November 11

Ah, first we had building with blocks while Mama took Trixie to the vet for her "snipping"...then there was reading through the pile of books we brought home last night from the library (oooh, some good ones - I'll have to share in another post). Then there was painting...

while Mama made soup for some friends who were coming at the end of their busy Wednesday for some supper before heading home to tend to goats, chickens and cats.

While Ani was helping Mama build a makeshift litterbox for Trixie to use during her convalescence in the "kitty suite" (aka: the study), the vet called to say, um...."Surprise!!! Trixie is a boy!" Oops. We had had our suspicions, but weren't positive. I did get to rib my friend when she arrived for dinner - she's working on sexing chickens, and I asked if she was better at chickens than she was at cats, as she's the one who gave her to us. Yes, we are still calling her "she". We are thinking her as our little transgendered kitty.

Then outside. The compromise yesterday was biking on the bike path when Mama wanted to hike. Today the compromise was the beach to make fairy houses. Hmmm - not much exercise for me, but the girls were so convincing with their explanations of how much exercise they were going to get streeeetching their arms to place the shells and stones, and Ani very seriously showed my how they would have to twist their bodies to reach the leaves and sticks that would go into the construction...and it was so beautiful, how could I mind being at the beach?

The little nest of a fairy house

While waiting for feet to dry and sand to fall off (yes, of course their feet got wet - we were at the beach right? Never mind that it's November...), I pulled out some MadLibs that I'd gotten for our car trip this summer but never opened up. They found them hilarious and we spent quite a bit of time giggling over our silly stories...we're gonna have fun with these.

The day is ending with a visit from friends, good supper, making cootie catchers, new hand-me-down clothes, and best of all, a visit from Papa, who is mostly sequestered in the library this week, plowing through three papers (is that all, honey???) before the quarter is over. The evening holds some making for me - I keep attempting new-to-me crafts and not all of them have panned out the way I had hoped. I'm hoping one of my attempts will turn into something I can do during the day without too much trouble, so I don't have to wait until kiddos are in bed before I get down to it! Wish I could share some of the goings-on, but holidays are approaching, dontcha know...