Bye Bye Billy

We recently made the decision to butcher our male boer goat, Mr. Billy Goat, aka Billy or more recently, Butthead. 

Of the seven kids he sired, only one was male. The point of raising boer goats is to provide meat for our family and possibly sell some to our friends. We can only keep the male kids for meat purposes and have to sell off the females as we don't want any inbreeding going on. Or breeding when the girls are too young to take place. 

Maybe had Billy been willing to live in a pen with just his son, Pierce, things would be different, but that didn't work out so well. We tried, it lasted all of 12 hours before he jumped the fence to get back to the ladies. And recently several other reasons presented themselves as it was time to say good-bye and fill our freezer. 

1. Billy was getting Big and we no longer trusted him. He could be a bit of a butt and literally head butt you if you gave any one else attention outside of him. The girls weren't allowed in the goat pen at all after he tried to eat Sydney's hair, scaring her pretty good in the process. He'd even hooked me a couple of times after I had been giving him attention and then walked off. Those were some knarly bruises. To be honest, I no longer felt safe in the pen with him and tended to carry a club with me as protection the few times I did have to go in there without Cameron. 

2. After Murray's coyote attack, the rains finally showed up. We had to return Murray to join the rest of the herd because the crate was not rain proof. We had re-inforced and raised the fence line of part of the goat pen to put the goats up in at night for added protection particularly for Murray. Billy learned that he could head butt the door and let everyone out on his own thus nullifying the safety aspect for Murray. 

3. We got Moet, one of our new pigs. Billy liked to assert his dominance over her, head butting her and pushing her around. He especially did this during feedings or at 4:30 AM. Having a pig squealing at 4:30 AM tends to wake you up into a panic, especially after the Murray/Coyote encounter. Moet did get some payback on Billy though - she ripped half an ear off in the first day and a half of moving in and proceeded to eat it. 

4. Goat meat, while consumed by 70 percent of the world, is still too foreign to our friends and acquaintances to be interested in purchasing it. Which is why we are switching to pigs. Who can say no to bacon?!

6. The buyer for the last three remaining daughters fell through. So again, we didn't want to risk any inbreeding or early breeding taking place. 

5. I love Pierce, the only son he sired, and didn't want him to become food (at least any time too soon). Don't worry, he's wethered so he won't be siring any kids with his sister or half sisters. And by being wethered, he won't stink like Billy. As long as he doesn't get unruly like his dad, he gets to stay. 

Cameron ensured Billy had a quick, painless death. I'll admit it was still hard on me to some extent. At one time we both loved Billy. But while Cameron took care of Billy, I was able to cuddle with Pierce which I hadn't been able to do in quite some time. And in the days since Billy's disappearance, the whole herd seems a little more relaxed, especially Moet. So thank you Billy for the kids you sired and the meat you will provide us. 

This kind of life definitely isn't for every one, and I am sure some will be harder than others, but I'm proud of the way we are raising our girls to understand where their food comes from. 

An Open Letter to London for her 8th Birthday

Dear London,

You are no longer a little kid. You’re now much closer to double digits and your tween years now that you are 8! And I can hardly believe you are 8 already! I see pictures of you when you were little and I realize just how much you have grown over the years. You’re going to be passing me in height in no time! You’re already at my shoulders.

You’re still big into reading. You’re one complaint at Christmas was that you didn’t get as many books as you had hoped for. At the same time, you find a book you like and read it over and over again. These days those books revolve around the Dogman series or Ninjango. You want to be the green Ninjango, Lloyd, for Halloween, though I am trying to convince you to be Uma from Descendents 2 since we already have the costume. You chose it for when we go to Disneyland in November for the Bibbiddi Bobbiddi Boutique.

Now, if I could just get you to read all the other books I have purchased for you in the playroom. That’s my goal with you this summer – to read at least one chapter from a non Dogman or Ninjango book each day. Right now we have you working on Beauty & The Beast – you started it ages ago - and then you will move on to Descendents 2, another book you started shortly after Christmas. Then we will work on the others.

You’re tom boy side has truly come through this year. You’re not into wearing skirts or dresses hardly at all, though you do like a cute pair of shoes. Sounds just like me. You really got into baseball this season, I think from feeding off the boys on your team, since Coach-pitch was co-ed this year. Your dad was the coach while I coached your sister’s T-ball team. Even with the season over, you’re still wanting to practice.

