How We Spent Independence Day

In spite of the firework ban here in Colorado because of the terrible fires and heat, we managed to have a pretty great 4th of July.

Originally, we were going to go to a pancake breakfast at church, but my mom told me that my dad was going to be in a big parade at the same time, so Kara and I decided to go watch Grandpa and Nana instead.

The parade was a lot of fun! Kara's favorites were the horsies (of course), the firetrucks, and Grandpa and Nana as they pulled the truck with the float on it. There were a whole bunch of cool old cars in the parade, as well as some singing groups and some dancing groups. It got hot by the end, but it was worth it!

Waiting for Nana and Grandpa to come by

Here they are!

Waving at Nana and Grandpa!

Later, after we went home and took a nap--well, actually, I took a nap, Kara pulled all of the clothes out of her dresser, all the toys out of her toy box, and all the stuffed animals out of her closet--we headed over to my mom's house. We all sat in the shade while Kara ran around in the grass (she loves playing in the grass!) and played with her ball. Eventually, Grandpa came out too and played a little catch with Kara. She loved it (and I think he did too!)

Meanwhile, the dog decided she was a little thirsty and snuck a drink out of my water. After she drank it all, she tipped it over and ate all the ice!

After dinner, we finished up the day by going with Grandpa and Nana to the ranch to feed all the animals. I might have *accidentally* let all the chickens escape from the chicken house when we were trying to move part of their yard/pen, so we spent quite a few minutes rounding them up and shooing them back in to their house. My dad wasn't very happy about it, but it was kind of funny and cute because they realized that there were loads of grasshoppers waiting to be eaten in the field next to them, and they all started running around and catching as many grasshoppers as they could. We move their house (it's called a chicken tractor) every day so they have fresh ground to peck at and new bugs to eat every day, but they had eaten all the grasshoppers in their house for the day, so they were pretty thrilled to have such a treat. I'm pretty sure they ALL got a grasshopper (or 2 or 3) last night!

I fed the pigs last night, which I do whenever I go out with mom because the pigs are my favorite. The little girls (there are 4 of them) had to wait while I fed the 2 bigger sows, and when they saw that I was coming back to feed them, one of the girls started running in circles around her trough and wagging her tail. I love the pigs because they have so much personality.

I hope everyone else had as good a day as we did!

The Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny visited Kara twice on Sunday--he left her some treats at our house, but he knew that Kara wanted to hunt for eggs at Nana and Grandpa's house, so he was tricky and hid all her Easter Eggs over there.

I think the Easter Bunny did a pretty good job with the candy this year...Kara thought she needed to have a little candy with her breakfast (and I obliged). 

Trying to decide which candy to eat first

The Easter Bunny got pretty tricky with hiding the eggs. Kara needed a little help from Grandpa and her auntie Hayna because the Easter Bunny did things like hide the eggs way up high and hiding eggs inside shoes!

Kara would yell "right there!" every time she found an egg (usually with some hints, of course). Egg hunting was pretty fun. I'm excited for the Easter Bunny to come back next year!

"Look mom!"

She kept moving so fast, I barely got any pictures of her all in frame!

Easter Eve

We went over to my mom and dad's house Saturday night to dye Easter eggs. Kara had a blast! We did 36 eggs, and Kara (with lots of grandpa's help) dyed every single one. When they were all done, she wanted to keep going! We made her feel better by telling her that the Easter Bunny was going to hide all the eggs for her to find on Easter. She was pretty excited about that!

Harbingers of Death?

Today, we woke up to a little of this:

 (Not loving the trash in the yard. I hate that people throw trash in our yard when they walk by!!!)

And it has continued to snow throughout the day. In the snow, our big pecan tree looked like this:

But little by little, it started to have some visitors.

First one. Then a few more.

Then a few more.

By the end, there were over 50 crows on our pecan tree. Unfortunately, they flew away when they noticed me in the window! But it was a pretty amazing sight. Harbingers of death? No, I think they are just harbingers of snow!!! (Pardon the cheesiness. I couldn't resist!)

They really enjoyed the pecans. Our driveway is littered with shells!