Workin' In The Coal Mine

When Luci and Sophie went to the museum they picked up some literature about the olden days. Last night we read about working in the coal mines so today Luci got the idea that we should play miners. We divided up the jobs and here are Luci and I. We are "breaker boys" (or rather girls!) and that means we have to separate the coal from rocks.





We work hard, but sometimes we goof off and start talking:


And Mia, who is our boss, comes in. YIKES!


We get right back to work!


Sophie is the mule driver. She directs the mules that pull the coal cars:


These are our "mules" teehee...


Eva is the wealthy lady that owns the mine:


She is kind and surprises us by bringing...PIZZA!


Actually, it was lunch time, so we stopped playing and had pizza after posing for a final photo.


Here's an important fact: In 1938 President Roosevelt signed the "Fair Labor Standards Act" and most child labor stopped, particularly in the mines.

Kiki Stands For...

Here's a fun game! Kiki stands for:

K - kind
I - independent
K - kewl - haha
I - intelligent

Mia stands for:

M - magnificent!
I - ice skater
A - athlete

Eva stands for:

E - elegant
V - vivacious
A - artistic



What does your name stand for?

Happy Mother's Day

We want to wish a happy day to all the mamas, Tías, dolly mamas, animal mamas, and I guess most everyone! haha



That's Holly in front, then Traveling Sophie (left) and Luci, then in the back is Mia, Kiki and Eva.

Hugs from all of us to all of you!

Olden Days!

Today Luci and Sophie were running some errands with Tía and they stopped at a little tiny museum. It has lots of really old stuff in it.


Luci wondered what it was like to have to get water from a pump...


...to wash clothes in this...


...or like this!


Sophie wanted to call France on this phone!


And she liked this doll:


I think the most interesting thing is that our town was started by a woman! Her husband died, leaving her with a farm and 6 small children. She also started the first bank. That's cool.

Tía ran into a friend from high school at the museum and they talked about their own olden days! Luci and Sophie thought that was boring and played in the yard. I stayed home to do some research on phoebes and how long it takes for their eggs to hatch. More on that later!

Luci, Sophie and the New Dolly

This was a crazy weekend. On Sunday we planned to go visit Aunty Carla, who lives about an hour away. But when we woke up that morning, my little sister Luci looked like this:


Poor Luci has allergies! She felt miserable and wanted to stay home, even though Aunty Carla is really fun to visit and has a beautiful house filled with treasures. Luckily, traveling Sophie had just arrived. She said she was happy to stay home and play with Luci, because she'd just spent 3 days traveling.


So, Holly, Mia, Eva and I went to Aunty Carla's. Here are some of her treasures that have been in her family for a long, long time:


She even gave us a cute, little dolly to play with and take home for keeps!


Now, it is fun to get a new dolly, and we are pretty good about sharing, but on the way home we girls talked and came up with a plan!

When we got back home Luci and Sophie were sitting on the couch watching a movie. Luci was feeling better, thanks to the special allergy herbs that Tía gives her. We walked in and surprised Luci by giving her the dolly to be her very own!


Luci was so happy! It was like she had not even missed the visit to Aunty Carla's house at all!

I also need to say WELCOME SOPHIE! We are so glad you are visiting us this month, and we have bunches of things to do and go see while you are here!

Jane Kurtz and Ethiopia Reads

This was such an exciting weekend that I hardly know where to start! I met Jane Kurtz, the famous author who wrote the Lanie books. And, I have a new friend that Tía has named Holly. Here we are with Jane Kurtz:



Jane has written lots of books and I was helping out at the sales table:


We ate lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant. The food is very different and the Ethiopians eat with their right hand. No forks or spoons! Jane grew up in Ethiopia and taught us how to eat the food. You have to tear off pieces of the "injera" (the rolled up bread) and use that to scoop up the other food.





After lunch Jane gave a talk about being an author, the Lanie book, and had slides of places all over the world. I was really inspired to follow my dreams to be a scientist and write about birds. I'm already starting to do that in my backyard journal! Yay!

But, the most IMPORTANT thing I learned was that many children in Africa do not have ANY books to read! When there are no libraries in the schools to loan out books and no libraries nearby, the children have nothing to read. I can't even imagine that, because I read every day and go to the library in our town every week.

SO the IMPORTANT thing is that we can help get books to those children by supporting Ethiopia Reads, which is a non-profit organization. They have already sent lots of books over to Africa and set up libraries in schools. And guess what! There are mobile libraries that are pulled by donkeys! That is cool.

We had a silent auction to raise money for Ethiopia Reads and it was very successful. Eva and Mia helped out with that.



There are LOTS of ways to help Ethiopia Reads get books to the children. Jane could come to your school and talk, you could help set up a fundraiser at your church, or you could come up with your own ideas about ways to help. You can also go to this website and make a donation and learn more about Ethiopia Reads:

http://www.ethiopiareads.org/

Happy reading!
xoxo Kiki

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