Kitty Esther goes to heaven...

Today my doorbell rang and it was our little neighbor girl. She stopped by to tell us that while she was riding her bike home from school she thought she saw our cat Esther on the side of the road. Before she could finish her sentence my cel phone started to ring and it was another neighbor calling to tell us that she also found Esther on the side of the road around the corner from our house and it appeared that she had been hit by a car. My stomach sank.

Of course, its always sad when a family pet dies. We all loved her but I knew this would be particularly hard for Warren. He always told us that Esther was his best friend and he was constantly chasing her around and playing with her. Ben loved her too. Every morning when I go up to get Ben out of bed she follows me into his room to greet him and he usually says hello to her before he says it to me! Well, anyways we are really disappointed to have lost our sweet kitty. She was very affectionate, curious and spunky. I could never sweep the floor without her pouncing on it as I swept. I was often found scatting her out of whatever I was trying to work on: cooking, sweeping, dishes, sewing projects, etc. Her curiosity nearly drove me crazy but as soon as sat down at night she was in my lap purring like a Harley.

I waited until Weston got home to tell Warren and of course he burst into tears instantly. He was a very sad little guy. We talked about heaven and what she was probably doing there. He seemed to be comforted that she was with Jesus now and maybe he had some kitty toys for her there too.

We dug a hole behind the garage and Warren dedicated her final place of rest: "Dear Heavenly Father. We are thankful for this day and for our blessings. We are thankful that Kitty Esther was our Kitty and we got to play with her a lot. Please bless her to be happy in heaven. We love her a lot. Help us to be happy too. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Laying her in the ground.

We buried her with her favorite toy mouse, feather toy and a small branch from her favorite bush that she always rested under. She often practiced her pouncing and hunting skills with pine cones in our yard so we threw one of those in there as well.

Warren was so sweet. I was so impressed how he calmed down after a while and was very intent on taking care of her.

Just after I took this picture Warren said " I am going to miss kitty Esther. I love you Esther." She was about 1 year old.

Poor guy.

Here is a cute video of Ben learning to say her name not long after we got her.

Helmet Happy

Last month we started gearing up for biking weather. Warren got a new bike helmet for his birthday and I wasn't sure if his old one would fit Ben yet so I got it out to try it on him. As I crowned his head with Elmo glory his face turned permagrin. He instantly fell in love and would NOT let me take it off.

So, for the next hour and a half he played happily in the backyard with his helmet securely fastened to his head. He makes me laugh. He even ate lunch with it on! The funniest part was he kept pulling it down- almost completely covering his eyes. Every once in a while he'd pull it up, peek at me and smile. Like people do with their sunglasses when they want to make eye contact. While he was playing, the only thing I could see was the top of his helmet and this big grin underneath. On a closer look the (cold) runny nose appears also. lol It was quite the ordeal to get him to take it off for his nap. He is such a little turkey.