Sickness, birthday parties, more sickness, and birds!

So I have a very good reason for being behind in blogging about Atty's birthday... we had some sort of nasty virus sweep through our house in the last couple weeks, and it was awful! Atty and I got sick at the same time, and my husband had to work... so not only was I super sick, but I had to take care of all the kids on my own and deal with a girl that was just starting to get better. I was so afraid that Atty's high fever was going to trigger a seizure! I'm happy to report though that it did not. :) At the same time our hot water tank died, and in order to get feverish kids into a luke warm bath I had to warm water on the stove, rustic style. It was ridiculous. I'm still exhausted, because of course I didn't really get to rest and recoup... I'm a mom.

 I was sick right up until the day before Atty's birthday. And of course I had to go shopping and make all of his magic food from scratch. I was not feeling it. But I forced myself to get it done because there really wasn't any other option {Or honestly I would have took it, I was feeling that lousy.} 

 Radar was worried about us. :)

 Everything worked out though, Atty felt better by his birthday {just barely} and we had a wonderful celebration. 

 He is still very much into birds, and loves getting things for his ever growing bird collection.

 The cake was a huge success, best one yet. {I've made many flops with his magic diet food.}

So the rest of that week after his birthday Bubu and Spike took turns being sick. Poor things. Poor mommy! It seemed to last about three days for each kid and they all took turns, so it seemed never ending to me! But thanks to lots of supplements, home made broth, and homeopathic meds, and steam tents, they bounced back as good as ever fairly quickly. In comparison to so many people we know who have become ill this winter. In fact, thankfully, they were all better by the weekend and we got to go to the Sardis Raptor Center for some more birthday fun.

 Atty was in awe. There were all sorts of beautiful regal birds of prey there.

 This one was my favorite. Apparently this smart bird still caught his own live prey by placing strips of his meat that they feed him in his wire cage. When a bird would land to investigate, we would snap their necks. Crazy! He also "talked" to us for a long time, the kids loved that. :) 

 This bald eagle had quite the story! She was part of a rehabilitation program {I think she was rescued as a baby} and when she was  release into the wild it was a big fat fail. She found a family up in the woods and demanded that they feed her. When they didn't she ended up attacking the man and he ended up in the hospital with a bunch of stitches in his head. So she had to be recaptured. They couldn't figure out how to trap her because she could fly, so they set out a rubix cube for her. She was super interested in it and then someone just walked up and captured her while she was distracted. So they named her Einstein. :) 

I guess she's pretty dangerous because she's not afraid of humans at all. All of the kids were warned not to stick their fingers into the cage. Yikes!

 We were lucky because we know some one who works there {and his mom owns the place}, so we got to go on a special tour to see some very pretty birds. These birds are not part of the normal tour. Atty was so excited! But wow was in noisy in there!

 Well hello gorgeous! The kids got to feed some of these birds peanuts, and they thought that was pretty neat. :)

We ended the trip with a picnic next to the eagles, even though it was cold out. Pretty cool! I'd love to take the kids back in the summer when it's much warmer out... :)

So there you go, busy, busy, busy, even when I'm sick. My husband got sick as well over the weekend, but guess what... he got to sleep all day Sunday. Stinker. {That said he did work on Saturday even though he didn't feel well, and went right back to work on Monday. So I'll try not to be too jealous of his day of slumber.}This was the first time we all got sick all year, so I hope it stays that way! I am so ready for spring. I really dislike January and  February, I wish it went straight from Christmas into spring. Plus we didn't get ANY snow this year, what a dreary winter. I hope the rest of February and all  of March goes by in a wink, because my garden is calling to me! :)

Up next I am going to attempt a blog post update on our school year. So exciting! ;)