just a few short years ago… i’m guessing 2003-2008 we had hens. for a few years! we even had a couple easter-egger’s, so when we collected the eggs each day, there was a beautiful mix of brown, white, green, and blue eggs. it was storybook perfect. my little kiddos just loved it. even grandma loved it.
we called our hens, “city chicks!”
i used to go to our local IFA, and get li’l baby chicks each easter to have them running around when the easter bunny came hoppin’ through – each year we had new chicks to add to the mix. one of the highlights of the new chicks was naming them – i love names kids choose, we had apple, licorice, zsa zsa, lucy… myla-moosey doted on these chicks the most. however, all the kids loved them & they each looked forward to running out to the coup to collect the eggs each day. it was a daily race to see who could get there first.
i would even let them cruise around my gardens for a little extra fertilizing…
however… in the spring & summer, when it was time to host volleyball parties & the summer temps go up… a wind would come along & the hens caused our backyard to stink. like really bad.
big papi was not a fan. and, after a few years, the hens had to go.
so, after our main hens stopped laying eggs, husbands brother in southern nevada who has lots of land, willingly took our coup & hens to a bigger-better place to live. we were sad, and our city chicks said farewell to the city. {sigh}
and now… miss four has never owned a baby chick! she missed all the chick-raising-years. sometimes it sucks to be the last kid, because you miss out on some of the things your family-already-did… like raising hens. she didn’t know what she was missing, till we were at the local IFA last week & she saw her first baby chick— and, it was love at first sight.
within ten seconds of spotting them, observing them, and having the thought – she ran back to me, “mom, can we have a baby chick?” “mom, come see how cute they are!” “mom, i want one!” “mom, why can’t i have one?” it was so sad. i felt extremely guilty.
we are in this new phase of life where i garden a bit less, i haven’t canned anything in about 3 years, and we don’t raise hens because instead we’re sitting at little league baseball games & tennis matches & dance recitals & piano recitals, and on and on and on… and, i love this phase of life, but i loved the old phase too! there’s just not enough time in the day to do it all! are there other mommas out there who feel this way?!? do your younger kids miss out on things your older kids experienced??? because there’s just not enough time to balance it all???
i seriously want a baby chick to be here easter morning for little miss four. just to keep for a couple of weeks…maybe.
big papi would kill me.
{all photos by me.}
I know what you mean. Life is so busy now, the little ones just get carted around and are missing out on the slower pace we used to have. I was one of the last kids in my family, so it pains me sometimes to see my babies getting the same treatment that I did. I survived though, and after my older brothers were grown up and moving on, my sister and I got lots of special time with my parents in our teen years. So I guess it all works out in the end!
Your chicks were so funny – I loved the colored eggs. Somehow, I think that it does NOT suck, being the youngest in your family…. You guys are so busy and always doing awesome fun stuff. Sela is exposed to so many wonderful experiences. So she misses out on the baby chick …. she will have other opportunities later when Kiana is in New York and Myla is backpacking Europe and KJ is designing Halo 29 and she can have you and Dusty to herself 😉
Love jenn's comment!! haha So true! I laughed about KJ and his Halo 29! Bahahaha
seriously jane, i remember those easter eggs that you would have around your yard. I wanted baby chicks ever since. So tell Sela i am missing out too!
myla and kiana are just so precious in those pictures.
Jane-we're getting 6 on Saturday…bring her over next week!