Babies

I think it is safe to say we are all smitten with a certain little cutie pie.  She has settled right in, and we are all getting back into the swing of having a baby around!  I cannot get over how perfect she is!  I love this new grammy role!  It is a great thing when you add members to your family!

Unfortunately for some little girls, the time has come to also subtract some members from the family.  The puppies have officially been weaned, and are starting to trickle out to their forever homes.  There have definitely been some sad moments at our house.  I would say that I am sorry for breaking the girl's hearts, but there have been some pretty neat moments from this experience.  Loving something that you are selling is always hard, but we have some amazing stories to tell.  The puppy above the girls named Runt.  Mallory especially was very attached, and to the point of tears over her leaving. BUT this particular dog went back to the people that we bought Blitz from.  Blitz's mother was stolen last summer, and Blitz's father died of old age around Christmas time.  This family was so excited to have their dog's grandpup!  It was very touching to see them getting choked up because they were so happy to be getting back a piece of some of the dogs they had loved.  Our hearts are happy knowing that this dog will be loved and cherished.

Quincy was fond of this little girl who she called Licky.  Licky went home yesterday to a lady who is moving out of her parent's home for the first time and is happy to have her as company in her new journey.  She was so happy, and excited, it was hard to be sad about letting go!  A few tears were shed, but they have promised the girls updates!  Knowing we will be getting pictures occasionally definitely makes it easier to say goodbye!

We hadn't been back from delivering Licky for more than an hour when the people we sold her to had their next door neighbor call us and buy the red female that the girls named Chocolate Chunk.  Chunk is Harper's favorite, but again, we lucked out and the people have agreed to send updates.  I am feeling good about this.  Harper said she knew that they should not have picked favorites! 

We only had this pup left.  Fello.  Saige's favorite, and the one that Jim has also gotten very attached to.  Saige cried enough tears that we knew we must take a bold step for his new home.  Which is why we have decided that he will go live with my cousin Janet.  Saige will get visitation and pictures.  Saige is still convinced the dog should stay with us, but did consent to cousin Janet taking over his care. Janet is thrilled, Saige is happy.  Hope is happy because, frankly the basement is starting to smell like a vet clinic and I am ready for less work down there!  Do I think we will do this again?  Yes, I do.  Will it be the next time the dog cycles?  I don't think so!  I will need more time to recover!   I would say that I am thankful for how easily these sold, and that I have been touched by some of what has happened because of them.  I also think it has been a good experience for the kids, and we made enough money to send them to camp this summer!  Good experience overall! 

back at it

We went from relaxing days of playing with puppies, and hanging out together, right back to schedules, craziness, chaos, busy and school.  

The plan is that Evie will spend her mornings with me at my office while Madison is at work.  Because of spring break, and one day of GG time, we hadn't started this yet.  Yesterday she was delivered to me wearing this adorable hat!  The neighbor made it for her.  Cows are my favorite!  She is such a little cutie pie!  She was very good too!  She laid on her blanket and talked to me while I worked!  I am so thankful that they moved back and we get this time together!  I love being a grammy!  :)  Evie's other grandma made her this really cute shirt.  She was sporting all sorts of neat stuff yesterday!

Last evening, I drove a bus load of quiz bowl kids to Burlington.  Preston's team swept all their rounds and took first place.  Last night was weird.  They had pulled questions from a certain web site and the questions had strange wording and a lot of non-needed information in them.  I didn't think the kids did quite as well as they have at some of the other meets.  They still managed to win every round, and they got medals.  They were pretty excited!  

These boys know a ton of random information.  I am always impressed!

last weekend of the break

The kids had stuff that they wanted to do over the break.  Preston wanted to take his driving test at the DMV.  The 3 little girls wanted to go to the Aquatic Center.  Friday, after work, I drove Preston to the DMV, but unfortunately, after waiting in line most of the afternoon, they stopped issuing drive tests, and we were out of luck.  Because most of the afternoon was sucked dry at the DMV, we didn't make it to the Aquatic Center as planned.  The girls didn't get too upset, because I promised to take them on Saturday, and allowed them each to bring a friend.  They had a great time with their friends, and they were really happy because all the slides and diving boards were open!  

Saige was thrilled because she is finally tall enough to play on the slide!  She must have done it a thousand times.  Happy, happy kid!  

St. Patrick's day I thought I would take the kids to the parade in Lawrence.  Then I remembered how much I hate downtown on a regular day.  And how much I dislike crowds.  And how bad parking is down there.  We decided to stay home.  After church, we agreed to meet some people with the remaining puppies, so they could meet them.  They bought a dog, so it was worth it.  We are down to 2 puppies left.  We met them at the Tractor Supply, so the girls and I looked at baby chickens.  We did not buy any.  This is big progress for us!

The girls also had a 4-H cooking meeting.  Yesterday they learned about making fair quality cookies, and they practiced a monster cookie recipe.  These cookies turned out great!  I was planning to recreate them at home, but someone ate the M&M's!  These cooking lessons are very well thought out, and the girls really are learning a lot!

