Fall Festival Costumes!

So anyone who knows me knows I find absolutely no joy in purchasing halloween costumes from a store. I just can't bring myself to limit the kids' options to what is "in stock". The best part about costumes is the creativity involved in creating them! When I asked the kids what they wanted to be a couple months ago Tyler said she wanted to be Rosie. I thought the idea was absolutely hilarious and told her we could make it happen. I wouldn't want to stifle her creativity after all! :) We used a black shirt and black pants spray painted with a feather design. Then I used an old hand towel and sewed them on the pants that I cut off to make the yellow legs. I made a covering for the shoes and put a foam foot on them. I made up the comb for the top of the hat and the wattles for the sides. The wings were made from cardboard that I spray painted black and white and then disassembled some black boa's and stuck them on. The beak is foam board and the icing on the cake is the halo on top! Tyler helped with a lot of the construction and all in all we were pleased with the outcome. Here's a picture. Josh went as a puppy and we realized the irony of him being the very thing that sent Rosie to her demise! Every picture of them together he is pretending to eat her now :)

Rosie

Newest members of the Chickenski Flock

Well as all of you know, the loss of Rosie left an empty spot on our roost at night. It was expected that we replace her so that Josh wasn't left chickenless. After some discussion about what breed to get, we decided on Light Brahmas. Chickens are social birds but are mean towards each other when it comes to developing a pecking order. Getting one bird would put her at a big disadvantage so we planned on getting two. We found a farm nearby who had a couple available so Jeremy drove over to pick them up. When he came home he had four birds. When I asked what happened, he simply shrugged and said, "they're sisters, I couldn't break up the family." Of course I couldn't disagree! They have integrated very well with the flock and having four new birds seems to have limited the amount of pecking they've had to endure from the others. So I apologize for taking so long to post pictures, but here are the new girls. In honor of Rosie, Josh named two of them Rosie. (we're working on his naming creativity) One of the others is Jonah, and the other is yet to be named. Any suggestions would be taken into consideration.