm ones in her hands to keep them warm. Today we let Sylvia gather the eggs.

She was so excited. It was like practising for Easter. I wonder if farmers think Easter-egg hunts are dorky. The eggs we found were all different colors and sizes. I like the pale blue ones best.

Gjerte sticks her head in to see why we are taking so long with the chickens. She is worried we are going to forget about her breakfast.

This is Peanut. She also is wondering what is on this morning's menu.

Noel brings them a couple flakes of baled hay, and looks like a true farm girl. I wish I could buy her a farm for Chirstmas. :)


Feeding the chickens is fun. Noel fills up their feeders, then sprinkles some on the ground. Sylvia was shocked by how loud the ten chickens were. Now she just laughs, and crows back at them.

They have all sorts of different breeds. I think the chickens are beautiful. They are fun to watch.

This fellow though, is trouble. His name is Stew, and he didn't like Noel visiting his chicken yard yesterday. He attacked her leg, and left a nice beak-mark through her jeans. Sean says jeans are more than just a fashion statement for farmers. I can see why . Now we just keep clear of Stew. He makes our spring-break farm adventrue have an edge of danger in it. What more could you want?

The Trampoline joins the household !

Hurrah! I found a used trampoline for sale in the area, and rushed to get it. Our family really misses the tramp we had in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard. But, there had to be some dramatic twist in this unexpected blessing. The problem was that it would take a lot of work to put together, and a rainstorm ( with possible tornados) and then a blizzard were coming within the week.
Sean worked on the trampoline for hours on Saturday, and almost had it set up. Good job, fix-it man!


I had nightmares about tornadoes throwing all the trampoline parts that were still laying on our lawn through our house windows, so Sean kindly took Monday off, and finished assembling the trampoline. It was cold and rainy, but Noel and Mattias were a great help! Here is Monday's fix-it crew.
It was up by the time Asher was home from school. Sylvia jumped and jumped on the tramp in her snow suit. Everyone had a blast.

The kids spent all of their outside time jumping this week... and everyone got very tired. Sylvia started taking naps again! Hurrah, Hurrah!

Sylvia did lots of expert tricks, and hasn't broken an arm yet. I think this is a very successful purchase.


Then came the blizzard, to start off the kid's "spring break" from school. After the snow stopped, the kids shovelled the snow off the tramp, mopped it dry with a towel, and kept playing on it. I'm sure we'll have some acrobatic special pictures to post later, as the kids perfect their Olympic style moves with the warmer weather.

A Revolutionary War Poem - by Asher

The vultures come out at the break of dawn,
To see what these men have come upon.
Whiz! Bang! The sound of thunder.
Flaming bullets come sailing under.
General Washington leads his men,
On to victory - now and then.

What have we been up to?

Does this picture look as if my children are extra-angelic? I'm sure they were that day. I was sick, so Sean took the day off and they went on an outing to a beautiful indoor botanical garden in Madison.



Sylvia's comment, when looking at these pictures was "My sweater, It make me hot!"
The fuzz on the first shot was caused by the excessive humidity in the warm building.

The lush greenery was a nice change from the snowy winter weather.



Noel was impressed that they could grow their own bamboo.

They were impressed with the citrus trees. This is a loquat tree. Noel is now trying to grow a mango tree in her room.. but the pit molded.

Lego Robot club has been a fun part of every week. On Tuesdays, Mattias has 3 friends over, and they build different robots to accomplish different tasks set out in a book. Noel is on the couch in back, knitting. She usually goes to a knitting club on Tues. afternoons, and Asher goes to a friends house for a boardgame club.


This is a new phase of Syvia's life : Library Storytime. Every Tuesday morning, we walk down to the library, and they read stories, dance to songs, and then make a craft project related to the theme. Here Sylvia is modellig her Valentine Heart crown, and showing a penguin she made from another week. She gets so excitied when I tell her it is storytime day. She jumps around and squeels with joy.
The boys have been busy withcub scouts. We had the Blue and Gold banquet last month, and Asher got his Arrow of Light award. He is now into Boy Scouts. Mattias has been busy finishing requirements to earn his Bear patch.



And this is how our kitchen usually looks on Sunday afternoons. Sean and the boys have a long-running Dungeons and Dragon game going. They have been playing sections of it for a couple months now. It keeps the boys busy, while Sylvia and I practice our napping skills. Noel usually reads, or knits while watching the game.


And that is the scoop from the McMullin household. We are excited to be moving into spring, and soccer season. Soon we should have pictures with flowers in them!