You also recently attended your first 4-H show – the 2018 4-H Spring Fair, where you showed your pygmy goat, Murray Xmas, for the first time. You purchased him almost a year ago. You did a great job and it was a great experience to get you ready for fair at the end of July. Of course, watching other animal showings at Spring Fair has you more interested in horses than ever before. You’ve been asking for horseback riding lessons but the lady down the street doesn’t have a pony that is ready for you yet. I’ll probably be looking elsewhere soon. Luckily, when you head to Tucson later this summer, your grandparents were kind enough to sign you up for a week-long horse riding camp. You’re dad and I are in trouble I think. I’m sure you and your sister will come back wanting horses. We can at least make sure you continue riding lessons.

You still talk about being an artist, teacher and scientist. And you definitely have a talent for drawing at this young age. I hope it continues as it is a great outlet. You are also interested in music, particularly piano and singing. You love to sing with me in the car, always asking me to add songs you hear on the radio to our USB drive and now that we have Grammi’s piano, we are looking into getting you lessons.

You are also showing your older age with the TV shows you are interested in – no more Disney Junior or Nick Junior for you, if your sister lets you, you’re watching Disney Channel, Disney XD and shows I approve of on Nickelodeon.  This has definitely resulted in some squabbles between you and Sydney as she does still appreciate the Disney Junior programming. You also are bit remote control happy. You flip around constantly from one show to the next when commercials happen and pause if you have to get up for even two seconds. We’re all working on taming these habits and making sure everyone is happy when the TV is on. At the same time, you really only get to watch TV on the weekends if I can help it.

Outside the TV habits, you’re a pretty amazing big sister. Just the other night, when your dad and I came in from the garden to tuck you two in for bed, we found you reading to Sydney. And you’re good when we ask you to listen to Sydney read. You’re both still sharing a bedroom, but I’m not sure how much longer this will last. You definitely have a sense of what is yours and what is hers and what is shared. I hope we can squeeze a couple more years out of you.

On Presidents Day this year your Grandma and I took your sister and you to get your ears pierced. Given Black is your favorite color these days, you chose medium sized black “diamond” studs. Honestly, I am a bit surprised you even went through with getting this done. You had really not shown any interest at all until you heard that McKenzie had gotten her ears pierced. Sydney had been asking for months and finally you said you wanted to do it to. At the mall, Sydney went first and I think the initial look on her face scared you. You decided that you wanted to get your hair cut first. The procrastination paid off because when we got back to the store, two people were now working so they could pierce both ears at the same time. You were very proud of yourself once it was all over. And for your birthday Grammi got you what you really desired – Jack Skellington earrings!

Jake still seeks you out for cuddles when he can – we had to install a door knob on your bedroom so he couldn’t keep breaking in at night, letting the dogs out in the process. Gibson is still the dog you prefer to have in bed with you most nights (if he can calm down.)

More and more you are loving living on a farm. I think for the most part it’s the space you given to roam the property now and you do love to head outside to check on all the animals. We’ve added 3 KuneKune pigs to the mixt this year and expect to have piglets in 3-4 months. While we sold Sunny’s babies from last year, she blessed us with 2 more this year. One we traded for one of the pigs, but the other, Cutie, we still have. Roxie also had two girls this year – Sally & Aurora – and we have decided to keep them as well. And instead of saving Pierce for butchering, we said goodbye to Billy on Sunday. Mainly because we couldn’t allow you and Sydney in the back with the goats as Billy was getting to be too aggressive. Even I didn’t like going in to back with him anymore. The final straw was when he kept head butting Moet, one of the pigs. Not that she couldn’t defend herself – she did eat half of his ear, but your dad and I didn’t appreciate waking up to a pig squealing in the middle of the night. It gave of flashbacks of the night a coyote attacked Murray – luckily we got out there quick enough that Murray was more or less unharmed (he had a few puncture wounds in the neck). But that is also why Murray and your sister’s pygmy goat, Jack Jack, live in the backyard with the dogs and are crated up at night (at least until the new pen is complete).

We repeated your birthday party from just after kindergarten this year. Besides having the water slide, per your request we had water balloons as well. We’re still picking up from that mess! And this year you helped with the planning, particularly with all the “water” themed food. The biggest hit were the Sea Snails – little smokies wrapped in crescent roll dough and baked. We held the party the Sunday before school got out which was a week before your birthday. This was partly because we wanted your friends to have a better chance at coming and also because your dad and I had a wedding to attend the day before your actual birthday.

