Poultery Whisperer, Chick Charmer

Oh Friends, we had quite a week. Full of new discoveries.

MAJOR LIFE CHANGING DISCOVERY: This week we learned that Gretchen is AMAZING with baby chickens. John John got chicks at his house, and we got to go meet them on Thursday with the rest of the preschool gang. All the other kids were sort of freaked out by their weird chicken feet and "sharp nails", and would cuddle them sweetly until the chicks got their gross feet on them or squirmed at all, then they'd drop them in a mix of surprise & disgust. But not Gretchen. She examined their nasty chicken feet and then said, "The baby chickens feet look like they have sharp nails, but they won't really hurt me." Then she snuggled chicks for two hours. TWO HOURS. My child does NOTHING for two hours.

See?



She did take a short break to wash hands and eat lunch. Woo hoo! Lunch!!!



At one point I looked over & slightly panicked when the chick was perfectly still with its eyes closed. (OH CRAP! Did she just kill the baby chick!?!?!) When I asked her if the chick was ok, she shook it slightly & replied, "Yeah, it's fine." And it was! She actually got it to fall asleep in her hand! By the end she was such an expert, she could do it one-handed WHILE EATING A POPSICLE.



Now how can I use this information to help Gretchen? Could I bring a baby chick to all our future playdates (there was no fighting around the baby chickens! They're such peacemakers!) Could I bring baby chicks on our next road trip (that sounds like a fine idea, right? Baby chicks end up being Chicken Nuggets, so it'd be perfectly reasonable for us to bring them with us on all our mid-drive McD pit stops, right?)

On a completely unrelated note, while doing our hair on Friday, Gretchen asked to be Pippi Longstocking. And since I happened to have a bit of wire in my craft supplies, I was happy to oblige:

(She really does eat more than Popsicle & fudgesicles...)

Then, yesterday, we went to VIRGINIA CITY!!! Did I tell you how many cookies Ella's Girl Scout Troop sold? Almost 4,000!!!! A group of 5-8 year olds. Dude. (We sold 29 thank-you-very-much...) To celebrate their achievement, we all went to Virginia City. STEP BACK IN TIME. It was pretty much the greatest trip we've ever had there because I wasn't in charge. One of the moms organized a fantastic day for all of us. We divided up into 4 groups & went on a trolley ride, train ride, visited the museum, underground mine tour, got pizza together AND got $5 gift certificates for the candy store. AND Auntie Amber came. I know. LUCKY!!!

At "The Way it Was" Museum.


On the train ride...


With Auntie Amber. And apparently making a normal face in pictures is painful for Gretchen, cause she just can't bring herself to do it...


Trolley tour:


Old Timey-Pizza Parlor...


Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlor (bubble gum ice cream + small children = Good Times)






Old Timey People outside the Old Timey Gift Shop!



Hooray!!! Thanks for coming with us Auntie Amber! And thanks for hanging out with us, awesome Girl Scout Friends!!! We love you!

And, the last bit of BIG LIFE-CHANGING NEWS!!! Ella lost a tooth. It's actually the 3rd tooth she lost, but the first two had to be extracted by the dentist because otherwise I would throw up. (I am NOT a good candidate for dental school.) This one Ella was able to work out by herself. Hooray!!! The tooth fairy came. Left a dollar. (Good thing I remembered to text her just before I fell asleep! I had to jump out of bed to let her know.)



PREVIEW FOR NEXT WEEK: The girls have their DANCE RECEITAL next Saturday. You're totally invited to come. You know you want to see a bunch of girls dancing to Katy Perry's "Fireworks" for the grand finale. See? It's definitely ALL CAPS worthy.