Guinea Pigs Are Nice Pets

I always thought guinea pigs were just overgrown hamsters until we got our first one a few years ago.  They have a lot of personality, actually.  They do not bite unless they are under extreme stress so are gentle for young children.  They do poop a lot, just like rabbits but it is very small and easy cleanup.  They require vitamin C and will eat fruits and vegetables. 

We have had our most recent pair since late 2008. We adopted them from a family who were unable to take care of them due to the unexpected death of the young father/husband. 

The gray one has been sick for a while.  Multiple trips to the vet have not cured whatever its ailment was and she continued to decline until this week when we had to euthanize her.  Now we are working on getting another one.  Callie is the caretaker for them and misses the gray one (named Kyoko) very much.  The remaining guinea pig also misses her – piggies are very social animals.  I am talking with a foster mom about a couple of different ones that might work for us.  We prefer to adopt a rescued piggy than to use a pet store. 

Buses and Monkey Bars

We went on a field trip this morning to ride a city bus around town this morning with some friends.  Not knowing how long it would take, I packed lunch and we ate and played at the park before Sierra had to be at preschool.  The park is just beautiful right now with all the flowers in the grass. 

On the bus

At the park.

Another Short Weekend

Beautiful weekend but way too short.  Sean and Sierra played really hard yesterday with Keagan and Clayton and some neighbor boys.  I think they were still tired today or else they were just lost without all their playmates.  They would go outside for about 5 or 10 minutes and then come back inside. 

Some pictures from yesterday. 

EASTER

We stayed home on Easter except for going to church and enjoyed a beautiful day.   Sean suggested early in the morning that I should stay home from church and hide the eggs.  I managed to find time to hide them even after going to church.  Our yard was dry so the kids enjoyed a fun egg hunt.

Kerry came down and worked on our truck with Jeff. 

Here are some pictures. 

   

 

Snow fun no fun

I waited but the dump trucks from Canada never showed so I just started piling on top of the other piles.  Starting to run out of room to put the stuff.  I don't know what the poor folks out east are doing with all that they've gotten.  We haven't really even had that much compared to a lot of other areas. 

Snow Birds

Snow brings lots of hungry birds....  best part of a snowy day. 

 

 

More Snow?

I'm willing to donate this next round to Vancouver.  I hear they've had a shortage up there for the Olympics. 

We're supposed to get another 3 to 5" or 4 to 8" depending on who is predicting.  I think meteorologist must be a low stress job. 

Pinewood Derby

Being our first year in Cub Scouts, the Pinewood Derby has been an interesting experience.  Tonight was practice, weigh-in and impound.  Sean and Sierra had a blast.  Sean's car was running 2nd probably 80% of the races he was practicing in.  Finally, I told him it was time to weigh-in and impound it so we can go home.  Well, his car had some room to grow and he decided to add some weight.  Below his car is on the right, coming in 2nd. 

Racing it again, it had obviously lost speed.  Thinking it was the weights, he had me remove them but the car did not regain its speed.  Graphite was reapplied to the wheels.  This seemed to help some but it was late and he was racing against different cars than he had earlier.  He was not handling coming in 4th in every practice run before we left and then he did not handle having his car stolen ("impounded") for tomorrow's race.  I realized then that we had stayed way too long.  We should have left much earlier when the car was running well and he wasn't so tired. 

In this picture, he came in 1st or 2nd. 

I was very pleased when an older scout, but not by much, tried to console Sean by telling him that he might win when he races against his den and that he might even get first.  So sweet.  I told Sean later that I hope when he's older that he will be able to help a younger scout in the same way if he sees one that is upset like he was. 

Races are tomorrow.  I hope that he does not come in 4th every time he races or it will not go well.  He can handle 3rd I think, but not last.  I reminded him how much fun he had when he was placing well and that he will get to sit his car on his shelf and look forward to next year.