You actually woke up at Grammi’s new house on your birthday. You were very relieved to hear from us that morning – particularly when you found out that your scout elf, Snowie, was waiting for you on  the new mantel. He would have gone to Grammi’s but he wanted to make sure the new mantel was up to Santa’s standards. You were concerned that the new mantel wouldn’t be installed before your birthday – mainly because you were concerned Snowie wouldn’t come without one.

I am also proud to report that you received your first Panther award at school on the last day. Mrs. Miszti, your amazing teacher over this last year, awarded it to you for creative writing – not only do you write great stories full of details, but you also take the time to make sure the words are spelled right! Your dad and I were able to come to the ceremony and you were quite shocked not only to get the award but then to see us there.

This summer should be a little more exciting than last year. You are returning to the Prestige Academy for June & July and they have a ton of field trips planned which I plan on signing you up for as many as possible. We also have one camping trip planned, a day on the lake with friends planned for another weekend and you have those 2 weeks with Grandma and Grandpa in August. Your dad and I will come out at the very end of the trip to fly you and your sister home. And there will be swim lessons of course.

And of course, we have our next Disneyland trip planned for November – you’ve already requested we do the 30-day countdown to Disney activities again. And better yet, I’ve got it all planned out already! By the time Disneyland gets here you may be tall enough to drive the Autopia cars by yourself!

And maybe slow down a little in how quickly you are growing up, please? I still need my kids wanting to cuddle with me.

Love,

Mommy

An open letter to Sydney on her 5th Birthday (A few months Late…)

Dear Sydney,

This letter is a tad bit late – and it’s my entire fault. I was traveling for work on your actual birthday and then the holidays happened, and well, I just plain forgot until now. It doesn’t help I pretty much took a year off from updating the family blog as well.

Shortly after your birthday last year, we moved you from an in-home daycare to another structured pre-school setting. After the expected “settling-in” time period we know you and are sister need to adjust to new routines, you began to thrive. We were more than confident that you were ready to start TK this past Fall.

At the first quarter Parent/Teacher conference, Mrs. Tudor informed us that while technically you are a TKer you are doing Kindergarten work. At the time we reserved the right to decide whether you will move up to Frist Grade in March, but chose to keep you on the kindergarten curriculum and standards. We recently were leaning toward having you return to kindergarten next school year and even emailed Mrs. Tudor our reasoning along with some questions we had for her. She quickly asked to meet with us where she informed us that you need to go on to First Grade – you would be so bored doing kindergarten again. Your dad and I were very pleased and proud of you as we walked out of both those meetings.

You love riding the bus and going to the same school as your sister but you’ve also made some new friends on your own, which is wonderful to see. And now that you are at Pleasant Grove School, you get to participate in 4-H. We’ve got you signed up for baking (which I lead), arts & crafts, gardening and wildlife. Next year, we’ll likely get you involved with showing Pygmy Goats – we’ll see how it goes with your sister this year.

Last May you got to travel with me to Tucson. I was heading to Phoenix for work and we decided you and I could go out early so that you could spend a week with Grandma and Grandpa all by yourself. That weekend you also got to meet my Aunt Maryanne, my cousin Adam’s wife Amber and their daughter Stella who is just a few months younger than you. You two had a blast together and you still speak about Stella today. The best part is you get to see her again in April!

You and your sister are getting along much better than a year ago – so much so that you two share a bedroom now and London’s old room was turned into a playroom. This still doesn’t prevent the bedroom from being destroyed by clothes, blankets and all the toys & books you still bring back in there! And you two do still have squabbles from time to time and require alone time or 1:1 time with Mom & Dad.

Being strong-willed is a hallmark of your personality still. The tears when you don’t get your way have subsided some but not completely – especially when you are tired.

These days you are into Play-doh. Any time you can convince me, the play-doh comes out. You also enjoy coloring and painting, and your latest obsessions are LOL dolls – the IT toy of 2017 – and finally, Legos. It took your dad getting me a BB-8 Lego kit for Christmas to get you interested but now you are on a roll building every kit you have ever received.               

You are still very good at playing on your own but prefer to have someone with you. McKenzie recently came over for a sleep over and the two of you could not get enough playing in. You two come up with some silly stories.  


We love you!

A Close Call

This morning Cameron and I were awoken at 4:30 AM to the screams of one of goats. We were up in an instant opening windows to look out back. In another instant, we were running for the backdoor and watching a coyote dash out of the goat pen. And in a dark spot on the ground was London's pygmy goat, Murray.

