Bees & a birthday

There is no family resemblance whatsoever!

Jared really enjoyed helping get the bees ready to hive. Here he is spraying sugar syrup onto the foundations so the bees have something to snack on.  Later Jared announced that he loved being near the bees and that they really calmed him. He has stated a few times that he wished he could hear that sound whenever he got upset so that he could calm more quickly. I suggested we go sit out there so we can hear them and create a physical memory, one that he can recall any time or place to help him calm himself down. I thought it was interesting that he noticed a difference so quickly and wanted to re-create it. Perhaps it was because he knew that if he was not calm he would get stung!

I did the first hive behind Mikayla. Now is was Mikayla's turn to hive them. She was so excited! Here she is shaking them out of their package onto the frames.

We now have approximately 6,000 bees in their new homes. Adam & Jared were so brave they were with us the entire time and had on NO EQUIPMENT! Eventually the bee on Adam's hand in this picture did sting him. I think it didn't like the fact that he was a Venus Fly Trap. But after a copper penny & benedryl spray, he was good as new!  Shortly after that I felt something tickle me and with out thinking, I scratched it to discover that a bee had flown up my shirt! So, I got a little sting to. Honey bee stings are NOTHING compared to those blasted hornets! I will take a bee any day!

Mikayla had a great birthday yesterday! She turned 13, so hard to believe that I now have an official teenager! I picked her up from school around10:30, took her to the ortho where she got her first birthday gift, no more bite guard!  After the ortho, I let her play hookie for the rest of the day. She just finished the 3rd quarter with an entire year of straight A's so I thought she deserved it. So off we went to get some snacks for our drive up to Snohomish. It was a beautiful day for a drive. Still a little overcast but just enough to keep you from getting too hot in the car.

Once we got to Snohomish we picked up our bee packages, a few more deeps and feeders and then headed home for hiving. Then dinner and presents that ended with a treasure hunt all over the farm. She was lead to the "treasure" in the shed were she found a new mountain bike. She was very excited and couldn't wait to head out. She promptly started riding it all over the property and announced that her knees no longer hit the handle bars....I guess the bike was a little over due!

After a little riding around, it was time for cake and ice cream. Then mom discovered that after all the birthdays since December, I was indeed out of candles. I guess I should have thought of checking before I went to put them in the cake. So, instead we had a "red-neck" cake and used match sticks...they burn MUCH faster than candles! We RUSHED through the birthday song and she blew them out before we were even finished singing. After yummy Costco cake & Kirkland vanilla ice cream (our favorites), it was time to go ride some more. When she went to bed last night, she said it was the best birthday she has ever had and that she didn't want to go to sleep because that meant it was over.

It truly was a GREAT day!