Another beautiful summer day dawns with the promise of sunshine and heat.
The kittens have been doing what all kittens do - sleeping, eating, and growing -
and trying again to escape the smaller of the nesting boxes.
Spot seems to have figured it out.
Hello, world. Here I am.
The kittens all have "baby names" now. This one is Spot because of the white fur on its throat. The black and white kitten is being called Sylvester (Thanks,
Linda, for reminding us of that cat.). The grey striped is, of course, Tigger. And the other dark kitten got christened Velcro last night because it just won't let go with all four paws at the same time. We are trying to introduce them to food now. I mix up some milk replacement and pour it over a bit of dry kitten food and put both just the milk replacement and the moistened food in with the kittens when Momma is out of the blue crate eating her own meals. So far the kittens have walked in the food and spilled the food and shaken it off paws onto each other. Momma hurries back to the crate and shows them how it is done by eating and drinking almost all of it herself. They'll get the idea.
The kittens have been doing what all kittens do - sleeping, eating, and growing -
and trying again to escape the smaller of the nesting boxes.
Spot seems to have figured it out.
Hello, world. Here I am.
The kittens all have "baby names" now. This one is Spot because of the white fur on its throat. The black and white kitten is being called Sylvester (Thanks, Linda, for reminding us of that cat.). The grey striped is, of course, Tigger. And the other dark kitten got christened Velcro last night because it just won't let go with all four paws at the same time. We are trying to introduce them to food now. I mix up some milk replacement and pour it over a bit of dry kitten food and put both just the milk replacement and the moistened food in with the kittens when Momma is out of the blue crate eating her own meals. So far the kittens have walked in the food and spilled the food and shaken it off paws onto each other. Momma hurries back to the crate and shows them how it is done by eating and drinking almost all of it herself. They'll get the idea.
take place in the rain and it was a rainy Independence Day but the temperature was comfortable and with Mom and Dad's big porch there was room for all. We started gathering around 3:30 and had more food than we could eat as always. Sister Beth decorated both the kitchen and dining room tables with festive tablecloths that then got completely covered with serving dishes. 
The popsicles were a hit of course and made two appearances during the afternoon and evening (as did the kittens since we had groups that came and went at different times). The kittens are two weeks old now and they were introduced to more family members to start the socialization process. The kids were so gentle with these tiny fragile beings it was delightful to watch. Adult hearts melted also. I only got a few not-so-good head shots as the kittens kept moving around in the arms holding them.
It rained off and on, sometimes with purpose and sometimes like an afterthought. We started some fireworks late in the afternoon but the real show did not begin until dark which is also right when the rain decided it really had to come down. Jen and I stood out in the field under a small maple with umbrellas over us and our cameras and took pictures of the city fireworks. The fireworks didn't get quite the height they usually do because of the rain but it was still a nice display and Jen and I got to try out different settings on our cameras. I still had the old Olympus for July 4 last year so this was my first time using the Canon. I decided I like the fireworks setting better than manual but if I had had more fiddling time I may have decided differently. Its hard to change camera settings when you are balancing an umbrella. I will have to do some editing before I am satisfied with the city fireworks pictures but here are a few highlight for now.
We had a great and exhausting time again. I actually slept in this morning and did not get up until 8 am when the dogs and cats decided I had slept long enough.