Given I failed to post and write at all in 2017, I never introduced Murray here. We purchased him in June of 2017 and the second we asked London what she wanted to name him, she instantly responded with "Murray Christmas!"

Murray and London had just spent this past Sunday at our 4-H Club's goat group working how to show the goats. And it had been a nice afternoon for the two of them. Away from his normal herd, Murray had looked to London for guidance, just as he should.

As he lay there motionless this morning I froze in my attempts to run to him. I feared of what I was going to find and see. How would I be able to tell my daughter that her pet was brutally murdered in the night.

Luckily, when I got to him he made some noise again. I felt around and he fought at me a little, felt wet, but not sticky. And when Cameron shown a light on him, Murray popped up and ran to the other goats. Upon further inspection we could tell he was unharmed physically. Definitely scared and in shock but otherwise alright.

We walked the perimeter of the pen and discovered where the coyote had gotten in. Cameron has fixed it as best he can but this was too close a call for me. Unlike the other goats, who I admit I love like pets, Murray truly is a pet. So tonight, he's going to be put up in a crate with towels in the backyard with the dogs. And I'm thinking he will be sleeping in the crate most nights. I also hope this will help him and London bond even more in preparation to fair. I have been worried that he hasn't bonded to her well enough (but we also have 6 months until fair.)

When the girls got up we told them what had happened. They were relieved everyone was alright and wished that daddy had killed the mean coyote. This is definitely one part of farm life I don't think I will ever get used to. And we will be taking more precautions on securing the pen and warding off coyotes in the future over this next weekend. We're expecting one of our females to have kids by the end of February.

Happy 2018!

2017 went by so quickly, I wasn’t prepared for the holidays this past season and barely even got around to ordering New Year greeting cards for our friends and family!

While at first I felt not much had changed on the Homestead this year, looking back, we had quite a few new additions. In January, we added a male boer goat, Mr. Billy Goat, which resulted in our females having babies in June. Sunny had twin girls on June 10^th (London’s birthday), both of which we sold off to be family pets. Roxie had a lone male kid (June 2^nd), who we have kept. We also added a wethered pygmy goat for London, who she named Murray Christmas. She will be showing him this summer for 4-H. The last addition to the herd was an unexpected surprise. We had a random Ram show up early one morning but he won’t be around much longer. We estimate him to be between 15-18 months old, which means he’s about ready for processing.

Our garden was almost a complete loss this year. We literally, as a family, played the live version of “Wack-a-mole”. First, we planted late due to all the rain. Keeping up with the weeding proved to be a challenge as well and soon it was over run over by mice & voles. Poor Sophie couldn’t keep up. All the flooding last winter caused all the vermin to move closer to the house. As we begin to think about our 2018 garden plan, one thing we need to resolve is the rodent problem. At least we have another barn cat. We had a young orange tabby show up on our property over the summer. He was so skinny at the time that we didn’t have high hopes, but we started to leave food out for him and Slim is no longer so slim. He now let’s us get within a few feet of him and even Sophie, the anit-cat cat has adjusted to his presence.

The chickens from last year have survived and we again raised a couple of turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner again. The taste of the fresh eggs and turkeys just can’t be beat.

In the Fall, we said goodbye to full time daycare (at least until Summer arrives). Due to Sydney’s October birthday, she qualified for Transitional Kindergarten, better known as TK. Because the girls’ school is so small, the TK class is the Kindergarten class. And we were pleased to hear at our Parent-Teacher conference in October that Sydney was doing well, so well in fact that she is actually doing the full kindergarten curriculum and will continue to be graded as a kindergartner throughout the rest of the year. We’re still not sure if we want her to move on to 1st Grade next year as we still question her maturity level. We’ll make that decision in March.

Sydney was also able to start officially participating in 4-H this past Fall. I continue to lead the Baking project which both of the girls thoroughly enjoy. We meet about once a month. Both girls are also involved in the Arts & Crafts and gardening groups. We’ll get Sydney started in Pygmy Goats in a year or two, though she goes to the meetings now anyhow. London was part of that group last year, but this will be her first year with an actual goat to take to meetings.

London is doing great in 2^nd Grade. As her teacher started our Parent-Teacher conference, she is one smart cookie. She is testing near the top of her class and above average for the state. She’s reading at almost a 4^th grade reading level and loves to read too. Sometimes the house will get real quiet and I will find her with curled up with a pile of books beside her. And now she has several series of chapter books to work through. Over the summer London traveled by herself for the first time, flying to Tucson to spend a week with my parents. She spent several days at a Hotel/Casino with them swimming almost the entire time – I think she only went inside the hotel to sleep!

