Other October Pics

Just a few other random pics from October.

 On Tuesday, while Jim was walking back to church after lunch, he noticed a lizard in our driveway.  (The gravel drive in the front of the house that is technically 24th Ave, not the cement in front of the garage.)  The school kids were out for recess, so he called them over to take a look at it.

 We first thought it was an iguana, but after doing some googling later in the day, I discovered that it was actually a Chinese water dragon.

It appeared quite dead.  It was only in the 40s that day, so we weren't sure if it was actually dead or just in a state of "suspended animation" from the cold.

Here's a video of Hilarie trying to get up the nerve to pick it up and put it in the container.  She did pick it up right after the video ended.

We brought him inside and set him on a heating pad.  In less than an hour, I saw him move a little bit.  It was very little, and it was very slowly, but I most definitely saw him move and breathe.  But by the time Jim got home in the afternoon, he wasn't looking so hot.  He had stopped moving and we couldn't see him breathing anymore.  Someone on Facebook said that Petco would take him, so Jim took him to Petco and they took him to an emergency vet to see if he could be revived.  We called later that evening and were told that he couldn't be saved.

We have no idea how this lizard came to be in our driveway.  Chinese water dragons are only native to Asia, so he had to have been somebody's pet.  We figure somebody must have dumped him for some reason.

 One day Lena drew a cat nose and whiskers on Eva.

Summer sitting on Eva's head.

End of October Fun

Last weekend was a really fun one.  Grandma Sheryl was here visiting and we had the girls' school's annual sausage dinner fundraiser.  We didn't do the whole Halloween thing this year, but the girls had little animal costumes to wear to the sausage dinner.

 My cuddly little bunny and my sly fox.

 The tails are the cutest.

 Having fun at the sausage dinner.

 Some of the adults dressed up too.

 The fox hiding in the jungle.

 They did a costume contest for the kids.

 Lena won the pre-k and Kindergarten category!  I was really surprised!

 Jim wore a hot dog costume.  Not really by choice, though!  The girls' school was raising money for accreditation, and Jim said that if they reached their goal by the time of the sausage dinner, he would wear the hot dog suit.  Mission accomplished!

 Eva and another CLA student, Hilarie.  Hilarie said, "Eva's so cuddly!  And Lena's so. . . um, energetic."  Lena was running around in circles pretty much all night!

On Saturday morning, the girls helped Grandma do the crossword puzzle in the newspaper.  And by "helped", I mean that they colored all over it.

 Sunday was Reformation Sunday and we encouraged all the church members to wear red.  We took a group photo of it.

 My girls in their Reformation red.

 Grandma and the girls.

 Jim donned the hot dog suit again during our potluck on Sunday.

 Jim and the Sunday school kids.

 Instead of carving pumpkins this year, Jim and the girls painted them one day while I was grocery shopping.  Lena's has the moon in the starry sky.

 This is the pumpkin and crazy bat kit that Lena won in the costume contest.

 The pumpkin Eva painted rotted before I got a pic of it :(, but this is one that she made in school.  The orange part is painted and the stem and face pieces are cut out of construction paper.  She's really good with scissors.

 And this is another one they made at school.

 Here's the pumpkin Jim painted.  

It's a little blurry, but you can tell it's very detailed.

Field Trip to the Petting Farm

The girls had their first field trip of the year on Monday.  It was Eva's very first field trip ever.  I went with them as a chaperone.  We went to Green Meadows Petting Farm near Waterford.  It was about a 50 minute drive, but it was well worth the time spent in the car.  Here are a few pics of our day.

 The first thing the kids got to do was ride a pony.  Of course, Lena is an old pro at that.

 Eva did great considering it was her first time on a pony.  I thought she might want me to walk along with her, but she did fine on her own.

 Then we headed over to the chicken coop where Farmer Janet showed the kids how to properly hold a chicken.

 It was so funny watching the kids try to catch a chicken!  I think someone handed Eva this one.

 Lena caught her own, though, of course!

 I even managed to catch one!

 It's hard to see in this pic, but one variety of chicken lays light blue eggs.

 Then we met Patty the pig, who weighs in at no less than 700 lbs!

 Eva found a guinea feather and carried it around the rest of the day (except for when she asked me to hold it for her).

 Then we set off for the barns.

 The girls loved the goats.

 Lena can even get animals to shake her hand!

 Mesmerized by Farmer Janet holding a kitten.

 This one cuddled right up to Lena.

 Kitty kisses.

 Then we met Buttons, the dairy cow.

 Listening intently as Farmer Janet shows them how to milk Buttons.

 Eva wasn't too shy giving it a shot.

 

 Lena was one of the few kids who actually got the milk to come out.

 The girls and Mrs. Zuehls petting Buttons before we left.

 Then it was time to visit the baby pigs.

 I happened to catch these two little piglets licking Lena's back.  Right after this shot, she jumped up and screamed in surprise!  

 Eva got to pet one that went back into his little house.

 Next up where the donkeys.  The kids got stern instructions to stay near the donkeys' heads so they didn't get kicked.

 Lena got donkey kisses from this one.

 She's our little animal whisperer.

 The kids got to feed some goats who were outdoors.  Farmer Janet is handing out the feed.

 They were hungry little things!

 Then we got to pet some turkeys.

 The black and white ones were so pretty!

 Lena found a friend in the small animal building.

 There were baby bunnies.  So adorable!

 Mrs. Zuehls helping Eva pet the baby bunnies.

 Lena looking for the turtle.

 I couldn't pass up this photo op.

 Then we saw a Texas longhorn.

 Time for the hayride!

 Another great photo op.

What in the world is going on here?  It looks as though I told them to make funny faces, but I definitely didn't!  In fact, I was running out of camera battery and was desperately wanting a nice pic.  Oh well!

That was the last pic I got before my battery died.  After this, all the kids (and the adults too) got to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch to take home.  Then, since I drove the girls separately, I let them stay and play for about a half hour after everybody else went back to school.  We ate lunch at Burger King on our way home.

We had such a fun day.  Can't wait to go back next year!