Easter weekend was really nice. We went down to spend the night with my parents Friday evening (April 18th) so that Saturday morning we could go to the Sacred Gifts: The Religious Art of Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hofmann and Frans Schwartz show at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art. We were able to go to this before we left for Europe too, but since then four of the Carl Bloch paintings were switched out for different ones. It was such a treat to be able to go see the show again, and it was nice to see the four different paintings we hadn't seen before. Being able to go to the show the day before Easter was particularly appropriate. The beautiful paintings there really helped bring home the message and meaning of Easter.
That afternoon we dyed Easter eggs and then went with my family to see the Tulip Festival. As expected, it was beautiful! We really enjoyed walking around viewing the flowers. Austin also enjoyed spending some time at the the kids' play area that was set up there. He particularly enjoyed the bounce house.
On the way home from my parents', we stopped by an IFA store and bought a few baby chicks. Getting chicks was something I had been planning for awhile, but getting them just in time for Easter worked out nicely. We ended up with two buff orphingtons and one hamburg bantam. Austin really enjoyed having baby chicks around. We kept them in a brooder box in our basement for several weeks while they grew and while I worked on varnishing a chicken coop for them.
As the chickens got bigger and stronger, we let them spend some time in their coop outside, and eventually moved them out there permanently. Zipper was just sure that the chicks for friends for her to play with. She would follow them around the coop and watch them with great excitement. She sniff them then jump back crouching down with her tail stuck high in the air hoping they would give her chase. Meanwhile, the chicks mostly ignored her. It was pretty entertaining to watch. Since then Zipper has grown accustomed to having the chicks around and has given up on them as playmates. She still likes to steal their food when she can though, so we have to keep an eye on that.
The chicks have since grown into young chickens. They aren't full grown yet though, and we don't really expect any eggs from them until the end of the summer or the fall. The coop is now finished, and the chickens love roaming around our yard to forage. Their most important job is to eat the huge quantities of pest bugs living in our yard. They are pretty effective at this when they actually find something they want. I just watched one of them catch a moth in midair yesterday.
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