T.V.Potterf

just some of the things we've been up to since spring break and our cake decorating! Easter came with Grandma & Grandpa Hardwick visiting for the weekend. The Easter Bunny hasn't really ever come by this way, but we ALL have fun decorating the eggs and hiding them! Mama & Daddy brought Krista & Brianna new scripture cases and notebooks for Sacrament Meeting, Deandra & Amanda both received new coloring books and lip glosses and Cameron picked out his own Spiderman hat while shopping with Mama. And NOTHING is going to get that hat away from him! On Saturday before Easter we were all out back cleaning up the yard of the bamboo leaves & trimming the roses & washing off the patio & all that fun stuff when Daddy went over to water a dehydrated looking plant in our large pot. Well, Daddy about fell over when he started spraying the plant & a quail flew out at him! Once all the excitement settled down we investigated the plant area a bit closer and found: 15 quail eggs! We pulled out 3 & hatched them in a box with a warm lamp over them. They hatched the morning after we took them from the nest, so about a week after we found them in the back yard. The kids were very excited to check every day on the mama quail & her eggs & the mama quail was VERY patient with the kids checking on her so frequently! The kids all had a chance to actually watch the babies break out of their eggs & get the explination of why the babies have to break out by themselves without any help. It was really amazing to watch these tiny little things break through the shells & pop rihgt up & start running around. It was also amazing to see how they went from all wet to dry & double in size simply from their feithers drying out! We returned the babies to the nest & mama quail didn't hesitate to take them back. All but 1 of the eggs hatched. It was so fun to see all the babies running around in the pot! Papa quail came to sit with the babies after they hatched to let Mama have a bit of a break & he wasn't quite as patient with the attention as Mama was. Mama would sit still trying to blend in to protect the babies whereas Papa would hop up & stay super close to keep an eye out & I think to intimidate the kids! We left for the weekend after the eggs hatched to find that Mama & Papa had moved their family. Probably to a more childless and public area. The girls only know of 1-2 quail not making it, but a total of 6 of the 15 didn't survive. Some had fallen out of the pot & couldn't make it back in, & we don't know if the ones we hatched inside made it or not, we like to think they did. But it was definately a fun experience to have!