Our furry friend

We had a visitor for a little while this afternoon. 

We were coming back past the lake in our subdivision when we saw a family of Canadian Geese crossing the road in front of us heading toward the lake.  Following mom and dad were 4 goslings running to keep up and one gosling that was hopping and trying to catch up.  We stopped and watched them for a little while and then we saw a swan land on the lake.  The girls decided that after lunch they were going to go back to the lake with the camera to try and get a picture of the goose family and the swan.  About 10 minutes after they left Morgan came running back into the house to announce that the baby goose I had thought was hurt really was and it had been left behind by his family.  He was calling for his mama but mama was already on the other side of the lake and was calling for him.  Unfortunately, he couldn't swim and after a few minutes mama quit calling and disappeared with the rest of his family.  And so the girls were sitting by the baby trying to keep the sun off of it and wondering what they should do.  I told Morgan to go back and tell Cerah not to touch it because if mama came back she might not have anything to do with it.  But the girls didn't want to leave it there because they were afraid something would happen to it.

I decided to call Animal Control and find out who I was to call to come rescue it.  It turns out they were the right department.  I was told that they would dispatch someone to come pick it up but in the meantime I should put it in a box and bring it home to wait.  So I grabbed a box, put a towel in it, and headed down to the lake to pick him up.  When I got there I found the girls sitting beside him to protect him.  We put him in the box and headed home with him.

The girls kept taking turns petting him and talking to him to keep him calm.

We put him on the table in the living room and India didn't know what to make of him.  She could see him from her cage and she let us know that she wanted out so she could go investigate.  To be safe we kept her in her cage but she became very vocal.  Pretty soon he was getting vocal too.

Then he got tired and fell asleep.  A little while later Animal Control showed up and said they would take him to a nature reserve where they could fix his foot and then release him.  It was quite an exciting afternoon for the girls.  They even remembered to take a picture of the swan.



Weekend news

What's been going on around here? 

Well, we had our first watermelon of the season Friday night.  It was perfect weather for it.



Cerah brought home her latest art project.  It's a fish by the way.

And then she spent most of the weekend working on a project for her French class

 She even talked Anthony into helping her

Yesterday, Morgan had her graduation from "Foundations For Faith" - a class that all 6th graders go through during their last year in Kids Church before they go to Youth.  It gives them an understanding of the church and it's mission according to the bible.

After their graduation all the students got to take part in their 1st communion

It was a good weekend for us.  Next weekend, off to Connecticut for most of us and Arizona for Morgan.

Reeses

Sad News!

Our guinea pig, Reeses, died last night. 

Morgan found him when she went downstairs to go to bed last night.  She went over to his cage to tell him goodnight and noticed that he was laying on his side (he always sleeps on his stomach) and he wasn't breathing.  And so we found ourselves outside at 10:00 in the evening in the rain having a burial for him.

Rob took it upon himself to get Reeses into a box and bury him.

Cerah held the umbrella for him while he dug the hole.

Hannah watched over Reeses' bed

Then Rob laid him in his grave

and we all said a few words before we covered the hole back up

Goodbye, Reeses.

You were a good pet for the girls, especially Morgan



My Mother's Day Outing

Yesterday for Mother's Day I got breakfast in bed. That was followed by cards and gifts. And then we were off to spend the day together as a family. I picked Greenfield Village as it is one of my favorite places to go.

 

No, you can't take it home .

 But a ride in one is the next best thing

Then it was off to see the working farms in the village.

The kids even went to school.  But, as you can see, they didn't behave

After that we watched the Wright Brothers tell us about their first successful flying attempt. 

We went to their bicycle shop

See this room?  It's the back of the shop where they put together their airplane.  The shop tools are the original ones that they used.

Then we found some hats that were much more becoming on us

I like this one best

Whew, all that walking made us hungry and hot.

So, it was off to lunch for us

 And then the fountain to cool off.

We decided to go check out what Mr. Edison was doing in his lab. 

It turns out he was working on the phonograph.  Rob got to test it for him

And then he called a  press meeting to tell us about the light bulb he had just perfected.  Morgan and Shannon were chosen to help read the press releases. 

After that we decided to find out how the press releases were made so it was off to the printing office.

The kids were put to work once again.

By then we had decided that they earned a little fun so we took them to another school house where they were able to make clothes pin dolls.

Next, for our artistic satisfaction we went and watched how the pottery and glass pieces that are sold in the village stores were made.

By then we were too tired to walk anymore so we spent a couple minutes just sitting and looking around to see what we could find.

I hope you had as good of a Mother's Day as I did.