Spring chickens

I consider it spring when the calendar hits March 20th. And then of course the weather usually starts to get warmer. The daffodils come up followed closely by hyacinths and crocus', and finally tulips. Grass starts getting greener. The birds chirp and the trees blossom. It's all good stuff. But this year we got another sign of spring that we don't usually experience....baby animals! Realistically, we do have a field of cows behind our house. And they do tend to have the cutest little baby calves in early spring. But other than awwww-ing over them from my back windows, I don't have much contact.

This year was another story entirely. Not for baby calves, mind you. Those were still a window viewing experience only. But take a look at this early spring cuteness....

We had a family Easter dinner and egg hunt at Uncle Kevin's and Aunt Kari's burgeoning farm. They have recently decided to try their hand at raising chickens and goats. I tell you what, it's pretty darn cute to watch those baby goats run around the yard with the kids, just like a dog would do....darn cute, yesiree.

Token Easter Egg hunt pictures:

It's kind of nice to be at a point where though my older daughters may not want to hunt for eggs themselves, they do enjoy hiding said eggs. I didn't have to do a thing. Julianne even stuffed them full of candy for me.

But hey, wait! The baby animal cuteness is not over yet. Because do you want to see what we have roaming around in our very own backyard?

Clearly this a big step beyond the window-viewing or farm-visiting, awww-inspiring, cuteness. This comes along with not only the novelty of soft and fluffy and cute right in your own hands....but also the responsibility of feeding and watering and making sure they don't get stuck in the wagon or squeeze under the fence into the neighbors backyard, shopping at C-A-L Ranch for chicken feed and hay, etc.

As of right now, we are chick-sitting for some neighbors who have been out of town on vacation. But seeing as our backyard is backed up to a farm already and we have all sorts of open space for an enclosed coop beside and behind our man cave...the situation may become more permanent. A partnership of sorts, where we share the financials and chores...but also the eggs. Time will tell what ends up happening with these little feathered friends. But in the meantime, it's been awfully fun to watch them grow. I'm rather shocked at how big they've got in only two weeks time. The yellow duck (that Julianne has temporarily named Sabrina...) is huge! And in another funny little moment, Bryan brought one of the chickens into our kitchen yesterday evening and introduced it to our five parakeets. They all looked a little shocked....the parakeets AND the chicken.