Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Maggie's birthday...

"I have noticed that what cats most appreciate in a human is not the ability to produce food which they take for granted-but his or her entertainment value." -Geoffrey Household

Today is Maggie's 5th birthday.  It is easy to keep track of her age because she is the same age as the twins...only one month later.  I wanted a cat, and Warren said I could not have one until after the twins were born.  One month later, I had my cat, Maggie.  In Roswell, she was an indoor/ourdoor cat.  Here she is strictly indoors due to the fact that there are plenty of creatures who would love to have her for their dinner.


She was born in the wheel-well where the spare tire fit in an old car.  I think that is why her favorite place to get is in a bathroom sink.  It is the closest thing that resembles the spare tire wheel well.


Here's how we celebrated her 5th birthday...It started off with her favorite activity of looking out the window to watch birds, squirrels, and sometimes deer.




 But then I brought her the birthday cake with a candle.  She sniffed at it...


Then decided it would be good to eat...the candle, not the cake.




After the candle fell out of the cake, it made a nice toy to play with...until it fell to the floor.


Hmmm, maybe this cake would make a pretty good snack...


Maybe a few more sniffs to make sure...


No, I think it would make a better toy...


Maybe I can push it off this table top...



I took the cake away from her because it was getting too close to the edge, and I did not want to clean up the cake mess in that event.  Maggie doesn't clean up her messes when she has humans who will do it for her.  I gave her a pipe cleaner instead.  That is her birthday present.  She loves pipe cleaners.


It was a pretty good birthday for Maggie.  5 years, which according to a chart on the internet is equivelent to 36 years in human years.


Happy Birthday, Maggie!

Monday, March 13, 2017

It's almost Spring...then...

"In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours." -Mark Twain


We have had some rather warm days, and the plants are starting to bloom.  I went around our yard photographing all the signs of spring...

I don't know what this is...but it is a very gorgeous bush
 In New Mexico, we sometimes have a late winter storm.  I was hoping it would not happen here.
pansies...







Since it was so nice out, I bought some bubbles for the boys.  They spent hours of delight making huge bubbles...






And look!  Even a chick-a-dee bird has decided to make a home in our backyard birdhouse.  I am so happy the bird chose my birdhouse.


Then it happened.  The weather changed rather suddenly, and we had snow...





Maggie didn't care.  She decided to snooze the day away.  And Warren and I stayed in our pajamas... all day, and watched movies.  It was a pretty nice snow day.


I was glad the snow did not hang around...it melted the next day.  Maybe the spring blooms will make it after all.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Everybody but me rides...


It is true...everybody here, rides a bike, but me.  Why don't I ride you might ask.  For one, the streets are too narrow.  I would be afraid for most of the time.  Mountain biking is too extreme for me. The primary reason is I don't want to wear a helmet.  Helmets are required in this family.  No excuses.  Even if they do mess up my hair that is not an excuse.  So I don't bike.  Besides, my knee hurts when I ride too.  What do I do?  I walk.  And hike.  I love to walk.  It is not dangerous or extreme.  It is relaxing.


This past week when we had the boys. We also had their balance bikes.  In case you don't know what a balance bike is, it is a bike with no pedals.  The boys have been riding this type of bike since they were 2 years old.  They have since graduated, and transitioned, with no problems, to a pedal bike.  No training wheels...they just got on and rode.  We just did not have their pedal bikes at our house at the time.  So they had to ride their balance bikes.  Since our house is at the top of a hill, they loved coasting down the street.  (our street had little to no traffic).  And our driveway has a nice steep entryway.  They liked that as well.  These boys flew like the wind.  They were fast.  They are dare devils.   I was rather nervous about this since the bikes have no brakes.  Not them.  The boys don't have a problem with slowing down because they use their feet.  Tate drags his feet on the ground, and Sawyer squeezes his heels on the back tire to slow down.  Here they come!


See him dragging his feet to stop...



Here's the next one...he squeezes his heels on the back tire to slow down...





The love for biking is a generational thing...all starting with this guy...


Then, his son.  Luke has taken it to the extreme with his mountain biking...

photo by Luke

And Jenna has joined in the sport...
photo by Luke
I guess I will be content to watch everyone bike.  


And I will take the photos...THE END.
 
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