We, as a family, joined the world of organized sports last spring. Cameron and I coached the girls’ T-Ball team. We had a tiny team, literally. Several of the girls on the team turned 4 the month before we started the season and even the size Small shirts looked like dresses on almost all the kids, minus London and two other girls who will all move on to a coach-pitch team this spring. 

In April, Cameron and I snuck away for a week-long vacation to Dominican Republic with several of our friends and friends of friends – who have since become dear friends too. It was a trip two years in the making and was designed to replace our annual wine trip to celebrate all our birthdays. That is because Cameron and several others turned 40 in 2017! We had a blast on the trip, which started by flying first class, for the first time. We took a red-eye so we mainly slept our way there. We stayed at Excellence El Carmen, an all-inclusive that had only opened in September 2016. Our suite had its own private pool which I enjoyed relaxing next too. We ventured off property a couple of time. We toured a cigar factory one day, went horseback riding on the beach another and zip lining through the jungle on a third day. It’s a beautiful country but the poverty levels are unbelievable. It was nice to see that our resort provided quality housing for its employees on the actual property.  

This seemed to be the year of travel for me. On New Year’s Eve, as I reflected back with friends, I realized I had traveled every month of the year except for January, July, August & November. And only two of those trips were for pleasure. I attended conferences in Omaha (June), Charlotte (September) & Houston (October), attended an offsite meeting in Napa (March) and three weeks of leadership training took me to Seattle (February), Phoenix (May) & San Diego (June). My leadership training was an amazing experience and I met some great people from other Cat Dealerships throughout Arizona, California & Nevada. But gosh did all the travel make for one crazy quick year. Because of the traveling I never got into a good running routine, and only ran in one race this year, my 5^th Run to Feed the Hungry 10K on Thanksgiving. This year I am resolving to run much more, working to establish a training schedule at home and scheduled to run a 10K on Superbowl Sunday.  

With my trip to Phoenix, I was able to head out a few days early. I took Sydney with me and we spent the weekend with my parents in Tucson. Sydney stayed for the week with them, getting to meet my Aunt Maryanne, cousin-in-law Amber and her daughter, Stella, who is just a few months younger than Sydney. The two had a blast and Sydney can’t wait to see Stella over Spring break in April.

The first week of December, Cameron’s mom, my parents, the girls, Cameron and I headed to Hawaii to celebrate an early tropical Christmas. This time we went to the island of Maui, staying at the Wailea Beach Villas, in an amazing 3 bedroom penthouse with great views of the ocean, Molokini and the sunsets each night. We even saw whales jumping and spraying from our lanai. With a fully stocked kitchen, we ended up eating in most of the trip. We spent most mornings down on the beach and afternoons by the pool. The place was pretty quiet so most days we had the pool and spa to ourselves. One day we did venture out to the Maui Ocean Center, an amazing aquarium. It turned out to be the perfect day since it was very windy. After lunch we headed up a winding road to Maui Winery, where we tasted a wine made out of fermented pineapple juice. While it definitely was sweet, it was still very enjoyable.

Cameron celebrated his 5^th year with Armstrong Medical. Hunting remains his number one interest with Tulley almost always by his side. She won’t even look at him for a day or two if he heads out without her, and boy does she know when he does that! When it’s not hunting season, Cameron is busy with projects around the property.

He has spent much of his free time this year moving dirt around our property. He is trying to build up a new pasture for the goats that won’t flood when it rains while also slowly digging out a pond in another part.  Little did he realize, instead of digging a pond, he ended up leveling an area for the girls to ride bikes and scooters. London received a new bike from Santa this year and it doesn’t have training wheels. Our driveway isn’t level or a great place to learn but after a walk out back on Christmas, we all realized that this area was perfect. In two short lessons, London was riding on her own. Of course, now as I write this letter, the rain has arrived, so it may be a while before she can get back out again.

Another big change that occurred this year is that the girls decided to share a bedroom and turn London’s room into a playroom. Now they only have to keep one room clean all the time and the playroom only has to be cleaned once a week. This also means that both girls get both dogs each night. Tulley still tends to sleep with Sydney and Gibson with London.

We did have to change the handle on the girls’ bedroom door to a knob. Jake, one of the indoor cats, kept breaking into the girls’ room to go snuggle with London at night. This would result in one or both dogs coming to sleep with us and even Sydney sometimes. Two labs on our bed, along with a possible child and Kelsey, our other indoor cat resulted in no sleep for both Cameron & me. Jake must now settle for weekend morning snuggles with the girls. Kelsey remains pretty much the same, preferring the safe refuge of our bedroom and bed 23 hours a day.

