Rain Gauge or SNOW Gauge?

Guess what happened! I bet you guessed from the title. Yesterday it was 78 degrees here. This morning it snowed! Yes SNOWED! I had to check the rain gauge because Tía said snow is moisture and we need it badly. We got 1/2 inch of "moisture" - haha. Luckily it's melting now. This is what they call springtime in the rockies!

Happy Junior Ranger Day!

Did you know it's National Parks week? Yep, and today is Junior Ranger Day. It would be a great day to visit a national park, but if you can't do that you can still be a webranger like I am:





Thank you, Inky, for telling me about this! The activities on the site are really fun. Here's the link in case you want to be a webranger, too: http://www.webrangers.us/

The rain is gone and the sky is clearing and it's beautiful out! Look at the clouds!



I checked the rain gauge again and we got .7 inches.



You can see where it snowed higher up in the mountains.



Springtime sure is exciting!

Nesting Birds!

First, I have to tell you something really exciting: it's raining! I mean RAINING cats and dogs! I can't wait to go out and check the rain gauge!

Tía and I love birds. We get to see lots of different kinds right in our yard and the field. Right now there are two birds that are building nests in the rafters of our back deck. The first are Says Phoebes. They fly here from Mexico to breed and then leave. They are flycatchers and really cool to watch zipping around and catching bugs in the air.



They like to nest up high on boards and use mud as the foundation for the nest. They've been nesting in this spot ever since the house was built five years ago and appear every April. Here's their progress so far:





Over in another corner some House Finches are also building a nest. They are funny to watch and we call the the clowns because they are so silly. Here's a pair with female on the left and male on the right:



And their nest site:



So now I have three important things to keep track of in my backyard journal: the amount of rain we get, the Phoebes, and the Finches. I'm going to be busy!

Foggy Day

When I woke up this morning the whole world looked different! I could not see the mountains, just a huge wall of gray fog! That was super exciting to me, because I live in a semi-arid climate. Want to know what that means? I looked it up! It means "with very little rainfall and scrubby vegetation." Yep, that sounds right for around here.

So anyway, I wanted to run outside right away, especially after Tía said it had rained during the night and I could go check the rain gauge. Look! We got a half inch of rain! I'm going start recording how much rain we get from now on.



After that I looked across the foggy field and pretended there was a big ocean right there with giant ships bringing treasures from around the world.



Here's some of that "scrubby vegetation" they were talking about. Our yard is all native plants and it's called xeriscape. Here's what that means: "a method of landscaping that emphasizes water conservation in its use of drought-resistant plants." I like our plants, though, and some of them are really pretty in the summer.


Do you get lots of rain? I know some people get tired of it. But, I want to go back out and play like I'm a pirate stranded on an island and watching for my ship to come rescue me. TTYL!!!

Timewarp!!! Back to Lalita's Visit

Remember when Lalita came and stayed with me for a few days over her spring break? And she had a surprise for me? Well, I am finally going to finish telling you that story. Sorry it took so long!

So anyway, Lalita and I went to my bedroom so she could change clothes. "Ready for your surprise?" she asked.


And Lalita brought out 2 little ponies! One is actually a unicorn, but both were gifts for me!


But, of course I shared and we played ponies for hours!


The next day we wanted to go out and ride the real horses, but Tía said it was much to windy. The horses get spooked easily, so maybe tomorrow. Inky would say, "stinkbugs!" but we sang, "Wind, wind go away. Come again another day. Kiki and Lalita want to play!"

I Won a Prize!

I've never won anything before, but I won a prize in the Bolton Girls contest for followers. Can you believe it? I got to pick out a pair of hightops and I choose the ones with delicious cherries!



I'm going to wear them ALL the time... teehee!!!



Have you ever won anything?

~Kiki

Do You Ever Get Presents in the Mail?

We did!!! It was so exciting. An envelope came last week and it was for all 3 of us from our friends the Bolton Girls. Emi sent me the coolest stuff: a camera, a silver headband and some argyle socks. I've really been wanting a camera! She also sent a cute card:



Here's a close up of the camera cause it's so KEWL!



Mia and Eva got bunnies and socks from Tirya! Tía was really happy we all got socks cause we don't have very many plus we don't wear shoes in the house.



It was great that Mia and Eva both got bunnies cause they are always playing together and they both LUV bunnies!



Thanks soooooo much Bolton girls for our presents!



AND I have something else that came in the mail, but I'm going to do another post about that. Stay tuned!

~Kiki

Hope You Had a Happy Easter

There is so much to tell you all! I am way behind in letting you know about some cool things that have happened here. There have been Easter presents and a gift for winning a give-away and all sorts of stuff. Promise to catch up this next week and no fingers crossed behind my back! ;-)

For now, here is a pic of Eva and Mia serenading our guests after Easter dinner. They are really good musicians!



TTYL ~ Kiki