Luck of the Irish

Ella's stage does a leprechaun hunt every year, but this year they were off of school for St. Patrick's Day. Thankfully, the school secretary has an in with the leprechauns and let them know to come a week later this year. The kids set their traps yesterday, and today they walked in to hallways filled with glitter, and chaos in the classrooms. They also left coins and candy for the kids. Sadly, all of the leprechauns escaped. Ella did find evidence of their existence while on the playground - she found leprechaun poop on the outside of the school and had me take a picture to show her teachers.

Ella and her buddy Sawyer

Leprechaun poop...

Goodbye, Sophie Cat

15 years ago, I was looking for a seal point kitten and found one on petfinder.com named Sagwa.  I headed down to Detroit Animal Control to meet her, but when I got there they told me they had no kittens.  I walked around anyway, and in a stack of crates with dogs on top and below her, was a terrified little seal point kitten in an over crowded cage of other cats and kittens.  I quickly adopted her, and we headed to the vet.  When we got there, she was a brown kitten with dark brown points - or so I thought. After a much needed flea bath, they handed back over an ivory kitten with dark brown points - her fur had been brown from all of the flea dirt.  She had a broken tail and ear mites, but we fixed her up and brought her home.  A few weeks after adopting her, a news story ran on the DAC feeding live kittens to snakes, along with other mistreatment of their animals.  It was sad, but not surprising based on the experience I had there.

I renamed the kitten Sophie, and she lived with me at my mom's, in Ann Arbor when I was living there for grad school, and at our houses on Glengarry, Westwood and finally Henley. Soph wasn't the easiest cat, as her litter box usage was spotty at best, but she was an amazing cuddler and always cheered me up when I was sad.  A few months ago, Sophie started showing signs of kidney failure, and deteriorated pretty quickly. The past few days she was struggling to walk, and stopped eating, and I knew it was time to say goodbye.  The girls spent some special time with Soph before school, and then I made the sad choice to take her to the vet one last time. We will all miss our Sophie cat (well, everyone except Jordan).

Sophie as a kitten

Sophie and Sydney

Sophie and Floyd hanging out just last week

March Catch Up

March marched by quickly and was packed with all sorts of chaos.  We lost power for 5 days from a wind storm and all 8 of us moved into Mina's (Jordan, Rebecca, Hannah, Ella, Barney, Floyd, Sophie and Unnamed Fish).  Mina was a great hostess - even the dogs, cat and fish settled right in.  We had two "wind days" at school (the high winds took out the school's power too) and the girls and I stayed busy visiting Troy gymnastics where they played amazingly well together because they were trying to do something kind for me (it was VERY much appreciated).

Ella and Floyd sharing a crib mattress on the floor at Mina's

Ella took her first fall off Splash, and Hannah told her she had 9 falls to go to be a real rider. After many tears, Ella got back on and finished her lesson.

Hannah had her family night at school where they performed a play on the Native American people. Hannah was a narrator and did a wonderful job memorizing her lines. She really enjoyed this unit and has been sharing a ton of what she's learned with me and Jordan.  It is so wonderful to see her passion for learning.

 Jordan and I had to take the girls to work with us for a few hours on St Patricks day, and while Hannah was hard at work, Ella celebrated at my work party.  We ate delicious mac and cheese from Green Dot, and Ella decorated the conferences rooms.  I had to do a quick interview, so my boss Matt watched Ella for me.  She wrote him a note on our whiteboard walls.

Mom and Matt and Ella

Macy and Lilah came over to hang out and Unky Ian played basketball against all four girls. Jordan and I were amazed that there were no tears until 10 minutes into the game.

Aunt Steph, Unky Mike and Brian came into town for sad circumstances, but the kids lightened the mood and really enjoyed the extra time together.  Brian came out to the barn with me and Hannah for her lesson, and it was wonderful having some special time with him.  I forgot how busy 2 year olds are - thank goodness I had Hannah to help keep up with him!

Ella and Jordan went to see Ella's friend in a play, and Ella got all dressed up for the occasion.  She looks so grown up to me in this picture!

With a bunch of days off from school between wind days and conferences, I was shocked at how well the girls got along (a rarity).  Here they are dressed in matching mis-matching PJs watching a show.  I LOVE when they get along, I just wish it were more often.  One day...

School Activities - 100 Days and a Book Review

Ella's class celebrated 100 days where she requested a pink, blue and purple dragon shirt.  We also brought cheese in the shape of 100.

Hannah had her first book review, and decided she wanted to do more so she created her own extra credit assignment - a diorama.  She worked so hard on this project, and I was amazed at her insights in the review.  I hope she continues to love learning, and work so hard at school.

Weekend Update

We had a weekend full of accomplishments and I'm so proud of both my girls. Hannah's riding has really been coming along, and she cantered her first line on Splash.  On our way home, we called to tell Ella and Jordan.  They were just leaving swimming where Ella moved up to the next level - exciting day all around.


On Sunday, we headed to Pine Knob for their carnival and both girls had lessons.  They had great instructors and were both taking the chair lifts and skiing down with controlled turns and stops.  We had to drag them away from the slopes.


Hannah is in the light blue coat, black helmet and black pants and comes down first.
Ella is in a silver coat, red helmet and gray pants and comes down second.