Farewell

This morning I woke up to the sound of birds singing and dogs barking (in particular, the sound of our neighbor's dog barking furiously at the ground, as usual); conspicuously absent was the sound of our bantam rooster's lilting crow, for alas, Jack met a rather bizarre and inglorious end yesterday afternoon. I was at the store when Dave called me to tell me what had happened - what exactly happened I don't even want to detail here - and it required some effort not to begin crying in the middle of the dairy aisle. I was fond of that little rooster, after all! The kids shed a few tears, but were philosophical about it in the end - we've experienced the life and death cycle many times in our small menagerie. But he was a fine animal, a better watchdog at times than our actual dog, and a pleasant alarm clock, and we'll miss him. Farewell, Jack!

In happier news, the kids are very excited about the Awana Grand Prix tonight. Aimee's car is a carrot, and Drew's is the Batmobile (or his own variation, at any rate). We took them to the church building last night for a weigh-in and a run down the very cool track, and we're all now looking forward to the big event tonight. I don't know how they'll actually do in the competitions (for design as well as speed), as we didn't spend as much time on our cars as I'm sure many of the other kids did, but hopefully this will at least serve as practice in good sportsmanship, something in which I'm afraid my kids aren't very skilled yet. Aimee's constant pursuit of perfection leaves her sour and frustrated sometimes at missing the mark, and Drew's dislike of losing usually stems from having spent five and a half years so far trailing an older sibling who enjoys keeping him in his place. But I don't mean to be too hard my own children - I'm sure the concept of being a good loser doesn't come naturally to everyone. At any rate, I'll be sure to take pictures (the happy ones!) and post them this weekend.