Today is a teacher prep day, so Mallory had to go back to school, but the kids have this one, last day off.  I got up super early and took Preston back to the DMV to take his driving test.  Unfortunately, running a red light is frowned upon by the DMV, and so he failed his test.  (He turned right on a red - totally legal...BUT he forgot to stop and yield to the oncoming traffic first--- minor details?).  He was not a very happy kid, but he can try again next time there is a day off!  

I am very sad that their break is over, because it means an end to easy going schedules.  I did enjoy having them home and doing some fun stuff with them.  It was a great break!

Pi day

Apparently, Saige came by her love of made up holidays naturally.  Yesterday, I was informed by my 2 oldest daughters that it was national pi day (3.14).  They went to town to pick up ingredients to make chicken pot pie, chocolate and cherry crumble pie for dinner.  Never one to argue with a reason to eat pie, we decided to celebrate pi day as you should!

We had a few things that we were going to do yesterday, but somehow we just never managed to leave.  The kids seemed to enjoy a day to just be home.  The dog decided he likes jumping on the trampoline, which makes me laugh.  I often describe Ollie as our "village idiot" and he lives up to the name.  But honestly, our village is so much better because of him!  He is a fun dog.  We love him, and his crazy personality.  

 
Pi day was a great success!  The kids are sad that they are running out of spring break days.  It won't be long now until summer!  :)

found our marbles

For a long time now, grandma and I have been talking about taking a trip up to the Moon Marble Company and taking a tour.  It is in Bonner Springs, which is really not that far.  Yesterday, the weather was gross, and so we decided to make the trip.  It was a great rainy day activity!  We all really enjoyed watching them make hand made glass marbles.  The guy was incredibly talented, talked to the kids about all the steps, and it was really amazing.  My inner nerd was completely happy!  The place is a really neat vintage toy store as well.  We had a great time looking at all the old toys, and amazing glass pieces.  I could have stayed for a lot longer.  The girls liked it, but they were not as excited as grandma and I were!  

We also went out for lunch.  I was willing to go just about anywhere.  Chinese food?  Mexican?  A steak dinner?  These kids always want to eat at McDonalds.  Always!  We really don't eat out that often, so they want what they want!

We did bring home some marbles, and the girls did do some research on marble playing rules.  Something educational during the break!  They had a good time learning to shoot the marbles too!  Harper seemed to be a natural at it.

break

It is spring break in our neck of the woods.  The kids were happy that they had one nice day on Monday, and could get their poles out.  There were absolutely no fish caught, and if you look close, you can see that there was still ice on the water, but they were happy kids!  Sometimes I guess a little fishing is what you need!  Sadly, the weather is not looking too good for fishing trips the rest of the week!  Which is ok, we have other plans anyway!

For example, Madison had to return to work, so we have been doing a little baby watching!  It is a job we love so much!  This little girl is the sweetest!

Also, we are starting to advertise the puppies.  Since Dexter is Madison and Andrew's dog, the kids have also been snuggling him....knowing that he isn't leaving is making it a little easier to think about selling the others!  They are the cutest, sweetest little puppies!  They will make someone great dogs!

Harper and Quincy had an opportunity to do some community service yesterday.  We took a few animals to the family guidance center and let kids pet them.  The kids were pretty excited about the puppies, duck and baby goat.  Quincy had to hold the duck's bill because he kept pecking everyone.  I guess he did not want to travel into town!   :)

It was chilly and rainy and we had the animals under a covered walkway.  Harper forgot her jacket, and was pretty chilly by the time we were done.  She was convinced the puppy was cold too!  I don't think that was the case, but the pup seemed to like this arrangement!

Preston was not excited about taking animals to town, but he was excited to practice his driving skills, so he went along as our chauffeur.  He does a fairly good job, but we heckled him and tried to prepare him for driving with the DMV person later this week.  I cracked up when I snapped this picture and his eyes were closed.  We gave him a lot of grief about not doing the Bird Box challenge when driving us around.  He was not amused in the least!

Mallory is happy with her spring break position.  Evie seems pretty happy with it too!  Teaching is a lot of work, and the benefits are not always great, but this benefit seems pretty amazing!

On the way home from Topeka, Quincy asked if we could stop at Tractor Supply for feed.  I knew better than to stop.  I knew it was chick days.  I was hoping they would be sold out.  Guess what?  Not only were they not sold out, they were selling the week old babies for $1 so they could make room for new babies later this week.  So we got baby ducks for $1 each.  Hard to pass up a deal like that.  Plus, I would have paid full price because I have a problem.  Baby ducks get me every single time.  Every.  Single.   Time.  

Quincy does an excellent job taking care of her animals.  It makes me happy to see the kids loving life, and enjoying 4-H, and learning some work habits along the way.  No harm done.