Big Boy Haircut

It was time

for a big boy haircut. 

I miss the longer locks, 

because Eli looks so grown up now.

I want him to stay a baby for a little while longer.

Spring Fun

We are looking forward to June strawberries and fresh strawberry pie! 

Butler Population Increase

We welcomed two new red angus bulls at our house this week. Matthew bought them from Pharo Cattle Company in Burlington, Colorado. Matthew, Kathy and Emily took an early morning trip to Macon, Missouri to pick them up on Thursday. 

Tag 144 is Zaxton, son of Meatball and grandson of Colorado Hobo. 

Tag 155 is Rudolph, son of Westhoff and grandson of Red Six Mile Trail Ride. (How do they come up with these names????) 

If you are in our neck of the woods, stop by to pet the bunny, love on the new kittens, feed a calf, play with the dog, see the blind calf and admire the pig and bulls. The girls LOVE to show people all the animals!

Our Fair Pig

Emily signed up for a swine project in 4-H. Thanks to Uncle Wayne for finding her a pig that she is in love with! He has no name yet, although I am pushing for the name Samson. He is EXACTLY what Emily wanted! 

Emily is looking forward to showing him at the fair. 

I am looking forward to pork chops in the fall. : )

Here is Emily working with the pig. He is not tame yet, so she sits with him so he'll get used to her. He is going to be one spoiled pig!! 
You remember Fern from Charlotte's Web? 
That is Emily, having sweet conversations with her newest pet!

Our Spring Litter

 Every farm has a good farm cat, right? Which means new kittens every year. Our cat had a small litter of four cute kittens. Emily and Megan named them Blackie, Braeburn, Zitten, Kicker. I have a feeling they will be very tame, considering how much they get handled!

Love and "H"

The girls are enjoying extra chores this year. We have two -- now three -- bottle calves. (I was informed this morning that we have a set of twins, so another calf soon will be joining our bottle-fed crew!) Matthew fixed up a pen in for them, since our blind calf is residing in the barn. It is great to have the girls take on the responsibility of feeding the calves twice a day. Here are a few shots of the two calves, Love and "H."

These two calves were born just a few days apart from each other. Love, the calf on the right, was born to a heifer who died. Bearded H, or "H" for short, was born via c-section to an old cow and "H" was several weeks premature. Thankfully, they are both strong, healthy and friendly!

The girls named this heifer "Love" because she has a heart-shaped marking on her forehead. With tears in their eyes, the girls told me that her mother left her heart with her young calf.

This is Megan with "H." He was named for the marking on his nose. Yes, that is our sweet Megan in a skirt and boots hanging out in a calf pen.

You can put a skirt on her, but you can't take the farmgirl out of her!!!

Homemade Butter

The girls made homemade butter this week as part of a study of pioneer life. 

It has such a fresh taste, and they were so proud of the finished product! 

The Finished Hutch

Matthew put a door on the "spare room" on the rabbit hutch so that Emily can store her rabbit supplies in it. Here are a few more photos of C.C., our favorite rabbit!

C.C. is Finally Home

After several weeks of living in cramped quarters, C.C. has finally got her new home. She seemed thrilled to be outside, with fresh air and sunshine and lots of room to stretch. The cats were very interested the first night, trying to hunt her through the bottom of the hutch. It was fun to watch them bat at her from underneath. 

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for bringing the hutch up. And, thank you, Matthew for the many hours of work it took you to convert it into a fine home for the bunny!

Game Night

Skip-Bo and chocolate cake. Once again, Matthew was the victor. He won the game AND ate the most cake!

Hallelujah -- the empty tomb!

Hallelujah -- the empty tomb!

I know, this post is a little late, and Easter has passed. But I wanted to share our Easter craft with you. This year I wanted our focus to be on Easter -- what it meant centuries ago, and what it still means today. We made these tombs in Sunday school and have been enjoying ours since we brought it home. It has been a reminder of fulfilled promises, eternal hope and great expectations!

Me on the Map

Earlier this year we made these Me-on-the-map charts. 

The stamping was a little messy, but they had fun. 

Landform Maps

After studying landforms, we made salt dough maps and painted them. They love the hands-on projects!! 

Raritan Egg Hunt

We went up to Raritan's Easter Egg hunt on Easter Sunday afternoon. It was a lot of fun. They had three different areas for three age categories, and scattered candy all over the ground. In each category were four hidden prize eggs. If you were lucky enough to find a prize egg, you won a gold dollar, and you could also win a gold dollar for picking up the most chocolate eggs. We won neither, but came home with a LOT of chocolate!!

B-ville Easter Fun

The Red Hat ladies of Blandinsville always host a super-fun Easter egg hunt, and this year was no different. There was such a great turn-out and all the kids had a great time! 

Emily hunted eggs. Well, there isn't much hunting to it actually. I should say, Emily raced to pick up eggs. 

Megan decided to help Eli. He was completely uninterested in the colored plastic eggs that covered the ground. In fact, despite all our coaxing, he failed to pick up a single egg! 

However, he LOVED the barrel train. Special thanks to good buddy (and adopted older brother for an hour), Toby for riding the train with Eli over and over and over again! You saved me from squeezing into the barrel!! Where can we buy one of these trains to pull around the yard??? Hours of entertainment!!

The petting zoo was a hit too. The 3-week old lambs were the star attraction!

Check out these photos, and thanks to the Red Hat ladies and all those who helped in so many ways! 

Megan and Gianna

Emily LOVED feeding the lambs. Somehow, I have a feeling she'll be showing these in
4-H next year!!

Grace feeding the lamb.

Megan taking a turn with the bottle!

Josh and Toby (next photo) love the farm action too!