Dogs, Dogs, and More Dogs

While my brother and sister-in-law were out of state waiting for their baby to be born, we became the proud temporary owners of 2 extra dogs.  It was quite a houseful with 2 adults, 2 kids, 3 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 snakes!

Bleu is a super cuddly dachshund.  I think he thinks he's a cat (except for the fact that he barked at my cats).  He was constantly in my lap or on the couch.  

I took this picture through a very dirty door, but it illustrates their personalities so well:

Ellie (Eleanor Rigby) is a border collie, who loves to play fetch.  She has a great talent for catching a frisbee.


It was fun, but I would not ever want to own that many dogs.  They are a lot more work than cats.

Christmas preparations

Christmas is almost here.  My German-themed village always gets me in the spirit:

Baking sugar cookies has always been an important part of Christmas for me.  When I was teaching, I used to make dozens of them and hand them out to my students while they were taking their final exams.  With children of my own, it's a lot harder to make mass quantities like that, but at the same time, more fun and meaningful.  Kathy and kids came over a couple of days ago, and we all made cookies together.

Becca and Helene at the KitchenAid mixer:
Helene did not want her picture taken; she whipped her head back around when she saw me with the camera.  And if you were wondering, yes, her shirt is on backwards.  She wanted a solid green shirt to go with her red skirt.  (I guess if she can't see anything but green from the front, it must be solid green.)
Campbell and Aaron cracking eggs and following the recipe to tell us what step is next:

On Christmas Eve-Eve, it snowed and snowed and snowed.  Helene went out to play in it early in the morning (while I was still straightening up the house and could not join her).  I love that she can get all of her snow gear on by herself!  She took some toys out with her and played a game where she threw them into the snow and then tried to recover them.
Here are her toys (lined up from smallest to largest) after their adventure in the snow.  They also accompanied us on our sledding trip later in the day.  Helene said they had a great time, and "they did not get cold because they do not have a nervous system."  Must be nice.
I think Helene's hair looks beautiful all wavy like this (which is how it is naturally, especially after being out in the moist, snowy air), but she prefers it straightened.  The grass is always greener. . . 
Now it's the morning of Christmas Eve.  We are having friends over this evening and family coming in later.  It's gonna be a great day!

Fox Creek Fitness

I've been going to kickboxing class at my friend Chris's place (Fox Creek Fitness) for a few months now.  Last weekend, he had his first kids' class and asked me to take pictures.  It was fun, and the kids were adorable!

Gorgeous Fall Day

This week has been beautiful, with temperatures getting up into the 70s.  It feels more like fall in Texas than Colorado.

I took the kids and friends to the playground today.

There were two bald eagles perched in a tree on the way to the park.


And a red-tailed hawk in the tree just south of the eagles.
After the playground, we went on to the treehouse, and the owl we saw last time was there again.  And this time I had my zoom lens!!
Isn't her camouflage just perfect?!
Love those furry ears!

Anderson Farms 2009

I think we've been to Anderson Farms in the fall every year that we have lived in Colorado.  It has barnyard animals to view, hay rides, a pumpkin patch, fair-type food, a hay maze, a barrel train ride, several other activities, and most importantly, a corn maze!  The picture above is an aerial view of the maze, taken when the corn stalks were still green.

This baby alpaca was born just 2 days before our visit.  Still a little unsteady on its feet - so cute!

I told John we need a rooster like this, or at least some kind of fancy looking hen, whenever we get around to getting chickens.
The kids played on the hay maze for over an hour.  Yes, "on".  I guess you can actually walk on the ground between the bales and try to get through the maze, but almost every child there was on top of the hay, leaping from wall to wall.


Our friends, Chris and Kathy, have gone to this festival with us for the past couple of years.

Helene in jail.

John was out of town this weekend and arrived back just in time to join us for the corn maze.  We only did one of the three maze sections.  We wandered around the front of the train engine section, which is supposed to be about 1.6 miles.  Each of the other sections was over 2 miles.
There are punch stations along the way, so you have a goal and can punch a number on your card as you find each station.
Last year, our trip to Anderson Farms was on a cold, wet day, and we had the run of the place.  Our boots were sticking in the mud while walking through the maze.  Helene's even stuck in and she walked right out of it at one point.  This year, it was hot, dusty, and CROWDED.  I think I prefer cold.  But we still had a great time and got lots of fresh air.

Mother of the Year

Here are two not-so-shining motherhood moments, and they both happened today!

1) When the kids got into the car after school, Helene said, "Mommy, you need to wash my school water bottle.  It has moss in it."  Lovely.  She brings it home at the end of the week to be washed, and she keeps it on her desk at school all of the next week, filling it up with fresh water every day.  I am 95% sure I washed it this weekend.  But, then again, as I confessed to a friend earlier today (before this incident, coincidentally), sometimes Helene leaves the water bottle in the car on Fridays, and since it never makes it to the house, it never gets washed.  I have been known to just stick it back in her backpack on Monday morning, thinking: "It's just water. . ."

2) Just hours later, driving home from Campbell's gymnastics class, the kids said they were hungry.  I had thrown an individual pack of Ritz bits in the car yesterday - this peanut butter kind:

I had just found them in the pantry a couple of days ago while scouring the cabinets for Reese's peanut butter cups I hoped would be hiding somewhere (they weren't).  I have no idea how long these crackers have been in the pantry.  So, we each popped one in our mouths at the same time this evening and immediately spit them back out.  They were rancid.  I passed out tissues to wrap the disgusting remains in, quickly followed by peppermint gum to try to save our palates. Ugh!  I thought "food" like this that was packaged with all kinds of preservatives would surely last forever.  I was wrong.

And that, friends, is why I have disqualified myself for the Mother of the Year award, in one short afternoon.

Smaug and Sam

John and the kids found a garter snake in the yard one day a week or so ago and decided to keep it as a pet (while I was out - that will teach me to leave the house!).  

They designed a very nice habitat for it in an old aquarium we had stored in the basement.

The next day, Campbell was cleaning up some toys from the yard and found another one.  So, he brought it in and now we have two pet snakes (joy).

This is Sam.  He is the second, smaller one.

This is Smaug, named after the dragon in The Hobbit.

They both escaped this evening through a hole that we were aware of but thought we had covered adequately.  I sent the kids upstairs to bathe, and they yelled down, "Both snakes are gone!"  I thought they were just teasing me, and I ignored them for a while.  But after Campbell got out of the shower, he told me again, so I went to check, and sure enough, they were not there.  As Helene got out of the bath, wrapped in her towel, and headed into her mostly dark room, she called out, "I found one!"  Smaug was crawling out from under her bed.  I think that would have freaked me out.  She handled it so calmly and bravely, though.  As I headed downstairs for duct tape (with which to better seal the hole), I found Sam on the rug in the entryway.  All snakes accounted for now.  And hole closed.  Hopefully that will hold them.