What's that all about, you ask? Whose second annual birthday party? As it turns out, eight of my quilting buddies have birthdays that loosely fall within 6 weeks of each other, give or take a few days, between May and July. And my "half-birthday" is June 23rd. Listen folks, when your birthday is December 23rd as mine is, it kinda gets lost in the shuffle of Christmas celebrations. So, I decided to celebrate my birthday along with my summer birthday friends.
Well, yesterday was our designated birthday celebration. Last year was the first time we did this and it was such fun we knew we had to repeat it again this year.....only it was expanded by 3 more friends! We decided ahead of time on a menu and everyone brought their signature dish to add to the meal. That sure made it easy for me as we hosted the party here on the farm.
We each brought one gift and shuffled the presents around the table and then opened up our present from an unknown giver. Here's Kathy getting ready to "shuffle" her present to the right.
It was fun to see what everyone received in their pretty bag or wrapped box. And of course all the presents were quilt related goodies.
And you know that we ate really well. To top off our meal, Linda brought a cake her daughter had baked in our honor, complete with sides iced with a flying geese quilt motif. Yum, not only was it pretty to look at but it was yummy to boot.
See what I mean?
Cheers, ladies. We wish you all a happy and healthy year ahead. Valerie, we missed you and hope to see you at next year's party.
The birthday girls got to take home cookies that Linda's daughter baked especially for us with a beautiful quilt design in icing on each one. Pretty friends above, Linda and Eileen, waiting patiently for us to cut into the cake.
Then, after the ladies left, Joel and I jumped into the Polaris and rode down to the chicken coop to check in on the newly hatched baby chicks. We opened the large door to the coop and waited and watched to see if we could catch a glimpse of the newest members of our flock.
The hen in the nest on the left has been sitting on eggs for 21 days now.....the right amount of time for chicks to hatch. Two days ago 2 baby chicks were "peep-peep-peeping" and walking around her on wobbly legs. But the hen wouldn't budge off the nest to take care of them until all her other eggs were hatched. Wouldn't you know it but the hen on the right adopted the chicks and Joel saw her proudly strutting around the coop with the chicks trying to keep up with her.
The adoptive mama is keeping her chicks nice and warm and safe from enemies(A.K.A. Farmer Joel who tried to see if she was sitting on eggs). Check out the photo below to see one of the chicks taking a look around from in between mama's wing feathers.
Isn't that just the cutest thing? Sigh, we love watching all of God's creation doing it's "thing" without us lifting one little finger. Isn't new life amazing?
Add two more to our animal count,
Deb