I do hope to get our blog back up and running this year. As much as I had adventures and pictures to share, I just didn’t have the time or energy in 2017 with all the travel and commitments. Stay tuned to see if I can keep up with 2018! 

Love,

Cameron, Sarah, London (7) and Sydney (5) Cenedella

An Open Letter to London for her 7th Birthday

June 16, 2017

Dear London,

You have truly blossomed this year. Your thirst for knowledge continues and a love of reading has emerged. You’re taking part in the online summer reading program through school where if you get 10,000 points you get an ice cream treat when school begins and if you reach 15,000 you get an ice  cream sundae. You’re over half way to the 10,000 point goal and you’ve only been on summer break for a week and a half! This is definitely a passion I hope you hold on to. I only discovered the joys of reading later in life and still wish I spent more time getting lost in the pages.

Over the last year you have declared that you want to be an artist, a teacher and a scientist. It will be interesting to see which direction(s) you head later in life.

You don’t seem like a little kid anymore. You still love to play and watch Disney Junior shows with your sister, but you’re showing more maturity and understanding than before. You’ve always been a caring older sister, but it shows more now. Just the other day you put your feelings aside and allowed Sydney to wear a dress of yours when initially, you didn’t want to share.

The two of you are getting along very well. So well in fact that you two share a bedroom now. Your old room is the official playroom. This came about after Oroville Dam evacuations displaced Grammi from her home for a few day in February. You gave up your bed and room to Grammi during this time, enjoying the “Sleep overs” with Sydney. By the time Grammi went home, both of you were used to being in the same room. And you get the best of both dogs in this arrangement as now both Tulley & Gibson sleep with the two of you in one room. Gibson tends to sleep on your bed.

And lately Jake has been sneaking in at night to snuggle with you. He’s really warmed up to you over the last year. I think weekend mornings are his favorite when he can snuggle up on your lap during morning cartoons. But he’s been known to take naps throughout the day on your bed too. You love that he has chosen you.

Speaking of animals, our goats Sunny  Roxie recently gave birth to kids. Roxie has a baby boy, who we named Pierce, on June 2 – your last day of school and your birthday party day. Sunny had to one-up Roxie, apparently, as she went and had twin girls on your actual birthday! They’ve gone unnamed as we’re not sure whether they will be staying with us or be sold off.

On the last day of school you were more than happy to participate in the annual Frog Jump contest. Your dad and you stayed out late trying to catch a frog near the neighbor’s pond. You had no luck there, but you did manage to catch two toads on our property that evening. And while you didn’t win, you took very good care of your toad, ensuring he came home (and holding him in the car!) where you released him into the garden. You’re turning into quite the Farm girl. When we were planting the garden you loved collecting the worms I dug up and feeding them to the chickens.

You had a blast at your birthday party this year, even when you went back and forth on where you wanted to have it (even after I had booked it). It was at Chuck E Cheese on a Friday night. More of your friends from school were able to come since it was still technically during the school year. You all had a blast running around and having the freedom to do what you wanted. And you were all good at coming to the table to eat pizza and cake. Since it was your party, you got to go into the Ticket Blaster to catch as many tickets as you could. You pulled up your dress like one might to hold apples and just let the tickets fall right in! Thankfully, you had shorts on.

But because we had your birthday party a week before your actual birthday, you kind of forgot you still had your actual birthday coming up. When I picked you up last Friday and asked if you knew what “tomorrow” was, you had no clue. And then when I mentioned it was your birthday, you were fairly nonchalant about it. That changes when you discovered your Christmas Elf, Snowie, had come down from the North Pole for a visit. And Grandma was able to be here so you had a few more gifts to open. And your dad and I couldn’t resist getting you your favorite cake – Carrot Cake.

You continue with 4H this year, participating in the Baking project again and new this year, was the Pygmy Goats project. I got to be your baking leader which was fun. I think we will continue this group next year and you now have a keen interest in showing a Pygmy Goat next year at fair – if only we could find one for you! One of these days. You’ve taken your responsibilities around the house more seriously with less and less prompting from your dad or myself. At the same time, you are only 7 and your attention can get diverted easily.

