Friday, Food, Furry's,Festivities, Fo, Family, Furrows, Fun, Friends, Fuzzies and FIRE!!!

The past month has been a flurry of activity. It started with a trip to Lancaster with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and a trip to a scrapbooking convention. We had a great day looking at all the products and getting supplies for our next crop! or "crap" as we call it (short for scrap and crop). I got some really cute things, hopefully you'll see them on a future layout. Mom took us to lunch at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord in Lancaster and then we went to the craft warehouse where we were tempted by good prices and cool items. It was a really fun day with Family. Thanks guys!

I also got to visit with my cousin Felicia (better known as "FO" on this season of America's Next Top Model!!) She was in town for a visit with my uncle(her dad) and I got an autographed photo from her one of her shoots on the show! She's not allowed to talk about the show at all or say how it ended, so we'll just have to keep watching. I will say that she's just as cute and sweet in real life as on the show. I haven't' seen her for a few years since Gryphon was about 3 so it was nice to see her again. (check out Ruby's face there in the second photo! Ha!)




Then that Friday I had another First Friday performance with Tribal Rising, which was great fun. We had some good friends come up for a suprise visit, which was really nice! There were quite a few people who came up afterward to say they liked the performance and would come again which was really cool!

The following day we went to the annual Ukrainian Egg dyeing party at our friend Jan's house. Jan and Greg throw a huge party each year with lots and lots of great food and egg dying all day. It's always a lot of fun and the FOOD! oh my goodness! the FOOD!! I forgot my camera, but here are some pictures of the eggs from this year. (the little quail eggs in the middle are new and the tiny dotted egg and the dandelion are new)


The FURRY in my post is about our newest addition. Gryphon and his friend found a baby squirrel orphaned in the yard. I'm not sure how he got there but we took him in and after looking up what to do on the internet, I got him all warmed and fed and we've had him a few weeks now. He was all pink when we found him with almost no fur. I started out giving him scalded cows milk which apparently is the wrong thing. After some talk with wildlife rehabbers on-line we got it straightened out and are now feeding him puppy milk replacer every 3-4 hours. We are going to try to rehabilitate him and then let him go when he is able to fend for himself. I am saying that now, but those who know me well, know how much I adore squirrels and that I might not be able to actually follow through on the "letting go" part so easily. I think he's about 5 weeks old. His eyes just opened last week or so. He fits easily into the palm of your hand. He must be constantly on the heating pad It's a time commitment he and is doing well and growing. Here are some pics from a week or so ago, and one from this past week.






One Sunday last month I spent a glorious afternoon working on the children's garden at our church. We stayed late after the Sunday celebration with our friends and had a little picnic of fruit and bread on the lawn and then got to work digging the big circle where the garden will be. (hence the furrows in the title)It was so nice to be outside on a warm day, and the kids had fun playing together in the new sand pit. Chris spent the morning skateboarding on his own and then joined me after church. We dropped the kids off at his parents to stay the night. (Thank you again mom and dad!)and headed to the city for my big exciting news!

FIRE!!!!

I got to do FIRE HOOPING!! for the first time! FANTASTIC!!! I've been wanting to do this for some time and was thrilled to be able to spin fire that night after a very informative hour long safety workshop. Chris and I got to learn about the fuels used in fire performance, how to be safe, how to put out a fire (we got to practice putting out fire on each other's legs) and the general do's and dont's of playing with fire. It was super Fun.Following that we went to a really nice Sushi dinner together YUMMMMM and then met up with some friends afterward for drinks. All in all it was a really "Hot" date! Har har..

Here is my first "burn" as it's called (no I didn't get burned!)



The following evening I had a chance to do it again, I was invited to the firehoop instuctor's house for a spin jam and potluck. There were so many amazing fire performers there. Fire eaters, fire-hoopers, fire-poi and fire-staff. Really inspiring! My fire hoop is being created right now! I can't wait to do it again. And YES, yes I'm being safe about it! I had my hair pulled up real tight in a bun, but I'm thinking more than ever on now cutting it shorter.

Then we had Gryphon's homeschool Evaluation last month. We presented his portfolio and he was interviewed by the evaluator, she also administered the WRAT test. He did so well! His scores for reading and math were well above his grade level, which was a suprise as I feel like so much of our day is fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants. I'm just relieved that the eval and testing portion is over and now we just need to turn in our portfolio to the school district by June! Year one red tape FINISHED!!!!!

Today we got some Furries! 3 new baby chicks. They are "Sylvie" the Silver Spangled Hamburg,(she'll lay white eggs. "Cocoa" the Cuckoo Maran, (brown eggs) and "Carnation" (short for Reincarnation) the Arucauna who is the replacement for Lola and Laylou who were Aracuana's. They are so sweet and wee! (couldn't get a good picture of cocoa, but she is the one closest to the water feeder in the red picture.)




Whew~ Spring is feeling really FANTASTIC! so far!