A Good Lizard

Our bearded dragon Hephaestus passed away at the end of May.  We came home from church and found him much too still in his tank.  He was a good pet.  He was young, only 4 yrs old.  He wasn’t a great eater so something was amiss.  We had him for 3 and a half years.  Here’s a picture when we first got him and he was 6 months old.  Bridget was 4.

And here is a random assortment of pictures with him.  Alice and I taking him for a walk in Houston.

On his home-made leash.

Christmas time when we’d let him run around the house he would climb up in the tree and sleep.

Once he climbed up the screen and we had a hard time getting him out.

Taking a bath in the temporary house in Clarksville.  His beard is black so he was getting tired of soaking.

This is the last good picture we have of him.  We had some friends over and the young boy fed Hephaestus some worms.  The boy was enchanted!

The timing of his death was rather tender.  We came home from church and were all together.  Being in our Sunday clothes seemed appropriate and made it special.  There were lots of tears.  We have a tiny corner in our yard that the previous owners fenced off to be a garden (as you can see we haven’t gardened in it).  It was a good place to bury him.

So many tears.

Hephaestus was a good, gentle pet.  We miss getting to show him off to company because he was so novel.  Rest In Peace, Hephaestus.  We love you.

Graduation

On May 4th Alice had a field day and I was one of the lucky parents who got to help out.  Games (like tug of war, sack races, and ring toss) in the gym in the morning.  Then bubbles and chalk in the empty parking lot.  I wowed all the kids with my masterful chalk skills.  I traced their bodies for them to decorate, drew a big ocean scene, and lots of butterflies for the girls to color and snakes for the boys.  It was a ton of fun.

Alice and her teachers, Ms. Antonia and Ms. Bailey.

Being May 4th I had to make a Star Wars cake!  Wanting to perfect my red velvet Crait cake from last year, I had ordered some beet powder for a deep red velvet (without using red dye).  It was a major disappointment.  Not only did the cake taste like beets, it wasn’t red!  So I whipped up some caramel frosting and made a Tatooine cake instead.  Complete with two suns!  (I’m such a nerd.)
See, totally not red.


Alice’s preschool graduation was a couple weeks later.  Eeee!

They sang a couple little songs and got diplomas.  A few weeks before graduation the kids came home with white felt graduation hats to decorate.  We bought dollar store flowers and went to town!  Other kids had dinosaurs or unicorns on them.  It was a lot of fun.  Also instead of robes they wore super hero capes.  I love preschool.

Mike took off work to attend because I’d been sick.   I was heartbroken to think I’d miss it.  When I woke up that morning with a rash we realized my sickness wasn’t anything contagious, but a bad reaction to some medication.  So we both got to go!   

Is that a sunburn on my neck?  Nope, just a freakish rash.  Ironically, I also had a medication allergy rash on my neck when my little sister graduated high school.  Weird.  


Evelyn had a 5th grade graduation ceremony on Zoom.  (I can’t believe she’ll be in middle school next year!)  Lydia was out of school already and had her friends over so we all watched.  You can see their excited faces at the bottom of the screen shot I took.  So fun!  

Baby birds!

We had a nest under our back stairs which was fantastic because we had a great view!  We were ecstatic when we got an egg.  Then every day another was added until there were 4.  I knew robin eggs were blue, but I didn’t realize HOW blue!  

About 2 weeks later we got a baby bird!  And the next day we had two!  Ugly things they are.

We kept waiting for the other 2 eggs to hatch, but they never did.  Here are the birds at 5 and 6 days old.

Look at that face!  

They started looking cute at 9 days.  We loved watching the parents feed them.  We’d sit real still if we saw the parents with worms in their mouths on a nearby fence.   Then the parents (yes, both of them) would fly in and put stuff in the babies’ mouths, but then they’d fly off with a strange white something.  We learned an interesting fact.  It was a packet of baby bird poop, like in a membrane.  Isn’t nature interesting?  That way the nest stays clean.

When they were about 2 weeks old the babies flew the coop.  Mike was pretty sure he saw one on our front porch.  

What a great nature show we got to witness!

A couple more nature pictures.  Lydia went to a friend’s house and got to hold a little goat.  

Flowers from my neighbor’s house.  She went out of town and told me I could cut anything I wanted!  These are so pretty!
And her backyard is everything mine isn’t.  It’s big and full of trees!  I love it!

May

We got to attend a cool Civil War era event.  We got to see a cannon fired.

The little girls made corn husk dolls.

We learned Morse code on telegraph machines.

Isaac and the school teacher.

Lydia all dressed up.

Later that night Lydia got all dressed up again.  For a tri-stake formal.  So pretty!  (I made her take off her yellow Houston Zoo band for the dance.)

She went to a friend’s house to take pictures.  Such pretty girls and curls!

Alice got fancy one Sunday with my flower girl dress.  (She wanted to hold the flowers. Tee hee.)

Then Lydia got fancy with the flowers too.  And some little girl tights.  Sometimes I don’t ask.

More April

I tried my hand at candied orange peels.  The first try wasn’t so great, but my second attempt was better.  They were a bit more work than I felt they were worth, but aren’t they pretty?

Look at these beautiful blue eggs I got from a friend!  I love having access to farm fresh eggs!

One day Alice decided she wanted to go to preschool looking like a little farmer girl.  You should have heard all the teachers squeal when she got out of the car!  Too cute.

Alice is a big helper.   Here she is building shelves for the basement.

Does your public library have a tub to sit in?  I didn’t think so.

Small Town Fun

One thing about living in a small town is that things tend to be... smaller.  And usually a little more affordable.  The circus came to Clarksville and it was a lot of fun!  

They had a cool feature where they streamed water around the stage and did cool light show stuff.  Plus some tricky acts too. 

And who can resist funnel cakes?