February was tough. We lost Meg. We were lucky to have her as long as we did, she was diagnosed with kidney disease shortly after Layla died and she had a few rough months last year where she went off her food. Still, it was hard and everyone cried. She was a very special kitty and she truly was a family cat, she hunted down everyone for cuddles except for Juliet. Juliet would have gotten her in a year or two, she just rarely sits still.
I'm not sure if she got extra cuddly at the end or if we just noticed it more.
Juliet had a nice celebration for her 7th birthday in the midst of the Meg business. Juliet had a pretty lovely 7th birthday.
She had a joint party with Rosalynn Geier at Rainbow Play System. Technically there was a three child limit on this trampoline but the kids had a lot more fun when we ignored that dumb rule. Only one child got a broken bone at this party and it was on the monkey bars, not the trampoline.
Party crew! It was essentially just all the Girl Scouts plus a few bonus girls.
Addie came over to help open presents.
I took pictures and texted thank you's as we opened items.
Patrick helped with the thank you pictures.
Addie even stayed for Juliet's birthday dinner of choice: pancakes!
Then she chose to come over after school the next day in order to help Juliet play with all of her new toys. A few weeks later the girls couldn't have a Monday play date and Juliet cried hysterically for about 30 min straight before running across the street to play with the new neighbor girl, Oakley. Oh Juliet.
I got to go with Juliet on a field trip to the Wilderness Science Center. There was chaos in the animal room.
Animals were let loose all over the place and a prairie dog was leaping wildly in its cage the whole time, trying to get out. That night Juliet wept when I told her not only would I not get her a prairie dog, it was in fact illegal to own one as a pet in the state of Kansas. She's into feeling her feelings all over the place these days.
Possum was carried out by the tale. Children were instructed to pet it at the back end, not by the head, because "it's a wild animal." One of the other moms and I kept on exchanging looks. It was amazing.
I got some amazing cuddles from my little 1st grade buddy.
Patrick had another swim meet. His buddy Chandler was at this one, which made it more fun.
They got lots of ribbons and basketball didn't interfere with this one, great success.
Meg climbed into his bunk while he was reading by me and accosted his book for chin scratches. He and I were both rather delighted.
Tired Eleanor took an afternoon snooze with kitties
And Juliet talked me into McLains, I'm not sure why. We went a fair number of times in February. We love McLains.
Poor Meg had taken a turn pretty soon into February. I had been giving her an appetite stimulant that was a gel that I rubbed on her ear and it worked pretty well until I scaled back from giving it to her every day. I went back to every day but it was too late at that point. But really, I think we extended our time with her as much as we could when she was first having some real eating issues back in October. Poor kitty.
It was tough between trying to slow down and tend to Meg and running around to sports and such. I finally got Patrick a nice haircut at a real haircut place and he still managed to make it look crazy for his next basketball game.
Super Bowl. We invited a few families over and had a great time. The game was very boring but the Seahawks won handily so we weren't too upset.
Bradley and Eleanor were on top of making sure Meg had constant company, by this point we knew we were going to have to put Meg down soon.
Canstruction for Girl Scouts. We brought in a bunch of cans to donate and built something out of them. The girls worked really hard and had such a fun time.
My co-leader and I always talk about how easy things could be if we just had the number of girls that came to special events. Seven girls was so easy and fun.
The whole crew. Girl Scouts is so much fun.
Poor sick Meg. She declined very quickly at the end. She got so skinny. But she still loved us all so much and wanted to be with us constantly.
We already had Great Wolf Lodge scheduled so we took the family, but Eleanor and I decided to come home for the night so Meg wouldn't have to be alone overnight. We originally were going to take Addie with us but then Addie's entire family decided to go so that was even more fun.
Taking a family picture was made slightly more interesting by Juliet having a meltdown about being anywhere near to in front of the water bucket that could splash you at any moment. We tried to use logic and talk about how we were posing right after the bucket had gone so she was incredibly safe but our logic had no place in the discussion so we moved to the side and things worked much better over there.
Side note: I let Eleanor pick out a new swimsuit before this outing. I would have let her pick whatever she wanted and she chose a cute tankini that came with shorts. I guess that's a reverse rebellion because I would have let her pick whatever? I don't know what it was exactly but my parents are thrilled.
Patrick got cold almost immediately so he hung out with me in the room and played cribbage.
Look at this delightful picture of Juliet and Grandpa! What a nice smile!
Oh, it turns out she was just smiling because she was laughing about all the cross-eyed pics she was taking before that.
She's a real treasure.
Checking out the room. The girls wore the wolf ears most of the time they weren't in the pool, it was so cute.
Arcade! Next time we're skipping Great Wolf Lodge for the older kids and just taking them to an arcade.
Playing in the room! Addie loves Eleanor.
More arcade
It's been interesting watching the birthday package at Great Wolf Lodge get smaller and smaller each year. Oh well. Juliet enjoyed bonus birthday fun. Honestly I don't know that she'll ever have a better time going there than she did when she got to go with her best friend.
The Darnalls were there too! Patrick and Carly had a blast together.
Addie is desperate to go back after this. I don't blame her.
More crossed eyes from Juliet
Eleanor and I got home and Meg immediately ran downstairs and demanded cuddles. Sweet kitty.
Eleanor slept in the master bedroom with me and Meg. Meg was very cozy all night and very happy. Waking up Eleanor before noon in order to go back to Great Wolf Lodge was an ordeal.
Yet more arcade. The kids had quite the excellent time.
Eleanor decided very late in the game that she did in fact like the arcade and want to do things there.
