Avery's first day of school and our first chicken

The boys on Avery's first day of schools. (J was pretty excited that they both got to wear hoodies.)

Julian watching cartoons one morning before school. I had to bribe him with Lucky Charms to sit still for a few minutes so I could take this photo to go with a story I'd written about why ditching cable has been one of the best decisions our family has made.

We got a chicken! Julian named her (the red one on the right) Julia, and she and her amigas (Skeletor and Buttermilk) are already laying eggs for us! Our neighbors Matt and Kat have the girls in a coop in their backyard. It's only a matter of time (well, money, actually) until we get our own coop going. Seriously, I can see how chickens will be addicting.

Julian is on a major Transformers kick. All the kid wants to do all day is transform these little 3D puzzle guys. We had his fourth birthday at Phil's Icehouse (he wouldn't let us do it anywhere but there), and all his friends seemed to have brought him something Transformers related. His "collection" is up to more than 10, many of them second generation Transformers from when I was a kid. (I was too busy with Rainbow Bright and My Little Pony to be into Transformers, though.)

These guys love each other so much. Avery's eyes just follow Julian everywhere, and Julian is so excited to bring him to school every day. He makes up the goofiest sounds and names for his little brother; it's quite endearing. It's easy to see how they are going to be such buddies, and that's just the reward this busy momma of two needed to make it worth all the extra work.

Oh, and we picked some carrots this week ahead of the big old cold front. Didn't pick them all (they can actually survive the cold weather), but I needed to thin them out.

I love it when I pull a funny looking one.