Humane Society

 Our tour guide was Chris.  Her daughter is a member of our club.

 Eric is petting one of many, many, many cats roaming around the shelter.  If you are freaked out by cats, the Humane Society is not the place for you.  They were everywhere.

 Hee hee.  I thought this was funny.  The cat in this kennel does not do well with catnip.

 If I had the choice of cats to bring home, it would be this one.  So gentle.  I pet his head, and he just rolled over for his tummy to be rubbed.

 The dog shelter was quite noisy

 Chris teaching the kids how evil dog breeders are.

Here's the crew!

Cats, a history

On June 24. 2011, Trudy the Cat "temporarily" moved in with us when Gma and Gpa LaFleur were evacuated to our house due to the flood in Minot.    When they were able to move into their temporary apartment a month later, Trudy stayed with, just a little bit, until they could get to a more permanent home.  When that finally happened in September.....there were tears.  Many tears and sobs from the innocent children.  They decided they were not going to give Trudy back to Grandma.

She was well loved.  Well, well loved.  Perhaps loved more than she wanted to be loved.

July 26, 2012.  The LaFleurs take a trip to PetSmart to replace Megan's dead goldfish and buy more cat litter for Trudy.  We came home with this:

Turn head sideways to see this pic

 Trudy was thrilled with our spontaneous decision to bring a less than 2# ball of energy home.

They eventually became friends...mostly.  Trudy was very accepting of Kacy, and was quite motherly to her.

Aug 6, 2015.  The kids' 4H club tours the Central Dakota Humane Society.  Bad things happen when you take 3 kids to tour the Humane Society.

This is Hamlet.  He is approximately 4 months old.  He took a strong liking to Eric.  We will bring him home on Friday.  Good golly.

Lego Dreams

This past weekend, Eric was able to make his long anticipated mecca to the Lego Store at the Mall of America..  This trip has been in the makings since Sept of 2013.  We dropped Megan off with Jason and Holly in Fargo.  Eric has saved his money from allowance, mowing lawn, and birthday presents all summer, and had several Lego sets in mind that he planned to buy.  He left the Lego Store a happy boy.  And broke.  He showed a lot of will power not opening the sets up until we got back home.  He started building the first one at 4 pm, and was still up at 11 building.  He was up at 7, and I made him come up for air around 10:30.  By lunch time, all 3 sets were complete, and he spent the rest of the afternoon admiring his work.

Passed another one

Add Mary Kay to the growing list of people the boys are now taller than

Morton Co Fair

We had our 4H achievement days on Thursday.  Jonathan had 3 projects: Magic cupcKes, a collection of recipes for his favorite meal, and a fitness plan.  Eric entered an engineering project: a display showing comparison of 3 different marshmallow catapults he built.  Megan mAde    a bracelet and a necklace.

The boys got blues on all of their projects.  Megan got a Cloverbud ribbon.  Eric's display also warned an honorable mention, which means it was considered for the grand champion.

Hair

Eric has not had haircuts high on his priority list for the past year.  He's had 3 haircuts since August 2013.  He does not care for haircuts, as the haircut giver typically attempts to engage him in small talk.  We've 'allowed' him to keep his hair a little shabbier, but today was they day we cut it the old way.

The pic of him chomping on a 3 animal burger (cow, turkey, pig) does not do justice to how shaggy his 'do is.  Kristin had him put his size 11 feet up to the pile of hair she swept up.

There's my boy!

Hubbard County Fair

The kids and I spent the last 5 days in Park Rapids to take in all of the Hubbard Co Fair festivities.   Macy was showing her calf, Annabelle, and competing in the horse show with her Arabian, Tequila.  The LaFleurs are rookies with these events.  We clapped when others clapped.  It was very interesting to watch the livestock judging.

 This was the sunset Thursday night in Mom and Dad's backyard.  The pic does not do justice to the sunset.

 Some daylilies in Gma's backyard

 The boys entertained us with campfire songs around the campfire Thursday night.  It was a perfect night for a campfire.

 This is Annabelle.  A red holstein.  She was born on Christmas Day, hence the name.  You know....from the movie, Annabelle's Wish.

 Macy grooming Annabelle prior to showing her.

 Grand Champion!!!!  Way to go, Macy.

 Hanging out in the backyard with Kayla.

 After the excitement of the Grand Champion ribbon, Macy had a drill team performance.

 I believe these red boots belong to her younger sister, Addison.

 Grandma entered her famous gingersnaps and blueberry pie in the fair.  Both got reds.  She was ripped off.  Jonathan has planned to use the pie recipe in the cookbook he is putting together for the Morton Co Fair.  We joke that he will now call it 'Red Ribbon Blueberry Pie"

Macy earned the "Most Improved Rider" award, as well as the big leadership award.  Well Done!