Everyone who had stayed overnight at Great Wolf Lodge was very sleepy on the car ride home. Apparently Juliet had decided she didn't like the top bunk in the middle of the night and had come down to cuddle with Nathan in the big bed instead.
Tired Eleanor at home with sweet Meg. Poor Meg had a seizure in front of me on this Friday afternoon, it lasted almost a minute. We had already scheduled to have her put down the following Friday but it was clear that she wasn't going to make it that long after the seizure. She had to make it through the weekend, which was tough because she couldn't really walk anymore. She could but it was quite unsteady. Although she scared me and Eleanor half to death on Friday night because I went into Eleanor's room for our evening chat and all of a sudden we heard a thump as Meg somehow clawed her way onto the bed to be with us. Oh that sweet cat. She didn't care that she was sick and she was tired, she knew where she was supposed to be.
Nathan left me with Meg, someone had to be with her at all times after Friday afternoon, and he went to Juliet's basketball game. They got their participation trophies, Juliet was very proud.
Patrick took this picture of Meg that afternoon. Poor sick kitty.
Nathan took a little nap by the kitties. We weren't sleeping much at night, someone had to hop up to help Meg every time she decided she wanted to get down from the bed.
She was very cuddly and the older three kids were amazing about being gentle with her and making sure they got time with her.
Juliet also required some cuddles.
Oh sweet Meg. She was so loved.
I got to go with Juliet to a sunny Girl Scout booth
Eleanor basically lived in our room most of Saturday. Meg wanted to be with someone at all times.
Thank goodness for the heated blanket. She was so skinny at the end, I'm sure she was cold if she wasn't cuddled on a person or snuggled up on the blanket.
The kids didn't have school on Monday the 16th and that's the day we brought Meg in to be put down. We definitely waited as long as we could have. She was still Meg up to the very end though, she loved us all so much.
Bradley was glad to get her final cuddles. We go to such a nice vet office, they fit us in last minute and sent us a very nice note in the mail afterwards that made me cry. We had a family memorial for Meg the Saturday after she was put down. I put together a slideshow and we watched it while listening to some Jack Johnson songs. It was really an honor to get to have this cat for 15 years.
That afternoon Juliet had a rock sale in our driveway that turned into selling the fancy cookies Grandma had brought over to us. She had a really long play date with her friend Addie and didn't realize until the evening that she had sort of missed the Meg business. It's okay though, it was good it was just me and Nathan at the vet's office. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we had brought all of the kids with us.
I had a Girl Scout meeting the next day. We prepped for World Thinking Day. I've started a thing where the kids who show up in their uniforms get to do the pledge at the beginning. It's pretty cute!
More basketball for Juliet. She's making some baskets these days and getting lots of rebounds, Nathan is thrilled to have another kid who will play his favorite sport.
We can't really tell if Sookie misses Meg, they weren't ever super cuddly, but she's been a bit clingy lately. Poor kitty. We desperately need the cuddles though. It's weird being down to one cat.
Juliet had an amazing morning the other day. To help soften the blow for the kids when we let them know we were trying out going to a different church we went to McLains to get them pastries for breakfast on Sunday morning. Juliet was in line behind a nice grandpa who enjoyed chatting with her and teasing her a bit. He heard me tell Juliet that she had to pick between a cinnamon roll and a donut, she obviously could not have both. She begrudgingly settled on just the cinnamon roll. When we got to the front of the line we found out that he had bought her the donut so she could have both. She was beyond ecstatic. It pays to be cute and chatty!
That afternoon we had Girl Scout World Thinking Day. Our troop's country we researched was China so we all wore red. We had a pretty good turnout and the girls all had a fabulous time!
Eleanor playing with sweet Callie. I caved and finally bought another one of her favorite tug of war toys, even though she usually wrecks these tires in a few weeks.
Sookie cuddles. I really appreciate that she's been a bit needy. I'm not doing great - it turns out I've had 15 years of a cat hunting me down for cuddles and sleeping on my neck most nights and I'm not doing so great without her.
I coordinated some extra play dates for kids. Juliet and Patrick each got to have a friend over and I made pancakes for dinner, which was a wildly popular decision.
Eleanor was a swing for the school musical Wind in the Willows and the one time she got to sub in for a role was for a Tuesday matinee, so I went to the performance with my parents. She was the otter child who gets kidnapped. She was so good!
And if bribery could get roles, I asked my mom if she would make animal cookies for concessions and she taught herself how to decorate cookies at a fairy professional level. The cookies were priced at $3 each and they sold so fast. Way to go, Grandma!
Here is Eleanor in her regular role as a bad fox for one of the evening performances. Bradley was thrilled that we had to buy an orange tie as part of her costume, he wore it to church the next Sunday.
Eleanor and Callie in love.
Turns out I wasn't supposed to take pictures during the performance. But look at how cute she is!
Eleanor and Maya post performance
I was so happy that Mallory Burnham decided to come out for Eleanor's performance. She was Eleanor's Sunday School teacher at our old church and was 90% of the reason we didn't want to change churches for the longest time. She's the best.
Also Eleanor loves her and it's mutual.
Another cookie booth. Juliet stayed for the full two hours for this one.
The girls got a little loopy at the end and ran around and played games.
Then Juliet got some very late birthday presents from the boys and Eleanor was delightful and wanted to play them with her.
Cuddles with our last kitty. I don't know if Sookie actually wants this much attention but she doesn't get much choice in the matter. I'm talking about fostering kittens, we'll see how that goes. We absolutely couldn't adopt, Sookie does not want a sibling. But it would be nice to give back. We got our kitties from a foster home, it would be nice to be able to give other kitties a nice cozy start. We'll see!
