I love living where we do. It's a nice big neighborhood outside of the city limits and we have a couple of acres, just enough to feel like we are to ourselves, but we are really not. We get to see all kinds of creatures on a daily basis, which we enjoy so much. We see rabbits, baby rabbits, and birds on a daily basis and all kinds of insects. I've also seen deer in our yard before. One creature I've seen enough of is mice (only once) - we had a little mice family that moved in to our kitchen a few weeks ago, but that's not blog-worthy, so I'll move on...
A couple of weeks ago, Addison found a turtle one morning when we were leaving to go to school/work. I had just let the garage door up and was locking the door, when Addison was walking to the car. She stopped and pointed at something behind the car and said, "Mama, wha's day-at?" (what's that). I didn't notice for a second and then she repeated and I saw that she was pointing and not moving. I was afraid it might be a snake so I ran over and then I saw that it was a turtle. It was just sitting there and was about as big as both of my fists put together. Addison came over and looked at it with me and we talked about it being a turtle. I picked it up and put it in the grass and we said bye-bye. Sometimes she still looks for that turtle out there.
One night last week, I saw a frog in the garage, so I brought her out there to look at it. We admired him and called him Mr. Frog. Then I picked him up and put him outside and we watched him hop away to go find his "baby frogs". We often see birds around the bird house and bird feeders and she loves to watch them too, as well as the rabbits that hop through our yard frequently. As far as insects go, we have plenty, but she is most fascinated with bumblebees, which we have plenty of. She knows the song from school "Baby Bumblebee" and especially the part that goes "Ouch! He stung me!" so she's a little afraid of them and calls every flying insect a bumblebee. Today, we saw a rather large spider that soon became spider guts, thanks to Mama's flip flop.
We also go see horses in our neighborhood a couple of times each week and Addison loves them. There are many to choose from, but Addison's favorite one to visit is "Barbie Horse," a white horse that lives near the entrance. We pass by there on our way in and out and we always look and talk about what Barbie Horse is doing - eating breakfast/supper, going night-night, etc. which is the highlight of any trip and is her cue that we are "home". We usually walk/ride (Daddy & AJ prefer the 4-wheeler; Mama likes to walk/bike; Addison likes it all) up there a few times each week so Addison can pet her. The owner came out and talked to Addison once and told her the horse's name (Barbie) and told Addison to come visit anytime she wants. These are some pictures of Addison feeding Barbie Horse some carrots.
Today was a very special day for seeing creatures. We went out into the garage this afternoon and I spotted a blue and black butterfly, so we went over and admired him. Then we went out into the yard and looked at the birds and found a large feather, which delighted Addison. Then I looked up and saw a horse coming down the road toward our driveway, being ridden by a girl. I showed Addison and she was very excited, so we started walking toward the road. The girl called out and asked if we wanted to pet the horse and I said yes, so down the driveway they came. Addison immediately put out her hand to touch the horse, who was very friendly. We patted and rubbed him and talked with Courtney, the girl who owns him. The horse's name is Ben and they live in the neighborhood behind our house. We talked about AJ, who had mysteriously disappeared, as he often does. Courtney said she had seen AJ before coming to play with her neighbor's labs, Cagney and Lacey (whom I had become acquainted with one weeknight at midnight when I had to get in the truck to go get him because he wouldn't come home!).
Courtney and Ben moved on to the next set of neighbors and Addison and I ran into the house and got some carrots for Ben and a popsicle for Courtney. They were both very grateful, and Addison got to feed a horse for the first time. She didn't like it though, because his lips grabbed the carrot and touched her hand, so she wouldn't do it again. After visiting with Ben and Courtney for a little bit, we turned and started walking back toward the house. That's when I started thinking about how blessed we are to live in such a wonderful place and how glad I am that Addison loves it as much as we do. That's when I saw AJ trotting up from the woods with a some other dog's rawhide bone...the little thief was enjoying himself too!
These are some pictures of the family walking in the neighborhood to see horses.
