Costumes 2016- Rainbow Dash & her pet Tank the turtle

Quite excited about our costume creations for this year.  Lady genevieve loves My Little Ponies right now, and wanted to be Rainbow Dash.  After browsing the Internet of the many costumes already created, we went to the craft store with an idea in mind and found materials to get started.  My mother made me an amazing Rainbow Brite costume when I was about 4 years old.  Her costume creating abilities has given me something to strive for in my motherhood.  I think we nailed it pretty well this year.

The blue pants and shirt were purchased from Old Navy (2016) on clearance- which was a great deal.  Not to mention way less work than trying to make the body if the costume.  With that accomplished it was time to design a tail.  My Rainbow Brite wig was made of yarn, and I thought that would be a good application for this costume as well.  However, once I added up the cost of all the yarn I decided to check out the fabrics for an alternative.  Tulle was discounted, and seemed like a good option for a puffy tail.  The lady cutting our fabric agreed, as it would be lighter as a tail than lots of yarn.  We found an awesome rainbow belt material, that we originally intended to cut into the Lightning bolt "Cutie Mark".  But after checking out the actual Rainbow Dash, I realized the lighting bolt did not have all the rainbow colors in it- only Red, Yellow & Blue.  Originally I had planned to use elastic to hold the tail up at the waist.  But then I realized we could use the belt to hold the tail up.  I cut & scrunched the tulle, and sewed in onto the inside of the belt.  Yellow, Orange, & red sewed to hang straight down.  Purple, Blue, & Green sewed to come out the top of the belt.  I did this to give the tail a little more body.  Then I sewed velcro to the outside and the belt attached at the tail.  Then we made the Rainbow Dash wings and stuffed them with fluff.  I created little arm straps with elastic and covered them with the material to match her outfit.  Next came the wig.  Originally I tried to make the wig with an elastic band around the head, and the tulle tied on, like how my mom had made my yarn wig.  It basically turned into an upside down rainbow tutu.  I did not like it, and then decided to use a friend's design to create more of a mane.  I cut a 3 inch strip of white felt, the length that I wanted the main to be.  Then I cut 2-3 holes into multiple rows down the length.  Then I pulled tulle through 2 of the holes, with the tales sticking out the back.  I covered a headband with the wing fabric, and sewed some ears.  Used a glue gun to attach everything.  The lighting bolt cutie mark was made out of iron on patch material.  I had to purchase both packs of colors, in order to get the colors needed for the bolt.  I cut them to shape and then ironed them onto white felt.   I attached it to a loop that could easily slide on and off the belt.  So easy, looks great!

Little man got to be Rainbow Dash's pet turtle- Tank.  

Redwoodshire Eggs & and an Egg-speriment

I thought it would be good to get current, as it's been many months since our last post.

The chicks have grown up and are laying the most beautiful eggs!  We currently have 12 chickens-  11 hens and 1 rooster.  One of our 2 Americanas is now known as "Cinderfella".  Somewhat disappointing as we were hoping for more than one blue/green egger in the batch.  They are wonderful!  Every day is so exciting when we visit the coop and peak into the nesting boxes for the days eggs.  One week ago we got our first blue egg!  So very exciting, for sure.

This Fall, a friend and I both had intentions to start doing some home schooling activities for our 3 year olds.  Our friend turned her basement into a very cool school room.  She invited us over one week to do some activities.  It was so inspiring, and I offered that they could come over the following week and I would put together some activities about Bees and the letter B.  And our home school co-op was born!  Each week we take turns leading a handful of activities with the girls, with a focus on a letter of the alphabet.  This past week we focused on the letter E.  Tracing & writing the letter E, reading a couple books about eggs, a fun experiment (egg-speriment) and then eating eggs prepared 3 different ways (based upon the book "Two Eggs, Please".)

Organic is all the rage these days, and don't get me wrong I definitely believe it is better for all of us.  But the truth of the matter, is that some people purchase "organic" because of the label, but don't really know how different or better it is, than the "non-organic" label.  Our egg activity, demonstrated that backyard, free range chickens are superior to even the factory "organic" eggs.

We decided to make hard boiled eggs, Scrambled eggs, and Sunnyside Up eggs.  I knew that our backyard/ free range eggs have a deep school bus shade to their yolks.  Recently I hardboiled some non-organic factory eggs from Wegmans, and was taken aback at how pale the yolks were.   We compared yolks from each of the different procured eggs.  The amazing part was while we made the "sunnyside up eggs".  We cracked 1 Wegmans organic, 1 Wegmans non-organic, and 2 different backyard eggs (one from Redwoodshire, and one from another friend backyard flock).

Check out these beautiful photos my friend took our our eggs.

Dark chocolate brown (Copper Maran)- Light brown (plymouth barred rock or Yellow Comet)- Light Blue (Americana)

Clockwise from the smaller dark yellow yolk:  Redwoodshire free range/ non-organic egg.  Light yellow on right: Wegmans non-organic egg.  Large dark yellow yolk on bottom: Backyard, non-organic egg (older hens).  Light yellow yolk on left: Wegmans Organic egg.

The backyard eggs, though not organic have much darker yolks than both of the Factory procured eggs.  The darker yolk is due to the free range diet rich in varied nutrients.  Notice how minor the difference is between the two lighter yolks.  The one on left is "organic."

WOW!  I am convinced that backyard eggs, organic or not, are far superior than factory eggs from the store.  From reading about all the nutritional benefits of backyard, free range eggs, I already had a basis to believe they were what I wanted to feed my family.  But having cooked them side by side and seen the very obvious difference in yolk colors, I am completely convinced that backyard eggs are superior than their factory procured counterparts.

With all of our hens in the laying rotation, we have so many eggs.  When the days lengthen in the Spring we are going to have even more eggs on our hands.  We have begun selling our Redwoodshire Eggs to friends in the area for $2/dozen.  Once we switch over to Organic Feed, eggs will be $3/dozen.  I don't even feel like I have to convince people that they are worth it- because I know that they are.  If you are health conscious about putting the most nutritious food into your body, you should definitely consider the hens your eggs come from.  Even if you cannot keep chickens yourself, you may be able to find someone local who is raising backyard chickens and selling their eggs.

If you are local and would like Redwoodshire Eggs, please get in touch to be added to our egg schedule.

Photo credit: L. Desormeau 2016