All Quacked up!

Whew... what a whirlwind!

But, I'm back and ready to share the story behind this little photo....

I'll try to give you the short version...

Way back in my former life, when I was a teacher, I had an incubator and every spring my class would hatch eggs. We hatched mostly chickens but occasionally we would be lucky enough to get a duck or goose egg. It was a wonderful experience every year and truly a highlight of the school year for my children.
Now, not to be partial or anything but duckling are just too cute for words so, naturally, I have a soft spot for them.

Fast forward to present day and my new/real/current life of mommy to the fabulous five. Many times I have walked past that incubator on the top shelf of my garage, and thought, I should really hatch some eggs with my sweet little darlings. But, I wonder what the neighbors would think when we all waddled outside for our afternoon walk... me... 5 little ones... and a gaggle of ducklings??? Probably goes against the neighborhood bylaws.
hmmm.

BUT, I did have a friend who happened to have a duck that had laid some eggs. My friend was concerned that her little mama duck was neglecting her not yet hatched brood so she asked if she could borrow that lonesome little incubator in my garage.
I gladly agreed.

And a few short weeks later... ta-da... she had baby ducks! The were PRECIOUS!!! Just too cute for words!

Coincidentally, the 2 teachers I am mentoring (have I shared that yet?? I don't believe so but since this is the short version I'll have t come back to that in another post). Anyway, these ladies were also finishing up a unit in the classrooms that involved spring animals and mentioned how great it would be for the children to see real baby chicks or ducks.

Big smiles from me... my kind of teachers!
So I called my friend and asked if her ducks would like to go on a field trip with me. She said yes, I picked them up and away we went!
We spent the morning in the classrooms then I picked my crew up from preschool and didn't have time to return the babies in between those two stops. So I promised to have the babies home for dinner but ran home and put my children down for naps... ducklings too!

And when everyone woke up... what a surprise!! To say my kiddos were excited would be an understatement! They were thrilled and begged to keep them (if only!) They loved them! It was so precious to see the kids playing with them too. Monkey See especially loves animals so he was beside himself and didn't want to put them down. You can see in he pictures, he is sort of a "duck whisperer". Somehow, they would just lay on their backs and let him rub their bellies!

Anyway, we had lots of fun with the ducklings and I think we may be hatching a few eggs around here next spring!

In case you are wondering where the photos of Bud and Daisy with the duckling are... I didn't get any. It was impossible for me to take pictures of them holding them for several reasons:
1. Bud is also known as Baby Hulk or sometimes as Cave Baby around here. Super strong. and rough. 'nuff said.
2. Daisy was so enamored by them she just wanted to shove them in her pockets and run away and hid from us so she could have them all to herself. She is so much like Swiper the Fox it's crazy!
3. Tug of war with bby animals and two year olds is very, very ugly.
4. I'm just not that brave.

But trust me when I say, they were super cute during their supervised duckling visits!