This year you expressed interest in playing T-ball. This became a family affair with your dad and I coaching the team your sister and you were on. You loved Dad coach pitching to you at the end-of-season games and you made contact almost every time, even sending the ball into the outfield a few times. I look forward to getting to be just a spectator next year when you move up to Coach Pitch.

I’m sorry to say we don’t have much fun planned for the summer or any travel this year. We are looking at sending you to Tucson to see your grandparents for a week and I know Grammi plans to take you somewhere this summer as well – I believe you chose the ocean as a destination. But we are already planning a trip to Disneyland later next year! You’re officially a Disney fan, to say the least, and can’t wait to go there again and even more so, you can’t wait to go to Disney World. We’ll plan that trip as soon as Sydney is tall enough to go on all the rides! Last year when we went, you went on California Screamin’ 6 times. It is definitely your favorite ride. You were brave though and went on Tower of Terror with Sydney, since she was tall enough for the ride. Sydney loved it, but you decided it wasn’t for you. We’ll see if your mind changes now that it is Guardians of Galaxy themed.

I can’t wait to see the person you become over the next year!

Love,

Mommy

A Ride on the Polar Express

The first Saturday of December our Elves surprised the girls with new Christmas pajamas. Why? So they could wear them on the Polar Express ride that the girls were also surprised with that day!

These Polar Express rides in Old Sacramento sell out every year. We purposely get a membership to the California Railroad Museum the years we have purchased tickets for this holiday activity just so we can get early access to ticket sales and get our date and time preference.

This year we opted for a "matinee" ride which departed the train depot at 3:30 - and that it did, exactly on time. I have to say it wasn't as magical as the fist time we rode the Polar Express, back in 2014, mainly because it wasn't dark outside. Being able to see I-5 traffic rushing by the side of the tracks takes a bit of the magic out of it.

On the other, we did get to see a Pirate ship floating up the Sacramento River on the other side of the tracks. It even sounded its cannon as it headed to a flotilla light parade on the river that apparently happens each Saturday night of the holiday season. Unfortunately. I can't find any info about this kind of event. This would definitely be something I think the girls and myself would enjoy.

It was just the four of us. The magic was not lost on the girls either. They had a great time and seemed to not notice the lost magic with it being daylight. They loved their bells, the cookies and hot cocoa.

We brought our own Polar Express books to follow along during the ride. The books have been in my car ever since, which has worked to my advantage. London keeps asking to listen to the CD that came with the books, reading along as she hears it over the speakers. And Sydney can't stop talking about how Santa gave us the bells. I'm glad this year's experience brought them so much joy days later.

A Ride on the Spookamotive & Trick-or-Treating

One last post about Halloween. As a treat, the weekend of Halloween, Lynde and I took the girls on the California Railroad Museum's "Spookamotive" Witches & Wizards train ride. We even sprung for First Class tickets to ride in the Mad Scientist's car. 

McKenzie wasn't too sure about it all, but with the rode only an hour long, she survived. Cookies and Apple Juice helped put her at ease too. 

London & Sydney had a blast and loved all that was going on and getting to wear their costumes an extra time. A lot of the entertainment was probably over their heads (imagine a lot of bad, pun-fueled jokes), but that didn't stop them from laughing with every one else. 

And they couldn't wait to get their picture with the Mad Scientist himself!

The girls really got into Trick-or-treating this year, and for the most part, followed the rules. Sydney had to sit one house out due to walking on people's lawns and London missed two houses because she kept trying to step into them to get to the candy first. We were out for about an hour before we'd hit pretty much every house we could in Matt & Lynde's neighborhood. By this point it was bed time any how and that was when the rain started to come down. 

Hello Halloween!

It took us two weeks into the month of October (an 3 Halloween seasons) but we finally decorated for Halloween! This is the first time we have ever decorated this house for Halloween - I'd forgotten all the decorations that we had. 

We moved into this house at the end of September 2013 - we were so busy just settling in that October that decorating for Halloween just didn't make sense. And October 2014 and 2015 I decided to decorate for Fall since the we don't get trick-or-treaters.

But this year, with the girls older, it was time. They are thrilled that it is Halloween season. And the girls had a blast helping me out. London was quite impressed by our growing ghost, pumpkin head and Frankenstein. They were only about an inch tall when I had the girls fill the jars with water and plop them in. It wasn't until the next morning London discovered just how big they grew. I have a skeleton and vampire still in the packaging that we may need to get jars ready for next year. 

I'm sure I'll be getting rid of some of the items still sitting in the bins once I transfer these decorations for my Fall decor soon. It's beginning to look like the Holidays!

