First Race of the Season

Daddy took One Hot Chili Pepper to the track for it's first weekend of racing. (We missed a weekend earlier in the year). Things were not working out well last year, but this year is off to a great start!

Aleaha was especially thrilled, because she was able to spend 2 nights there with Daddy and his crew chief, Gary, and Gary's lovely girlfriend, Diane. Aleaha *loves* to camp at the track! 

Miri and Mommy drove up for the day on Saturday to watch the qualifying passes. It was a thunderous time! Daddy is lucky to have a great set of people for support!

The Chili Pepper was in the left lane in the photo above. It was very exciting, as he was testing everything and getting information for how to dial in on Sunday, for the eliminations.

It is always a bit more than Miss Miri can handle. On the way home, after much fussing and fit-throwing and whining, Mommy was about at the end of her patience. I had a flashback to what it's like with a small baby or toddler -- that it's often the very worst right before they completely cave and fall asleep. And that's exactly what happened. I talked her into breathing deeply to calm down (she was really worked up because she didn't want to leave), and then suddenly, it was sweetly silent. 

Aaaahhhhh.

And the other great news was that Daddy and the OCHP crew got runner-up that weekend! They went 199 mph and quicker than ever. They were all thrilled and can't wait for the next race in a few weeks.

Miri, on the other hand, still needs to catch up on her sleep before then!

Random Shots

The scene one recent school morning, as Mommy went to awaken the little beasts. That's Miri on top, with her feet headed toward Aleaha's face.

We moved Jake & Shorty into the upper pasture to start eating it down, and Miri helped me demonstrate how tall and lush the grass is.

GrammaBon sent some turkey feathers to Aleaha, at her request for a special project she has in mind. Miri was sad that she didn't have any. And then one night while making rounds on the trails, she found a lovely hawk feather.

Miri's Spring Concert

Mommy was out of town during the Winter Concert, and that was very sad! So now that it's time for the Spring Concerts, we are all about going.

It's the usual semi-controlled chaos, where the kids file in and the parents get in each other's way.

Miri, in her classroom, before the concert.

What a project to herd so many kids! The teachers and staff are so patient. Even at 6:00pm. Sheesh! 

Miri is the blurry one in orange behind the microphone stand. (What, you mean that description still doesn't help??) 

Her class did a number with instruments, set to the book "Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type". Fortunately we have that book, so I could roughly follow along. Darling!

Critter Upate

Cinder watches a scrub jay who was inside the barn - she knew he wasn't supposed to be there!

Smokey was thoroughly checking the hay bale that would be going into the pig pen. Just making sure it was approved.

Must have been some prior mouse activity.

And if you look very closely in the background, a mouse of a different sort was playing in the grass field -- Miri was back there, sneakily peeking at us.

MammaLlama and Teesie took a good, hard nap in the sunshine together.

And Mamma and Teesie even played together! We don't see this very often. If you listen very closely, you can hear some of her funky llama noises too. I don't know what emotion makes her do that, but she has a couple of weird vocalizations -- one sounds a little like a laugh, but she seems to do it mostly if she thinks someone is threatened (or maybe if she finds it funny?), and the other is a soft gurgle sound that is sort of a sound of affection. Maybe.

The boys, enjoying some time on the hillside.

Our 2 bays are getting a little too rotund, so they have to wear grazing muzzles now. I feel sorry for them, but it's really the best thing for their health. 

Neither of them is very happy about it, but they have quickly adapted. Quigly still comes immediately to me and willingly lets me "put his mask on." Arby is a bit of a stinker, but he's learning that if he doesn't let me put it on, he doesn't get to go outside the barnyard! And that's the pits if you don't get to be out with all your friends. So eventually he complies. It's a little more work to manage this way, but it's the right thing.

As long as we're updating about critters, I might as well include the family of baby mice we found in the barn. Ugh. Hate this. They are pretty cute when they are this small, but we don't need mice! And strangely, we couldn't get the cats interested in taking swift care of this issue for us. Of course, Miri was ready to take care of them -- meaning, literally. She wanted to take them in the house!

