Butchering, Basket ball and Boat ride

We got to experience something very new to us a few weeks ago but first a couple of pictures from the coop and the couch.  

Rafael doing his presentation by doing a card trick 

Cozy time on the couch at night. If only they could get along this well all the time!!


So back to our experience… We were invited by some friends to come and learn how to kill and prepare a chicken. It surely sounded a little intimidating as well as interesting and possible traumatic. Alex was not home so I decided to go with the kids and just observe. it would be very valuable knowledge whenever we get out little homestead with some animals :-)

When we got there it started off with a presentation with some background information and what we were to expect. Our friends are Jewish so everything needed to be done kosher style, which is meant to be the least paint full for the animal. While I was listening to this the boys were running around playing with the other kids who were there, but as soon as it was time to kill the first chicken they came running and were very interested in how it was done. Marlee even helped with one of the chickens which ended up being our chicken and we got to take it home. I was worries the boys would find the whole procedure scary but they were surprisingly engaged and curious. 

Gabriel helping Marlee to rinse off the blood from the chicken before putting it in hot water and then in the defeathering machine. It was a heavy chicken!!! 

Spraying water into the defeathering machine. We still had to plonk a lot of the feathers and that is hard work!






A normal day at coop :-)


Marlee built a “floating island”


❤️❤️


This was the first meal I made of the chicken. I also made curry chicken and chicken soup :-) 


Doing school ❤️


We went to see one of Alex’s speeches in port orange. Several of my friends were talking as well as it was about homeschooling. 


At coop again :-) David loves to go in this cart. 


Basketball game for Gabriel and Raffi. 




Boat ride! It has been a while but we finally made it out again. David is eating a boiled egg which is his and mine new favorite protein snack :-)




It was exhausting for Raffi!! 


While on the way back to the dock Gabriel found a toad in one of the cabinets on the boat. He was so excited about it!! :-)

The weather has started to get warmer now so hopefully there will be chances for some more boat rides. 

Happy Birthday David!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID 2 years old!!!!!

(January 27)

You never get used to how fast time flies with kids. My baby is two and he is such a capable and wise two-year-old.  He doesn’t talk very much, even if he tries to copy us at least, but he cleans up all his cars (and that’s a lot of cars!!) and he prepares some snacks for himself when he knows we are going somewhere. He puts a slice of bread in a ziplock bag and grabs his water bottle and maybe a baby food pouch. That is pretty impressive I think. He is also a great eater and eats most of what I give him except pizza, and he is not a big fan of white bread. He does love ice cream and chocolate so he is not as healthy as it sounds :-) 

Breakfast in bed

And a delicious breakfast including cookies from ikea 






The biggest gift…


…was a mini basket ball hoop so he can practice with his brothers. 


Marlee’s first basket ball game this season. They lost with 88-8, or something like that, but he has very nice kids on his team and last weekend they actually won :-)


It is tough to be the youngest brother but it makes him strong 😂 Pulling one of Raffi’s friends. 


Sleeping like an angel with his cat blanket 


Gabriel’s and Raffi’s game. They have done pretty good so far. Raffi has the ball and Gabriel is in the orange shorts to the right. 

About a week ago Alex’s mom’s family had a family reunion and it was such a great time!!! Wonderful food and a lot of nice people. Some that we had not met before. 




Look how bubbles watches over the sleeping “baby”. 


Playing with “cousins” at the family reunion


He spends a lot of time watching basket ball right now. Most of the time he does not sit still and look like an angel like this…

Field trip to the Arts and garden museum in ormond. They all got to do a little art project. 




Put in the Garden :-)




Marlee’s braces are really moving things around look at his front teeth!! The bottom pictures are only 12h apart!!!

Adios!

Trips without parents and Field trips

Still catching up here and we are still back in January. Our tadpole kept growing and survived the freezing (for Florida) cold during Christmas. It is so huge!!!!

He is definitely not sitting on the table eating ice cream… 


Noah spent a weekend with some friends camping in George.  It was cold but so much fun! Look at the stars they saw!!


Visit to our land in de Leon springs and a new calf has been born! To the right is our bull :-)


While out there we got a perfect view of a rocket launch :-)


Doing his math as a good boy :-) Bubbles is a great support!


Gabriel went to hide in his bed when he got upset about something and ended up falling asleep. He was most likely just very tired! 


Showing off is muscles in his sleep :-)


Field trip to the Art and Science museum in Daytona. 

A mix of Gabriel and Rafael. 


And one of Rafael and Gabriel. 


Lift yourself. 


Still eating on the table but not ice cream, just a salad :-)

Marlee got to go to Colorado to ski with farmor, uncle Cory and uncle Troy!!! A wonderful trip full of great skiing. 




In Ormond it was not much skiing but some chess tournaments. 


Rafael doing his weekly presentation at coop. This one was about Sweden. 


Noah doing a presentation at our other coop about the three branches of government in my civics class. 

Lunch break at coop which often means football (American). 




He lost a tooth!!! And now looks like a hillbilly!! :-)


Eating raisins with a form takes patience..