Calves

Today we took our dogs to the country vet.

When we were leaving they were feeding little calves.

The boys were thrilled to watch, touch and even have the calves want to suck their fingers.

And here are some pictures from our strawberry picking and rose bud trimming.

11 year olds Camp Out

Our twin sons had their first overnight scout camp out this weekend!  My husband loves scouting and camping and enjoyed going along. The boys loved discovering the wonders of their new pocket knives and compasses.

 Here is their camp site.

Discovering a watering trough at the top of the hill.  

Preparing for their hike by learning about orienteering -- how to use their new compasses.














Locating True North.

Coming back to their camp site from their hike.

A dozen each to color

Saturday night, we couldn't go to bed until we'd colored a dozen eggs each. 

Blue Venom, Furious Racer Receive Pinewood Derby Awards

Blue Venom was the name of car 26 in this year's Pinewood Derby.
It received the "Best of Show" Award.
Furious Racer was the name of car 27.
It received the "Best Paint Job" Award.

Kids Race Down Main Street in Snowshoes

The 91st annual American Dog Derby race was held this weekend. We got to see just the Snowshoe races, but it is an activity well worth seeing. In the real musher team race, the big news was that one team was trampled by a moose, but are all okay. Two other teams stopped to scare off the moose. While this was happening, kids were racing downtown on Snowshoes. Lots of snow and good weather. For race details go to www.americandogderby.org.

Fun In The Sun Cake Contest

This year's Cake Contest theme for the annual Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet was "Fun in the Sun". On the upper left, is the sand Dad concocted for the "Building a Sandcastle" cake. We used the mold from the Hogwart's Castle bundt cake and recipe posted earlier. The sand is made of: plain sugar, brown sugar, raw cane sugar, graham crackers and oreos blended together. The sand looked so real that one parent couldn't bring herself to actually eat it because it seemed too real and others didn't dare eat it because it felt real to the touch. The other themed cake we made was "The Cub Scout Team". We used the Krazy Cake recipe posted earlier and used buttercream frosting. We used M&Ms for the "C". We found the idea on www.familyfun.com and altered it slightly. The baseball has some of the sand on it to make it look played with.

Whew! That's over and tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Good thing the kids already made their Valentine's for FHE activity.

The cat came back, thought he was a gonner, but the cat came back . . .

Much rejoicing was made in our home today!  

As soon as I'd dropped the kids off to school this morning and stepped back into the house, the phone was ringing.  When I answered it, our son was exclaiming,  "Mom, we found Joe Joe at the door of the school!  Come get him", so I turned around and went back to the school to rescue him.   Joe Joe had been missing for 2 weeks, which was especially worrisome since his Mother, our beloved Kitka was run over a few days before Christmas and we were already sad.  He'd lost his collar, so no one could call us.  The Principal said he'd been hanging around near the stop sign where the kids cross over for a few days now.  

We've also been sad, since our pet hamster Bubba, which Santa brought our youngest, died within a few days.   Then our oldest's only remaining rabbit -- white colored Floppy, got out of his cage and hasn't been seen or found in all this white snow.  We keep putting veggies under the play house, in hopes he's burrowed in there somewhere where the dogs cannot find him. We'll see what spring brings.

Well, Joe Joe is reunited with his sister Shelly Belly and they still like each other -- for the most part.  You can tell he's been roughed up and is quite skiddish, and was suspicious of her at first, but is readjusting.  Here they are together again this afternoon.  

Oh, and the new pet hamster, Rosa has done well, except for when Shelly Belly knocked her cage over to get to her.   Rosa quickly ran up her tunnel tube and the kids all went running when they heard the loud crash.  If we keep the door closed tightly, she's fine.  When they were kittens, they used to stay in this bathroom, now it's the hamster's bathroom and is off  limits to them.  Yikes!  living with animals is work and can be stressful -- that's why I told Santa, the Easter Bunny and my husband to all stop bringing animals as gifts, but my husband assures me all of these lessons are helpful for our children.  As for me growing up,  all of our animals were outdoors as opposed to sharing my bathroom!  Well, I do have a cute picture of "Blackie" my Tom cat sitting in my sink, now that I think of it:)  

Merry Christmas Tree!

We'd never taken our kids to cut down our own Christmas tree before, so on the advice of another family, who'd done it, we decided it would be fun. Later we found a few others in our neighborhood who have had this tradition, or have now started it as well. I think we've started a Christmas tradition as you can see and read about below:

Merry Christmas Tree!

Dashing through the snow
In a Ford 150 sleigh
O'er the steep hill we go
Sliding all the way
Through the forest we sing
Making kids spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and bring
A Christmas tree home tonight
Oh!
Jingle Bells,
Christmas tree smells!
It's snowing all the way
What fun it is our 12 footer fits
In our Ford 150 sleigh, Hey!

Milky Boots Finds a Good Home

We've found a home for Milky Boots in the next neighborhood. At least he's closer now, but they are moving out of state later this summer, so again, the kids are very sad about this. They worry if he's being taken care of or not since he's now a garage cat vs. house cat. Here's one last photo before he goes to his new owner. She's a cat lover thankfully.

A nice home for Shadow

Before the new kitten owners arrived to pick up Midnight Shadow Bear, we took a quick family portrait of them.

We'd hoped to keep the kittens in the neighborhood, but guess what -- the neighborhood is full of cats already! So with MUCH disappointment, weeping, wailing and gnashing of our children's teeth, we did find a nice home for the all black kitten named Midnight Shadow Bear today -- further away than we'd hoped --but to some real animals lovers who had recently lost their kitten. He's being renamed to Dante.