Chick Blog.....Blogging Chick

Happy birthday (one day old) to the new baby chicks, Karen and Carol~

Here Karen is at 8 hours old~kind of icky yet....

Here Carol and Karen are at 20 hours!  Awwww!  I love them!

Getting Ready

Well, this is it, Folks! The end of summer break for me and most other teachers in Minnesota.
I spent my last week and weekend well!

Several days last week I popped in my classroom for a few hours (OK, 8 hours on Thursday, but really just a few hours the other days) I really feel ready to go but I also know 3 days of workshops will change that!

Friday was spent stocking up on groceries for the kiddos while I am at work and making 5 lovely chaplets (you know, those flower wreaths princesses wear on their heads) for The Ren Fest......

....on Saturday which was absolutely wonderful!  We met Melissa's mom and loved her! For those of you new to my blog and crazy family, Melissa is our oldest boy, Graham's girlfriend who teaches 1st grade in the metropolitan area.  We all adore her!  This was her first Ren Fest!!!!

Sunday I used up one and a half laundry baskets of apples!  Applesauce, caramel apple ice cream sauce, one big beautiful apple pie and some little ones, dried apples, and apple oatmeal cookies kept me busy until right about now!  I love harvest time!  But who's going to wash all those dishes???

Looking forward to this next week not because of the many meetings or  paperwork or even free breakfast and lunch on Monday....because after it is all over, the new school year begins!!!!!!

New Beginnings

Coming soon~Kindergarten updates!
It seems impossible, but another summer is wrapping up!
Hope you were able to enjoy our big, beautiful sunny and warm world with your little one(s)
Here are a few of the O'Duggan's adventures this summer:

• living history working weekend here on our hobby farm~the "Johndezvous"
• My husband's mom moved in .....again
• raised a baby robin, tadpoles, chicks, baby goats, kittens all with varying degrees of success
• Prairie du Chien roadtrip
• began "Kid Kuisine" program assigning each kid a day to plan, prep,cook,clean-up (with help, of course)  Very yummy summer (not saving on grocery expenses,however)
• visited local beaches~Latsch Island, Chester Woods, Whitewater, HokSiLa (Near Lake City)
• caught (and released) fireflies
• picked gallons and gallons of strawberries (need plants? contact me!)
• spent 4th of July weekend in the Dells with ALL 6 kids +Chris and Melissa and Baby Wren...We are 11 now!!!!!!!!
• RV'd to Indianapolis and Madison 
• watched meteor shower and northern lights (well, we looked for them anyway)
• hung out in the hammock, deck, "cat porch", garden, 
• finished 5 books...began Lord of the Rings on my Droid (11% done...LOVE that function on Kindle)
• watched ALL of the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Firefly, Pushing Daisies, Community series (July was soooo hot, felt good to veg in front of the fans)
• began a new chicken coop...windows and doors from the ReStore
• cut, hauled, stacked wood (lost 3 very old very large trees in a wind storm)
• got our first official burning permit
• still cutting, hauling. stacking wood
• taught 4 weeks of summer school
• Nelson ice cream 3 times (Rum Cherry AND Maplenut)
• Lanesboro road trip
• Mother-in-law moved out.....again
• celebrated 5 of 6 kids' birthdays...Lee's is in December
• Spa day for Sorcha and Ellie, her best friend
• Laser Tag!
• found 2 letterboxes (check out atlasquest.com  and letterboxing.org)  We are getting close to finding 100!
• Ren Fest in Shakopee and King Tut at Science Museum coming up!

I'd love to hear your adventures!

Soon we will have many K updates here so stay tuned!

See many of you at Open House on Wednesday, August 31 from 4-7