Bishop's Pumpkin Patch

No Halloween season is complete without a trip to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch in Wheatland. 

The last few years we have tried to go on a weeknight, and that had been the plan this year too - but a forecast of rain for that Friday had us running to Bishop's on a Sunday afternoon. 

We didn't last long, given the girls were tired and it was HOT - hard to believe 4 days later we would have 4 days of rain and cooler temperatures. 

London picked out a large round pumpkin - she wants to carve Jack Skellington into it. Shes obsessed with him these days, even saying she wishes she could marry him!

Sydney selected a small white pumpkin. The girl is after my own heart. She wants to color on it, but I think we will head to a craft store and get the Potato head pieces for her to stick into it instead. 

London has a fake pumpkin in her room with this kind of set up, so we can transfer the pieces to a Faux pumpkin for Sydney's room for next year. 

My own personal pumpkin crop did miserably this year - we got the seeds started late, Cameron destroyed the ground I wanted to plant them in by using Roundup on the weeds and the area we ended up planting in has horrible crab grass and then the weevils moved in. The second these insects moved in they killed most of my plants immediately. And they are hard to kill. We're doing what we can to prepare the garden for next year. 

Since my crop didn't do so well, I got one green pumpkin and another large white pumpkin while we were at Bishop's. 

Happy 4th Birthday Sydney!

Dear Sydney,

I'll admit this has been a challenging year with you. Then again, your dad and I have to keep reminding ourselves that you are only just now turning 4 years old. You can come across more like a 5 year old ready for kindergarten at times. And boy would you love it if you could go to kindergarten. The only way in which I don't think you are ready is knowing your letters, numbers, and days of the week. 

For this we blame you're old Daycare, as when you were supposed to be in a structured pre-school setting, you ended up being in a more glorified babysitting situation. We only realized the issue this last summer when we tested you on your letters and numbers and saw you didn't know them much at all. We also discovered you didn't know how to use scissors. We should have know - you had about 6 different teachers throughout the year. 

That's why we made the choice to move you to an in-home daycare closer to home with a mom we know from London's school and has a daughter close to your age. The trade-off with the in-home daycare is that you don't necessarily get the instruction I would like you to be getting, especially when I feel you may be already a bit behind. We are making our best effort to help you out at home, but we are considering getting you into another preschool around Christmas. This mainly depends on whether or not we decide to try and get you into TK or just wait for the year you can go into Kindergarten.  

On the flip side, you are o have a desire to learn. You love having "homework" just like your big sister. You do still get jealous of the time she commands when we work wit her on homework. And you have quickly learned how to use scissors at home. 

You're quite into art these days. Last time Grandma and Grandpa visited you insisted on 1:1 with Grandma to do art. The two of  you spent a good hour or two painting away.  

You're definitely a strong willed little person, though we could do without the tears every time you don't get your way. And we have resorted to some strong tactics and bribery to get you to clean your room. If you don't clean your room when we ask, you usually find many of your toys disappear into a black garbage bag in our room and then have to earn them back one at a time for doing other various tasks we request. We're slowly getting there. Of course, you love to help around the house when it doesn't involve cleaning your room.

On occasion you still sneak into our bed at night, but you have gotten much better. It has helped that you now sleep with Tulley most nights. Sometimes that's the only way I know you have crawled into bed with us - Tulley usually wakes me up jumping up and laying down on my feet. 

Your favorite color these days wavers between pink and purple. You love anything Disney, especially Princess and you are going to be Sleeping Beauty for Halloween this year. You chose this way back in June since the Disney Store was having their semi-annual sale and Princess dresses were 1/2 off. We needed to get the dress in time for your visit to the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique at Disneyland this year. You had a blast and loved getting that special attention. 

Your relationship with London these days is either hot or cold. And this can change from minute to minute. One moment you two will be getting along just perfectly and the next I'm breaking up some sort of squabble. Yet, when I try to separate you two, you're back together within minutes. 

You are very good at playing on your own. I love when I can hear you in your room making up little stories with your dolls and stuffed animals. You've definitely got a great imagination. And these days you love to make up stories about what you did "when you were a little baby." 

I'm very curious to see how this year goes for you, especially as we make decisions about your education. You didn't take the last daycare transition all that well - then again, we moved you away from the only daycare you'd ever really known since you were 11 months when you started there. At the same time I could see you liking going back into a more structured setting and possibly getting the 1:1 daddy time in the car you got all last year. Only time will tell. 

We love you!