Happy Birthday Katie!

Today is Katie's 11th birthday. I started this blog last year with her birthday.....my how time flies. She is "letting" Don and I come eat lunch at school with her today. She wants Panda Express and was wanting to go to Chili's tonight in order to get free birthday dessert (and the chips and salsa). This is exactly what we had for lunch/dinner on my birthday! Not sure if we will go out tonight. Sarah's in bed with the flu. She starting running fever on Saturday and still had low fever this morning.

You've already seen the post of the guinea pigs which was the big birthday present. Two weeks ago if you would have told me I would be enjoying these little critters, I would have laughed at you! They are fun to watch and squeal when you bring in food. Katie is being very responsible taking care of them. She cleaned out the cage yesterday and commented "what a way to spend my Sunday night!"

Here are pictures from her party last weekend. We went to Main Event and the girls bowled, did laser tag, ate pizza and cake, and played some arcade games. They had a great time and Don and I didn't have to do a thing but show up and of course hand over the money!

Friends from church and school....they are a great group of girls!

Not sure how much money she spent to win at the giant claw game!

More pets for the Rileys!

So Katie has been bugging us for months to get hamsters for her birthday. I was not really wanting anymore critters in our house, but Don gave in to her begging. Well, we began to do research and found that hamsters would not be a good fit for our family. So leave it to my sister to provide an alternative. My niece Chloe turned 7 on October 3 and had been begging for guinea pigs. Of course when Katie heard that Chloe got 2 guinea pigs it was all over for us. I tried and tried to put off this purchase until Katie's birthday on October 26, but somehow we ended up looking this past weekend. The challenge was to find a "female" pet store. Finally Saturday morning found the PetSmart in Euless carried female guinea pigs. There was no turning back once Katie got a look at them and of course, we came home with 2 (after reading and hearing that they do better in pairs).

Katie has them in her room, has posted a list of rules, and is keeping up with changing the water and food. Let's hope the responsibility continues. Looks like guinea pigs have a life span of 5-8 years. So when Don and I are finally empty nesters in 7.5 years, we may have two senior citizen guinea pigs and two older dogs......something to look forward to!!!!

Katie and Ginger

This one is named Coco and is a little more spastic, but still sweet.

This is Ginger.....very calm and sweet.

Sarah and Ginger