Life At The Circus

Seems all of my posts recently are animal related, but truthfully, that is Life At The Circus these days… it’s all about the animals.  Holding them, taking them potty, fighting over them… Hands down the youngest two are my biggest animal lovers.  My oldest son has taken way more to the cat than he thought though, he was surprised by how snuggly the kitten is and loves to hold her (though he has taken to either wearing layers of shirts or sweaters b/c he is not a fan of the scratching).  And it turns out my oldest daughter really enjoys changing the liter box (hooray) even more so than actually holding the kitten.   She likes taking care of the cat… making sure the liter box is cleaned out, the food and water are filled…  totally works for me.   This dog is amazingly good with the kids.  When we had 11 little kids here for our daughter’s birthday party, she CHOSE to be in the middle of them all, being chased or petted.  The cat too l...

I couldn’t believe how many old clichés took on a whole new meaning and relevancy to Scott and I last night when we welcomed our cat into our family.  When I responded to the ad on Craigs List, I asked if there were any female kittens still available.  She replied, that I was the first to respond to her ad, and so I could have the pick of the liter if I wanted to stop by that evening and take a look. When we got to her house, she had 5 kittens and one Momma cat.  At one point we were trying to get all three of the females together so we could compare them. Every time she’d get two together one would take off, it was impossible to wrangle all three of them to one spot.  Just as I was thinking to myself “so that’s why they say it’s like herding cats,”  Scott actually said to her, “gee it’s like your herding cats ” which made all of us laugh as she said she too was thinking the same thing. When we got home and set about to introduce Wendy to Cartwheel, the ...

Since late last fall, our youngest daughter has been lobbying hard for a cat.  She did a school project on one, she drew endless pictures of them, she wrote stories about them, she slept with her stuffed animal cat every night and my favorite was the note she wrote Scott listing all their fine attributes.   We waited it out awhile, trying to see if it was merely a passing phase or if it would stick.  We figured if come July when her birthday rolls around, she’s still stuck on cats, then we’d most likely allow her to have one.  (we never told her that of course) July came.  She turned six and she was still crazy for cats. We decided we wanted a kitten so that we could hopefully train the cat to like being held and snuggled  (rather than say hiding under the bed all day).    I found some kittens that had been rescued by a lady who’s neighbor had moved away and left her pregnant cat behind.  This kind woman, took the cat in (even t...

This weekend we celebrated our youngest daughter’s 6th birthday.  Since her reoccurring theme of the year was all things feline, it came as no surprise to me when she requested we have a cat themed birthday party.  Because she doesn’t like cake, she requested brownies with little plastic cats on each one.  (For real, those were her exact words)  I was more than happy to grant that simple request. ( hands down easiest birthday cake I’ve done for one of my kids )   She also wanted a piñata.  I was a bit nervous about pulling this one off, but we were actually able to find a kitty cat piñata  at the party store.   I’ve done a lot of piñatas over the years, and I gotta say this was the best one we’ve had.  So often they are impossible to break, this one did actually break and it broke little by little giving everyone a chance to let out some candy.  The kids seemed to really enjoy it. Actually, we all got a kick out of watchin...

Since the passing of our beloved dog Maggie, there has been a void in our home.  I missed her immensely more than I ever anticipated.   And while no dog could ever replace her or what she meant to our family, we felt it time to once again hear the pitter patter of doggie feet in the circus home.  But, we needed to wait until we were home from our grand adventure before welcoming a new pup to the family.  So, at about South Dakota, I started searching the internet hard for Corgi puppies in our area.  We wanted a pup as soon as possible after we got home.  The timing would be ideal as it would give us 2 months to fully focus on training her before school starts again.  I was growing discouraged as I wasn’t finding ANY Corgi puppies (even after extending the search far beyond our area).  The window of opportunity would be lost and our void would continue. Then the crazy thing happened.  When we were driving to my parents, we were about ...

Yesterday afternoon the girls got their baby dolls and strollers and headed to the court to walk their babies.  I don’t know what it was about that particular moment in time, but it struck a chord in this Momma’s heart and made me all sappy.  As I watched them pushing their dolls and pretending they were walking to China… with a stop in Tennessee for some Chick-Fil-A, I found myself longing to take in the moment.  I grabbed the camera and was so thankful that they are still little girls.  While they seem to be growing up before my very eyes, they are in fact still 1st and 2nd graders who like to play with baby dolls.  How glad I am for that fact.  And how I long for them to stay that way for awhile. Then as I snapped pictures and watched them chatting away, I had another thought… “Oh Lord, I prayed, let them be friends forever.”  I hope when they are grown up they will walk their real babies together and chat about life.  I truly hope and ...

The last stop on our grand adventure of 2013 was Grandma and Papa’s house.  We arrived in the afternoon on the 4th of July… just in time for a cookout.  The kids greatly enjoyed tractor rides with Papa, playing board games with Grandma and running the trains in the basement. Then they requested a visit to “The Coolest Playground Ever.”  As we trekked around the US over the past 3 weeks, Scott and I learned from the kids that the playground by which all playgrounds are judged against is the wooden one by Grandma and Papa’s.    Even when we went to what I thought was the coolest one ever in Gunnison, Co… I was told, “This has the fastest slides we’ve ever been on, but it’s not as cool as the wooden one by Grandma and Papa’s.”  Therefore, Scott and I requested a visit to see this infamous playground.  After a visit to the playground, we headed back to the house to cool off, and get ready for a camp fire and sparklers!  We...