Our Peeps

Today was a big day in the Sperle household. We brought home four new family members from L&M Fleet. Yes, I said four new Sperles. Four of the cutest, egg-laying Sperles that you ever did see. We have chickens!! Well, chicks--araucana chicks to be sort-of exact (they could be americaunas or easter egg chickens) and they will be providing us with yummy, blue-green, farm-fresh eggs in 20 weeks or so.

Hundreds of chicks/ducklings/goslings arrived at L&M Fleet (I'll have to devote an entire post to fleet another day. It sells all things that are northern Minnesota. And boy do we love love love that store.) today and we rushed over to get our hands on a few before they sold out. We got the last 4 "araucanas", so we didn't get to choose, but really, they're all so cute it would have been hard to pick.

We brought them home and put them in their little cardboard box home in our basement until their chicken coop is complete. Nothing like have growing chicks to motivate you to finish up the chicken coop!! They have a cuddly warm heat lamp and will be living there until they get their feathers.

The kids are seriously in love with the chicks. They've been played with and loved a lot today. Sadie kissed them all about a hundred times each. I'm just tickled and kind of amazed that we actually have chickens living in our basement (away from the cat!!). I don't really know anything about chickens so it's going to be a fun learning experience. Thank goodness for the internet! Eli is holding Penelope (we'll probably end up calling her Penny). Here Sadie is holding Mabel, the biggest and fastest chick.

Eli named this little girl, Mohawk, because she has a perfect brown stripe down her back. I have a feeling we'll call her Mo.

The other little all yellow gal is Annie Ella Rosa or "Annie" for short. Sadie was having a hard time choosing from all of her favorite names so she has three of them. I'm sure we'll only call her her full name when she's being naughty.

I'm sure we'll have more pictures soon.

Sadie Ties Her Shoes

What is it about the second born that makes them so much more independent than their sibling?? Or is it because she's a girl? Either way, Sadie can now tie her shoes. I think she beat Eli by about 18 months on this milestone and even still if Eli is given a choice he will have me tie them. I know, watching a 4 year old tie her shoes is sort of a lame video, but it gives you a chance to admire her long fingers and do some deep breathing excercises.

Sadie's First Gymnastics Meet

I'm not sure that I mentioned that Sadie has moved up levels in gymnastics. She is currently a "superbee", which is a 4, 5, and 6 year old class. Sadie loves gymnastics and asks "Do I have gymnastics today?" just about everyday. She also says, "Did you know that they have gymnastics 2 days a week?" Actually they have it 3 days a week, but I feel a four year old only needs to go once a week!
Every session the Gym Bin holds a "Fun Meet" for all of the non-competitive teams. The girls (and boys if they had any) each do a floor, beam, vault and bar routine and get a score and a ribbon for their routine. I was so proud of Sadie for going out there and doing all of her routines with a huge smile on her face.
It was hard to get videos of her bar and vault routines because of the view we had, but enjoy her floor and beam routines:

Let's Get This Party Started

Sadie actually screamed those words to some friends the other day when they were over. It was so funny coming out of Sadie with her tiny little voice and all. And then I got worried. If this is how she is at 4, what will 16 look like?
Today was a bummer of a day. Yesterday it was like 40 degrees and today 5. It was cold and it snowed again. We're all getting a little fed up with this winter. Please spring come soon, before we pack up and move to Arizona...
Anyways, at supper the kids asked if they could have a dance party. I said yes of course, because dance parties are like my favorite thing in the whole wide world. Usually, we dance in the kitchen, but we recently discovered that if we move the dining room table and chairs out of the way we have a perfect dance floor (or gymnastics mat). All we need is a disco ball and a strobe light (and maybe some better dance music) and we'll be all set. The pictures are a little dark. It was very dark and I could not see them so I was radomly pointing the camera and shooting. This is them with the flash. Their dancing is always a bit on the interpretive side. It is very erratic and crazy and often involves lots of spinning, kicking, jumping and "getting down".

Did I mention it was dark. It was very dark. Here is what it really looked like:

Since it was so dark and a bit crazy, Eli initiated some rules. Here they are:

1) No shaking your booty

2) No holding 2 hands.

3) No crawling.

4) No hanging upside down and swinging.