Crazy busy in a good way

Life has been a bit crazy lately.  We had an appraisal done on our house last week so of course I was scrambling around, trying to pack boxes, move boxes, and in general make our house look decent for the photos I knew would be taken.  And of course I had mentioned to Matt a few days earlier how I was a little disappointed that we never had to make our house look "nice" (because we sold to a neighbor and didn't have to list with a realtor) so I didn't have the chance to take photos.   Well, the joke was on me because on Wednesday I had a friend take the kids and I worked like crazy to pack, sort, move boxes and clean up.  But I did get a few "keepsake" pictures of this house to remember it by. (Although it never, ever was this clean or uncluttered.)

Here are two examples.  It looks like we're ready to move!

Speaking of moving, we had planned to move at the end of May/early June.  Now it turns out we are moving a week from today, on the 14th!  That adds a new level of crazy to our days.  (And yet as I hear the neighbor kids hitting our house with their ball as they attempt to play softball in our shared side yard, I cannot wait to be out of here!!)

We found out unexpectedly this week that the buyer on our current house is ready to close early next week.  The friends we bought our new house from will stay with family until they move, so we have a moving van scheduled for Saturday and we'll spend Saturday night in our new house!  I'll have to drive Clare to her old school for a few weeks more than I was expecting but that's okay.  All the kids are early risers so it shouldn't be an issue.

In other events, we had a heat wave on Friday.  After temps in the 40s and low 50s, we shot up to 85 degrees on Friday.

Good thing we hadn't packed the swimsuits!

This outside girl is going to LOVE summer!

 It's a good time to be moving.  A major street in our town is blocked off and will be worked on all summer long.  Traffic is being rerouted by our house.  The only person who will miss living by all the construction excitement is Karl.  That boy lives for trucks.

Two huge excavators that made Karl's day.

"Daddy, one had a bucket with teeth and the other excavator had an impact hammer and I saw two dump trucks and a backhoe with its stabalizers down and a car carrier with three cars on it..."

That's our boy.

Nora fell asleep.  Proves there's a big difference between the minds of boys and girls!

And in chick news...

They're eating and growing like crazy.  The kids still love their chicks.  Karl is usually content watching or helping to feed and add more wood shavings to their home.  Clare likes to feed them and pick them up.  Nora likes to pet them and "help" by dumping wood shavings in their water dish and food all over their bedding.  She always waves "bye-bye" to the chicks when it's time to go upstairs.

Wing feathers are growing fast. These golden girls can fly!

Speaking of flying, these girls love to fly up on my arm whenever I come to see them.  The Orpingtons and Amberlinks are super friendly.   After all the years of having a parakeet and wishing she would sit nicely on my arm or finger, who would have thought a chicken would make a better pet?  Plus we'll be getting eggs and tick control from these birds... a pretty good deal.

Okay, I think she's cute:

And here's adorable Nora trying to feed a chick but not quite getting how to open her hand.  She just loves those birds and usually wants to see them over going outside (which is amazing for her).

The red heat light makes it hard to take decent pictures...