Babies Get Cuter

Babies!

Eden's rabbit, Blue, had her babies last Saturday.  Her due date was Friday, but she showed no sign of giving birth or of even being pregnant, so I was starting to worry that she wasn't.  But Saturday morning, as I held her on my lap, I could feel little jabs and pokes in her sides, and by Saturday afternoon she was very busy building a nest, which included moving hay around and ferociously pulling out her own fur!

And then, when she actually gave birth, Eden and I were fortunate enough to witness the whole thing.  She suddenly stopped pulling fur, jumped into the nest box, made three grunting sounds, and then stuck her head under her belly and starting licking and chewing.  Eden and I couldn't tell how many babies she had had (or was having).  We saw two for sure.  But after about ten minutes Blue jumped out of the nesting box and calmly hopped over to her food bowl and started munching away.  Left behind were six tiny, hairless, eyes-closed, little bunnies!  They were adorable!  It turns out that mother rabbits only nurse their babies 1-2 times a day, and they spend the rest of the time away from their babies.

This is a terrible picture (we had a heat lamp on, so the light is all red), but it gives an idea of the size of the babies.

This is the babies at about three days old.  They're all still alive -- yay!

Eden has chosen names for all six, although we of course have no idea which one is which.  Their names are Traveller, Piksie (Eden's spelling), Hazel (from Watership Down), Spots, Cottontail, and Hufflepuff (Puff for short).

Science Fair

Eden participated in her school's science fair this year.  She did an experiment with yeast.  Her question was, "Why does yeast make bread rise?"  Her experiment was to fill four little bottles with warm water and then to add to one of them sugar, add to another one yeast, and add to another one sugar and yeast (she left one with just water).  We then attached balloons to the top of these bottles and waited to see what happened.  She hypothesized that the one attached to the bottle with water, sugar, and yeast would inflate, and she was correct!  She then made bread with Nathan.  They made one loaf with yeast and one without and observed the differences. She made a poster describing her experiment, and at the fair she did a great job talking to the judges and answering all their questions.

15

Nathan and I just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary this last week.  To do it up right, we went to Stillwater, MN for two nights and left the kids with some friends.  Stillwater is a little town on the St. Croix River just east of St. Paul.  It's got lovely little shops and restaurants, a used theological bookstore, and a fantastic chocolate shop.  We stayed in a B&B and had a wonderful time!

Our first breakfast, which tasted as good as it looked, and was delivered right to our bedroom door!

Enjoying a walk even though it was a bit chilly.

The town of Stillwater as seen from above.

Lunch alongside the river.

Our second breakfast, also delicious!

Our dessert was delivered separately the second morning -- chocolate stuffed croissant.

We saw this flyer while we were out for a walk.  It seems very funny that the dog answers to either Cookie or Rae Ann.

April Blizzard

Yesterday, on April 14, we had a genuine South Dakota blizzard.  It snowed for about 24 hours and there were strong winds.  When I opened the front door last night to let Phin out, there was a snow bank piled against the door that was taller than Phin!  She had to plow her way out to go to the bathroom!  In the morning we looked out the kitchen window and saw a cone shaped drift that was as high as the back deck.  Eden decided to go out and try to build an igloo out of it.  She did a pretty nice job of carving out a little space for herself!

We Made Maple Syrup!

All the sap (from our own tree) in the blue bag became the little bit of syrup in the jar!  But it was tasty!

Eden's Birthday

Last week was Eden's 7th birthday!  On Friday after school she had seven friends over to celebrate.  I think next year we might limit the number of friends to two, but this year, Eden loved having a crowd!  She requested a turtle cake, so we she had the same cake she had for her second birthday.

On Sunday we celebrated her actual birthday (March 25) by letting her pick the restaurant we went to after church (Taco John's!) and opening a few more presents.

Happy Birthday sweetest seven-year-old girl!!