Party Pics and Meet the Chicks

Clover and I had a fun day on Sunday at a birthday party in Howarth Park. A boy from her preschool turned four and all the kids got bracelets for unlimited access to the attractions.

Our day involved carousel rides, train rides, playing at the playground, eating chocolate cupcakes, watching/wincing through the mesh as my little girl braved the wild free-for-all that is the jumpy house, and her first real pony ride atop a gallant little steed called midnight. As you can see from the pics, cupcake face had a total blast.

Nothing new as far as the 100% thrifted outfit is concerned, but doesn’t Clover look adorable in the hand-made felt flower headband I received awhile back in a giveaway package from Andrea :D

We also went to this event on Saturday, but I still need to go through the way too many photos I took before I get a post together on that. For now, here’s a little chicken update:


After taking some outfit shots, I popped into the chicken coop with my camera to get some photos. They’ve been growing soooo fast! Not yet full-grown, but looking more like small chickens than big chicks at this point. They’re now happily living outside in their coop full-time.

I’ve discovered that chickens are harder to photograph than you might think. They’re all about fast jerky movements right when you go to snap a shot and the more chickens in the shot the more jerky movements to deal with! Trying to take a one handed photo of yourself holding a chicken adds a whole new layer of difficulty, but I did manage a couple :)

We haven’t totally settled on names yet, but I’ve tentatively given them each a different herbal moniker to go by. This one is our little sweetheart Chicory, the smallest and most easy going of the bunch, she’s usually more up for being handled than the others.

They’re all pretty good-natured though. We chose breeds with characteristics that would make good pets as well as be decent egg producers. Chicory seems to me especially “cuddly” for a chicken though. She’s a Speckled Sussex as is the larger and considerably more comb and wattle-endowed Sassafras, below.

Actually, even though there hasn’t been any official crowing yet, we’re pretty sure we’ve got ourselves a rooster here. They sex the chicks at birth, but apparently it’s not foolproof and a small percentage do turn out to be roosters.

Sadly, we can’t keep a rooster, so Sassafras will most likely soon be returning to the feedstore where they buy them back to resell. The name was chosen early on, due to a “sassy” personality, which as it turns out, is probably just rooster-y. I wish we could keep him around though, he’s a gorgeous bird and super friendly and curious with us.

Last but not least, these gals are our lovely Silver-laced Wyandottes and they‘re very much a pair. I’ve been calling them Hazel and Nettle (a little herbal play on Hansel and Gretel, though luckily they appear to both be female as expected).

These days, it’s getting increasingly difficult to distinguish Hazel from Nettle. They’re looking more and more alike as they mature and their temperaments are so very similar too. This breed is particularly striking when full grown, so I‘m looking forward to seeing them eventually transform into this.

We're finding the chickens totally fun to have around. I love just watching them and how they interact, getting to know each one, and we’re REALLY looking forward to about four months from now when the eggs should start flowing, woohoo!