Miri fell asleep on the couch watching TV with Mommy one recent Friday night, and JuicyBear was a good companion.

When he was sure she was totally asleep, then he settled down too.

Playdate with Kaden

Miri's friend Kaden came over for a visit one Sunday afternoon recently. What fun they all had!

They played on Blackie (the tire swing) for a good, long time.

Aawwwwww. They are so danged cute together!

And silly too, of course.

We took a walk up on the trails, so that Kaden could see what it looks like when it's not dark and scary (he was last here at Halloween time, when we took rides up through the woods with the tractor and trailer)

Enjoyed some slushies.

One little ham deserves another!

 

And took a short Shorty ride. (I asked Kaden if he wanted to sit in front or back, and he preferred back, "so that Miri will be safer and will be able to hold onto me" Good grief, he kills me!!)

They played a little golf.

Miri wanted to make sure the ball would truly go where it was supposed to go.

Piggies!

It was time to bring the piggies home! Wow, the prep this year was so much simpler, given that the permanent pen is set up.

This batch is significantly larger than the last 2 years' batches....the breeders have been supplementing with dairy products, so they have grown faster. Hooray!

The disadvantage of bigger piggies is a bigger backache! It's challenging to get them transferred into the pen. A couple could go over the fence, but we packed the rest in via the door. Ugh.

There huddled together for a bit, and met up with the hot wire along the inside a time or two.

They didn't know how to drink from the water nipples, but it only took a few days for this to happen. In the meantime, they drank from pans.

Hard to see, but there's a pile of happy piggies under the heat lamp (which also wasn't needed very long).

Playing Restaurant

One evening recently, Daddy and Mommy were treated to an after-dinner dessert event, held in our library.

Miri was the server, and Aleaha ran things in the kitchen (did a nice job too - even cleaned up!).

Above is the menu of items available. They know our favorites! (ahem, note the Black Butte Porter....red wine...ha! And no OLCC license needed, since it's in our own house)

Daddy chose a parfait and ice water, and Mommy chose grapefuit and hot mint tea.

I was curious to see how Miri translated our order onto her paper, knowing it was unlikely she was going to successfully write "grapefruit". Later I spied her notepad and discovered she was creative -- she drew pictures! (that's a glass of tea and a whole grapefruit)

Mother's Day Fun

Miri's Kindergarten class invited mothers for a spa-themed tea party the Friday before Mother's Day. Note that the reason for the party is "you matter to me". Awwwww 

There were various stations where the kids could do our nails (you know that's the first one Miri wanted to hit!), give us back massages, put lotion on us, have a snack, create a craft together, and conduct an interview. It was marvelous fun!

It also happened to be a day when the kids were allowed to dress up as a favorite character in a book. Miri took that chance to wear her Elsa costume from Halloween to school -- something she had been wanting to do all year. And she wasn't the only Elsa in her class, naturally! Her darling friend Sadie can be seen in the background wearing her Elsa costume too.

Above is the interview. She was spot on with everything! Well, I will always appreciate that she didn't reveal my real age (especially since I could have been a mother to several of the mothers in the class!).

On Sunday morning, Miri surprised me with breakfast in bed. She made me a collection of her favorites....lukewarm oatmeal, cherry tomatoes, and bread. Very sweet!

Miri's card was darling..."I love you because you matter". And the word "horses" made it in there too.

Later in the day, we attended a Mommy & Me Tea Party class up in Portland. That was a special treat! The menu called for scones, sandwiches, and madeleines. There were quite a few people in the class, so we each were assigned a station and some buddies for sharing the tasks and equipment. Above, the girls are working on their batch of scone dough. 

They are already pretty much whizzes in a kitchen, but it was great to see how organized things were for a class environment.

Miss Miri was very tired on the way home.